Carol

Do you think it is possible in Germany without speaking German to find people to trace my German ancestors?

jack

There are many on-line sources that may be helpful to you. Also, check with your local German consulate or the U.S./CN one in Ger. But Germany is especially difficult since so much was destroyed in the war. Good luck. I like to consider everyone in Germany to be my family!

Uncle Sam

Carol,<BR><BR>It is my understanding from a German friend that this will be very difficult, particularly if your ancestors are from the Bavaria area. <BR><BR>Regensburg, where many of the records were stored was heavily damaged durng the war and thus many of the records no longer exist.<BR><BR>US

Lily

There is a woman in Darmstadt that does this type of work. I think her name is McKinney. She has a website and actually books trips.

Ryn

All I can say is: Good luck! That is one of the toughest parts of the world for genealogical research, for two reasons: 1) the politics of the region before WW1 meant that boundaries were constantly shifting, and 2) the bulk of the official records were destroyed by WW2 bombing. It can be difficult to find the living there, let alone the dead.<BR><BR>I second the previous advice; look online for an expert. There are many genealogy discussion forums where you should be able to get feedback on this.

Duke

All of the above posters are too pesimistic! <BR><BR>We were traveling with another couple a few years ago. Her grandfather was born in the 1890s in Ansbach and migrated to the US. <BR><BR>We all went to Ansbach to see what we could find. We found the oldest Lutheran church in town and went to the office. Gave them his name and birth date. They went to a shelf and pulled out a book from that year and turned to his birth record that also gave the address where he was born. They copied all the record for us and put an official seal on it. It was all handwritten and had his parents names on it. <BR><BR>We visited the address of the home where he had been born. All that was done in one morning. <BR><BR>If I had listened to all the posters above we would have given up before we started. It can be done and there are still plenty of records. GO FOR IT!

Laoghaire

Carol,.have you done any research in the US regarding your ancestors? My sis and I have thru Ancestry.com and found all our German line in Trier, Bitburg, Wittlich--all over the immediate area. Cousin went there last year, but the german cemetaries were newly interned graves, because they "reuse" the grave sites every 20 years or so. At least, that is what he was told when he was not able to find any, even though he had all the pertinent info. We went back to the 1700s thru the Salt Lake Geneology site. Hope this helps. Helen

ingrid

I agree with Duke. If you know the village/town where your ancestors are from, go to the nearest church. They'll go through their church archives and copy the info for you (for free or for a small fee). Also, there is a genealogy website that you can access before.

Geoff

I run a few web pages and email list on genealogy, all in the PA German immigration of the mid 1700's area. First advice is definitely to do your homework here first. If you are of the PA German ancestry, run don't walk to Anne Kunselman Burgert's 18th Century Emmigrants book. It helps you go from US to German records.<BR><BR>Next, don't worry about language, most of the younger German's even in the heavy accent area of Bavaria speak English today. Even if not, they'll try if you try. Learn what you can, and don't be discouraged.<BR><BR>Then, don't worry about WWII being the war that destroyed records. With few exceptions the church might have been destroyed, but the books were safely removed long before any bombs were dropped. (and Regensburg would only be an issue for Evengelical records) Most church records in Germany go back to the 1600's when it was Napolean's wars that destroyed the records.<BR><BR>By all means, if you get the chance to do some tracking down of ancestors there - do it.