Finding Your German Ancestors : A Beginner's Guide (Finding Your Ancestors) [Paperback]

Kevan M Hansen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0916489833 | ISBN-13: 978-0916489830 | Publication Date: September 1999 | Edition: 1St Edition

Introducing the first true beginner's guide to German ancestral research.

If you haven't worked with German records before, this compact guide will warm up your cold feet quickly and make intimidating foreign sources seem like old friends in no time.

Anyone who has worked with foreign records knows that the language can be intimidating. In order to overcome this research barrier, author Kevan Hansen provides the tools and information that empower researchers to work comfortably with German records.

Finding Your German Ancestors also offers a solution to one of the largest dilemmas German researchers face: shifting national and regional borders. Due to the continual changes of boundaries and jurisdictions in historic Germany, the types of records available vary from region to region. Finding Your German Ancestors explains the current locations of records from regions with names and boundaries that have changed. It even includes information for contacting each location!

Researchers using this book will not only have a greater understanding of their ancestors' lives, but will gain a tremendous asset in finding more information on German records.

Paperback, ISBN: 0-916489-83-3

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For those genealogists who have not done any research abroad, this book will be a valuable resource. Should you need a hand, small, no frills reference book, this is the book for your personal library."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Ease your way into German ancestral research with this extraordinary guide of essential information in an easy-to-follow format!

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Ancestry.com; 1St Edition edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916489833
• ISBN-13: 978-0916489830
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very limited benefit, January 24, 2008

By 

B. Trusinsky "Astro-German-Latvian-Genealogy ... (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finding Your German Ancestors : A Beginner's Guide (Finding Your Ancestors) (Paperback)

It IS inexpensive, so that's a good thing. However, the book was about 50% history from the Roman Empire to the formation of the German state. None of this historical information would be of use to a beginner since it does self-identify as a "beginners guide". One thing that would be of obvious benefit would be for the book to include comprehensive examples of common german language documents such as birth, death, baptismal, etc, records. Nope. No such things. As someone who is doing family research with German documents, there are about 10 documents that are similar and are used over and over again throughout the German world. How about a translation of said documents?? How about explaining why, in some instances, the maiden name is omitted for the mother in birth documents? The book does have a bunch of contact information that anyone could amass in an afternoon on the internet. However, it was written in 1999, so who knows how valid the information is at this point. If I had to choose again, I'd go to the library and read it in about an hour. After that, I would photocopy the pages with contact information for a dollar and then be done with it. Don't buy it, but if you do, understand what you are getting and know that it isn't a reference book in any meaningful way. It really made me think that I could write a much better guide over the summer that would truly be useful for the beginner. Hmmmm...

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a small quick book easy to use., May 14, 2007

By 

D. B. Wolfe (Clarksburg, West Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Finding Your German Ancestors : A Beginner's Guide (Finding Your Ancestors) (Paperback)

I am just beginning to trace my ancestors to the French-German border area. I found the background history in this book to be helpful in giving me insight into why my ancestors may have left their homes to come to America. The contacts and sources suggested later in the book likewise provide me a good starting point for dealing with foreign leads.

5.0 out of 5 stars German Boundaries a Puzzle...this is the book, October 26, 2011

By 

C. Miller "millersequine" (Aiken, SC United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Finding Your German Ancestors : A Beginner's Guide (Finding Your Ancestors) (Paperback)

If you don't understand how the boundaries in Germany changed this will give you a brief history so that you understand the "Historic Germany". This book is not a comprehensive source for researchers...but an added book that fills in an definite need for anyone wishing to locate family history. You will learn how to research Germanic records and little problems to look for. There is no ONE complete guide out there, but in order to do the research one has to understand the boundaries and also how Poland, Russia and Ukraine speaking people will be in the mix of Germanic genealogy....A quick read with addresses for Archival Records that for the price is a true plus to the researcher of Germanic Genealogy....