Customer Reviews

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

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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...

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.

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....

This book truly lives up to its name. It is full of useful information and and addresses. It also shows samples of some of the records you may come across in your search.