While I'm not an expert on genealogy by any means, I have been researching for a number of years and have learned a few things along the way. Since 100% of my non-US research is in Germany, many of the things I've learned are about doing research in that difficult venue. Joining Ancestry and hoping for the best won't get you much of anywhere, I'm afraid. I'd like to share some of the resources I've tapped into in doing my German research, in the hope that it might help some who are just getting into it. Why is researching in Germany so hard? For one thing, the nation called "Germany" didn't exist before 1871 -- what we now think of as Germany was a group of loosely related kingdoms that shifted borders, had different systems for keeping records, and so on. Few civil records were kept; most records were in the hands of the various churches, Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed. Many records were damaged or lost in the two great wars of the 20th
Glad to see you back, Elise--and looking forward to connecting at Jamboree!
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