Professional Genealogist and Translator Certified Genealogist, former university Russian language and linguistics teacher. Certified Genealogist: specializing in Czech, Slovak, German and Rusyn research Rates: Send proposed research project statement with a SASE (two IPRC's from overseas) for rates an estimate Professional Translator (script and text): Czech, Slovak, German. Historical Background

Historical Background Romania Hungary Former Yugoslavia Poland Czech Republic Slovakia Germany Former Soviet Union Sources & References

Many German settlements were begun in the 1100s and succeeding several centuries, including the Pest side of Budapest, most of them close to the Danube River. These earlier settlements were joined by the Danube Swabian communities of the 1700s and 1800s.

Hungarian parish registers are all available on microfilm through the LDS Family History Library. Civil registers, from 1895 to about 1908 are now being catalogued. Other materials, such as the Urbaria (feudal land lease records of the 1780s and 1790s) are also being catalogued. Due to the early agreement of the Hungarian archives with the LDS film project, Hungary's genealogical records are the most easily accessible of all Eastern European countries.

Microfilms of Danube Swabian and other German parish registers in Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia were made by the Germans, apparently during World War II. Most only extend to about 1850. The LDS FHL has a complete set of these. (See Schmidt, Josef, Die Banater Kirchenbuecher [Institut fuer Auslandsbeziehungen, Erlangen, 1979]).

Former Yugoslavia

Before 1919, Hungary's southern border was at Belgrade. What until recently was the northern part of Yugoslavia (including Slavonia, the Vojvodina and much of what is now Croatia) had a goodly number of Danube Swabian towns.

Access to parish registers is now through LDS microfilms (see below) and individual town halls: The matriar (civil records offices) have collected most of the earlier church records. The records are accessible by correspondence or personal visit. Some other parish registers, particularly those of now defunct German villages, are in archives. Access to some of them is problematical.

Microfilms of Danube Swabian and other German parish registers in Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia were made by the Germans, apparently during World War II. Most only extend to about 1850. The LDS FHL has a complete set of these. (See Schmidt, Josef, Die Banater Kirchenbuecher [Institut fuer Auslandsbeziehungen, Erlangen, 1979]

Poland

Germanic settlements date to the Teutonic Knights in the 1200s and continued into the 1300s and later. Present-day Poland contains a large chunk of territory which belonged to the German Empire (and Reich) before the peace settlements of 1919 and 1945.

Before 1919, the eastern territory of Germany included Posen (Pozna ) and the entire Baltic seacoast to the border with Lithuania. The peace agreement of 1945 shifted the borders of Poland to the west a good bit.

As a result, present-day Poland has parish registers, whether Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox, Byzantine Catholic, or Protestant, of former territories of Germany, Russia, Austria, and pre-1921 Poland. The languages of these registers: Latin, Polish, Russian, German. A practical fluency in reading the old German script is required.

Many parish registers from all parts of Poland have been microfilmed by the LDS Family History Library, but there are still many gaps. Some information is obtainable by writing to local parishes and various archives.

Czech Republic

The Kingdom of Bohemia was part of the Holy Roman Empire and, although it was primarily a Slavic (Czech) speaking kingdom, German language was frequent in official documents and German speakers held sway in most towns. But until the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, Czech was the official and predominant language of administration. After that date, the Habsburgs took over the country, installed a German-speaking nobility, and remained in power until 1918.

The entire western and northern portions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia was German speaking. Before World War II, 30% of Bohemia's population was ethnic German. In 1945, these Germans were summarily expelled to West and East Germany and Austria.

In the 1950s, all parish registers were collected in the Czech and Moravian regional archives, of which there are seven. The languages are Old Czech, Czech, Latin, and German. The pre-1840 registers are in the old script, whether in German or Czech. The archives are open to the public, but a recent (1995) regulation restricts the number of registers available on a single day to six. There is a small charge for each volume ordered.

Many other sources of genealogical information are available: Land records, urbaria, serfs' lists, great estate records (e.g. permissions to marry), etc. The archive administration does genealogical research for a fee. Write for details to Archivn¡ sprava, Milady Hor kov‚ 133, Praha 6, Czech Republic. Private genealogical services also exist.

Slovakia

As early as about 1150, Germans settled in the Zips (Spi county) in Northeastern Slovakia. According to legend, they were part of the group of Saxons who went on to found the German-speaking colonies in Transylvania. By the 1300s, many towns and villages were predominantly German and another settlement area, in Central Slovakia, near Bansk  Bystrica, was founded. It was called Hauerland.

The Bratislava area already had many German speakers because it is just across the Danube from Austria Bratislava itself was essentially a German town before World War II. According to the 1930 census, there were about 38,000 Germans in the Zips, about 41,200 in Hauerland, and 50,000 in the Bratislava area. After the evacuation of 1945-1946, there were 24,000 ethnic Germans in Slovakia.

Parish registers, covering the period up to 1895 or so (when Hungarian civil records began), are in the seven Slovak regional archives. Religious denominations are: Roman Catholic, Reform, Lutheran, Byzantine Catholic, Orthodox Christian, Jewish. Languages are Latin, Hungarian, German, Slovak, and (from 1850 to 1855 in Byzantine Catholic registers) Russian.

The Slovak archive administration conducts genealogical research in these parish registers for a fee (upwards of $20 per hour): Archivn  sprava, Kri kova 7, 811 04 Bratislava, Slovakia. Other resources to be searched, though not available at all archives: Urbarium of the 1780s, Hungarian censuses of 1857 and 1869.

The parish registers in three of the seven Slovak state regional archives is complete and part of the holdings have been catalogued. The contents of the other archives should be microfilmed in the next several years.

Germany

Since unification, LDS microfilming has continued where access has been given by individual pastors and archives. Access to parish registers is perhaps somewhat freer in the former East Germany.

Former Soviet Union

Germans settled in a number of areas in the former Russian Empire. Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia had sizable German minorities. Colonies of Germans were established in the 19th century along the Volga River and the Black Sea. Beginning in the 1700s, a number of Germans settled in and around towns in Sub-Carpathian Rus' (now part of Ukraine).

The LDS Family History Library is now filming in a number of locations. In 1994 we received the first news of Lutheran records of the Black Sea German colonies, apparently duplicates located in St. Petersburg. They were slated to be microfilmed. There are LDS filming crews in Sub-Carpathian Rus'.

A number of relatively new genealogical agencies now offer research services in the former Soviet Union.

A General source of contacts:

• FEEFHS (Federation of East European Family History Societies) is several years old. Its Resource Guide to East European Genealogy lists names and addresses (with e-mail and WWW addresses) of over 109 member organizations with East European connections, whether German or other ethnicity (for instance, Galizien German Descendants, Wandering Volhynians, Die Pommersche Leute, Mennonite Historical Library, The Gottschee Tree, Gl�ckstal Colonies Research Association, Germans from Russia Heritage Society, German-Bohemian Heritage Society, etc). The resource guide costs US $5.00 (from P.O. Box 4327, Davis, California 95617-4327) postpaid to a North American address. A year's membership in FEEFHS, including the quarterly newsletter, costs US $20.00).

Useful information sources:

• Brandt, Edward R., et al. Germanic Genealogy: A Guide to Worldwide Sources and Migration Patterns (Germanic Genealogy Society, St. Paul, 1995). Available from the society for $24 (+$3) at P.O. Box 16312, St. Paul, MN 55116. Presents an up-to-date, country-by-country list of contacts and information sources for German genealogy, including new genealogical agencies in the former Soviet Union, and other Eastern European countries.

• Thode, Ernest. Address Book for Germanic Genealogy (Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1992). Addresses of archives, genealogists, and German form letters.

• Genealogical Guide to German Ancestors from East Germany and Eastern Europe, 4th edition. (Arbeitsgemeinschaft ostdeutscher Familienforscher, e.V.), Degener Verlag, Neustadt/Aisch, 1994). Known in German as the AGoFF-Wegweiser, the 2nd edition (1984) had an English translation, but the 1994 edition is apparently still available only in German. This marvelous reference gives addresses of all the homeland organizations and sources of information of the Germans from Eastern Europe.

• Gardiner, Duncan. German Towns in Slovakia and Upper Hungary (3rd edition, 1993). Includes a short guide to genealogical research in the Czech and Slovak Republics, lists of maps and atlases and bibliography, including a section on the East European Germans. (Available from the author for $17.50 - 12961 Lake Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio 44107-1533).

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