German Genealogy
Baden
(Großherzogtum / Grandduchy) [Presently in Baden-Württenberg]
From 1871-1918 Baden was a grand duchy in the German Empire and the historical capital was Karlsruhe. Today it is combined with the province of Württemburg and the capital is Stuttgart.
Some basic facts about Baden: (from Uncapher, Wendy K. and Linda M. Herrick. German Maps & Facts for Genealogy. Janesville, Wisconsin: Origins Books, 2002)
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Size: 5,822 square miles (comparable to Hawaii with 6,427 square miles)
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Population: 1816 - 1,005,899; 1828 - 1,176,075; 1836 - 1,244,171; 1846 - 1,367,486; 1855 - 1,319,638; 1864 - 1,432,456; 1871 - 1,461,562; 1875 - 1,507,179 (734,757 males and 772,422 females)
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Dominant Religion: South - Catholic and North - Protestant (1871 - Evangelical - 491,008; Catholic - 942,560; Other - 2,265; Jewish - 25,703; Non-Christian - 26)
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Since 1952 part of: Baden-Württemburg
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Formerly: Grand Duchy
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Prussian: No
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Principal crops: rye, wheat, barley, potatoes, hemp, hops, beetroot, turnips, chicory, tobacco, grapes, fruit, honey
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Livestock: cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, goats
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Industry: building stone, wood products
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Minerals: salt, mineral springs
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Rivers: Rhine, Neckar, Danube, Kinzig, Tauber, Murg, Wiese, Elz
The former state of Baden bordered on France and the Rhenish Palatinate (German region of Rheinland-Pfalz) in the west, Switzerland in the south, Hesse (German region of Hessen) in the north, and the German regions of Bavaria (Bayern) and Wuerttemberg in the east. Major cities in the state of Baden included Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Pforzheim, Heidelberg, Freiburg, and Rastatt and, in the south, most of the large area known as the "Black Forest" (Schwarzwald).
Until the French Revolution, the area was a confusing patchwork of petty margravates (sovereign border territories with individual rulers known as Margraves) and states governed by church hierarchies. In 1771, the originally separate margravates of Baden-Baden in the south and Baden-Durlach in the north were united and called simply, Baden, under the same branch of the Zähringen (Baden's ruling house).
In 1806, through the instrumental participation of Napoleon Bonaparte, Baden was created as a grand duchy--an enlarged and more prestigious sovereign territory known as a "Grossherzogtum." The existing ruler of the former margravate was subsequently known as a grand duke (Grossherzog), a sovereign just below the rank of a king.
The grand duchy of Baden was severely shaken by the Baden Revolution of 1848, which temporarily unseated the Grand Duke Leopold before being forcibly suppressed with the help of Prussian troops. Baden later sided with Austria (against the German kingdom of Prussia, Baden's ally) in the Austro-Prussian War (1866), but nevertheless joined the newly-unified German Empire in 1871. For the next 47 years as part of the Empire, Baden still maintained its status as a grand duchy, with the reigning hereditary grand duke of the house of Zähringen continuing as local ruler. Following World War I (in 1918), the Grand Duke abdicated along with most of Europe's monarchs, and Baden ended its status as a grand duchy and joined the so-called "Weimar Republic" in Germany.
After World War II (1945), Baden was temporarily divided into two parts, and for a time was occupied by U.S. forces. The separate states of Baden and Württemberg were then officially merged (along with the formerly separate state of Hoenzollern) to form the new state of Baden-Württemberg, the official name under which it continues today. The central Neckar River region with the state capital of Baden-Württemberg at Stuttgart, is the modern industrial and cultural center.
Resources
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About 100 People Who Emigrated from Villingendorf
(Baden-Württemberg) to America in the 19th Century
- Ancestry.com.
Baden, Germany Emigration Index. The index is not complete
with only 28,000 names. This Baden Emigration Index covers
1866-1911 and provides name, residence, year of departure and
occasionally other information like "7 Persons." Subscription
product. $
- Andrusko, Samuel M. Emigrants from Baden and
Württemberg 1816/17, extracted from Aufbruch nach Amerika.
Silver Spring, Md. (95 E. Wayne Ave., Apt. T-2, Silver Spring
20901) : S.M. Andrusko, 1984. 19 p. An introduction and English
translation of selected information on certain emigrants from
Aufbruch nach Amerika / unter Mitarb. von Ingrid Schöberl,
hrsg. von Günter Moltmann, 1979. Alphabetical list of certain
emigrants mentioned in Aufbruch nach Amerika.
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Auswanderung aus Südwestdeutschland.
Eine Dokumentation des
Landesarchivs Baden-Württemberg. The database is in
progress, and gives emigrant's name, residence or birth place
and year leaving. Women were not in the index unless traveling
alone or with children. Is a database of emigrants from
Baden and Wuerttemberg, known as "Glatzle" collection.
- Auswanderer, 17 bis. 20. Jahrhundert. An alphabetical
index of emigrants from Baden on microfilm at the Family History
Library.
- Baden
Emigration Index. The Baden Emigration Index is an A to Z
listing of those who left Baden from the 17th to the 20th
centuries and received official permission to emigrate. If your
ancestor emigrated without receiving permission they will not be
included in the index. Information given in this index includes:
name, place of origin (village, town or city) and year of
emigration. The modern state of Baden-Württemberg is comprised
of the former regions of Baden, Württemberg and Hohenzollern.
The Baden Emigration Index covers only the former region of
Baden.
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Baden Emigration Index 1866-1911. Contains the names of more
than 28,000 persons who left Baden between 1866 and 1911. Each
entry includes the emigrant's name, residence or place of birth,
and the year of departure. (Ancestry.com - requires payment)
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Baden-Württemberg. Genealogy.net.
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Baden-Württemberg. GenWeb. The focus of these pages is to
help all people with genealogical interests to find more
information about Baden-Württemberg, the former regions in this
area and the people living there.
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Black Forest Genealogy. This site is dedicated to genealogy
research in this beautiful part of Germany. It is also dedicated
to the history and the ancestors that made this region the
beautiful place that it is.
- Burgert, Annette Kunselman. Eighteenth century emigrants
from German-speaking lands to North America. Breinigsville,
Pa. : Pennsylvania German Society, 1983-<1985 > Volume 1 lists
emigrants from the Northern Kraichgau; volume 2, emigrants from
the Western Palatinate. Both volumes include considerable
genealogical information as well as indexes of ships, European
place names, and surnames.
- Burgert, Annette Kunselman. Emigrants from
Eppingen to America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Myerstown, PA (691 Weavertown Rd., Myerstown 17067) : AKB
Publications, c1987. List of emigrants from Eppingen; contains
considerable genealogical information.
- Burkett, Brigitte. Emigrants from Baden and Württemberg
in the Eighteenth Century: Vol. I Baden-Durlach and Vicinity.
Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1996. Emigrant families from Baden-Durlach
area from 1728-1754. Volume 1 contains an alphabetical list of
emigrants from Baden-Durlach and vicinity.
- Burkett, Brigitte. Nineteenth Century Emigrants from
Baden-Württemberg. Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1997, 2001.
- Church Records -- From 1810-January 31, 1870 churches were
required to keep a duplicate set of church books with baptisms,
marriages, and deaths. One copy of the church books was kept at
the church where the events occurred. The duplicate books were
and still are kept in the Karlsruhe and Freiburg Archives.
- Ehmann, Karl. Die Auswanderung in die Neuengland-Staaten
aus Orten des Enzkreises im 18. Jahrhundert / von Karl
Ehmann. Stuttgart : Verein für Familien- und Wappenkunde, 1977.
61 p. "Südwestdeutsche Blätter für Familien- und Wappenkunde.
Sonderheft 1977." List emigrants to New England from towns in
the Enz district of Baden-Württemberg during the 18th century.
- Emigration Index 17th-20th Century. (FHL films,
beginning with 1180096)
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Emigrants from Külsheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany to America &
Elsewhere
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Emigrants from Kuppenheim, Rastatt, Baden
- Franz, Hermann. Die Kirchenbücher in Baden. 3.
Auflage. Karlsruhe: Braun, 1957. (Family History Library
Ref943.46 B4ns; microfiche 6000833). Lists where the Protestant,
Reformed or Catholic parishes were located for each town Baden
along with the dates of surviving church registers.
- Hacker, Werner. Auswanderungen aus Baden und dem Breisgau:
Obere und Mittlere Rechtsseitige Oberrheinlande im 18.
Jahrhundert Archivalisch Documentiert. Stuttgart, Germany:
Konrad Theiss, 1980.
- Hacker, Werner. Wrote ten regional books on emigrants from
Baden in the 1700s. Includes name, wife, children, residence,
money, destination, date and source. Parts of volumes I, II,
VII, VIII and of IX and X are published in Eighteenth Century
Register of Emigrants from Southwest Germany. Apollo,
Pennsylvania: Closson Press, 1994.
- Herrick, Linda and Wendy Uncapher. Baden: Atlantic Bridge
to Germany. Janesville, Wisconsin, Origins, 2004. Includes a
short history of Baden and detailed amps from the 1880s and a
complete list of towns in Baden identified by Amtbezirk, whether
it has Catholic or Protestant church records and for which years
available through a Family History Center.
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Kappel am Rhein Family Names from the Dorfsippenbuch for
this village in Baden. The Dorfsippenbuch, written by Albert
Koebele, contains an alphabetical listing by family name of
village marriages since about 1700. For each marriage is listed
the name of the bride and groom, their parents and the children
of the marriage.
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Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg. The archives keep written
records of the government authorities from pre-1945 Baden and
most areas west of the Rhine River that were at one time part of
Baden. These records can include duplicate church books, oath of
allegiance to new ruler, inheritance documents, serfs index,
military draft lists, emigrants records, etc.
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Landreis Rastatt. A listing of places in Landreis Rastatt
with location, history and list of emigrant surnames.
Sponsored by: Faith Haungs.
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Links: Baden and Württemberg. RootsWeb.com. Many
informative Web links.
- Minert, Roger P. Baden Place Name Indexes. Provo,
Utah: GRT Publications, 2000. Each place name is listed
alphabetically and then in another lists the place name is
spelled backwards in alphabetical order.
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Nattheimer Auswanderer nach Amerika - Emigrants from Nattheim to
USA
- Nixon, Janet Wind. "Forced Emigration from Bühlertal to New
Orleans." The German Connection 21, 4. In the late 1840s
and early 1850s bad weather caused many farmers to lose their
farms. The poor were sent to the U.S. by way of Strasburg and
LeHavre, France. Ships sailed to New Orleans and were met by
representatives from Baden. Each family member received some
money and then were on their own. Many took a steamboat on the
Mississippi River to the St. Louis area.
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Offenburger Auswanderer. Searchable database of emigrants
from Offenburg (in Baden) to North America.
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Oggenhausener Auswanderer nach Amerika - Emigrants from
Oggenhausen to USA
- Pauli, H.J. Ortsverzeichnis Baden. Tamm: Vaira, 1994.
Lists all places in Baden with current zip code and kreis since
1975 plus the former kreis.
- Salaba, Marie and Hansmartin Schwarzmaier, editors. Die
Bestände des Generallandesarchivs Karlsruhe. Stuttgart, W.
Kohlhammer, 1988. The archives has duplicate church books
1810-1870 for the government district of Karlsruhe (northern
half of Baden).
- Schrader-Muggenthaler, Cornelia. Baden Emigration Book:
including emigration from Alsace. Gives 7,000 names from
Baden to America from the 18th and 19th centuries. Only those
going to America were selected. Also includes several hundred
Alsacian emigrants.
- Smith Clifford Neal. Emigrants from Fellbach (Baden
Wuerttemberg, Germany), 1735-1930. Baltimore, Maryland:
Clearfield Co., 1984, 2004 reprint.
- Smith, Clifford Neal. Emigrants from the
West-German Fuerstenberg territories (Baden and the Palatinate)
to America and Central Europe, 1712, 1737, 1787 / translated
by Clifford Neal Smith. McNeal, Ariz. : Westland Publications,
1981. ii, 46 p. (German-American genealogical research
monograph, ISSN 0094-7806 ; no. 9) An alphabetical list of the
names of individuals which appear in: Untersuchung zur
Geschichte der Auswanderung in den Jahren 1712, 1737, und 1787
/ Hermann Baier. Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv, 1937, n.F.
37:314-357. Emigrants from the Fürstenberg territories in 1712,
1737, and 1787.
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Stadtarchiv Freiburg i. Breisgau (City archive). Has
duplicate church books 1810-1870 for the government district of
Freiburg (southern half of Baden.)
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Wanted Men from Baden: 1854. List of men missing in Baden
when it came time for them to report for military duty.
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Wanted Men from Baden: 1853. List of men missing in Baden
when it came time for them to report for military duty.
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Welcome to My Genealogy Home on the Web. Links for emigrant
lists from the Baden towns of Kuppenheim, Steinmauern, Oetigheim,
stein am Kocher, Herbolzheim, Kochertürn, Neckarsulm,
Bingswangen, Dahenfeld, and Schefflenz.