German Genealogy
Rheinland-Pfalz
Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate) (includes part of the principality of Birkenfeld [grand duchy of Oldenburg], the province of Rheinhessen [grand duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt], part of the landgraviate of Hessen-Homburg, most of the Bavarian Rheinpfalz, and most of the southern portion of the Prussian Rheinprovinz)Because the largest single group of Germans to America came from the Palatinate and were called Palatines, beginning the the early 1700s, the term was originally applied as a synonym for any "German" by English and colonial people in America. It referred to people from German-speaking lands, nearly all of whom in that era came from near the Rhine River, the one major pathway out of Europe. After 1815, the Bavarian district west of the Rhine River became known as the Palatinate, while much of the former Palatinate became part of northern Baden.
- Arbeitsgemeinde für Pfälzisch-Rheinishce Familienkunde.
Located in Ludwigshafen (but with branches throughout the
Pfalz), this genealogical society has a library of some 6,000
publications, as well as Ahnentafeln, abstracts from tax
lists, and a Familiennamenkartei of about a million cards.
Pfälzisch-Rheinische Familienkunde e.V, Rottstrasse 17 (Stadtarchiv),
67061 Ludwigshafen, Rhineland-Pfalz.
- Archiv des Bistum
Speyer. Contains archives of the Catholic bishopric of
Speyer and thus the parish records of most Palatinate Catholic
parishes.
- Auswanderer-Museum-Oberalben.
The Museum displays the history of emigration from the
Palatinate to America. Some reference literature and name lists.
Limited opening hours.
- Die Bestände des Landeshauptarchivs Koblenz Koblenz
Gesamtverzeichnis. Koblenz: Verlag der
Landesarchivverwaltung Rheinland-Pfalz, 1997. FHL Book
943,42/C3J53
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Bezirksverband Pfalz. Institute for Palatine History and
Folklife Studies at Kaiserslautern. A widely known facility
which has proved itself valuable to many researchers. 300,000
card files on Palatine emigrants, literature, resources,
publications.
- Braun, Fritz, comp. Auswanderer auf dem Schiff
Samuel M. Fox. Ankunft New York, 4. Aug. 1852.
(Kaiserslautern, Heimatstelle Pfalz [1964]) 32 p. (Schriften zur
Wanderungsgeschichte der Pfälzer, Folge 21) Report on the voyage
by Jacob Ernst Ruth and passenger list. Originally published in
Pfälzische Familien- und Wappenkunde, 1964. Passenger list of
emigrants from the Palatinate who arrived in New York on August
4, 1852; contains some genealogical information.
- Braun, Fritz. Auswanderer aus Enkenbach seit
Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts. Heimatstelle Pfalz, [196-] 27
p. (Schriften zur Wanderungsgeschichte der Pfälzer ; Folge 11)
Emigrants from Enkenbach since the beginning of the 18th
century.
- Braun, Fritz. Auswanderer aus Kaiserslautern im 18.
Jahrhundert. Kaiserslautern : Heimatstelle Pfalz, 1965. 27,
[5] p. (Schriften zur Wanderungsgeschichte der Pfälzer ; Folge
17) Emigrants from Kaiserslautern during the 18th century.
- Braun, Fritz. Auswanderer aus Queidersbach, 1764 bis 1938
/ Fritz Braun und Stefan Aicher. Kaiserslautern : Heimatstelle
Pfalz, 1966. 40 p. (Schriften zur Wanderungsgeschichte der
Pfälzer ; 24) Emigrants from Queidersbach from 1764 to 1938.
- Braun, Fritz. Auswanderer aus Steinweiler in drei
Jahrhunderten. [By] Fritz Braun. Kaiserslautern,
Heimatstelle Pfalz, 1968. 64 p. (Schriften zur
Wanderungsgeschichte der Pfälzer, Folge 27) Emigrants from
Steinweiler during three centuries.
- Broermann, Karl. [Auswanderung der Mülheimer nach
Pennsylvanien. English & German] The emigration of the
Mülheimers to Pennsylvania : both a local and German culture
picture from the 17th century. Translated by Rosalie N.
Castleberry. Windermere, Fla. (12404 Summerport Ln., Windermere
34786) : R.N. Castleberry, c1991. 46 p."With also a photocopy of
the original German article: Die Auswanderung der Mülheimer nach
Pennsylvanien.""The original article was published in the
December, 1938 issue of the Mülheim Historical Society's
Zeitschrift." An "index to Mulheim emigrants" who came to
Germantown (now a part of Philadelphia) is on pages 48-49.
- Burgert, Annette Kunselman. Brethren from Gimbsheim in
the Palatinate to Ephrata and Bermudian in Pennsylvania.
Myerstown, PA : AKB Publications, c1994. A list of emigrants
from Gimbsheim who settled in Ephrata and Bermudian,
Pennsylvania; contains extensive genealogical information.
- Burgert, Annette Kunselman. Colonial Pennsylvania
immigrants from Freinsheim in the Palatinate. Myerstown, PA
(691 Weavertown Rd., Myerstown 17067) : AKB Publications, c1989.
List of 18th century emigrants from Freinsheim who settled in
Pennsylvania; contains extensive genealogical information.
- Burgert, Annette Kunselman. Early Pennsylvania pioneers
from Mutterstadt in the Palatinate. Worthington, OH (P.O.
Box 93, Worthington 43085) : AKB Publications, c1983. List of
18th century immigrants to Pennsylvania from Mutterstadt;
contains extensive genealogical information.
- Burgert, Annette Kunselman. Eighteenth and nineteenth
century emigrants from Lachen-Speyerdorf in the Palatinate.
Myerstown, PA (691 Weavertown Rd., Myerstown 17067) :
AKBPublications, c1989. Alphabetical list of emigrants with
considerable genealogical information.
- 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. Eighteenth century
Pennsylvania emigrants from Hassloch and Bühl in the Palatinate.
[Worthington, OH] (P.O. Box 93, Worthington 43085) : AKB
Publications, [c1983] A list of 18th century emigrants who
settled in Pennsylvania; contains extensive genealogical
information.
- Burgert, Annette Kunselman. The Hochstadt origins of some
of the early settlers at Host Church, Berks County, Pa.
Worthington, OH (P.O. Box 93, Worthington 43085) : AKB
Publications, c1983. A list of emigrants from Hochstadt who
settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania.
- Burgert, Annette Kunselman. Palatine origins of some
Pennsylvania pioneers. Myerstown, Pa. : AKB Publications,
2000. Extensive genealogical information for more than 600
Palatine immigrants to Pennsylvania.
- Burgert, Annette Kunselman. Westerwald to America : some
18th century German immigrants / by Annette Kunselman
Burgert and Henry Z Jones, Jr. Camden, Me. : Picton Press, 1989.
List of 18th century emigrants; contains considerable
genealogical information.
- Burgert, Annette Kunselman. York County pioneers from
Friedelsheim and Gönnheim in the Palatinate. Worthington, OH
(P.O. Box 93, Worthington 43085) : AKB Publications, c1984. A
list of 18th century Palatine emigrants who settled in York
County, Pennsylvania.
- Dilibri Rheinland-Pfalz.
Dilibri ist die
digitalisierte Sammlung von landeskundlichen Werken zu
Rheinland-Pfalz sowie von Beständen aus rheinland-pfälzischen
Bibliotheken.
It's a collection of regional history works from Rheinland-Pfalz
as well as items from Palatinate libraries. Like University
library of Trier and city library of Mainz.
Among the items are 98 adress books, 287 books and 116 maps
(16th till 19th Century).
- Emigration Records: Governmental files, based on
applications to emigrate, manumission records; Sale of property
records; Church registers; Notarial records, Landesarchiv Speyer
has 18th and 19th century records; Entlassungsurkunde
(Releases from citizenship); Petitions for emigration;
Reisepässe (permission to travel); Newspapers (may contain
names of departing persons, starting in the 1830s); Parish
histories or chronicles, Ortssippenbücher.
- Eger, Wofgang. Die protestantischen Kirchenbücher der
Pfalz. Landau: Druckerei Kanssler GmbH, 1960. FHL Fiche No.
60008351.
- Evangelische
Kirchen der Pfalz. Contains microfilm records of Protestant
parishes of the Pfalz. Essentially all parish records before
1874 are filmed.
- Freund, Hanns Egon. Emigration records from the German
Eifel region, 1834-1911. Crystal Lake, Ill. : McHenry County
Illinois Genealogical Society, 1991. Alphabetical list of
emigrants from the Eifel region, "with major emphasis on those
emigrants whose final destinations were Illinois, Wisconsin and
Michigan."
- Genealogy in Pfalz
- Great information on research in the German state of the
Palatinate (called Pfalz in German), including maps, archives
and an old-German writing-style guide.
- Hacker, Werner. Auswanderungen aus dem früheren Hochstift
Speyer nach Südosteuropa und Übersee im XVIII. Jahrhundert.
Kaiserslautern: Heimatstelle Pfalz, 1969. FHL Book 943.43 B4sp
no. 28.
- Hacker, Werner. Auswanderungen aus Rheinpfalz and
Saarland im 18. Jahrhundert. Stuttgart: K. Theiss, 1987. FHL
Book 943 W29h
- Hager, Michael E. "Archives Related to Palatine Research."
The Palatine Immigrant, June 2002.
- Jones, Henry Z. Even more Palatine families : 18th
century immigrants to the American colonies and their German,
Swiss, and Austrian origins / by Henry Z. Jones, Jr. and
Lewis Bunker Rohrbach. Rockport, Me. : Picton Press, c2002.
Extensive genealogical information on eighteenth century
immigrants to America. An every-name index appears in volume 3.
- Jones, Henry Z. More Palatine families : some immigrants
to the middle colonies 1717-1776 and their European origins,
plus new discoveries on German families who arrived in Colonial
New York in 1710. Universal City, Calif. : H.Z. Jones, 1991.
Extensive genealogical information on many eighteenth century
immigrants to America.
- Jones, Henry Z. The Palatine families of New York : a
study of the German immigrants who arrived in colonial New York
in 1710. Universal City, Calif. : H.Z. Jones, 1985.
Alphabetical list of the German immigrants who arrived in New
York in 1710; contains extensive genealogical information.
- Knittle, Walter Allen. Early eighteenth century Palatine
emigration; a British Government redemptioner project to
manufacture naval stores. With a foreword by Dixon Ryan Fox.
Baltimore, Genealogical Pub.Co., 1965. The appendices on pages
242 to 303 contain lists of early Palatine emigrants.
- Kuby, Alfred Hans. 1833 thru 1906, Palatine emigrants
from Edenkoben (in Rheinland Pfalz, West Germany) to North
America. Mechanicsburg, Pa. (P.O. Box 535, Mechanicsburg
17055) : Pennsylvania Chapter of Palatines to America, c1989.
Edenkoben emigrants to North America during the years 1833
through 1906; arranged by date of emigration, with a surname
index.
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Landesarchiv Speyer. Houses civil records from the French
revolutionary period, notarial records, tax lists, land records,
maps, court records and emigration records.
- Landeshauptarchiv
Koblenz. Similar to the Landeshauptarchiv Speyer, focuses on
southern portion of the former Prussian Rhineland and the
northerly section of the former Palatinate. It preserves civil
registers starting in 1798 (during the French occpation) and
runs to 1876.
- Local town records. Civil registration records are kept in
the Standesamt, but after aournd 100 years or so, they
may have been transferred to the Stadtarchiv or the
Kreisarchiv.
- Müller, Anton. Die Kirchenbücher der bayerischen Pfalz.
München: Theodor Ackermann, 1925. FHL Fiche No. 0415618.
- Palatines to America.
German Genealogy Society. Palatines to America (Pal Am) is a
German genealogy society dedicated to the study of ancestors
from all German speaking lands. The society takes its name from
the fact that some of the earliest German-speaking immigrants to
the American colonies came from a region in present-day Germany
known as the Palatinate (Pfälz) and were called Palatines (Pfälzers).
The founding members of Pal Am all had ancestors from this area
of Germany.
- Parish Offices. Local church records may have been
transferred to the area's central archive or to a diocesan
archive, or both.
- Petto. Walter. Auswanderer aus dem Amt Nonnweiler
1841-1870. Nonnweiler : Verein für Heimatkunde, 1994. 81 p.
(Hochwälder Hefte zur Heimatgeschichte ; Heft 34) Emigrants
from Nonnweiler are listed by year, with a name index.
- Rasimus. Hans. Auswanderer aus Jockgrim im 19.
Jahrhundert. Kaiserslautern : Heimatstelle Pfalz, 1980. 416
p. (Schriften zur Wanderungsgeschichte der Pfälzer ; Folge 29) (Beiträge
zur Heimatgeschichte ; Bd. 1) List of emigrants from Jockgrim
during the 19th century; contains considerable genealogical
information.
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Rheinland-Pfalz GenWeb Page
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Rheinland
- Pfalz / Rhineland - Palatinate. Find Your German Roots.
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Smith, Clifford Neal. Eighteenth-century
emigrants from Kreis Simmern (Hunsrueck), Rheinland-Pfalz,
Germany, to Central Europe, Pfalzdorf am Niederrhein, and North
America. McNeal, Ariz. : Westland Publications, 1982. iii,
23 p. (German-American genealogical research monograph, ISSN
0094-7806 ; no. 16) Alphabetical list of emigrants; the names
first appeared in two articles by Dr. Walter Diener that were
published in Germany in 1935 and 1939.
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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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Smith, Clifford Neal. Nineteenth-century
emigration from Kreis Simmern (Hunsrueck), Rheinland-Pfalz,
Germany, to Brazil, England, Russian Poland, and the United
States of America. McNeal, Ariz. : Westland Publications,
1980. 35 p. (German-American genealogical research monograph ;
no. 8 ISSN 0094-7806). Alphabetical list of emigrants; names
first appeared in two articles by Dr. Walter Diener, published
in 1935 and 1938.
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Staudt, Ricardo W. Palatine Church
Visitations, 1609; Deanery of Kusel. Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Co., 1990. FHL Book 943.43 K29p1980
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300 Jahre Auswanderung aus Otterberg /
bearbeitet von Hans Steinebrei ; unter Mitarbeit von Franz
Rink und Roland Paul. Kaiserslautern : Institut für Pfälzische
Geschichte und Volkskunde, 1999. 216 p. (Schriften zur
Wanderungsgeschichte der Pfälzer ; Bd. 41) Three centuries of
emigration from Otterberg; includes texts of letters from some
of the emigrants.
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Walterscheid, Johannes. Auswanderer aus dem
Siegkreis. Bonn a. Rh., L. Röhrscheid, 1939. Emigrants from
Siegkreis are listed by hometown, then by date of emigration;
contains a personal name index.
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Weffer, Herbert. Auswanderer aus Stadt und
Kreis Bonn von 1814 bis 1914. 1. Aufl. Röhrscheid, 1977. 443
p. (Veröffentlichungen des Stadtarchivs Bonn ; Bd. 19)
Alphabetical list of emigrants from Bonn during the period 1814
to 1914.
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"What a Palatine? An Over-Used Word that
Confuses." Der Blumenbaum 25, 4 (April/May/June 2008):
209-211.
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Yoder, Don, editor. Rhineland emigrants :
lists of German settlers in colonial America. Baltimore :
Genealogical Pub. Co., 1981. A collection of "twenty-four
articles dealing with German-speaking emigrants of the
eighteenth century...." Contains a personal name index.