German Genealogy
German Newspapers
German newspapers provide a rich source of genealogical data. It was customary to publish death notices listing the birth and death dates, place of burial, and occasionally the place of birth, and the members of the immediate family. Unfortunately, only a few of the German newspapers have been indexed, and research access is difficult.
The Arndt bibliographies listed below give access to every known periodical published in the German language in the United States. There were hundreds of them, dating from earliest immigrants in the American colonies down to modern times. Each entry gives information on dates of publication and the repositories in which copies will be found.
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ABYZ News Links - Germany - Newspapers and News Sources
- Arndt, Karl J. R. and Olson, May E.
German-American Newspapers and Periodicals, 1732-1955:
History and Bibliography. Heidelberg: Quelle &
Meyer, 1961.
- Arndt, Karl J. R. and Olson, May E.
German-American Newspapers and Periodicals, 1732-1955:
History and Bibliography. 2d revised edition. New
York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1965.
Newspapers listed chronologically by states and
counties, with present location of archives. This
is a reprint of the 1961 edition with the addition of an
appendix, pages 796-810, chiefly listing refugee and
prisoner-of-war camp publications of the second world
war.
- Arndt, Karl J. R. and Olson, May E. The German
Language Press of the Americas. Munich-Pullach:
Verlag Dokumentation, 1973. This is a supplement to the
above two titles.
- Brigham, Clarence S. History and Bibliography of
American Newspapers, 1690-1820. 2 vols. 1947.
Reprint, Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1962. Guide to
early American newspapers and the location of their
extant issues. Available in larger libraries.
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German American Newspapers and Periodicals. Lists
the Library of Congress holdings of German-American
newspapers.
- German News.
(English Edition). To find out the latest news in
Germany.
- Gregory, Winifred. American Newspapers,
1821-1936: A Union List of Files Available in the United
States and Canada. 1937. Reprint, New York: Kraus
Reprint Corp., 1967. American newspapers and the
location of their extant issues, beginning where
Brigham’s guide ends. Available in larger libraries.
- PERSI - the periodical list from the Ft.
Wayne Library is available on-line and in print.
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ProGenealogists, Inc.: German Newspapers in Genealogy
(1780-1914) - Describes genealogical uses of German
newspapers, availability, and indexing projects.
- Der Schlüssel; Gesamtinhaltsverzeichnisse mit
Ortsquellennachweisen fur genealogische, heraldische und
historische Zeitschriftenreihen. [The Key:
comprehensive index, including place names, to
genealogical, heraldic, and historical periodical
series] Hrsg. von Heinz Reise in Verbindung mit der
Genealogisch-Heraldischen Gesellschaft mit dem Sitz in
Göttingen. 5 volumes. Göttingen, Heinz Reise Verlag,
1950-1965. Literature to the second world war period is
indexed in the first four volumes, and the period
1945-60 is indexed in the fifth volume.
- Der Schlüssel; Gesamtinhaltsverzeichnisse mit
Ortsquellennachweisen fur genealogische, heraldische und
historische Zeitschriftenreihen. Hrsg. von Heinz Reise
in Verbindung mit der Genealogisch-Heraldischen
Gesellschaft mit dem Sitz in Göttingen. Göttingen,
H. Reise, <1956-1986> v. <3-9> Z5311.S34 LH&G
CONTENTS (Incomplete): --Bd. 3. Einsiedel, A. v. und Amburger, E. Der Deutsche Herold.--Bd. 4. Ollrog, W. Without special title.--Bd. 5. Ollrog, W. Auswertung aller in der Bundesrepublik erschienenen genealogisch-heraldischen Zeitschriften von 1945 bis 31. Dezember 1960.--Bd. 6. Jager-Sunstenau, H. Auswertung der genealogisch-heraldischen Zeitschriften in ™sterrich und der deutschsprachigen Tschechoslowakei 1871-1944.--Bd. 7. Dietrichs, H. Auswertung der in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland erschienenen genealogisch-heraldischen Zeitschriften, vom 1. Januar 1961 bis 31. Dezember 1975.--Bd. 8. Gerlach, D.H.G. Auswertung der in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und in den deutschsprachigen Randstaaten erschienenen genealogisch-heraldischen Zeitschriften vom 1. Januar 1976 bis 31. Dezember 1980.--Bd. 9. Ollrog, W. und Gerlach, D.H.G. Without special title. This bibliographical guide provides researchers with a surname, place, and subject index to titles of articles published in selected German genealogical periodicals. Some volumes also index book reviews. Citations refer to articles published from as early as 1860 to as late as 1981. It has information on more than ninety genealogical and heraldic publications for German speaking areas of Europe which would include Germany, Switzerland and Austria. What makes this particular publication so useful to American genealogists are the indexes at the rear of the book. There are three -- a location index, a surname index and a subjects index. Under the subject index family historians can look for things like occupations or articles on German emigration. The surname index includes a listing of families covered in each article. The location index offers family historians an additional means of finding information on an ancestral village. The Family History Library and the Library of Congress have copies of Der Schlüssel.
Laraine K. Ferguson's article "Locating a Surname, Locality or Topic in German Genealogical Periodicals: Der Schlussel--the Key" in the German Genealogical Digest, v. 9, no. 2 (Summer 1993), pp. 38-44, is a helpful introduction to this important resource.
- Sperlings Zeitschriften-Adressbuch
Handbuch der deutschen Presse, Die wichtigsten deutschen
Zeitschriften und politischen Zeitungen Deutschlands,
Deutsch-Österreichs und des europäischen Auslands;
Verlag des Börsenvereins der Deutschen Buchhändler zu
Leipzig; Leipzig; 50. Ausgabe; 1923; 410 + 64 S. [Sperlings
Magazine Addressbook; handbook of the German press, the
most important German magazines and newspapers of
Germany, the Austrian-Empire and Europe; 50th edition;
1923]. A list of old German newspapers and magazines.
- Wittke, Carl. The German-Language Press in
America. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press,
1957.
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World-newspapers.com - German Newspapers