Baden-Württemberg, Brandenberg, Posen, Pommern (Pomerania), Prussia, Mecklenburg, Silesia, Bavaria, Saxony … these are all places that are (or were at some stage) part of Germany.  

So if you’re looking for your German ancestors, no doubt you’ll jump online to see what you can find online. And well, there is a LOT, and by a “lot” I’m meaning hundreds of millions of records online.

Of course (as with all records) it’s far, far from everything available, but it is a lot to start with anyway. So worth checking out.

So what will you find on the big name genealogy data websites the is relevant to German research?

Ancestry.com 
(German records are viewable with a World Subscription)
– Germany Birth, Marriage & Death (90,963,399)
– Germany Census & Voter Lists (3,471,343)
– Germany Convict, Criminal, Land & Wills (3,136,687)
Germany Immigration & Travel (11,172,565)
Germany Maps, Atlases & Gazetteers (208,899)
 Germany Military (23,545,915)
– Germany Newspapers & Publications (8)
– 
Germany Pictures (298,226,080)
Germany Reference, Dictionaries & Almanacs (921,359)
– Germany Schools, Directories & Church Histories (430,626)
– Germany Stories, Memories & Histories (207,689)

Findmypast.com
(German records available to view with a World Subscription)
Germans to America 1850-1897 (4,068,880)
Hamburg, Germany Emigrants 1850-1879 (40,857)
– Ontario, Canada, German-Canadian Folk-Lore (11)

MyHeritage.com
(German records available to view with a Data Subscription)
Birth, Marriage & Death (154,952,778)
Books & Publications (12,414)
– Census & Voter Lists (1,614,647)
Directories, Guides & References (1580)
Histories, Memories & Biographies (19,159)
Immigration & Travel (44,312)
Military (868)

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And for millions more German records be sure to check out FamilySearch.org (scroll down to Germany), and for over 1100 links to German related sites, check out CyndisList.com.

And news just in from the National Institute of Genealogical Studies, they have a new online course “Germans Outside of Germany” starting soon (tentative start date is 4 December 2017). More details: http://www.genealogicalstudies.com/eng/courses.asp?courseID=235

So if you’re wondering how to get started on your German research, and would like a book to guide you, you’ll find some listed here.