Family research

Descendants, ancestors - no, this is not about road traffic. Although certain processes may seem strange to some people there too, this is about researching the ancestors (ancestors) and the children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren generation (descendants) of a person as completely as possible by means of documentary evidence. This evidence can be found in archives, including our town archives. We live in a time of instability: whether social peace, economic status or the political climate - everything is just as changeable as supposedly fixed individual pillars (family, profession, environment, etc.). What are my roots? The question of one's own origins quickly goes hand in hand with the question: who am I? Behind every name in the chain of ancestors lies an individual destiny that wants to be discovered; it is part of a generational fabric to which one's own existence is woven. Curiosity and the search for identity are impulses that are currently fuelling a boom in genealogy in this country, and the trend continues to rise. The research touches on life circumstances, social status or clan relationships - who knows what you will come across, including surprises. But at first glance, the broad field of family research is as confusing as some intergenerational family relationships. It results from the intertwined interplay of ancestor and descendant research. In the Middle Ages, proof of one's legitimate descent was essential in order to be assigned to a certain class or to be admitted to a select group of people and thus to claim certain rights. Proof of birth was particularly important in matters of succession. In the middle of the 19th century, the wealthy middle classes also began to pay close attention to their ancestry. Publishing houses (1847 in Görlitz) and associations (1869 Berlin, 1870 Vienna) were founded. Founded in Dresden in 1902, the "Roland. Sächsischer Landesverein für Familienforschung und Wappenkunde e. V.", founded in Dresden in 1902, still exists today as the "Sresdner Verein für Genealogie". In 1904, the "Zentralstelle für Deutsche Personen- und Familiengeschichte" opened in Leipzig, which is also still of great importance today as the "Deutsche Zentralstelle für Genealogie" (at the Leipzig State Archives). This subject area was then politically abused by the Nazis during the Third Reich. It took a long time for research into one's own clan to emancipate itself from this negative legacy, but the hobby is now enjoying great popularity, with a wide variety of population groups deciding to take it up, driven by their own "hunting fever".

Above all, modern media and computer technologies open up completely new possibilities for research and networking. First of all, you should ask family members for any information, if available or possible and if you want to, and don't ignore more distant relatives. In addition to names and dates, anecdotes, episodes and stories should be meticulously recorded so that they can later be critically scrutinised for authenticity. At family celebrations, it is a good idea to hand out questionnaires and ask for photos, handwritten notes, documents, business papers, family Bibles or other sources with genealogical information. information. It has also proved useful to create your own documentation both in writing in folders and to use a computer genealogy programme at the same time. A family record sheet/index card is created for each person recorded (templates, including questionnaires, are available on the Internet). The so-called "Kekule system" was introduced as early as 1898 to number the relatives and for clarity: the starting person (proband) receives the number 1, his parents 2 (father) and 3 (mother). The grandparents are numbered 4-7 and so on. The registry office manages, among other things, records of births, marriages and deaths of a person within certain time frames: Births since 110 years, marriages since 80 years, deaths since 30 years. If these years are exceeded for research purposes, i.e. if older periods are targeted, the archives are the next port of call. The Radebeul town archive has civil status books and ancillary files in its holdings, including lists of names, chronological from 1876 in their respective areas of responsibility up to 1906 (births), 1936 (marriages) and 1986 (deaths). These so-called civil status records include the former registry offices of Kötzschenbroda (1876-1936), Naundorf (1906-1923), Wahnsdorf (1931-1934) and the Radebeul registry office (since 1876). If a period before 1876 is to be researched, the next step is the church registers. There you will find baptism, marriage, death and burial registers or death registers. Some of this information is already available on the Internet, on CD-ROM or microfilmed. The regional church office in Dresden maintains a central film reading centre for the local and surrounding parishes. Funeral sermons or death notices can also be important aids. Old address books are valuable sources for regional research: our archive holds them from 1873-1944; they can be found online for Dresden and the surrounding area in the "Sachsendigital" portal. Not to be forgotten is registration information that has been handed down in the archives (the Radebeul city archive maintains a GDR registration file organised by street name). Contact with a genealogical organisation can also often help. There are around 60 such organisations in the FRG and, last but not least, a wanted advertisement has already overcome many a "dead end" in one's own family history research.

Family research with a broader focus

A sense of belonging, entertainment value or orientation - the motivation for genealogy is as varied as the research paths that can be taken. In general, however, a thirst for knowledge, a detective's instinct and success in finding things play the main role: people want to get to the bottom of anecdotes, fill in gaps and establish the truth. While genealogy originally focussed on the bloodline, it is now branching out into a wider field. Genealogy is dedicated to the ascending line of ascendancy: from the parents to their parents to their parents and so on. The sibling level is not considered. Descendant research concerns the descendants of a person or a married couple in descending line, who are called "stepparents". All descendants should be traced, including those of the daughters. Genealogical research, on the other hand, investigates all bearers of the family name with their spouses. In genealogical research, siblings are recorded as well as their spouses, children and other relatives. Other variants include the compilation of a farm chronicle or a local family register. Above all, it is important to be able to prove the authenticity of the information at any time. But how is it possible to breathe life into ancestors when their existence goes back so far that even elderly relatives can no longer remember them? One should look at their historical context and relate this to the data: Local chronicles, such as those preserved in the Radebeul town archives, provide an interesting contemporary view of regional history on issues such as natural disasters, political upheavals, geographical changes, the effects of war or technical and economic developments. But family history research can be more than just recording names, dates and facts and presenting them graphically.

A more specialised approach to uncovering the lives of relatives is to trace their emotional heritage and thus go one step deeper in the work of remembering. The approach is: in addition to the outer world surrounding the ancestors, their inner world is just as decisive for their development and thus for the development of the family history. Anyone interested in this additional perspective will therefore not only look at the data, but will give equal weight to the human element in their research. The psychological factor is included in the research interest, which is thus expanded by an inner and connecting depth dimension.

Cross-generational genealogical patterns

This family researcher attempts to uncover cross-generational patterns or recurring role models that were/are adopted by ancestors and relatives. Within families, for example, there are stories of the exercise of power over others; there are authoritarian assaults, over-fathers and over-mothers, and the associated competition between them or alienation from each other. From this he derives the question of how the role of women and men was generally handled in the clan. Sometimes there are models of victim roles or stories of perpetrators, as well as themes of guilt that still affect the present from the long past, or even taboo topics that (can) burden one's own existence as a heavy legacy. In some cases, ancestors may have been caught between guilt and innocence and one can consider whether lessons have been learnt from this. In addition, some families are characterised by a conspicuous accumulation of tragic circumstances, accidents or severe strokes of fate. To what extent did war, flight, trauma or violence affect the family line and how were they dealt with? Breaks, silences and separate paths are not uncommon in a family history. Sometimes certain professions run like a red thread through one's own genealogy, such as craftsmanship, social commitment or political participation, so that conclusions can also be drawn about personal characters here. Are there ancestors who deviated from the path, who emigrated, who "danced out of line" or who in some way founded family myths that are still used today to form an identity within the family? Certain moods, messages and internal affairs are passed on from grandparents to children and grandchildren, both through storytelling and behaviour. In this way, family characteristics and emotional inheritance are transplanted within one's own identity, which in turn can have an impact on one's own decisions and thus one's individual future.

The anchor point of this more specialised form of looking at family history should be that your ancestors are telling you something, that these intergenerational patterns and roles exist for a reason and that people in yesterday, today and tomorrow are inextricably linked. Whether you decide to take the classic route of family research or adopt a more specialised focus, the decisive factor is the individual perspective. After all, aren't friends sometimes the more important family for one's own history? What is family anyway? Family research can therefore also contribute to your own orientation.

Computer genealogy

At the same time, the Internet can also provide orientation for family researchers. Whether it's general information on the subject, specialised questions on auxiliary historical sciences such as heraldry, clues on the subject of "embarkation overseas" or access to research institutions such as archives, churches or libraries - the World Wide Web lists an abundance of hits for each of these queries. There are options for researching various genealogy programmes or you can type the person/family name in question directly into a genealogical database to see what results the search engine spits out. In addition, genealogists have built up a dense network of forums, mailing lists and links where their results are published and lively discussions take place. For example, the Verein für Computergenealogie e.V. (Association for Computer Genealogy) provides a comprehensive range of internet resources on all genealogy topics. It refers to portals, encyclopaedias, bibliographies, software and databases or facilitates (regional) research contacts. Genealogy is a central component for the American Mormon Church, which makes its worldwide database, primarily church records, but also trade and coat of arms rolls and land registers, available to the general public free of charge at www.familysearch.org. The research service "ancestry" also originates from the USA. The company now has its own portals in many European countries. At www.ancestry.de, you can search for historical documents, personal names, places, family trees, images, maps or publications both globally and locally after registering and, in some cases, paying a fee. The databases are fed, for example, from civil status documents, censuses and electoral rolls, military records, lists of immigrants and emigrants and address books. As a member, you can enter your family tree in the portal and it will be checked whether there are any overlaps with the genealogical table of another participant.

The Radebeul town archive is also planning to gradually offer archive users an interface to digitised data as a result of the digitisation of civil status documents from the Lößnitz registry offices, i.e. the name directories and later entire register books, starting from 1876, and to set up a visitor workstation with access to them.

Further research possibilities are offered by the French-operated site "Geneanet" or the Israeli site "MyHeritage". The list could go on. The Internet offers a wealth of possibilities and information, which can also be a problem: an oversupply of text. There are also countless genealogy software and auxiliary programmes, which not only differ enormously in price (there are also free ones), but also in the way they work. Here it makes sense to first define your own research goals precisely: to be clear about where your own focus lies, how far the investigation should branch out and to derive the requirements for the programme from this. Test versions make the decision easier. You should also bear in mind that the data created should later be compatible with other software or that the data can be converted. This keeps open the possibility of successively expanding the research radius as required.

Data backup

But digital or not - what applies to science is of course also essential for private research: data backup. The protection of information, whether digital or analogue, is the be-all and end-all. Even storage is crucial: damp cellars, attics with high temperature fluctuations or rooms where people smoke are certainly not suitable storage locations. Risks such as house fires, flooding, hard drive failure, theft, programme (update) errors or accidental deletion should also be taken into account and precautions taken. Computer crashes caused by hardware problems, dirty fans or a faulty power supply unit are just as frightening. Many of these can seriously set back your research or put an end to it altogether, which is why regular backups on external storage media or online storage are recommended. If you store duplicates off-site, this also increases data availability enormously.

Because although the genealogist is primarily concerned with the past, the hobby should radiate into the present and bring joy for the future. Blessed are those who make it back to their great-grandparents!

Emigration, flight and migration

Your own family history flows like a river through time and generations and is always on the move. Spatial changes often form an integral part of this network. When researching your ancestors, it is therefore not only important to know when they lived, but above all where. And if you have been able to decipher an old village name written in Sütterlin handwriting, this does not mean that the location of the village can be reconstructed so easily today. If only because place names often change, even duplicate each other, or because spellings can change. Places disappeared from the map due to incorporation, or they were destroyed during the war and subsequently abandoned. Some settlements fell victim to open-cast mining. Last but not least, it is part of German history that the place you are looking for can now be found in another country. When searching for places in neighbouring countries and former German territories, the website of the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy can be a starting point, as can the website Territorial.de or Kartenmeister.com. Directories of municipalities and localities for Austria or Switzerland can be found on the websites of their Federal Statistical Offices. Last but not least, a search in the Genealogical Place Index at Genealogy.net can lead to success. Printed encyclopaedias or directories of communities and places can usually be found in library catalogues, or you can look in the standard work "Müller's Großes Deutsches Ortsbuch".

In the 19th century in particular, a wave of migration began in Europe. Many Germans also wanted to cross the pond and find happiness in America. The first American consulate on European soil opened its doors in Bremen as early as 1796, making it the most important emigration harbour. A little later, the port of Hamburg was added. Emden offered embarkation facilities for three months, which were used by almost 4,000 emigrants. It was mainly the impoverished rural population who sought a more successful livelihood elsewhere. Anyone intending to leave the country permanently had to submit an application to the home administration for consent, the granting of which could sometimes take years.

Letters written by emigrants to those who stayed at home provide true-to-life information about embarkation, crossing, arrival and finding a home in North America. The Gotha Research Library holds such a valuable collection of sources for research purposes. From 1820 onwards, the federal authorities in the USA required captains of arriving ships to submit a detailed passage list from the home port. This version often contained additional information about the traveller.

Most of the Bremen passenger lists were destroyed in the bombing raid, whereas the Hamburg passenger lists have been almost completely preserved. In addition, church records, passport and consents applications, newspaper entries and emigrant letters provide informative regional primary sources. The research possibilities are completed by the American passenger lists, which are administered by the National Museum of the USA and the National Archives in Washington. Numerous databases can be found on the Internet which provide information about people travelling to ports in the USA and Canada. Family researchers can also find expert advice and database research by visiting the German Emigration Centre in Bremerhaven or the Ballin-Stadt Emigration Museum in Hamburg. Around 4.3 million Europeans emigrated to Brazil, and the staff at the Argentine Immigration Museum can help with research. Documents on migration to Australia can be found in the Australian National Archives, including a free database with around 8 million records. South Africa was also a popular emigration destination. The National Archives can be a point of contact for research enquiries.

At the end of the Second World War, there were around 11 million former forced labourers, concentration camp survivors or prisoners of war in Germany, most of whom no longer had a home. The majority emigrated to the USA, but Great Britain, Belgium, France, Canada, Australia, South America and Palestine were also receiving countries. Passenger lists and name index cards from 1945-1974 are available in the Bremen State Archives. The state and diocesan archives in Poland have gradually opened up to genealogical research, so that in recent years more and more documents and church registers have become accessible online. In addition, genealogical societies are active. Associations are also active, such as the Pommersche Greif, the Association for Family Research in East and West Prussia and the Memelland Research Group. GenWiki.de offers information on Lithuania and Latvia. And the archives of the Czech Republic and Slovakia have also put their matriculation records online, partly via their own websites and partly via the Actapublica.eu and Crossborderarchives platforms.

German domestic history also has a large chapter on the topic of flight. 3 ½ million people fled from the Soviet occupation zone and later the GDR to West Germany between 1945 and 1961. After the Berlin Wall was built, escaping was only possible at constant risk to life and by adventurous means. Nevertheless, numerous GDR citizens took this risk: at least 5,075 GDR citizens succeeded in doing so between the construction and fall of the Wall. As early as November 1989, almost 133,500 GDR citizens moved to West Germany. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees Ursulum Branch Office processes enquiries about the whereabouts of migrants from the former GDR.

Emigration, flight, migration - whether voluntary or forced - always represents a break in both personal and family history. Those who leave expect unknown challenges, (re)innovation, but also uprooting. Those who stayed at home are left behind. Either way, this leaves traces in people themselves, e.g. in issues of personal responsibility, the desire for freedom and self-fulfilment, but also pragmatism, feelings of guilt or repression. Side effects resulting from the spatial change are reflected, for example, in family legends or in silence and exclusion. Nevertheless, this can reverberate as an emotional legacy within the family history, imprint itself in character patterns and thus affect one's own individual part of the whole fabric.

Maren Gündel, City Archive

Sources: Schug/Urmersbach: Attention ancestors, here I come! Praxisbuch moderne Familienforschung 2015; Magazin Familienforschung 2015/2016; Ziegler: Ahnenforschung. Step by step to your own family history 2012.

Published in 4 parts in Amtsblatt Radebeul July/ August/ September 2016, April 2017