Language Choice, Telephone Directory and E-Mail. This is the official
German telephone directory, and all you need for church and municipal archives,
individuals and businesses.
When searching for a church address, type Kirchen on the first line, and
the town name on the second. You can also experiment by typing Pfarramt
instead of Kirchen in an effort to find church registers.
Pfarramt = Parish Office.
When searching for a civil address, Gemeindeverwaltung goes on
the first line, the town name on the second. For a larger city, it is
Stadtverwaltung on the first line, name of the city on the second.
The Standesamt (office of civil records) is normally located in the
Gemeindeverwaltung or Stadtverwaltung. Note: If the parents were
born during the era when the church kept the records, and the children were
born during the era when records-keeping was switched to local government,
then the Family Registry (Standesamt) in the town hall (Gemeindeverwaltung)
or city hall (Stadtverwaltung) would be a logical place to inquire.
Finding children and grandchildren in municipal registeries
will normally lead to parents and grandparents in the
church archives. For the church district (Kirchspiel) use Kirchspiel
alone for multiple listings, or Kirchspiel
plus the name of the town.
You can experiment with Standesamt and Staatsarchiv (State Archives) with
any city to see if you can go directly to the address. Other experiments
can be made by using the first four or more letters of what you are seeking,
and then inserting an asterisk. For example, Hess* will return all
the listings with Hessen in the title. If you aren't certain of the spelling
for a surname, try the first four letters (or more) with an asterisk. Example:
Hassel*, if you are looking for Hasselbacher but aren't sure of the
spelling. For the town of Münchsteinnach, type Muench* (substituting
"ue" for "ü"). If the response indicates "couldn't find the city or
town" go to
./towns.htm#site4.
Click, then click on the German flag and type in the town name. It will
show you where it is today, perhaps annexed by a larger town or city, or
coming under its jurisdiction.
One terrific item: In the telephone book you can
abbreviate the surname (Schm* instead of Schmidthausen); you can
insert the postal (zip) code instead of the town name;
and you can abbreviate the zipcode (64* instead
of 64297). That returns all sorts of similar spellings
in a greater number of towns that are in the
same vicinity, a real plus for vicinity searching,
especially when used with ./towns.htm,
Site #1 Option #1, working with the distance-radius
calculator there. The telephone book plus the Town Locator calculator
is especially useful when your response says that your input
produced too many responses.
Should you decide to telephone a "cousin" in Germany, do this: 011
49 (area code) (number). Drop the zero in front of the area code. Example:
01234 56789 in the German telephone directory becomes
011 49 1234 56789 for callers from outside Germany. They want you to
speak German when you call; leave it up to them to switch
to English, if they are bi-lingual.
Note: Many communities may have the same zip code! Search by zip code
to reveal ALL of them! CAUTION: Germany is covered with towns that have
the same name. All researchers make sure your town is in the correct
location, or used to be, and that you have the right
postal (5-digit zip) code! Otherwise, you could be in the WRONG
place! For example, Hessen postal codes normally start with the
number 3 or number 6, and are always 5-digit. However, since 3 and 6 extend
into other German states, you must compare a map from the 19th century to
modern postal zip code zones. Do that using
./towns.htm,
./zipcodes.htm,
./hesse.htm,
and
http://www.meinestadt.de/
For letters already written in the German language, go to...
./letters.htm
REMEMBER! Make an effort to follow these instructions. You can always
ask me when you stub your toe. We don't permit brick walls! Please Please
let me know about any busted link!!! Don't overlook telephone-address
reconstruction, just below!
Use German spelling in the English or French version!
TELEFONBUCH
/
TELEPHONE
BOOK
In German, English, and French
Once inside the German telephone book,
you'll need to know how to do
Address/Telephone
Reconstruction
Just make these simple adjustments
Church
Evang. Kirchengemeinde (0 6150) 83630
64291 Darmstadt, Untergasse 1
becomes
Evang Kirchengemeinde
Untergasse 1
64291 Darmstadt
Germany
Telephone 011 49 6150 83630 |
Individual
Weber, Alexander (0 1234) 567 0000
34200 Kassel, Schulgasse 123
becomes
Alexander Weber
Schulgasse 123
34200 Kassel
Germany
Telephone 011 49 123 4567 0000 |
and you will have the proper way to address your letter, and/or call the
telephone number. Notice that there is no punctuation in these addresses,
and should not be in your return address.
Christoph Stöpel
Surname
Distribution in Germany
German
Surnames
Discover all the alternative spellings for your ancestor's
surname!
German
Locations and Surnames Database
Thousands of villages, towns, cities, and surnames found there
German
Surnames
Surname Distribution
German Surnamee
Distribution
German Language, but just type in the name
or select by Alphabet
World-wide Surname
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Brick Wall?
German DNA Database in
Switzerland
The largest database for Germany |