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Black Sea German Research

Anyone who has wrestled with trying to trace records of their German-Russian ancestors will appreciate this site, which hosts a free online database of over 1.4 million names of Germans who settled on the northern banks of the Black Sea in South Russia (now Ukraine) in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Information is based on GEDCOMs submitted by contributors from all over the world. An advanced search option provides for phonetic name searching using Soundex.

The site also provides research guidance and encourages networking with fellow researchers through online forums and an invitation to join the Black Sea German Research community on Facebook.

The BSGR site includes online maps: the German Empire in the 1850s, 1857, 1914 and 1925;  Northwestern and Southwestern Russia in 1897; and village plat maps for Bessarabia and the Odessa area showing features such as houses, churches, cemeteries and schools.

Perhaps most importantly from an Australian perspective, the site is in English.

Check it out at http://www.blackseagr.org/index.html

German war graves online

Graebernachweis des Volksbundes Deutsche Kriegsgraeberfuersorge e.V 

 http://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche/

This online  database covers German war graves from Egypt to Uzbekistan and includes:

• the graves of over 1.8 million German and foreign soldiers who died in World Wars I and II in Germany
• Memorials to those who perished in the Prussian-Danish wars of 1845-51 and 1864 and other border wars in which Germans were involved.

It is a German language site but can be negotiated by the non-German speaker with a bit of effort.

Search by Surname (Nachname) and date of birth  (Geburtsdatum) except for World War I casualties for whom you will need to substitute date of death (Todesdatum).

 It is also possible to search for war casualties born in a partcular part of Germany (Geburtsort).

I searched for war casualties born in Amrum and retrieved one 'hit' for Gerhart Haar, born on 1 October 1916 at Amrum and reported missing/killed on 9 January 1945.

You will need to negotiate a feedback form - in German - before the results are displayed but I managed to do so (although the only postcode I could successfully enter was 400000!).

A useful database for anyone researching German ancestors.

German place names

Researchers of ancestors coming from Germany often have difficulty finding the modern name by which the ancestor's place of origin is known.

The area covered by the Germany of today differs markedly from the German Empire of 1871, parts of which have come under the jurisdiction of Austria, Denmark, France, Poland or Russia at various times . Regions such as East Prussia and Silesia are now part of countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic.

Changes in jurisdiction were often accompanied by a change of the language used in official records and place name changes, further compicating the search for an ancestor's origins.

This index compiled by the late SLQ volunteer Roy Claringbould is useful in tracing the modern names of places in eastern regions of the old German Empire. It provides:

• the old German version of the name
• the coordinates and relevant map number in the Karte des deutschen Reiches map series (held at SLQ)
• the modern version of the name, often in Polish or Czech
• coordinates of its location in the modern road atlas in which it is shown

Ask for the German Place Names Index at the Micrographics Desk on Level 3 or at the Heritage Collections information desk on Level 4

For full details on how to find us check our web page at http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/about/visit