Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1518-1921

About this collection

This collection contains parish registers from numerous Protestant communities and military garrisons found in former or modern German territories. Depending on the age of a record, it may be grouped under older historical regions or by modern German states. The structure or order of modern records may differ from that of historical regions. Use the box "Browse this collection,” to determine the Historic Region to which a given locality was assigned. See below for more information on using the browse box.

The oldest church records in this collection date from the 16th century. Many registers date to the beginning of, or just before, the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). These parish records primarily contain information about births and baptisms, marriages, and deaths and burials.

What you can find in the records

Events in the original church registers are recorded in the handwriting of the local pastor. Depending on the time period and on the individual formulations used, you may generally find the following details in these records:

For Births:

• Child: Given Names, Birthdate, Time of Birth, Legitimacy/Illegitimacy, Baptism, Witnesses
• Parents: Father's Given Names, Last Name, and Profession/Trade; Mother's Given Names, Maiden Name and Profession/Trade; Parents' residence

For Marriages:

• Groom: Given names, Last Name, Occupation, Residence, Birthdate and Birthplace, details about his Parents
• Bride: Given names, Last Name, Maiden Name, Occupation, Residence, Birthdate and Birthplace, details about her Parents
• Date and Place of Wedding

For Deaths:

• Deceased: Given Names, Last Name, Maiden Name, Occupation/Trade, Age, Spouse/Parents, Deathplace, Time of Death, Date of Funeral

More about using this collection

Search for names, dates or places using the search form. Under "Browse this collection,” select the Country, Region, City or District, and then the Description and time period for the register desired. The sequence of birth, marriage or death records may not be consistent.

This collection is comprised of images which were originally filmed as split “left side” and “right side” images, often on different reels of film. We have attempted to resort these images back into their original, complete book structure. In many cases we were successful, but we are aware that there may be errors in the organization of some books. A subset of books were not able to be reordered and are presented in the left/right side format as originally filmed.

Due to some uncertainty in image organization, we have in general not copied information from one image to another. If information for a record is missing, it may appear on the image before or after. Please use caution when entering information from this collection into trees and please add corrections to the database, where necessary.

When viewing the list of search results, you can see more complete information by hovering over the View Record link in the list, which displays a "Pop-up" window of the record. You will find even more information on the image of the original document.