The German Research Division (formerly GerSIG) held its annual meeting on 21 August 2024 in Philadelphia. The following is a summary of the IAJGS Conference meeting presentation.
Staying in Touch
Although the German Research Division no longer has its own mailing list there are still a number of ways to stay in touch.
1) JewishGen Discussion Group
- mailing list with more than 16,700 members
Sign up or edit your settings at https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main
Search for archives messages at: https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main/topics
2) FaceBook Groups
GerSIG: German Jewish Genealogy Special Interest Group - 1,621 Members
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GerSIGGermanJewishGenealogy
Jewish Genealogy in Berlin - 1,1157 Members
https://www.facebook.com/groups/JewishGenBerlin
JEWS - Jekkes Engaged Worldwide in Social Networking - 2,395 Members
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1556357284602836
Hamburg Jewish Ancestors - 310 Members
https://www.facebook.com/groups/hamburgjewishancestors/
Jewish Genealogy-Jews from Posen and Prussia - 1,948 Members
https://www.facebook.com/groups/jewsfromposen/
Hoppe Hoppe Reiter - 11,500 Members [צאצאי ייקים צעירים למען שימור מורשת הייקים]
www.facebook.com/groups/HoppeHoppeReiter/
3) Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain German SIG
- Handouts on Jeanette Rosenberg's Blog: https://round2itgenealogy.wordpress.com/category/gersig/
German Research Division Projects
The German RD has several on-going projects:
- Surname Adoption Lists – West of the Rhine
- Württemberg Family Registers
- Former Eastern Germany Vital Records (Gatermann)
Please visit https://www.jewishgen.org/gersig/tpl_base.asp?id=23 for full details on these projects. The JewishGen Germany database can be searched at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/germany/
Join the German RD Volunteer Team!
The German RD is looking for volunteers to:
Project Mangers - summarize available materials, coordinate indexing projects
- complete the German portion of the JewishGen communities database
- serve as Regional Leaders - regional leaders will help create regional research guides, and identify and prioritize future indexing projects
- catalog online, printed and archival resources for individual towns, districts and regions - see video and PDF guide at https://www.jewishgen.org/gersig/TPL_Base.asp?id=24
We have new opportunities to have indexing work performed by third parties. By serving as a regional leader you can help decide where to next focus these efforts.
Mohel Books available Online
A number of mohel books (circumcision registers) have survived. We hope to index these records as a future project, but for now are providing the link to the list of available books: https://tinyurl.com/germanmohel24.
New, Updated and sometimes Old Online Resources
Bavarian Records
Starting to become available at https://www.gda.bayern.de/service/findmitteldatenbank/Archiv/9.The records are at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People and may also be available on their website at https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/archives/cahjp
Towns currently available include: Adelsdorf, Altenkunstadt, Alzenau-Wasserlos, Ansbach, Arnstein, Aschaffenburg, Aschbach, Aub, Aufsess, Bad Brückenau, Bad Kissingen, Bad Neustadt a. d. Saale, Baiersdorf, Floss, Fürth, Mittelsinn, Mitwitz, Nürnberg, Treuchtlingen, Wallerstein, and Walsdorf. Many places have community records but not local vital records.
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Rheinland-Pfalz Vital records
Online at https://www.landeshauptarchiv.de/unser-auftrag/personenstandsarchiv-rheinland-pfalz/digitalisierung
Search Apertus at https://apertus.rlp.de/
Online Resources - Newspapers
Overview: https://wiki.genealogy.net/Digitale_historische_Tageszeitungen
North Rhine Westphalia Newspaper Portal - https://zeitpunkt.nrw/
Baden - https://digital.blb-karlsruhe.de/
Württemberg - https://digital.wlb-stuttgart.de/start
Bavaria - https://digipress.digitale-sammlungen.de/search/simple/
Europeana Newspapers (includes Hamburg and Berlin) - https://www.europeana.eu/en/collections/topic/18-newspapers
Frankfurt - https://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/periodika
Hamburg - https://zeitungen.sub.uni-hamburg.de/
Archivalia blog https://archivalia.hypotheses.org/
Ancestry.com Digitized German Vital Records - Berlin, Dresden, Eastern Prussian Provinces, Hamburg, Hessen (including Frankfurt), Karlsruhe, Mainz, Mannheim, Worms and others
Contact us through: https://www.jewishgen.org/gersig/ABT_Board.asp