Bremen, Germany Genealogy

Bremen, German Empire Wiki Topics
Getting Started
Finding Town of Origin Finding Aids For German Records Research Strategies Record Finder
Major Bremen Record Types
Church Records	Civil Registration
Additional Bremen Record Types
Cemeteries Directories Emigration and Immigration Genealogy Jewish Records Military	Naturalization and Citizenship Online Genealogy Records Probate Records Town Genealogies
Bremen Background
Jurisdictions Historical Geography
Local Research Resources
Archives and Libraries Societies Bremen Family History Center Bremerhaven Family History Center
Germany Record Types
Church Records Civil Registration Court Records Land & Property Local Records Manumission Newspapers	Obituaries Occupations Online Records Town Genealogies Periodicals Religious Records School Records
Germany Background
Biography Church Directories Church History Funerary Customs Cultural Areas Gazetteers Handwriting	Historical Geography History Jurisdictions Letter Writing Guide Maps Names Personal Nobility Websites

Germany

Bremen

Guide to Bremen ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

History

The Vienna Congress of 1815 confirmed Bremen's independence, and Bremen became one of 39 sovereign states of the German Confederation. In 1827 the state of Bremen bought the tract of land from the Kingdom of Hannover where future Bremerhaven would be established. Bremen became part of the North German Confederation in 1867 and became an autonomous component state of the new-founded German Empire in 1871. It stayed with Germany in its following forms of government.
Wikipedia

How to Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records for Bremen

Most of your genealogical research for Bremen will be in three main record types: civil registration, church records, and, when available, a compiled town genealogy ("'Ortssippenbuch" or "Ortsfamilienbuch" in German). These articles will teach you how to use these records on digital databases, as microfilms, or by writing for them.

• How to Find Births, Marriages, and Deaths for Bremen, Germany
• Civil registration
• Church records
• Town genealogies

For German Research, You Must Know Your Ancestors' Town

• To begin using the records of Germany, knowing that your family came from Bremen might not be enough to use the records of Germany. Records are kept on the local level and Bremen had several parishes, so clues to the parish they came from can be very important.
• Details about the town will also help:
  • where the closest Evangelical Lutheran or Catholic parish church was (depending on their religion),
  • where the civil registration office ("Standesamt") was, and
  • if you have only a village name, you will need the name of the larger parish it was part of.

Research to Find the Town

If you do not yet know the name of the town of your ancestor's birth, there are well-known strategies for a thorough hunt for it.

• Use Gathering Information to Locate Place of Origin as a guide in exhausting every possible record to find what you need.
• Or watch this webinar: Online Class: Finding German Places of Origin

Bremen can be easier than other large German localities because some indexes covering much of Bremen. Here are several:

Indexes to Births, Marriages, and Deaths at Bremen

• Die Maus, Index to Births, Marriages, and Deaths in Bremen Church Books, index, ($)

Emigration, Immigration, and Passenger Lists

German Emigration Database at Bremerhaven

• Bremer Passagierlisten
• Seaman's Licenses, 1806-1878. Index, ($)
• Bremen, Germany Ships Crew Lists (Bremer Musterungslisten der Schiffe),($). 1815-1917. Index and images. In German.
  
• Bremen, Germany Sailors Registry (Bremer Seeleuteregister), ($). 1824-1917. Index and images. In German.
• Bremen, German Desertions of Sailors, 1855-1874 (Seemansamt Bremen, Deserteurlisten, 1855-18740. Index and images.
• Germany, Bremen, Select Passenger Departure Lists (Deutschland, Bremen, ausgewählte Namenskartei aus den Bremer Schiffslisten), ($). 1904-1914. Index and images. In German.
• Germany, Bremen Passenger Departure Lists (Deutschland, Bremen, Namenskartei aus den Bremer Schiffslisten). 1904-1914. Index. Incomplete.

Compiled Genealogies

• Mous Families-Members, ($)
• die Maus Family Collections, Gray Binders, ($)
• die Maus, Family records, 1824-1933, index, ($)

Directories

• Bremen Address Books (Bremer Addressbuecher),1794-1955. in German.
• Directories on die Maus, 1794-1955, ($)

If You Know the Town, Next Use Meyers Gazetteer

Once you know the town name you need, the other facts you need are contained in Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-lexikon des deutschen Reichs, the gazetteer on which the FamilySearch catalog for Germany is based.

• Use MeyersGaz, the digital gazetteer, to find the details you need, particularly the Bezirksamt it belonged to, found after (BA) and the Regierungsbezirk (Administrative District) Niederbayern (RB).
• MeyersGaz Help Guide
• Abbreviation Table
• Here is part of an entry from MeyersGaz.org.

The most important facts here are:

1. Wellheim is in Eichstätt Bezirksamt (BA).
2. It is in Regierungsbezirk (Administrative District) Middle Franconia (MFranken) (RB)
3. It has its own Standesamt (StdA) or civil registration office.
4. It has one Catholic parish church (kath. K.).
5. By clicking on the "Ecclesiastical" option, we learn that the Protest church for Wellheim is in Eichstätt. We also find other nearby churches.

Main Entry Page

Ecclesiastical Page

Research Tools

• Die Maus: The link contains information about emigration, family books from various areas of Bremen locations, citizenship lists, civil registration
• Germany, Bremen Name Card Index to Passenger Lists (FamilySearch Historical Recods)
• German Genealogical Word List
• Latin Word List
• German Handwriting Tutorial
• Kurrentschrift Converter (enter German genealogical word, click on "convert", view your word in Kurrentschrift (Gothic handwriting)

Latin Records

Records of the Catholic church will usually be written in Latin:

• Latin Genealogical Word List

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