RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => Europe => Topic started by: geocmoore on Sunday 28 March 21 18:31 BST (UK)
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https://university.familytreemagazine.com/courses/exploring-german-genealogy-march-2021
Does anyone have experience with these courses?
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Perhaps I shouldn't answer a question with a question, but have you taken this any further yet?
Enrolment today. Looks interesting though expensive (I'm so used to FutureLearn MOOCs being free).
Biggest concern is whether I shall get enough out of it regarding migration from Germany to UK ... considering Ancestry only have 27 records for 18C for my search name [Almeroth] and one of those is my website !
DNA suggests there may be connections to US Almeroths.
Think the chances might be slim.
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Thanks for that. Still thinking.
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Went out and did some gardening and have a think about it.
£72 is a day's research in a London Archive ... this £72 should give me 4wks of something different and may just unlock 20+ years of research.
Enrolled ... currently one of twenty. Fingers crossed.
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Gardening or walking is always helpful! :) :D
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Sugarbakers......
How do you rate the course?
As often, it seems to have such an American bias....
Good value for money?
Did it help you unlock your question marks? :-\
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mowsehowse ...
I contributed teaching material to the FutureLearn Genealogy MOOC, know the course really well and follow the discussion every time the course is run (12th run just finished), so it was against that that I made my initial judgement. The first week I thought was very good, a lot of text and audios, a lot of work to do and I looked forward to the following 3 weeks ... but oh dear, I had misunderstood, unlike the way the MOOC piles on work each week, the work displayed in week one of this course was the work for the whole course. So nothing new to be added. I did the exercises, found Algen-de and Archion very useful but very sparse in their coverage of German parishes and within those parishes little prior to 1800.
There was almost no discussion amongst students, which was unlike the MOOC, but the course tutor answered all student questions, prompted them and gave new directions, added his own knowledge, again unlike the MOOC.
This was a very narrow course (as expected) and yes it had a very American bias. So narrow that I had to prompt the course tutor to appreciate that a considerable number of Germans travelled to America via England, some even working here to raise the money for the next leg of their journey, and that for some researchers the UK records may hold useful info. I think I was the only person from the UK on the course.
I don't think it was worth £72 for the info I got, but as I said originally the £72 represents one day's research in London for me and I could easily come away from there with nothing.
Did it help me unlock my question marks ? ... No, but it gave me sources to look into that I'd not met before.
To be fair on the course, my research lacks any sort of direction ...
- I do not have any records of Herman's birthplace.
- He arrived before immigration records to UK.
- Herman made absolutely no mention of his life in Germany that has been recorded in UK. He did not seek naturalization even though he should have done in order to own a business in London 1806-1812.
I feel sure that many course students gained a lot from the course, but they were American researchers and many were the descendants of much more recent migrants.
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I started this discussion and also took the course. I think I expected less from it than the prior commenter. It helped me understand how to find out about towns/villages throughout the continent via GOV. It helped me better understand German-speaking naming conventions which was quite helpful. The instructor helped assess some of my research and transcribe and translate some German script. (I use an on-line translator for textualized German.) Overall, I found it worth the money. But, I am looking at ancestors that immigrated to America.
I do agree with the other commenter that the material was a bit thin, and that there was limited discussion among the students. Many students didn't participate at all until the last week, then only did the first exercise.
Overall, it was worth it for me, but could have offered much more.
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Interesting feed back.
Thank you both.
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I'm unable to assist with a view about any courses but saw that you are new to rootschat and thought I'd stop by to welcome you.
It's a couple of decades since I researched my German roots, which means websites have come and gone and I'm not up to speed ab out what is available
However, I found this GEDBAS (Equivalent to gedcom) website extremely helpful for both giving an idea of who is researching (and found) my ancestry. I also used it to just enter a village name and every personal surname being researched in that village was listed in the results. which gives an idea of location of relatives.
https://gedbas.genealogy.net/?lang=en
I see the Christopher Stoepel GEOGEN website shows your surname was found in only a few places in mainland Europe. There was no country named Germany in the time period you're researching and it seems he may have lived in the British Kingdom of Hannover (Neidersachsen) which had been given to the Scottish King James VI in exchange for the hand of his granddaughter Sophie.
http://geogen.stoepel.net/
https://geogen.stoepel.net/legacy.html?q=Almeroth
The religion in that part of the world was either Catholic but mainly Ev. Lutheran. The Ev. Lutheran church records are excellent. For example only oner of my ancestor's children was baptised in a British Lutheran church. It didn't just state the child's name but also who the child was named in favour of (her grandmother and the place in Kingdom of Hanover where grandmother lived - yippee). The custom at that time being the child's name is nearest the surname the 2 or 3 previous given names are names of godparents (some being relatives). I see that the London Metropolitan Archives catalogue shows there is one church book dated from 1688
https://search.lma.gov.uk/scripts/mwimain.dll?logon&application=UNION_VIEW&language=144&file=[WWW_LMA]home.html
It's unfortunate that a few wars have destroyed many records. The Germanic people used to records in triplicate. Anyone who wanted to leave their area had to apply for permission. A notice would be nailed to the village/town hall door stating the family wanted to leave and anyone who had objections should come forward. People who secretly sneaked away (Auswanderer) would have their names listed in the newspapers. Apparently every time they crossed into and out of any little principality or state there would be a record in triplicate. Vicars were required to make a list each year of boys who would reach their 20th birthday in that year. Those boys would then be conscripted into the navy/army.
My German ancestors used the same naming pattern for their children, which made it very easy to find Germany families ; e.g. First sone named after father's father and as my English born grandmother was the 2nd daughter she was named after her father's mother, Solphia who lived near Salzgitter., Kingdom of Hanover (Germany)
Best Wishes,
Rena in England
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Thanks for that. I'm sure those references will be very useful.
I'm not sure which German surname you reference, unless it is Herre?
Johann Martin Herre was from Zillhausen, Balingen, Wuerttemberg and immigrated to the Americas via Philadelphia in 1749. At least that's true, based on these attachments, and Ev. Lutheran records of his marriage and births of three children. The spouse and children match the US records in MD, where he settled. The English version attached is an abstract of the German Text Version, which is an abstract of the 1765-1770 records.
I am in the process of getting images of all the 1765-1770 records from HStAStuttgart@la-bw.de (Stuttgart Archives). I hope I can read it!!
Best,
George.
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Note the English version says he was asked to pay the tax. The German version from which the English version was abstracted doesn't say that.
I recently did an analysis of an abstract done about 1920 of court records from Augusta County VA, (which used to be huge, before it was carved up). As useful as it was, it also had notable errors, when compared to the original.
Best,
George.
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Congratulations, but I was looking at the other surname, which showed up as being quite common in Leipzig.
Regards,
Rena
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Sassler? Tritt? Guier? Epley? Another?
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Thank you for the Almeroth references, Rena.