Genealogical Services

Genealogical Consultation and Queries

I provide professional genealogical consultation, primarily with respect to researching German-speaking ancestors, including those who came from Eastern Europe as well as from the former German Empire. If you have queries which represent a potentially mutual benefit (e.g., names appearing in my posted lineages or an exchange of information), I will gladly respond without any charge.

I will try to answer simple queries which require little or no research. But if you would like me to find answers by checking all of my relevant resources, I would appreciate a minimum payment of $20 for doing so.

If you would like to find out what sources and records are available for you to do your own research (which is advisable if you have a substantial amount of research in mind), you would probably be better off buying my most relevant book or books before submitting any followup query.

I am not a computer expert. Scanned attachments may not be legible when I print them. I never use graphics, so any e-mail with graphics in the main message is automatically deleted.

Resources in My Library

I have a substantial personal genealogical library, including

• more than half a dozen books on the origin and meaning of German surnames,
• numerous German-English dictionaries (the oldest one published in 1856),
• two pre-World War I German encyclopedias (Meyers Konversationslexikon, 4th ed. & his Kleines Konversations-Lexikon, 6th ed.),
• a gazetteer listing both former German and present Polish names of communities in the territories transferred from Germany to Poland after World War II (and a partial list of those transferred in 1918-19), the latest German and English editions of the AGoFF Guide (the primary source for researching Germans east and southeast of contemporary Germany and Austria),
• Ribbe and Henning's classic Taschenbuch für Familienforschung,
• Kaiser & Linder’s Familiengeschichte und Wappenkunde: Ein Wegweiser zur Genealogie und Heraldik (less well known, but covers more types of records than Ribbe & Henning),
• Stübs’ Wegweiser für familien- und ortsgeschichtliche Forschung in Pommern,
• Grüneberg’s book on metrical and vital registers (including duplicate parish registers) for East Brandenburg,
• Wright’s reprint of Meyers Orts- und Verkehrslexikon (1912-13),
• Stumpp’s book on German emigrants to Russia in 1763-1862 (except for Volhynia),
• Bassler’s translation of Lehmann’s works on the German-Canadians (1750-1937),
• Wilhelm & Kallbrunner’s list of Danube Swabian and Galician German immigrants (1750-1802),
• Schneider’s book on the Germans in Galicia (mostly ca. 1786-1820),
• Müller’s book of emigrants from Mecklenburg to various “east” European countries (the Baltic countries, Russia, Finland, Poland and Bessarabia),
• several books on Bukovina Germans,
• a guide to Polish archives,
• a German postal directory (not the latest edition, but showing current postal codes),
• maps of present-day Germany which include even the tiniest hamlet
• maps of nearly all parts of the German Empire now east of the Oder-Neisse which list both the current and the former German names of localities (and access to the others at the GGS library), and
• almost equally detailed maps for Switzerland, Alsace and the Be-Ne-Lux countries.

I also have access to the extensive Germanic Genealogy Society library collection and the University of Minnesota libraries, including the Borchert Map Library, among the best cartographic libraries in the country. Both the GGS and UM libraries are much closer to home than the Family History Center and are open long college hours. I will do research involving the use of these resources.

I have the addresses of almost every place in Germany which has resources pertaining to researching German-speaking ancestors from east of present-day Germany and Austria, and will either provide you with pertinent addresses or write to these places on your behalf.

Limited Research Services

I no longer do research involving Family History Library records because of difficult access to any Family History Center.

One kind of research I still do is listed in the description of the book, Where to Look for Hard-to-Find German-Speaking Ancestors in Eastern Europe. If interested in origin of certain groups of German immigrants to Eastern Europe, refer to the information about that book. I no longer provide the transcriptions mentioned in the book, but I will provide either a translation or Xeroxed copies of the original entries (which usually means an extra page per name so you can see the sub-title under which it appears) for $30 for ten entries. I no longer have easy access to books in the AHSGR North Star Chapter library, so I substitute the Stumpp book for the listed books on migrants to the Russian Empire, including Bessarabia. Stumpp has far more names for a much larger area, but less detail on a particular individual than the Leibbrand book, for example.

I also do research on the origin and meaning of German surnames. If interested, see Ordering & Contact Information. However, don't be optimistic that this will lead you to the place of origin of your immigrant ancestors, because it very rarely does.

If you have a mangled spelling of your immigrant ancestor's place of origin or uncertainties because many communities bore identical or very similar names, I may be able to help you.

© 2005 Edward R. Brandt.

This site was last updated on October 22, 2007 . Send questions or feedback about this site to erbgergen@att.net. Earlier versions of this Web site were previously posted at http://pages.prodigy.net/brandtfam/geneal/ and http://home.cwix.com/~brandt@mci2000.com/edward.htm.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.