Register Now for German Phase 1: Identify the Hometown

From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

 

Registration for 2025 Fall SLIG Virtual courses opened on Saturday, May 17^th, for German Phase 1: Identify the Hometown. See https://slig.ugagenealogy.org/slig-fall-virtual/ for more information on the course and for details on how to register.

 

Don’t let the challenge of identifying your German immigrant’s hometown be a brick wall. This course will provide proven strategies for determining that important piece of information. Examples, case studies, and one-on-one consultations are included and students will have the opportunity to work on their research projects over the 5 weeks.

 

If you have this research challenge, we hope that you will choose to take our course and look forward to seeing you in October 2025!

Registration Now Open for German Phase 1: Identify the Hometown

 From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

Registration for 2025 Fall SLIG Virtual courses started on Saturday, May 17^th, for German Phase 1: Identify the Hometown. See https://slig.ugagenealogy.org/slig-fall-virtual/ for more information on the course and for details on how to register.

 

Debra and Teresa designed this course for researchers who want to begin researching their immigrants from Germany. This course is foundational and will provide a strategic approach for identifying the hometown, which is necessary to conduct research as the church and civil records are held at the local level. Unlike the United States that has national records available like the federal census, those records are not available in Germany. Before 1871, Germany consisted of kingdoms, duchies, principalities, and free Hanseatic cities. This can make researching German immigrants particularly challenging, especially for those that arrived in the United States in the 1700s.

 

If you have this research challenge, we hope that you will choose to take our course and look forward to seeing you in October 2025!

SLIG Fall 2025 German Phase 1 - Should I Register?

 From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

Registration for 2025 SLIG Virtual courses opens on Saturday, May 17^th for German Phase 1: Identify the Hometown. See https://slig.ugagenealogy.org/slig-fall-virtual/ for more information on the course and for details on how to register.

We are often asked “should I take your course?” This course is designed for the frustrated researcher with German ancestry, who has yet to find the immigrant’s town of origin in Germany. It is also designed for a researcher with experience who has yet to research a German ancestor. If you have that same challenge, this course is designed with you in mind!

 

Not only will students benefit from the course structure and presentations, but students often learn as much from each other, too. Students will receive a digital syllabus, which provides a handbook that can be referred to in the future. It is filled with additional sources found in the bibliographic material that can be explored during and after the course ends. Another benefit is that the presentations are all recorded, so that students unable to attend that day can still watch the presentations. They can be watched multiple times, if you choose. Recordings will also be available for a short time after the course ends. 

 

Students in this course will be working on their own research problem with the opportunity for a one-on-one consult with one of us. With the one day per week structure over five weeks, there is time to apply the information and methodology covered during the course. 

 

If you have this research challenge, we hope that you will choose to take our course and look forward to seeing you in October 2025!

Registration Opens for 2025 SLIG Fall Virtual courses on Saturday, May 17th

From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

 

Registration for 2025 SLIG Virtual courses opens on Saturday, May 17^th for German Phase 1: Identify the Hometown. See https://slig.ugagenealogy.org/slig-fall-virtual/ for more information on the course and for details on how to register.

Certified genealogist Teresa Steinkamp McMillin and I (Debra A. Hoffman, PLCGS) are the co-coordinators of this new SLIG course. In conducting research on German immigrants, it is not enough to know that immigrants came from Germany or even a specific German state (e.g., Baden). Teresa and I designed this course to instruct our students on how to find the hometown by conducting thorough research using United States sources and utilizing appropriate research methodology. 

 

My presentations will include an overview of the history of Germans in the United States and their geographical settlement on the East Coast. German Americans are the largest ancestry group in the United States and their influence can be seen in the cities and towns along the eastern seaboard. I will also cover German religious history as German immigrants brought their religious beliefs and the record-keeping practices with them to America. My presentations on methodology include conducting a literature search and creating a locality guide. Challenging genealogical research problems must be thoughtfully analyzed and methodically tackled. I will also present on the appropriate methodology for locating a German town of origin and will cover appropriate sources, such as vital and church records. To view all the presentations that will be given in this course, click on the link above.

 

Teresa and I have been successful in locating the German hometown in our research and want to share our knowledge and expertise with you, so you can have that same success. We are looking forward to having you join us in October 2025!

SLIG Fall 2025 - German Phase 1: Identify the Hometown

 From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

In the last few posts, we talked about the new German research course that we (Debra A. Hoffman, PLCGS, and Teresa Steinkamp McMillin, CG) have been developing. “German Phase 1: Identify the Hometown.” is scheduled for this coming Fall 2025. Registration will open May 17^th https://slig.ugagenealogy.org/slig-fall-virtual/. 

I (Teresa) want to give you some more details about the sessions that I will be teaching. Each session will be 1.25 hours. Many sessions will have a hands-on component. There will be time for questions and discussion throughout the course. We are also offering one-on-one consultations to provide help with your specific case.

 

I will be teaching a session on German settlement in the Midwest. Many Germans arrived in the US in the nineteenth century. I’ll explain the reasons they arrived and the routes they took. While we do not expect anyone to know the German language, there are key concepts that are helpful when researching a German immigrant. I teach a session to help with that. I have a few sessions related to good research methodology, including case studies to show how I have solved past problems. I also will teach several sessions about specific record types that are important to understand and use when researching a German immigrant. Some examples include passenger lists and naturalization records. Details about these sessions may be found at the link below. 

 

Registration for 2025 SLIG Virtual courses opens on Saturday, May 17^th. See https://academy.ugagenealogy.org/courses/german-phase-1-identify-the-german-hometown/ for more information. Details about the sessions, as well as pricing, are now available.

 

I hope that you will join us!