From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):
The German town of origin is necessary for conducting research in Germany because Germany was not a unified country until 1871. For later immigrants to the United States, this information may be easier to find on passenger lists than for earlier immigrants. For those early immigrants, United States church records can be a great source for that information. The challenge with using those records is knowing the religion of the immigrant, the church they attended, and where those records can be found and accessed. But when you do find them, they can be a gold mine.
My 4th great-grandfather, William H. Weaver, or Wilhelm Heinrich Weber in German, immigrated to America at the age of eight in 1834. He died in Baltimore City in 1897. He was a founding member of St. Stephens Evangelical Lutheran church, which merged with Saint James in 1962.[1] The church is located on Hanover and Hamburg Streets in Baltimore City. Its records have been microfilmed and are available on the Maryland State Archives website (https://msa.maryland.gov : accessed 2025) under Special Collections > Religious Records.
Death records may provide the German town of origin for an immigrant as shown below:[2]
While the name is misspelled as “Whalen” it provides the Kreis (Alsfeld) and Länder (Hessen Darmstadt), which enables a researcher to locate the right town … Wahlen.
[1] “Sts. Stephen & James Lutheran Baltimore,” German Marylanders (https://wwwgermanmarylanders.org : accessed 2025).
[2] St. Stephen’s Evangelical Lutheran Church Collection (Baltimore City, Maryland), Book 1, pp. 444–5, deaths, 1897, no. 20, Wilhelm Heinrich Weber, 31 May 1897; digital images, Maryland State Archives (https://msa.maryland.gov : accessed 2025), Special Collection 4216-1, microfilm SCM 1477; Maryland State Archives, Annapolis.
