Goals for Research Trip to Germany

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

Whether we are researching in the United States or in Germany, identifying your research goals is crucial to conducting efficient and effective research. This is particularly important when embarking on a trip to Germany, where you want to ensure that no minute is wasted!

 

We are planning a trip back to Baden-Württemberg in April 2026. For this trip, Debra would like to focus on potentially two families. The first one is the Braun family from Graben. The second one is the Kieffer family from Blankenloch. The two towns are located within 15 minutes of each other.

 

The first thing to do is to summarize what is known on a family and what information you are looking for. In this post, we will summarize what is known about the Braun family.

 

·      Jacob Friederich Braun was born 12 January 1806 and baptized on 14 January 1806 in Graben, Baden, Germany. He married Christina Demarez on 24 July 1828 in Graben. She was from the neighboring town of Friedrichstal.[1]

·      The couple had two daughters; Sophia Philippine Braun, who was born in 1829[2] and is my 4^th great-grandmother, and Louise Christine Braun, who was born in 1831.[3]

·      Friederich Braun and his family emigrated to the U.S. arriving in the Port of Baltimore in the last quarter of 1833. Only the quarterly list survives.[4]

·      Jacob Friederich’s parents were Jacob Heinrich Braun and Marie Elisabetha Lind.[5]

Teresa is going to continue her research on Lawrence Huber, whom she’s been blogging about the last few weeks. On a prior trip to Germany, she found some interesting things about him at the Generallandesarchiv (General State Archive) Karlsruhe. This is the branch of the Landesarchiv (State Archive) Baden-Württemberg that mainly has holdings for historic Baden (as opposed to Württemberg). There were also interesting records at the Stadtarchiv (City Archive) Oberkirch, which has jurisdiction over the region of Butschbach and Giedensbach where Lawrence lived before emigrating. Teresa will talk about those records more, as she unveils the research in the Lawrence Huber blog post series.

 

There was not enough time (there’s never enough time) to see everything that might have been available about Lawrence’s life. Having thoroughly researched him in church records, the question is what else is available about his family of origin and his ancestors? Lawrence’s male line has been traced back to about 1750. Before embarking on this next trip, Teresa needs to be very specific about what she is looking for and where those records might be.

 

Next week, we will explain how understanding the history of the ancestral town can lead you to archives and their holdings.

---

[1] “Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500–1971,” database and images, FamilySearch(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPDG-XMW1 : accessed 4 December 2025), Graben, marriage records, pp. 76–7, no. 5, Braun-Demarez marriage, 24 July 1828; image 269 of 414, DGS no. 102,078,348, item 6, FamilySearch Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[2] “Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500–1971,” database and images, FamilySearch(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPDG-W299 : accessed 4 December 2025), Graben, baptisms, p. 341, no. 12, Sophie Philippine Braun, 3 May 1829; image 177 of 414, DGS no. 102,078,348, item 6, FamilySearch Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[3] “Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500–1971,” database and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPDQ-LYMN : accessed 4 December 2025), Graben, baptisms, p. 367, no. 44, Louise Christine Braun, 3 September 1831; image 52 of 223, DGS no. 102,550,955, item 4, FamilySearch Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[4] “Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., Passenger Lists, 1820–1964,” database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 December 2025), image 592 of 659; citing RG 36, Records of the US Customs Service, NAI Number 2655153, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

[5] “Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500–1971,” database and images, FamilySearch(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPDG-XMW1 : accessed 4 December 2025), Graben, marriage records, pp. 76–7, no. 5, Braun-Demarez marriage, 24 July 1828; image 269 of 414, DGS no. 102,078,348, item 6, FamilySearch Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.