German Phase 1 Course - SLIG

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

German Phase I Course - SLIG

Debra A. Hoffman, PLCGS, and certified genealogist Teresa Steinkamp McMillin have partnered to create a series of German courses with the first one being offered through the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) starting in October 2025. Phases 2 and 3 are tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2026 and 2027.

The set of three courses is designed to educate German genealogical researchers to locate the German hometown in Level 1,  research the town in  traditional online German sources in Level 2, and provide region-specific knowledge and sources in Level 3, so that successful onsite research can be conducted.  

As stated above, the objective of the first course, entitled German Phase 1: Identify the Hometown, is to locate the town of origin in Germany. In conducting research on German immigrants, it is not enough to know they came from Germany or even a specific German state. This course teaches students how to find the hometown by conducting thorough research using United States sources and utilizing appropriate methodology. The presentations are meant to provide a solid grounding in historical information on German settlement in the United States. Sources that typically provide the German town will be covered as well as the methodology to effectively use them. Students will have the opportunity to participate in a one-on-one consultation with a faculty member to discuss their research problem. The students will be working on their individual research project over the five weeks and will have time between sessions to put the new information into practice. 

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

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

When researching in a specific area in Germany, it is important to connect with local researchers. They often have unique tools they use when deciphering old records from their area. As American researchers, we might not be aware of them.

 

We were recently visiting the area of Ellenfeld, Bärnau in the district Tirschenreuth in Bavaria. It is a small town just on the border of the Czech Republic. Our friend has ancestry here. She arranged for us to meet a researcher who helped her in the past. 

 

This researcher was very kind and invited us into her home. We were talking all about the area and its history. She mentioned a book by someone named Riepl. Our ears perked up because this was new information to us. It was a dictionary of historical terms specific to Bavaria and Austria. 

 

When researching older documents, you inevitably find archaic words not in a modern German dictionary. We are accustomed to using resources such as German-English Genealogical Dictionary by Ernest Thode or Grimm’s Wörterbuch. There are other general ones. These are not specific to one region in Germany. They can contain region-specific words, but not an exhaustive list. Other tools become necessary. A regional dictionary has a much better chance of helping. 

 

We now own this book! Always on the hunt for these types of regional tools, our library is expanding. You can never have too many books!

Reinhard Riepl, Wörterbuch zur Familien- und Heimatsforschung in Bayern und Österreich (Oberbergkirchen, Germany: Druckerei Lanzinger, 2003).

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

 

Never a Bad Meal

 

I (Debra) have now taken two research trips to Germany; the first trip in April of 2024 and the second trip in January 2025. I have never had a bad meal … not once!

 

That does not mean that I did not have to get used to the differences in cultural options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A typical breakfast in Germany consists of sliced meats, cheeses, vegetables, and fresh breads. That is not what I would typically eat in America. Basically, sandwich fixings. A typical breakfast for me is oatmeal. I found oatmeal offered at some hotels and restaurants, but it was not typical. I had to get used to the different offerings. The food was fresh and delicious, so it was not hard!

 

Lunches in Germany presented the typical offerings of soups, salads, sandwiches, or a hot entrée. Americans do not normally think of salads as German food; however, I would encourage travelers to order a salad. I had some incredible salads in Germany. They are abundant and delicious. Teresa is known for ordering salads on our research trips together.

 

In Germany, their dinner options are what we might expect to order in America. I was not expecting the wide variety of restaurants because I had my heart set on good typical German fare of wurst and sauerkraut or schnitzel. But you can find Greek, Indian, Italian, and Mexican restaurants and we happily tried them all!

 

Some other differences to keep in mind when eating out is that you will not receive your bill [rechnung] until you ask for it. Dining out is about good food and socializing, so they do not rush you. Also, tipping is different. There is not the traditional tipping structure in Germany that there is in America. You can certainly leave a tip, and we did, but it is not customary or expected like it is in America. 

 

Luckily, in between researching at repositories and dining out, we did a lot of walking, which helped to ensure I did not gain weight after enjoying all the wonderful meals on the trip! Guten Appetit!

 

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

In a prior post, I described the Catholic graveyard in Schweighausen. It is connected to St. Romanus Church. In 1132, a chapel was consecrated in Schweighausen to honor St. Romanus. The current building was erected in 1777. After a fire in 2006, it was renovated into the church we see today. 

 

We were able to go inside to look around. The baptismal font dates from 1275. Many of my ancestors were baptized at that font. It’s crazy to think it has seen generations of people whose names I will never know because the earliest baptism dates from 1646. The organ at this church, not nearly as old, was installed in the late 1700s.

 

It was late January, but the Christmas décor still stood. The nativity scene was a unique assembly of natural materials pulled from the Black Forest, of which Schweighausen is part. It primarily consisted of branches, stones, and moss. Our guide explained that he and two other men spent thirty hours building it. And they do it every year. The stones, many containing fossils, are reused, but the other elements are gathered fresh each year. The manger would stay intact until early February.

 

And speaking of fossils. The flooring in the church was made of natural stone pulled from the region. If you look carefully, you will find many examples of fossils quietly witnessing the history that continues to unfold in this church.

 

On a Street in Amberg

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

One of the best things about visiting Germany is the many old architectural things you see that are so much older than anything you would find in the United States. One example is the “Amberger Draue” shown in the picture. The three heads date from 1458! This monument was located on the street of the hotel where we stayed, the Hotel Fronfeste located on Fronfestgasse in Amberg. We will devote a separate post to that unique hotel. 

The placard below the three heads, roughly translated, states that anyone who strokes the three heads of the citizens of Amberg will remain loyal to the people of Amberg for the rest of their lives and will come back at some point. We are looking forward to returning on a future trip!

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

 

In my post from a couple of weeks ago, I (Teresa) told you a bit about our trip to Schuttertal-Schweighausen in Baden-Württemberg. We visited the Saubauernhof, a farm that had been in my family. Before we saw the farm, we went to St. Romanus Catholic Church which  my family had attended. We also walked through its graveyard.

 

I knew not to expect to see my ancestors’ names on any of the tombstones there. They had lived and died in the mid-1800s and earlier. If you’re not familiar with burial practices in Germany (and other parts of Europe), I’ll explain. Gravesites are usually leased for a period of time. I was told that gravesites at St. Romanus were leased for fifty years. After that time, the site is reused for more burials. Tombstones are sometimes reused after re-etching them. 

 

I was surprised, however, that my guide could tell me where my ancestors had been buried. Logically, the burial plot was the same for past owners of the Saubauernhof. Leo and Maria Anna Ohnemus, buried there now, are the parents of the current farm owner. My ancestor, Protas Ohnemus, was buried in this very spot when he died in 1865. 

 

These gravesites are immaculately maintained! They have beautiful stones and a little garden in front of the stone with an array of plants. I have visited several graveyards or cemeteries in Germany. My experience with the beauty of the plots has been consistent. I often see at least one person maintaining the grave of a loved one. Surviving family members make sure the grave looks pristine. Watering cans and compost bins are strategically placed throughout the cemetery to assist the gardeners.

 

I also saw the burial plot for the Wangler family. They currently own the farm where my Meyer ancestors lived. The Wangler plot is where my Meyer ancestors would have been buried.

 

In a future post, I’ll take you inside St. Romanus Church. There’s a lot of history there!

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

During a recent trip to Germany, I (Debra) was able to visit a village where my ancestor, Caspar Kiefer, emigrated from in 1748. The village is Breitenbach located in the Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz). 

 

A genealogy colleague, Gerhard Höh, arranged for a private tour of the Bergmannsbauern-Museum, which is a museum that documents miner farmers, in other words, a miner who also tends a farm. In Breitenbach, which is in Kreis Kusel, approximately 62% of the households were involved in mining. This was one of the largest percentages in that Kreis. The museum is housed in a 1906 school building that was renovated and opened in 2002. Eleonore “Ellen” Strutwolf kindly opened the museum and spent considerable time with us as we looked at the various exhibits. The museum even had some artifacts from when Rome had an outpost in the area. One item was a Roman Lion. We had spent the previous day researching at the Speyer Archives looking for Breitenbach records, so imagine our surprise when we found Breitenbach town records on the third floor of the museum. You never know where records may end up!

 

As Caspar Kiefer was a Protestant, I wanted to see the church. The Protestant Church Breitenbach consisted of a quire tower that may date from as early as the 900s and includes a stone taken from a previous Roman building and reused when it was built. The other part of the church dates from 1783 and was too late for when my ancestor lived there. It is always thrilling to see something that your ancestor would also have seen.