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!

GERMAN PHASE 1 INSTRUCTOR - DR. KENNETH HEGER

 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/. 

We are excited to have Kenneth W. Heger, PhD, teaching with us in Phase 1. One of his many areas of expertise are American consulate records. This is an underutilized resource but can provide rich information. Dr. Heger will be teaching two sessions.

 

The first “Using State Department Despatches to Find Your Family's Hometown, 1800-1906,” 

covers how to find the death reports, marriage certificates, and estate case files that American consulates in Europe sent to the Department of State. It explains how to use those records to identify your family’s hometown in Europe.

 

His second session “Using Consular Records to Find Your European Family, 1800-1906” explains how American consulates maintained extensive files to do their work overseas. These include information the consulates did not regularly include in despatches to the Department of State. This presentation covers how to identify and access those files, and how to mine them to find information about European families, including relatives’ names and where the family lived.

 

Dr. Heger is a seasoned archivist and historian, whose career includes being the Director of the University of Maryland’s Archives and Digital Curation specialization in the College of Information Studies and a 32-year employee at the National Archives.  He publishes articles and makes presentations focused on using federal records to research your family’s history.  He is the president of the Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society, a regular instructor at the Genealogical Institute of Federal Records, a vice president of the International German Genealogy Partnership and has a Ph.D. in History.

 

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. The details about the sessions, as well as pricing, are now available.

German Phase 3: Research Abroad in Baden-Württemberg - SLIG

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

In the blog posts of the past two weeks, we talked about the new German research course that we have been developing. “German Phase 1: Identify the Hometown” is scheduled for this coming Fall 2025. Registration will open May 17^thhttps://slig.ugagenealogy.org/slig-fall-virtual/.  

“German Phase 2: Research the Hometown Online” is planned for late 2026. The first iteration of the third phase “German Phase 3: Research Abroad in Baden-Württemberg” is planned for late 2027. 

As with any research, not everything is online. Sometimes you need to visit archives to find what you need. This is exactly what “German Phase 3” addresses: going beyond church and online records. In our vision, there will be multiple Phase 3 courses, each dedicated to a different German state or historic region. I mentioned before that Germany was not a country until 1871. For that reason, the record keeping was different from one region to another. The archives are all different. You need to become proficient in researching your specific region. That is the idea behind Phase 3.

We conducted a survey of researchers to see what German areas they were most interested in. Baden-Württemberg was one of the top locations. This course will discuss how to prepare for research overseas. We will be covering sources that may only be accessed by going there. Other popular areas for Phase 3 courses include Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. We plan to continue repeating Phase 1 and Phase 2, as well. You can see we’re in this for the long-haul! 

We will keep you posted as the courses unfold. We’d love to hear your feedback, too!

German Phase 2 Course - SLIG

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

In last week's blog post 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/cpage.php?pt=524.

As you might imagine, we have ideas for more than just one phase. Tentatively, “German Phase 2: Research the Hometown Online” will be taught in fall 2026. Once the exact location of a hometown is identified for a German immigrant, the search can begin for church records for that town. Church records are the primary source used to research a German ancestor. Before 1871, Germany was not a country and civil registration was not universally available. The one constant were the churches. They were the early record keepers. Often, but not always, church records are digitized and available online. This course teaches how to find and use those records.

Other records, too, are becoming available online. Some examples are emigration lists, newspapers, civil registration records and even consulate records. This course shows you how to find all available online records for your research.

Knowledge of old German handwriting becomes essential in this course. We will include an introduction to this concept. Beginning in Phase 1 and continuing in Phase 2, we will be giving you an arsenal of resources to learn this handwriting. As you work with the records in Phase 2 and with the resources we point you towards, you will become ever more comfortable with the handwriting.

Catch next week’s blog post where we’ll tell you our ideas for Phase 3. It just keeps getting better!

 

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).