Researching the Eastern European German Diaspora (Tutorial)
ManyRoads is pleased to provide this free Eastern European Diaspora “self-help” to individuals researching those regions. Hopefully, you will find the materials below to be of interest and assistive.
By way of introduction, this ‘tutorial’ focuses on the populations of Germans in Eastern Europe which reached more than 18 million people scattered in former German communities. Their settlement area was roughly bounded by the Oder-Neisse River (West), the Ural Mountains (in the East), the Baltic Sea (in the North) to Turkey (in the South).
Be advised, this tutorial only covers research in the former German Eastern European settlement regions (described above). The Americas, Australia, New Zealand, etc. are not covered.
ManyRoads' work and material is licensed under a: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
- Personal use of these materials is encouraged and allowed without fee(s).
- Any instructional, commercial or professional use is only allowed with prior ManyRoads' approval. Contact us to get approval.
- For professional "personalized" research support, please visit our Services page.
“Almost certainly,” Eastern German Genealogy research is different from anything you have ever done before. Quite honestly, it is:
- unique,
- challenging, and
- difficult.
Generally speaking, records and information:
- Often are NOT in English; they are in German, Latin, Polish, Hebrew, Russian (Cyrillic), etc.
- Is often very scattered.
- Are not be kept in a nice, convenient, cohesive manner.
- May not be located (archived, indexed) near where they were created.
- Are often destroyed; there is extensive record loss due to war(s), ethnic cleansings, etc.
- Are created using handwriting & print typefaces that are often illegible to North Americans.
Recently, I created and provided a major presentation on relevant subject matter. You may view a hard copy version of my presentation to assist in your research and provide initial guidance, clues, hints:
Over the years, I have built the following documents to assist in locating relevant information and records. These documents, folders, records, maps and external links will offer additional details and pointers.
Related Topics:
- Alternative Germanic Research Sources
- Deutsche Mundarten- German Language
- Eastern German Diaspora
- Eastern German Records
- Germans from the Volga and Bessarabia
- Middle Ages, Hanseatic League, & Teutonic Knights
- Research & Study Aid: Prussian Poland
- Researching the Eastern European German Diaspora (Tutorial)
- So you think your ancestor was Prussian…
Related Tutorial(s):
Maps
External Links
(N.B., ManyRoads is NOT responsible for any external link data or site(s). Your use of these links indicates your acceptance of any risk.)
Should your local genealogy group desire presentations or workshops on these regions, we are pleased to build and customize them for you on a “bespoke” basis.
Do you benefit from our articles and resources?
Your support, through donation or affiliate useage, allows ManyRoads to remain online.
- Personal use of these materials is encouraged and allowed without fee(s).
- Any instructional, commercial or professional use is only allowed with prior ManyRoads' approval. Contact us to get approval.
- For professional "personalized" research support, please visit our Services page.
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