Update Notifications

[obw22]

Is there, or will there be, a way to receive updates if/when the church books from certain parishes become available?

I am very interested in several towns around Osnbrück which are not yet listed on the site. If they were listed, it would be useful to add them to a watchlist, for the lack of a better term, and be emailed when they become available.

I'd very much like to be a customer, but the towns I'm most interested in not only are not digitized, they are not even listed.

 

[michael.metz-martini]

Hi,

currently unfortunately there's no such function but I added that to our wishlist.

 

[vnagel2004]

...I'd very much like to be a customer, but the towns I'm most interested in not only are not digitized, they are not even listed.

David,

are you sure that the church records you'd be interested in haven't been digitized as of yet?

To which church district do your places of interest belong?

As you certainly know digitized church records for the church districts of Osnabrück, Georgsmarienhütte and Melle are available at the Kirchenbuchamt Hannover. Did you already check their holdings following the links from this website?

http://www.kirche-hannover.de/kirchenbuchamt/archivbestand.html

Not knowing the places you'd be interested in it may also help to check the holdings of the Kirchenbuchamt Bielefeld (Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evangelischen Kirche von Westfalen - state archive of the Lutheran church of Westphalia) following the links from this website:

http://www.kirchenbuchportal.de/visitenkarten/04.htm

Thanks,
Vera

 

[libero]

Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evangelischen Kirche in Westfalen in Bielefeld ist das Archiv der reformierten Kirche in Westfalen, z.B. für Tecklenburg, und der lutherischen Kirche in Westfalen, z.B. Lübbecke.
Aus beiden (früheren) Kirchen wurde 1817 durch den preußischen König in Preußen, damit auch in Westfalen, die unierte Kirche gebildet. Deshalb heute "Evangelisch".

 

[hernlem]

Vera,

I am supposing that David meant by his question when those records would be made available in digitized format on Archion.de. Are we mistaken in assuming that those records will eventually be made available here and not just in the archives in Germany?

 

[vnagel2004]

Vera,

I am supposing that David meant by his question when those records would be made available in digitized format on Archion.de. Are we mistaken in assuming that those records will eventually be made available here and not just in the archives in Germany?

Hi Bradley,

well, as you found I wondered about the background implied by David's question, wanted to be sure and therefore asked.

No, you're certainly not mistaken to assume that those records will eventually be made available via Archion as well. However, when that may happen cannot be answered for sure right now, even not by Archion staff members.

Best, Vera

 

[libero]

Is there, or will there be, a way to receive updates if/when the church books from certain parishes become available?

I am very interested in several towns around Osnbrück which are not yet listed on the site. If they were listed, it would be useful to add them to a watchlist, for the lack of a better term, and be emailed when they become available.

I'd very much like to be a customer, but the towns I'm most interested in not only are not digitized, they are not even listed.

I hope you'll understand the message of Landeskirchliches Archiv Hannover from December 17, 2014:
"Die Kirchenbücher des Kirchenkreises Osnabrück sind in Arbeit und werden Anfang 2015 bei Archion bereitgestellt."

 

[vnagel2004]

I hope you'll understand the message of Landeskirchliches Archiv Hannover from December 17, 2014:
"Die Kirchenbücher des Kirchenkreises Osnabrück sind in Arbeit und werden Anfang 2015 bei Archion bereitgestellt."

or in English - information provided by the church archive Hannover on December 17, 2014:

"Church books of the church district Osnabrueck are currently being worked on and will be made available via Archion (any time) at the beginning of 2015."

That, however, still doesn't say whether all (which may of course be implied by this cited statement), or if not so, which church books being part of the church district Osnabrueck will make their way thru Archion in which time frame.

Besides that, David, talked about parishes around Osnabrueck, which may point to the church districts of Bramsche and Melle-Georgsmarienhuette as well, right?

Best,
Vera

 

[hernlem]

Continuing on this subject .....

Is there any significance to the presence or absence of a church book, church, or church district in the browse hierarchy that is 'highlighted' in white? I know that those in green are those for which images presently exist on Archion but do those in white have some significance as to their likelihood of become available in the near future? Obviously, there are many books for which Archion has no entry (green or white) in the browse hierarchy. Does their absence indicate that their inclusion on Archion will be even more remote in the future (or not at all)?

I have also noticed that in many church entries for which the majority of the books are already on Archion, the more current books (into the 20th century) are usually listed in white and are not viewable. Will this remain the case (for personal privacy or other reasons) or will these also be eventually made available? If there are personal privacy or other restrictions on recent records, will the books spanning those periods eventually become at least partially available? For example, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel > MarburgLand > Niederasphe > KB1830-1929 is 'white' and not available but there is the better part of the 19th century in that period and 'KB1830-1900' is viewable.

 

[michael.metz-martini]

Hi,

that depends

Please keep in mind that each archive works differently. For some archives we only receive entries which will become available online (green) in the near future (eg Hannover) - for some archives we receive a complete list of books, even if they aren't digitally available (and perhaps won't be in the near future). For Westfalen there's a good chance nearly all white entries will be available in the near future.

Regarding the most recent books in white:
They are mostly privacy protected, partly already digitally available (but taken offline), partly not delivered to ARCHION. Dates for privacy protection also depend on the archive and the act inside these books.

Not that easy unfortunately.

 

[hernlem]

Michael,

Thanks for your response to my questions. Hopefully Archion can eventually work with the archives to free up the portions of those recent 'white' documents which are not sensitive or privacy restricted. If it is simply a matter of a certain date it should be relatively easy to block or remove images after that point in time.

So far, Archion has been very useful to me in researching my Hessian ancestors but I wait in anticipation for the churchbooks from the Forchheim district in Bavaria. During the beta phase, Forchheim was not even listed. Now it is in white with two churches of interest.

 

[vnagel2004]

Continuing on this subject .....

.... If there are personal privacy or other restrictions on recent records, ....

Bradley,

as a general rule -although exceptions apply and as Mr. Metz-Martini already outlined, each archive handles this a bit differently- according to German Privacy Law church books / content of church books [as well as civil registration records] is only publicly available if:

-a birth/baptism occurred more than 110 years ago
-a marriage occurred more than 70 years ago
-a death/burial occurred more than 30 years ago

However, to be publicly available does not generally mean that such records are available online as well.

More recent records are only available to direct next of kin. (Relationship needs to be proven.)

Hope that helps as well.

Best, Vera

 

[hernlem]

Vera,

Thanks for the additional details. I was generally aware of those restrictions but not the specifics. Because all my ancestors that came from places now within Germany (I had also East Prussian ancestors) arrived in the U.S. by the 1870s, these privacy restrictions have not been relevant. However, as I pointed out in the Niederasphe example, the KB1830-1900, which is viewable on Archion, contains only the marriage and death records. I suspect that the birth records from that period are in the KB1830-1929, which is not viewable. If that is indeed the case, it would be desirable to have those early records released by the archive, if an arrangement could be made between the parties in such cases. I submit that as an item for the 'wish list'.

 

[obw22]

Wow, lot's of great replies to my question when I came home tonight!

Michael, thank you for making note of such a feature (perhaps RSS?). Although I am currently most interested in the Osnabrück area, this feature would apply elsewhere. I would not want to burden staff or anyone with question after question about each parish. My mother and father's ancestors were mostly German, let's round it off to about 90%, and they came from all over. Lübeck in the north to Baden, Württemberg and Mittelfranken in the south. Osnabrück in the west to Finkenthal (Alt Kalen) in the east. And lots in between.

Vera and Manfred, thank you for the details about the Osnabrück parishes and Archion'd tentative schedule. No, I did not know these parishes have been digitized.

Examples from this area would be Belm, Buer, possibly Dissen, Engter, Melle, Oldendorf, and Venne.

Best regards,

Dave

 

[obw22]

As you certainly know digitized church records for the church districts of Osnabrück, Georgsmarienhütte and Melle are available at the Kirchenbuchamt Hannover. Did you already check their holdings following the links from this website?

Vera,

Perhaps I am missing something on their web site. I do not see anything about what records have been digitized. I'm not sure that it is applicable to me anyway, though, because if the records can only be viewed at the archive, I am in America with no plans to travel soon.

I am familiar with that archive. I went there two days in 2010 to look at church books on microfiche. No mention was made then about digitization. Is this recent?

If/when Archion adds the parishes I mentioned before I will be very pleased.

Regards,

Dave

 

[vnagel2004]

Vera,

Perhaps I am missing something on their web site. I do not see anything about what records have been digitized.

Dave,

you're most welcome.

When you are on this website:

http://www.kirche-hannover.de/kirchenbuchamt/archivbestand.html

immediately above the photo (showing part of a book-shelf) there's a link labeled:

"Verfilmte Kirchenbücher-detaillierte Auflistung" (568,36 KB)
[microfilmed church books - detailled list]

follow that link in order to download the pdf-file and save it on your computer.

Then search that pdf-file, i.e. for your places of interest Belm, Buer, Dissen, Engter, Melle, Oldendorf, and Venne, and you will find all of these parishes (either being part of the church district Bramsche or Melle-Georgsmarienhütte) as being listed.

That list will also tell you in its different columns for which time frame
Taufen = Baptisms,
Trauungen = marriages,
Begräbnisse = burials
etc. are available, resp. when these church books start for the various events.

Sometimes you'll also find abbreviations, like

L = Lücke = gap - indicating a gap in a church book, say a year/time frame for which no church book records survived/are still available

or

Uv = unvollständig = incomplete etc.

The only thing you'll need to do now, is to convince the officials at the church archive of Hannover to also work on records from the church districts of Bramsche and Melle-Georgsmarienhütte as they apparently already do for the church district of Osnabrück.

Best,
Vera

 

[Bernd]

David,

some of the church books you look for have been already transfered on Excel.

Please have a look here:

http://www.osfa.de/datenbanken/db_kirchbuecher.php

A mail to the osfa is a shorter way then to wait at archion for years.

Bernd

 

[obw22]

Vera and Bernd,

Thank you for the comments. I still do not understand what that PDF, or OFSA's spreadsheet, have to do with the church books being digitized. I am in semi-regular contact with one person from that area and get updates monthly secondhand from another source. No one has mentioned anything about digitizing those church books, until news of KBP (Archion) last spring.

Regards,

Dave

 

[Benutzer gelöscht]

Ich würde mir auch diese Funktion wünschen. Zumindest eine einfache Seite wo ich nach Datum sortiert sehen kann, welche Bücher hinzugefügt wurden. Das würde mir ersparen, ständig alle entsprechenden Bereiche durcklicken zu müssen nur um dann zu sehen, dass doch kein neues Buch eingelesen wurde...

 

[michael.metz-martini]

Guten Morgen

Ich würde mir auch diese Funktion wünschen. Zumindest eine einfache Seite wo ich nach Datum sortiert sehen kann, welche Bücher hinzugefügt wurden. Das würde mir ersparen, ständig alle entsprechenden Bereiche durcklicken zu müssen nur um dann zu sehen, dass doch kein neues Buch eingelesen wurde...

Mit Beginn der Livephase werden wir regelmäßig über neue Kirchenbücher informieren.