On a recent trip to Salt Lake City, I had the pleasure of two days in the FamilySearch library, which I would of course recommend to anyone with an interest in family history. There I was introduced to the treasures of German church Family Registers, which have opened up generations on the Heerburger branch of my family, and have unearthed a surprise or two!
Years ago, a distant cousin sent me what appears to be a transcript of a 19th-century family register page from the Evangelical Church in Isny im Allgau, in Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany.
This was used to show the family of my ancestor, Johannes Heerburger, including his two wives and eight children. The daughter, Elisabeth Catharina, born in 1840, was my great-great-grandmother. Unfortunately, there is no page number given in the transcript, and I have been unable to find this family register online. I believe it was received by mail decades ago. And to be honest, I had forgotten all about it.
Fast forward to this summer, when I was directed to older family registers available online through FamilySearch and Ancestry.
This is copy of the original family register for Johannes Heerburger and Dorothea Albrecht, the parents of the husband in the 19th-century document. Included are the death dates for each of them, their marriage date and her birth date. Her parents are listed here, and their four children are given, with Confirmation dates for those who lived. The parents of the husband are listed on the previous page.
Above we can see Johannes as the youngest child, and a reference to “Fol. 118,” the page we just came from. This takes us back another generation – actually two on the bride’s side!
The family registers are not indexed on either FamilySearch or Ancestry, so browsing is necessary. But they are occasionally referred to in vital records that are indexed. For instance, the death record for Dorothea Albrecht Heerburger from 1837 has a reference, in the far right column, to Fol.118, above.
Dorothea is also included as the oldest child on her parents’ page below, though I’m not sure why the whole page is crossed out.
I was able to find family registers for the Schlegel side of the family as well, in the same collection from the Isny Evangelical Church. Below is the page for Johannes Schlegel and Elisabeth Gullmann.
I have just had this record translated, and it indicates that Juliana Catharina was an illegitimate daughter that Elisabetha Gullmann brought to the marriage! I don’t suppose we’ll ever know who her biological father was! It’s a bit of a mess, but there seems to be an indication that she herself had an illegitimate daughter, Katharina Elisabeth, who only lived two years. You never know what you’ll find in the old records!
With all of this, I’m sure there is more to be found. Older registers seem to be available in some cases, and I have yet to pursue every branch of the family in these records.
Though I first discovered these records from the library in Salt Lake City, access to them is restricted to LDS library use through FamilySearch. However, I have discovered them on Ancestry in the Wurttemburg Lutheran records. Either way, they are worth the effort to track down if you have roots in this area. I’m anxious to get the records completely deciphered and dig around for more!
Finally, the photograph above of Nikolaikirche in Isny comes from Wikimedia, Von Photo: Andreas Praefcke – Eigenes Werk, CC BY 3.0. And thank you to Sabine Akabayov for her translations.
BTGenealogy 