I've been doing family research in Germany for some time, mostly my own family.

A new law was passed on genealogical research (since 01-01-2009)
Unfortunately the news has not spread very much.

The "Personenstandregister" - old records of birth, marriage and death - have been transferred from the civil registry's offices to the archives. They are now available for anybody, not only descendants:

birth records from 1874 - 1898
marriage records from 1874 - 1928
death records from 1874 - 1978

In the West of Germany there are even much older records.

There are mostly microfiches and microfilms to look at in some large archives, not only in the local ones.

For the period before 1874 you should still look at the church records.
If your ancestors are evangelical/protestants either lutheran or reformed you will find the records in some big church archives.

I go there from time to time because I'm doing some family research for some people with German roots.

If you need help you can contact me directly at genealogybertholdt@yahoo.de byriga@aol.com or my cousin
Gaby at byriga@aol.com here on ancestry.

Evelyn (Germany)

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