Madison County Genealogical Society

Minutes of the Meeting - November 9, 2017

The November 2017 meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on Thursday, November 9, at 7:00 pm.

President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.

The following is the Treasurer's report for the month of October:

GIFT MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE

Do you have a family member that is interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership in the Madison County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful gift. A gift card will be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.

The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $25.00
Patron Annual Membership $35.00
Life Membership $300.00

Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at [email protected], about a gift membership.

November Meeting

 

On November 9, 2017, Frank Klostermann presented a program titled German Genealogical Resources on the Internet.

 

Frank Klostermann was born in Clinton County, Illinois, lived in Chester, Illinois, and is now a resident of Collinsville, Illinois. He has a bachelor’s degree from SIU-Carbondale in accounting, and worked for both the U.S. Army Audit Agency, and Internal Revenue Service. Over the years, Frank has been an active member of many civic organizations, i.e., Collinsville Jaycees, City Park Board, Kiwanis, Boy Scouts, and the Gateway Convention authority board. Currently, Frank is a member of the Camera Club, Cahokia and Mound City Archaeological Societies, National Association of Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE), St. Louis Genealogical Society, St. Clair County Genealogical Society, and Germans in St. Louis interest group.

 

Frank’s interest in genealogy started when he was in college and his father gave him the citizenship papers and a German military record of his immigrant great grandfather Johann Bernard Klostermann who immigrated to America in 1853 from Westphalia, Germany. John Bernard Klostermann and one of his maternal great grandfathers, Joseph Schrage, both settled in St. Libory (St. Clair County), Illinois, and then relocated to St. Rose Township in Clinton County, Illinois.

 

Frank likes to collect as many family documents as he can and uses Rootsmagic to organize and store the information. If you would like to contact Frank, his email address is: [email protected]

 

Frank’s presentation was a Wi-Fi Demonstration of very useful sites for genealogists researching “German” ancestors

 

1. Meyers-Orts Gazetteer  – A 20+ year Project by LDS Sister Marion Rainey-Free to everyone

 

www.meyersgaz.org

Gazetteer-gives location, state, other jurisdictions, churches etc., as of 1871-1918.

A gazetteer is defined as a geographical dictionary or directory used in conjunction with a map or atlas. They typically contain information concerning the geographical makeup, social statistics, and physical features of a country, region, or continent. See the web site for details on the features of this site. Basically an almost impossible publication in old “Fraktur Gothic index” made decipherable by an LDS volunteer.

Once you know the home village of your immigrant ancestors, you use this site to obtain the old (1880’s) location of the village, current location on a Google Map, all political subdivisions, churches, etc. Many villages have the same names, so be careful. Try to locate in the correct Kreis (county) or Province.

 

2. German Script Writing tools

 

www.kurrentschrift.net

A fun site – see what your name looks like in old German script. Can be used for fun or with diligence can help translate old German script (Sütterlin script) to English.

 

3. Archion – Subscription Service in Germany for Evangelical (Protestant) Church Records – 2-3 years in existence.

 

www.archion.de

Protestant (German Evangelical, i.e., Lutheran) only at this time. This is an expensive subscription service, but if LDS has not microfilmed your church records, this is the least expensive way to obtain records. Only other choices are to travel to Germany and visit the diocese archives, or hire a researcher in Germany. You can search at this site without paying, and then record the location, subscribe for a short period, and expedite your research to save money.

 

4. Catholic Diocese of Belleville – On-Line Parish Records (baptism, marriage, death) at www.familysearch.org

 

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1388122

You must create a user name and password to gain access to the digital records on familysearch.org

Select – Browse (It is not indexed)

County, i.e., St. Clair

City/Town/Village, i.e., St. Libory

Parish, i.e., St. Liborius

Scan thru the book or books you want to look at – these are scans of the original documents.

Save the scans for future review, editing, and attachment to your Family History database, then print out.

 

Thanks to LDS for making this database available. This site is an example of the wealth of databases on-line at www.familysearch.org that are not yet indexed, but contain a wealth of information. Some day all of the information may be indexed. They are looking for volunteers to index their massive collections. New collections are added each day.

 

5. How to locate and read German Church records from the LDS Family History Centers

 

       www.familysearch.org   Sign in (you will not have full access unless you sign in)

       Search the catalog  Enter the city or village name

 

Family Search will no longer send out microfilms. Your choices are on-line research on familysearch.org, look at films in a local LDS Family History Center, or travel to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

If you find your record, see if they are on-line. Some are on-line, some are indexed, most are not indexed.

Most German church records will not be able to be viewed at home on your computer. You will have to go to an approved library, like St. Louis County Library in Clayton, Missouri, or the LDS Family History Center in O’Fallon, Illinois. Address is Family History Center, 255 Fairwood Hills Road, O’Fallon, IL 62209. Enter on west side of the Church. Times are Tues & Thurs, 9 am to 3 pm, and 6 pm to 9 pm. Ring the bell for entry.

 

Also, most LDS Family History Libraries have a large collection of microfilms. The O’Fallon Center has a large collection of permanent records, and they have a three ring binder with an index of what is available at no cost, i.e., many county records, like Probate, Death, etc. Printing charges are very reasonable. Mrs. Kathy Nevin is the volunteer director of the center. Family History Center phone number is (618) 692-0210. The St. Louis area has two other Family History Centers, in Clayton, Missouri, and in Hazelwood, Missouri.

 

Suggestion – prepare a German guidebook for yourself, with key words, etc., to help you translate and understand the information in the various church books shown on the microfilm. Take a memory stick, a digital camera, a laptop, and money to pay for copies. If it looks like your name, scan or print it and analyze it in detail when you get home. Please sign in to help them determine the use of the facility, and observe their customary practices, i.e., no caffeine.

 

6. Brand New – A very tricky foreign site.

 

www.data.matricula.info/php/main.php

Just announced. A German site that will eventually contain the digitized Catholic church books for the Archdiocese of Munster (free of charge). Just started on April 18, 2017. Parish records for dioceses are being entered in alphabetical order. There are over 300 parishes. This is the cheapest way to obtain your vital records for German ancestors if they were members of the Catholic Church in the archdiocese of Munster. Periodically check this site to see if they add additional Catholic dioceses that are not available thru LDS, i.e., Diocese of Osnabruck.

 

I wondered why this was such great news to German genealogists, then it dawned on me that Familysearch.org LDS German church records are not available to Germans at European LDS Family History Centers, due to contract restrictions. Good news for them. They can now get these records free. In the past, Germans had to ask Americans to order Microfilm at our LDS FH Centers so they could look at the film when they visited us.

 

7. Free Database of immigrants from the Emslander area of Germany and Holland

 

www.emslanders.com

A free site, thanks to St. Louisan Barbara Salibi. Contains an alphabetical index, and many immigrants to Clinton County, Illinois, and possibly St. Libory and Fayetteville, in St. Clair County, are on the www.emslanders.com site.

 

Very easy to use. Volunteers such as Connie Albers, Richard Schaeffer, and others have helped Barbara obtain records for this site. An important benefit is that it can help you locate the home village (German) of your family and related families. Barbara made between 10 and 15 personal trips to German Archives to obtain these records.

 

8. LDS Family History Centers have free access to many expensive databases.

 

Family History Centers provide free access to many subscription genealogy websites, including:

 

·     19th Century British Library Newspapers

·     Access Newspaper Archives

·     Alexander Street Press – American Civil War

·     Ancestry.com

·     ArkivDigital

·     Find My Past

·     Fold3, formerly Footnote (military records)

·     The Genealogist

·     Historic Map Works, library edition

·     Kinpoint

·     MyHeritage, library edition

·     Paper Trail

·     ProQuest Obituary Listings

·     Puzila

·     World Vital Records

 

Bonus German Web Sites

From Holger Strugholt, German Genealogist

 

1. Geogen (Surname Mapping)      www.legacy.stoepel.net

 

2. Wikipedia or Google   (put in the village name)

 

3. Emigration from Lippe       www.lippe-auswanderer.de

 

4. Emigration from Oldenburg       www.auswanderer-oldenburg.de

 

5. Emigration from Baden      http://www.auswanderer-bw.de

 

If by chance the URL is wrong, just Google the Name of the site to locate it. When you log on to the site, it will normally convert the German site to English, and may change the URL code.

 

This presentation was very well received and provoked many questions and comments.

 

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