Web site for German American heritage brought to you by the German National Tourist Office and the German Information Center USA.

The German genealogy internet portal for the society for Computer genealogy (Verein f?r Computergenealogie). The society maintains several servers on which can be found a lot of information related to German genealogy. From this portal page you can access most services and databases directly.

18th Century Pennsylvania German Naming Customs & Patterns. Some of the same German naming traditions were used outside of Pennsylvania as well.

This list contains German words with their English translations. The words included here are those that you are likely to find in genealogical sources. If the word you are looking for is not on this list, please consult a German-English dictionary. Latin words are often found in German records, and a few are included in this list.

Reading old German records requires a knowledge of basic German genealogical terms and familiarity with German handwriting. Difficulty in reading a record may not result from a record keeper?s poor penmanship but rather the use of a different style of handwriting. As most early German documents were written in some form of Gothic handwriting or printing, familiarity with this style of writing will aid in deciphering early German records. This guide introduces common Gothic letters, type, and handwriting used in German records.

This guide is for researchers who do not speak German but must write to Germany, Austria, or parts of Switzerland to request genealogical records. It includes a list of sentences you would use in a letter about genealogical records and a German translation of these sentences.