Help:German script

Contributor's Introduction

 * For years, we'd been unable to confirm the German origins of our emigrating ancestors. Then one year, we had a breakthrough and learned the name of the towns. And not only that, but the LDS had microfilmed the church records from those (and most other) towns and we could access them without having to travel to Germany! But when I first encountered a microfilmed image of an old German church record, I nearly wept. The "high"  of discovering the home town of my ancestors was brought low with what appeared not only a foreign language, but completely indecipherable.


 * If this happens to you, don't despair (at least not for long)! I am living proof that not only do you not need to learn German, but the old text IS decipherable, with a bit of patience and some puzzle-solving skills. This page seeks to help you realize that you, too, can get what you need out of old German church records!


 * Jillaine

Some Helpful Tips

 * Learn to recognize what your surname looks like in old script, then start scanning the page for that "image".
 * Start to distinguish different letters. Know the difference between an "e" and an "a" (they look VERY similar in old German script).
 * Learn what the different months look like. This may be the easiest part, although distinguishing May from March, and Jun from July can be tricky, depending on the pastor's handwriting and choice of abbreviation.
 * Start to learn the different occupations.

Helpful Resources for Learning Old German Script

 * 1) 'If I Can You Can Decipher Germanic Records' by Edna M. Bentz, 2004 (book). (This is by far the best I've seen and most helpful; don't be put off by the fact that it's spiral bound and typed. Jillaine 14:41, 3 July 2007 (UTC))
 * 2) 'The German research companion' by Shirley J Riemer, 2nd addition, 2001 (book) (Sold out, but if you can get your hands on a copy, do so!)
 * 3) Understanding Old German Writing - A Training Manual from BYU (PDF), includes an Alphabet chart comparing current letters to what you'll likely find in church records. (Note: it would be great if we could place this jpg right here on the page, but I don't know if it's copyrighted. Jillaine)
 * 4) Another graphic comparing old script to current alphabet
 * 5) Old German Handwriting Scripts (GenWiki)
 * 6) German Genealogy Symbols (GenWiki)

More than You Probably Want to Know

 * Sutterlin (Wikipedia) is what replaced the old German script in the early 1900s, but was banned in 1941.