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October 22, 2012 3:50 PM Subscribe
Recommendations for geneaology help, please (involving Hungary and Germany)
We've been working on our family tree for some time now, and perhaps it's time we call in a professional: if we came from rich or prominent people, it would probably be a lot easier, but unfortunately we seem to come from your basic hearty peasant stock --- you know, the kind of folks nobody bothers to keep extensive records on. Sigh.
There are two lines we're pretty well stuck on: my father's paternal line, from Cannstatt/Stuttgart, Germany (we have his paternal grandparents' names, and that's it) and my mother's maternal line in northeastern Hungary (nothing past her maternal grandparents). Both lines are lost beyond about 1880. We do NOT expect to find any famous people or royalty, though knowing professions as well as names & dates --- farmer? shoemaker? blacksmith? --- would be nice. Ancestry.com has actually been very handy (you just have to check and double-check to be sure you don't go off track!), but we seem to have hit a wall, and we'd rather BE stuck than just slap names in without proof: *no* info is better than *bad* info.
So: how do we find a competant professional, and how much can we expect this'll cost?
We've been working on our family tree for some time now, and perhaps it's time we call in a professional: if we came from rich or prominent people, it would probably be a lot easier, but unfortunately we seem to come from your basic hearty peasant stock --- you know, the kind of folks nobody bothers to keep extensive records on. Sigh.
There are two lines we're pretty well stuck on: my father's paternal line, from Cannstatt/Stuttgart, Germany (we have his paternal grandparents' names, and that's it) and my mother's maternal line in northeastern Hungary (nothing past her maternal grandparents). Both lines are lost beyond about 1880. We do NOT expect to find any famous people or royalty, though knowing professions as well as names & dates --- farmer? shoemaker? blacksmith? --- would be nice. Ancestry.com has actually been very handy (you just have to check and double-check to be sure you don't go off track!), but we seem to have hit a wall, and we'd rather BE stuck than just slap names in without proof: *no* info is better than *bad* info.
So: how do we find a competant professional, and how much can we expect this'll cost?
You're in NoVA, yes? The Daughters of the American Revolution in DC has a genealogical library that has access to a lot of databases as well. It's open to the public for a small daily fee - I want to say six bucks, but it's been a while. It might get you a little further before you have to go to a pro. Also, if you're investigating a Jewish heritage, try JewishGen.
posted by PussKillian at 4:13 PM on October 22, 2012
posted by PussKillian at 4:13 PM on October 22, 2012
Response by poster: Just for information's sake: the main sources we've been using have been the National Archives, every Census or tax record we could lay hands on, the LDS archives, and yes, Ancestry.com. We've been pretty successful tracing lines back to the various original immigrants' arrivals in the US.
I guess we haven't tried the DAR because we don't seem to have had anyone here during the Revolution --- has that been a blind spot? We seem to have assumed that the DAR was only interested in the families that WERE here during the war.
posted by easily confused at 5:13 PM on October 22, 2012
I guess we haven't tried the DAR because we don't seem to have had anyone here during the Revolution --- has that been a blind spot? We seem to have assumed that the DAR was only interested in the families that WERE here during the war.
posted by easily confused at 5:13 PM on October 22, 2012
FamilySearch.org has been scanning local records in Central and Eastern Europe at a remarkable pace, including some from Hungary. You may have to browse through collections rather than search, but there are records on FamilySearch that are not on Ancestry.
posted by arco at 6:04 PM on October 22, 2012
posted by arco at 6:04 PM on October 22, 2012
I think the DAR library is pretty wide-ranging. Have a look here and see what you think. I do know that the library is used by people who are not purely interested in Revolutionary-era families, though.
posted by PussKillian at 8:08 PM on October 22, 2012
posted by PussKillian at 8:08 PM on October 22, 2012
Best answer: I've had luck with my German ancestry and contacting the churches in the area from whence they came in Germany. Contacting a church in two different and very, very small towns there yielded birth records for both my great-grandparents that were contained in the church repository. Most in Germany speak english so an email would most likely work. Do you have any idea what religion your family was?
I also had luck with googling the name of the church and the "records". I don't remember exactly how it worked out but in the end I made a donation to a man that was personally transcribing some church records ($20, I think) and got actual copies of the records in hand.
Another avenue, if the families aren't totally filled in with all your closer relatives is to get a hold of death certificates and locate the funeral home that conducted burial. I've filled in trees this way and contacted the funeral home and gotten a wealth of information, most of the time for free.
I'd imagine all of this advice for Germany would apply to Hungary as well.
If you'd like some help, feel free to email me! I am not a registered genealogist but have taken classes, worked on my own for nearly ten years now, and will happily obsess over someone else's lineage but it makes me happy :).
posted by youandiandaflame at 5:26 AM on October 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
I also had luck with googling the name of the church and the "records". I don't remember exactly how it worked out but in the end I made a donation to a man that was personally transcribing some church records ($20, I think) and got actual copies of the records in hand.
Another avenue, if the families aren't totally filled in with all your closer relatives is to get a hold of death certificates and locate the funeral home that conducted burial. I've filled in trees this way and contacted the funeral home and gotten a wealth of information, most of the time for free.
I'd imagine all of this advice for Germany would apply to Hungary as well.
If you'd like some help, feel free to email me! I am not a registered genealogist but have taken classes, worked on my own for nearly ten years now, and will happily obsess over someone else's lineage but it makes me happy :).
posted by youandiandaflame at 5:26 AM on October 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Semi-pro genealogist here, though my area of focus isn't Central and Eastern Europe. You're in a typical position, if that helps, not only dealing with "commoners" but in hitting that immigration wall. :) If you've been able to narrow down a specific town or small area of origin in Europe, you'll have better luck going forward.
I'd second the FamilySearch suggestion---their plan is ultimately to have all of the (millions and millions of rolls of) records microfilm scanned and made available online for free, and they frequently will put the images online before they're indexed (you'll see "browse images" in the search results). You mention that you've used the LDS archives, but in case you're not aware, you can order microfilm from the Family History Library and have it sent to your local LDS family history center or, in some cases, an affiliated library. You'll want to search the FHL catalog through the FamilySearch site in addition to looking at what records have already been put online.
FamilySearch also has a wiki with information about locations and records as well as general research information for locations (for example this page on German emigration and immigration).
As much of my work is U.S.-based, I don't have an Ancestry world subscription, so I can't speak to its coverage vs. FamilySearch.
If you'd like to hire someone, I'd suggest starting with the Association of Professional Genealogists. You can search the membership directory by research specialty. As for cost, that's going to vary. Most genealogists I know work on an hourly rate and are happy to work with clients according to their budgets (up to a certain number of hours, or dollar amount, etc.). It's not unusual to require a deposit or retainer. I'd suggest as with any service you shop around a bit and find someone you're comfortable with and, more importantly, who is upfront about costs and what they will provide, preferably with a clear client agreement or contract.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have other questions!
posted by percolatrix at 6:24 AM on October 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'd second the FamilySearch suggestion---their plan is ultimately to have all of the (millions and millions of rolls of) records microfilm scanned and made available online for free, and they frequently will put the images online before they're indexed (you'll see "browse images" in the search results). You mention that you've used the LDS archives, but in case you're not aware, you can order microfilm from the Family History Library and have it sent to your local LDS family history center or, in some cases, an affiliated library. You'll want to search the FHL catalog through the FamilySearch site in addition to looking at what records have already been put online.
FamilySearch also has a wiki with information about locations and records as well as general research information for locations (for example this page on German emigration and immigration).
As much of my work is U.S.-based, I don't have an Ancestry world subscription, so I can't speak to its coverage vs. FamilySearch.
If you'd like to hire someone, I'd suggest starting with the Association of Professional Genealogists. You can search the membership directory by research specialty. As for cost, that's going to vary. Most genealogists I know work on an hourly rate and are happy to work with clients according to their budgets (up to a certain number of hours, or dollar amount, etc.). It's not unusual to require a deposit or retainer. I'd suggest as with any service you shop around a bit and find someone you're comfortable with and, more importantly, who is upfront about costs and what they will provide, preferably with a clear client agreement or contract.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have other questions!
posted by percolatrix at 6:24 AM on October 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: We have birthplaces for several of the dead ends, but not all --- family lines that had a tendency to be rooted in one place for several generations are much easier than the ones that liked to wander, and we've naturally had more success with the 'rooted' lines. Just to make things even more fun, the 'wandering' lines also had much higher likelihoods of 'mixed' marriages, so yes, we've been checking any church records we can. The family is all over the religious map here in the US, but they seem to have more-or-less stuck with various combinations of Lutherans, Catholics and Jews while still in Europe.
We've successfully fought our way through quite a bit of honestly-mistaken word-of-mouth family lore, as well as several instances of outright lies (trust me, just because your beloved Grampa tells you something? Say thank you then go check the records anyway!) We have, as percolatrix calls it, hit the 'immigration wall'. Sigh.
posted by easily confused at 2:09 PM on October 23, 2012
We've successfully fought our way through quite a bit of honestly-mistaken word-of-mouth family lore, as well as several instances of outright lies (trust me, just because your beloved Grampa tells you something? Say thank you then go check the records anyway!) We have, as percolatrix calls it, hit the 'immigration wall'. Sigh.
posted by easily confused at 2:09 PM on October 23, 2012
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posted by beccaj at 3:54 PM on October 22, 2012