Chapter 3: The Challenges of Family Research
This paper might help others avoid some of the errors and dead ends we’ve encountered. We’re providing some “lessons learned” for others who wish to do further research on their family.
We don’t know the origin of the name – we’ll leave that to other researchers. However, the best-known work on German names is the Deutsch Namenslexikon (German Name Lexicon), by Hans Bahlow, which gives the origin and meaning of 15,000 names. We’ve used this resource in the past but did not review it for the Sanftleben name. It can be found in most genealogy libraries along with a couple of other similar references.
German surnames are easily recognized; most, if not all, end with the letters “er”, like Kammer, Mueller or Berger. Other naming trivia we’ve noticed in early church records include attaching the suffix “en” to the names of females to denote gender. This was not a firm rule as it could also indicate a father’s son or daughter; Maybe Sanftleben could be the son of Sanftleb?. This was used mostly with female children or with males e.g., with the father’s son or daughter. In German, the possessive or genitive case ends regularly on “en” or “s”.
Few people we’ve contacted knew much about the history of their family beyond their own or their parent’s generation. Civil registration (Zivilstandsregister or Personenstandsregister) records did not begin in Germany until about 1876. This was after most of the immigrants we’ve studied had left Mecklenburg and Pomerania.
As a result, we’ve had to rely mostly on Mecklenburg German church records (Kirchenbücher) in our research. These records are particularly important because the civil authorities did not begin registering births, marriages, and deaths until after 1876. Generally recorded at the time of the event, parish records contain births, baptisms, marriages, confirmations and deaths. The data recorded in these records varied over time. Later records usually have more information than early ones.
German church records now exist for almost all parishes in Mecklenburg. Microfilmed in 1951 by The Genealogical Society of Utah, an arm of the Mormon Church, the records are available at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition, copies of these microfilms are available at local Family History Centers all over the world. It is not necessary to know much more than a few key words of German and learning to read the old German script does not take long. In addition, records can be ordered directly from the Schwerin Archive in Germany. They are very responsive and the fees are reasonable.
The earliest records we’ve been able to decipher, start about 1630. In the larger cities there are often several parishes that need to be researched within a city or small area. In the rural areas, the reverse exits: one church had jurisdiction over several villages known as Fillialorte (daughter places). Over time, jurisdictions changed, records are lost and rediscovered, so researchers have to accept the facts as they find them, and what we know today may be changed by later corrections or discoveries. Types of church records we’ve looked at are:
Birth And Christening Records: Children were usually baptized within a few days of birth. Prior to the late 1700s, many pastors did not record the name of the parents or only recorded the father’s name. Later records show the date of birth and the date of christening, the child’s name, the names of the parents, and the names of the godparents. We have encountered a few cases where the birth date cited turns out to be actually the christening data. For example, Magdalena Maria Kobernuss was listed with a birth date of 19 April 1754 in Alt Gaarz, but in the 1819 Mecklenburg census she is listed as having been born 4 May 1754.
Illegitimate Births: Originally, when a child was born in Mecklenburg out of wedlock, he would receive the surname of the father if the father were known. In Mecklenburg-Schwerin after 1838, by law, an illegitimate child received the surname of the mother if the birth was not followed by the marriage of the parents. The name of the child was recorded as “angeblich” (alleged) in the church books, if relying on the mother’s word. Even if the parents eventually married, the child would still be listed with the mother’s surname in most cases because the pastor usually did not go back and change the birth record. In general, the name of the father was recorded up to the year 1860 after which the practice gradually came to a stop.
Marriage Records: The marriage usually took place in the home parish of the bride. The pastor recorded the names of bride and groom, whether each was single or widowed, and the date of the marriage. The earliest marriage records give little information about the parents of the couple. In most cases, until the beginning of the 1800s, marriage registers recorded only the names of the bride’s parents. In Mecklenburg-Strelitz the names of the groom’s parents began to be recorded after 1810. This practice was introduced in Mecklenburg-Schwerin sometime after 1820. The birth dates of the bride and groom began to be entered in marriage registers during the 1800s. Some marriage registers even give the birthplaces of the bride and groom.
Death Records: Deceased persons were usually buried within a few days of their death. The pastor recorded the name of the deceased, the death date and the burial date. Early death registers did not record the place of birth and age of the deceased, but later records usually did. Death records from the 1800s often give the cause of death and even the name of the spouse or other survivors.
The Mormon Church continues to film related records, and this is an excellent and growing resource.
Researching US church records is much more challenging. There have been a few efforts to film church records in the US, but this is a hit and miss proposition. All of the major dominations in the US have established archives for the records they know about. But the quality and scope of their collections vary. The Mormon Church has filmed some records and we’ve found some records in various libraries we’ve visited. However, until recently, we’ve have not had much luck in this area.
The biggest problem is that many US churches from the 1800’s no longer exist, it’s hard to determine where the records might reside if they exist at all. When a church closes or combines with another, the records are often transferred to another church or sent to the denomination archives; this makes locating the records very difficult. When churches that had adjoining cemeteries disappear or merge with others, the cemetery headstones are sometimes removed and the remains relocated. Many Cemeteries are very well organized, but others have to scramble to determine the plot where people are buried. When they can’t readily find the location of someone who is clearly buried there, they tell you there will be a charge for doing the research.
Early US records are incomplete and often unreliable. Our research indicates that many of the immigrants were illiterate, leading to greater variations in spelling of family names. We’ve seen naturalization documents and wills that reflect only an “X his/her mark” where the signature would be. On the other hand, we’ve seen many documents from the same period that indicates some people had some education and could at least sign their own name.
The advent of computers and the Internet make creation and distribution of information much easier; however, the old adage of “Garbage in - Garbage out” has never been truer. For example, although the Mormon Church maintains the largest existing genealogy computer database file in the world, the quality of this data varies greatly because the LDS does not require submitters to provide sources with their data. Once an error is identified in the Mormon database it is very difficult, if not impossible, to get it corrected. Other databases available on the Internet seldom provide source documentation, so it is difficult to determine the quality of data. As a result, unless a source is cited, readers should treat the information as unverified.
In the US, the National Archives, and state and local governments hold many records. These entities have made great strides in making their records available to the public, and the advent of computerized library indexes, personal computers, the Internet, and large centralized databases makes research much easier. Despite this progress, researchers still encounter significant roadblocks. Although we try to do original research when ever possible, we often have to rely on the work of others.
States, counties, and towns take a different approach to maintaining and making vital statistics available to the public. Some jurisdictions allow you to browse to your hearts content in original records that go back to the early 1800s, while others are guarded by an old crone who is clearly determined to never reveal to anyone the contents of her vault. Vital records by city, state and county entities often don’t exist, are incomplete or obviously wrong. In addition, fires in various archives have destroyed valuable records over the years.
The unsung heroes in this story are the people (many of them volunteers) who man the public libraries, LDS Family History Centers and Local Historical Societies. We always try to visit one of each in every location we visit. Some have extensive collections, while others are very limited. Most have good equipment & facilities (some are on the cutting edge of technology) but all the people we dealt with were highly professional, helpful and overworked. As you would expect, the libraries located in state capitols are the best equipped and manned, and have the advantage of usually being collocated with the state archives