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.
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 petie8135@att.net,
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: frankklostermn@gmail.com
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
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.