Adalbert Goertz (goertz@cyberspace.org)
Contents:
Q1: Where is Baden?
Q2: What was Badens's recent history?
Q3: What were the administrative areas of Baden?
Q4: What were the court districts in Baden in 1890?
Q5: How do I find locations and maps for Baden?
Q6: When were civil registers introduced?
Q7: Is there a listserv for Baden family researchers?
Q8: Any websites of interest to Baden researchers?
Q9: Where are Mennonite congregations in Baden?
Q10: How do I find out what church books are available for Baden
congregations?
======================================================
Q1: Where is Baden?
A1: Baden was a Grandduchy until 1918 when all monarchies in Germany
were abolished. Its area is located in Southwest Germany along the
border with France and Switzerland with Karlsruhe as capital.
Baden today is part of Land Baden-Württemberg of the new Germany together
with Württemberg and Hohenzollern-Hechingen.
Q2: What was Baden's recent history?
A2: Baden was part of the Napoleonic Rhine Federation (Rheinbund) in
1806-1813 which contributed a contingent to Napoleon's army. In 1815
it joined the German Federation as a Grandduchy.
Q3: What were the administrative areas of Baden?
A3: In 1890 Baden consisted of 4 districts and 11 Kreise (counties):
Distrikt of Konstanz with 3 Kreise:
Konstanz,Villingen,Waldshut.
Distrikt of Freiburg with 3 Kreise:
Freiburg,Loerrach,Offenburg.
Distrikt of Karlsruhe with 2 Kreise:
Baden,Karlsruhe.
Distrikt of Mannheim with 3 Kreise:
Mannheim,Heidelberg,Mosbach.
Its population was 36% Evangelical,62% Catholic,1.6% Jewish.
Q4: What were the court districts in 1890?
A4: The highest court in the Grandduchy of Baden was the
Oberlandesgericht in Karlsruhe.
http://www.olg-karlsruhe.de/geschichte.htm
http://www.jura.uni-sb.de/laenderberichte/badenw.htm
The lower courts in Baden were:
Landgericht Freiburg with (10) Amtsgerichte:
Breisach,Emmendingen,Ettenheim,Freiburg,Kenzingen,Loerrach,
M|llheim,Neustadt,Staufen,Waldkirch.
Landgericht Karlsruhe with (11) Amtsgerichte:
Baden-Baden,Bretten,Bruchsal,Durlach,Eppingen,Ettlingen,Gernsbach,
Karlsruhe,Pforzheim,Philippsburg,Rastatt.
Landgericht Konstanz with (9) Amtsgerichte:
Donaueschingen,Engen,Konstanz,Messkirch,Pfullendorf,Radolfzell,
Stockach,Ueberlingen,Villingen.
Landgericht Mannheim with (6) Amtsgerichte:
Heidelberg,Mannheim,Schwetzingen,Sinsheim,Weinheim,Wiesloch.
Landgericht Mosbach with (9) Amtsgerichte:
Adelsheim,Boxberg,Buchen,Eberbach,Mosbach,Neckarbischofsheim,
Tauberbischofsheim,Walld|rn,Wertheim.
Landgericht Offenburg with (9) Amtsgerichte:
Achern,B|hl,Gengenbach,Kehl,Lahr,Oberkirch,Offenbaach,Triberg,
Wolfach.
Landgericht Waldhut with (6) Amtsgerichte:
Bonndorf,Saeckingen,Schoenau,Schopfheim,St.Blasien,Waldshut.
Of special interest are the land deed records with no published
survey known todate.
Last testaments and wills, Erbscheine, orphan records would be
deposited in the local Amtsgericht.
A remarriage of a widower/widow was always documented in the Amtsgericht
stating in detail the estate rights of surviving children as well as
rights and duties of parents and step parents. This is a source at the
Amtsgericht which is widely unknown and untapped (and unfilmed by the LDS).
Q5: How do I find locations and maps for Baden?
A4: The best German gazetteer is
Meyers Orts- and Verkehrslexikon des Deutschen Reiches,1912 edition,
which is available on microfiche in the LDS Family History Centers.
There is LDS microfilm #068814 available of
Karte des Deutschen Reiches, scale 1:100000, 1km = 1cm
which may be loaned thru the LDS Family History Centers.
It covers Germany for 1914-1917.
Topographical maps (Messtischblaetter 1:25000) may be
purchased from
Landesvermessungsamt Baden-Württemberg
Buechsenstr. 54
Postfach 10 29 62
D-70025 Stuttgart
(Ask for their map catalog or Kartenverzeichnis)
Q6: When were civil registers introduced?
A6: Civil registers of births,marriages,deaths were introduced in
Baden by the French in 1792.
The Civil registry office is called Standesamt.
Q7: Is there a listserv for Baden family researchers?
A7: There is a BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-L mailing list with
Topic: Baden, Hohenzollern, and Wurttemberg.
For questions about this list, contact the list administrator at
BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-admin@rootsweb.com.
To join BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-L, send mail to
BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-L-request@rootsweb.com with the single word
subscribe
in the message subject and body. To join
BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-D (digest-mode), do the same thing with
BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-D-request@rootsweb.com
Q8: Any websites of interest to Baden researchers?
http://w3g.med.uni-giessen.de/gene/reg/rindex.htm
http://www.ziplink.net/~hagen/badwue.html*
http://www.kurpfalz-geschichte.de/
Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe.
http://www.lad-bw.de/gla.htm
Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe - Bestdnde|bersicht - Kurzfassung
http://www.lad-bw.de/glaka/glaku000.htm
Archivbestand des ehemaligen Auswanderungsamtes.
http://www.bawue.de/~hanacek/info/karlsr01.htm
Surviving records of the Auswanderungsamt, including
extensive indexes, are deposited here (1866-1911).
Microfilm copies of the indexes, but not the records themselves, are
in the Family History Library (FHL), in Salt Lake City. Some of
these indexes have been abstracted in Cornelia
Schrader-Muggenthaler, The Baden Emigration Index (Apollo,
Pennsylvania: Closson Press, 1992). In addition, Friedrich R.
Wollmershduser (Herrengasse 8-10, D-89610 Oberdischingen,
Germany), a private researcher, has compiled an extensive index of
emigrants from Baden, using the records in the Generallandesarchiv
in Karlsruhe, as well as other manuscript and published records
not located in the Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe.
For details see also:
Learned, Marion Dexter, 1857-1917:
Guide to the manuscript materials relating to American history
in the German state archives, Washington, D.C.,
Carnegie Institution of Washington. Publication no. 150 , 1912, 352 p.:
-also Kraus reprints NY 1965-
p.229-237 Karlsruhe
(there are a number of updates done by the LOC Manuscript Division,
call no.L173.L4 Suppl. 1929-1932, vol.2 p.71,240 for Karlsruhe).
If you have no access to the Web (www), you can direct web files to
your email box by sending a request to
getweb@usa.healthnet.org
or to
www4mail@unganisha.idrc.ca
with the message HELP or
get http://.....
Consult also
Germanic Genealogy (by Edward R.Brandt et alii), 2nd edition.
1997, St.Paul MN, 517 pp.,1st edition, 1995.
Q9: Where are Mennonite congregations in Baden?
A9: Here are some statistics for the Mennonite congregations in Baden:
(selected from Mennonitisches Lexikon I,106-107)
Grandduchy of Baden:
1821:1512 ; 1830:1414 ; 1842:1358 ; 1852:1466 ; 1861:1221
1871:1356 ; 1880:1252 ; 1890:1194 ; 1900:1008 ; 1910:1151
In 1915 there were the congregations of
Adelsheim (79 souls), Durlach(45),Duehren(100),Hasselbach(126),
Heimbronnerhof(45), Moenchzell(35), Neuhof(35), Rappenau(49),
Sinsheim(80), Ueberlingen(130), Woessingen(100).
Q10: How do I find out what church books are available for Baden
congregations?
A10: There are no printed inventories of Mennonite church books
available for South Germany, nor are there microfilms available
in the LDS films collection.
This is a field that someone should take up. If anyone can answer
this question or provide a listing of South German Mennonite
genealogical sources, please say so.
Suggestions for improvements are appreciated.
Adalbert Goertz (goertz@cyberspace.org)
Sponsored by the VU German Study Group Page
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