German Genealogy Study Group

4. Tools--Phone Books, Translations, Forms, Search Engines, Look-ups

Updated 10 Feb 1999

4. Tools--Phone Books, Translations, Old Script, Forms, Search Engines, Look-ups

German Telephone Book

Instructions in German, English, and French. Find other localities near the city you are searching, also.

German White Pages

Unfortunately, this site ceased to be "free" starting May 1999. This is an online site in German that connects to the German telephone system. There are links to addresses and where to enter name information to find the telephone number. Click on the large letters "ETV" next to the picture of the phone, then choose "SUCHMASKE".
(The May issue of the PAL-AM PATTER [Palatines to America] had instructions as follows.

Help with translating this German language site!
The lookup fields are:

Name......Surname
PLZ.......Zip code
Ort.......Town
Strasse...Street
Hausnr....House #
Vorname...Given Name
Beruf.....Occupation
Branche...Branch/Dept.
All fields are optional except "Name" at the top. When you enter a surname in "Name" and click on "Anfrage Starten" you will get the number of listings...when you click again, you will get a list of that surname with addresses/phone/fax in Germany.
If you know the town of your ancestor, it is exciting to see that surname is still there! (and you can call/write them!) If you only know an area/province in Germany, work with a map & check the towns in that area. Sometimes your intuition works just great!

Map Deustch Surnames

Type in a German surname (remember to try alternate spellings) to find how many live where in Germany. If you use "quick count", you will receive the number of phones with that surname. If you click on "more detail", you will see a German postal code map and a table with the number with a phone with that surname in each postal code. (This takes a long time, so don't be impatient!)

Yamada Language Center

An excellent site for all types of free fonts for your computer--including Klingon! On the above page, click on Germanic Fonts or go directly to Germanic Fonts to choose several types of German fonts, from "old handwritten script" to Gothic printing. Be sure you download the font designed for your computer (MAC/Windows) and read the FAQ on the main page for how to install.

German Handwriting

Samples of Old German handwriting and script. In German.

Old German Script

Old German handwriting and script.

German Moravian Script

Another site for Old German handwriting and script.

German to English Dictionary

For single word translations from German to English or English to German

English/German Dictionary

Langenscheidt's Online New College English/German/Spanish Dictionary. The best I've found for individual word translation on the NET--includes idioms.

German Genealogy Terms

German translation of general genealogy terms (in English)

German Genealogy: Translation Service

Translation service for people needing a German to English (or English to German) translation--see this site. Arthur Teschler administers a volunteer translation service (no more than 40 lines) and can be reached by e-mail at: trans@genealogy.net. The first line of the message should read: #GER>ENG (for German to English), or #ENG>GER (for English to German)
This could come in very handy for researchers who don't read both languages

Genealogy Exchange & Surname Registry

Free genealogy translations by e-mail (or send a scan of your document after contacting them first.) Volunteers are available for at least 12 languages, including: German < > English.

WWW Translation Page

This isn't a genealogy site, but might help somewhat if you find a page that's written in German. It can translate a web page OR typing to or from several languages including GERMAN.

Form Letters for German Genealogy

Complete form letters in German and English to churches , registry offices, archives and genealogy societies . All of the above are excellent since they not only give the translation for all of the letters, but they also tell you how to fill them out.

Research It!

This site has a currency converter and universal translator. Enter a word in any language and it will be translated to many other languages. It even shows you the word used in an excerpt from popular literature.

German-Russian Gopher

For FTP of German-Russian Information including: Bessarabian Index, Cemetery Records, Census and Church Records, GEDCOM Listings and Files, Immigration and Naturalization, Information Sources, Java Herald, Obituaries, and St. Petersburg Archives.

DINO German Search Engine

(in German)

KDG German Search Engine

(in German) in the 2nd largest library in the world (so they state).

Dogpile Search Engine

Don't forget to try this meta-search engine. Jane found some good sites just typing in "German Court Records" here.

E-mail Lynn (lynnd@adnc.com) with corrections or comments.

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