Germany, Rhineland-Palatinate Church Record Extractions and Family Registers, 1600-1925

What is in This Collection?

This collection includes images of a combination of church family register extractions and indexes for the district of Rhine Hesse-Palatinate (Rheinland Hessen-Pfalz) in Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz). Most image sets are arranged chronologically (by year of event) or alphabetically (by surname).

Family registers may go back to the 1500s, when they began during the time of the Reformation. Because of wars, natural disasters, and accidents, many churches were destroyed, along with all or part of their records. Very few church records go back before 1650 because of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Family registers were created with information from the parish register and should be used as a guide to search the actual church records for the ancestors’ christening, marriage, and burial information. The text in church family registers is written mainly in German. However, earlier text could be handwritten in Latin and after 1945 handwritten in Gothic script. The headings for the extracted information are in English.

Beginning in the 1500s, churches began keeping family registers. This collection of extracted data was created to make it easier to research ancestors.

Church records (Kirchenbücher) are excellent sources for accurate information on names, dates, and places of birth, baptism, marriage, death, and burial. They are the most significant source of genealogical information for Germany before 1876. Most people who lived in Germany were recorded in a church record. However, the information found in a family register depends on how detailed the minister made his record. The extraction of data depends on how well the records were read.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

Reading These Records

These records are written in German. For help reading these records see:

• German Language and Languages
• German Genealogical Word List
• Latin Genealogical Word List
• Germany Handwriting

FamilySearch Learning Center videos:

• German Paleography Seminar

To Browse This Collection

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

• Person's name
• Spouse or Parent's names
• Date of birth, marriage, or death
• Place of birth, marriage, or death

Collection Content

For more information about these records see Germany, Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records.

Sample Images

• 

  1907-17 Church Record

• 

  1922 Church Record

• 

  1824-50 Explanation of Format and Symbols