Another (..German) geneology thread. Question.

[Heyo]

Maybe somebody can give me some advice on this.

I am the product obvious of my dad, who's ancesrty came from Ireland and then to North America and has some America indian mixed in. I have traced that side up to my g-grandparents and can probably trace that farther if I want and probably will..

However my Mom's side is the question.

My mom and her family migrated from Germany (Freudenshtadt) to New Jersy when my mom was 8 years old. The to Florida and then I came along.

At the age of about 20 years old, I learned that my Grandfather on my mom's side was not my biological grandfather. (Not my mom's real dad)

My grandmohter grew up in the middle of WW2 Germany, and actually was in a civilian refugee camp in Poland for a while during the war, etc. Rough times.

I learned that a few years after that war my g-father had come across my grandmother, pregnant (with my mom) and nobody to look after her and the father for the baby not present, and so had decided to take car of her, marry her, and they raised my mom.

My grandfather.. or the one I always knew as my grandfather.. was the nicest, most selfless, coolest guy you could ever meet.. dedicated his whole life and worked his butt off to make his family happy and take care of them, and was happy with his books and his models.

He passed away last year.

Finding this out does not change how I felt about him. He *is* and always will be.. MY grandfather.

But, since 1/4 of my DNA is out there somewhere. I can't help but be curious about who this man is. (or was)

My mom said years ago that once my grandfather passed away, she would like to look into finding out who her real father is. But since then, she hasn't brought it up and I am not going to bring it up.

My grandmother does not know that I know about this, at my mom's request and I will honor that.

Going to either one of them, therefore, is out of the question for now.

Was he a German soldier who was killed in the war? No I guess it couldn't be.. my mom was born in 1950. Was he just some guy who ran off, things didn't work out?

I guess I'd could try and find my mom's birth record in Germany, and maybe that will have the father's name? Come to think of it I don't know if, by the time g-pa met g-ma, if she was still pregnant or already with a young child.

I don't want to contact the guy or anything, just curious about a person who genetically contributed 25% of who I am.

(He must be quite handsome! That's for sure :evilgrin:)

I have tried Googling all over the place on this one, came up empty.

Heyo

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Here are some sites I found on google. They didn't help you?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=germany+%2B+genealogy&spell=1

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=germany+%2B+geneology

[Heyo]

3. I checked..

... but my mom's maiden name is pretty common over there.

Either I get nothing or I get a zillion reults.. I will geep trying though. I'm just not too good at this geneology stuff yet.

Heyo

[cornermouse]

2. There may be a problem

My daughter-in-law whose family came from Europe in the vicinity of the World Wars told me that when they tried to trace back they discovered that in some areas of Europe where there was major fighting, records were destroyed.

[Heyo]

4. You may be right..

.but remember.. my mom as born in 1950... so... maybe the records survived.

Heyo

[Kellanved]

8. almost certainly

Post--war records should be complete. Send the city your mother was born in a letter, or better yet: ask your mother to do it. There is no Federal Registry, only the registry office ("Standesamt") in her birthplace will be able to fulfill the request. The birth certificate ("Geburtsurkunde") will cost about €7, although you might be more interested in a certificate of parentage ("Abstammungsurkunde").

Many registry offices also offer a genealogy service.

http://www.freudenstadt.de/stadt/buergeraz.htm

[Jerseygirltoo]

5. Here is my advice

My father was born in Germany in 1913. He fled the country before the war, and never went back, but in the 1970's, he needed his birth certificate for some reason, he sent away to Germany and they had it. He also was able to apply for & receive German social security benefits after he retired, because he had worked for about 10 years, and they had his work history on file.
My point is, the Germans are fanatical about keeping good records. If you know the name of the town where your mother was born, they must have her birth certificate. I would start by you or your mother contacting the German embassy in New York or Washington,and just ask how to get a copy of birth records.

[sherrem]

6. Hi Heyo

I can't offer you much, but I can give you a few websites that you might be able to find helpful. My specialty is Norwegian genealogy, so I'm afraid I can't be of more help.

This is a link to German Genealogy resources:
http://home.att.net/~wee-monster /

Rootsweb.com message board, where you can ask questions, request look-ups, etc:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=loca...

If you've already done research, you probably already know this, but the trick is to start with what you know and work your way back. Check if your grandmother has any family in Germany, if any of your family here has any letters or pictures...chances are if you contact Germany with a birth record request, your biological grandfather's name won't be on the certificate anyway.

Good Luck :)
Shi

[Jerseygirltoo]

7. You don't know Germans like I know Germans

Leaving a field blank on any kind of official form? Unheard of. It may not be the true father, if grandma lied about it, but for sure she had to put someone's name down.

[Cooley Hurd]

9. The Ellis Island site might be of help:

http://ellisislandrecords.org

Unfortunately, it didn't help me because all of my immigrant ancestors came over before Ellis Island opened in 1893. However, in your case it might be a great place to start!:thumbsup:

[CBHagman]

10. You might also check out Family Tree magazine.

I'm always getting genealogy tips from that magazine. They also have columns for genealogy problems, so if you wanted to take that rather public step and post a query, you could do so.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were groups or researchers that specialized in such issues as yours (adoptions, stepparents, etc.).

There's a lot of free stuff out there, including on usgenweb and Cyndi's List.

Good luck!

On edit: Family Tree magazine did an article on German ancestry recently. Be sure to look that up!