Looking Beyond the Facts

"German Church Registers: Where Only a Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing" presented by Dorothy A. Boyd-Bragg, PhD, was another worthwhile presentation at the NGS, although it was not what I expected. The focus was records for German churches in the United States (not Germany, which is what I was hoping to hear), but it provided a lot of very good information about German church records.

She also brought home the importance of understanding history and context for genealogists. For example, most German churches established in the US in the 1700's and 1800's brought with them attitudes and memories about the country and societies they left behind. The Lutheran and German reform church members apparently had not been persecuted and thus continued to record events much as they has back in Germany (in German... the switch to English would not occur until the early 1800's) while those of Amish or Mennonite backgrounds did not.

I also began to develop a deeper appreciation of the importance of looking beyond (maybe around is a better word) the event being documented to pick up subtle but important information. For example, sponsors may be an important link to other relatives since they were usually blood relatives (aunts, uncles and or grandparents). I also learned that Germans were clannish in that groups that migrated together tended to remain close, so that communion lists may yield clues about family relationships because church members sat, and hence were listed in many church records, together.