Schleswig-Holstein Genealogy Online
Family History Research on the Internet for Northern Germany
Sep 27, 2008
Once a person has exhausted all American resources for their ancestors who emigrated from either Schleswig or Holstein, the time has come to research records from those German states. The Internet is a good start for that endeavor. Finding a complete family tree is unlikely, but significant information can still be discovered on these sites.
Census Records
At Arbeitskreis Volkszahl-Register or AKVZ, it is helpful to have a German-English dictionary handy if you are not fluent. This site has transcriptions of census records between and including the years 1769 to 1946. Most census years are not complete for the whole of Schleswig-Holstein, but 1803 and 1835 are the most developed.
To use this site, just plug in any combination of information in the table, such as name, census year, church parish, occupation, and locality. Be sure to utilize different possible spellings of the name. Once you click "suchen" (search), you are presented with a list of possible individuals that fit your criteria. Click on the family number of an individual and you get a list of the household members.
Genealogists
The Genealogy Work Group of Schleswig-Holstein e.V. or AGGSH e.V. also has census records. This site has the entire 1803 census of the southern part of Schleswig, as well as for parts of Holstein for various years. In addition, it has a databank of emigrants from Schleswig-Holstein culled from ship records and other sources.
A dedicated collection of genealogists and historians make up the AGGSH and are willing to help amateur researchers. At their site you can leave a message or query seeking more information on your ancestors. Depending on the extent of the query, they will present a name of a member genealogist in Schleswig-Holstein offering their services, if you are interested.
Historical Background
Another professional genealogist offers his services at Rootdigger.de. There is an emigrants list at this site as well, along with a few maps and territorial descriptions of Schleswig-Holstein, and a list of popular first names in Schleswig-Holstein and their variations. A section of links and addresses of archive facilities are available, including the central archives of Schleswig-Holstein, the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesarchiv.
Also at Rootdigger you can learn the history of Schleswig-Holstein and its people. You get a feel of what your ancestors went through by examining a timeline from 450 to 1920. What stands out was that Schleswig-Holstein was fought over by several nations for centuries, a frequent battlefield that constantly disrupted or destroyed lives. The site also describes the different groups of people that settled in Schleswig-Holstein- the Anglians, Frisians, Dithmarschers, and Probsteiers.
Hopefully, using these websites will add to your knowledge of your Schleswig-Holstein ancestors. What you don't find out, you can ask the genealogists through a couple of these sites to perform some research as an option.
