Oh, my tired eyes after spending hours walking through the 1700s last night. I tell myself my ancestors must be on this page or the next or the one after that in their village church records. I'm fortunate my ancestors were Catholic. I have a good chance of finding them in the records on the online website Matricula (https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/). The fatigue was worth it. I finally found my fifth great-grandparents!
In the 1980s, one of my relatives researched the Heines tree. She listed my great-grandparents, Theodore Heines and Margaretha Marior, from Germany, and their birth dates. There was no other information. I found out later that neither surname was correct.
Unlike the records of my other ancestors, which are available on FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, or other genealogy sites, the information on these ancestors’ home villages wasn’t indexed. There are no search engines that would take me to their records.
After several false starts, in 2021, I joined the Facebook Germany Genealogy group. In my initial online search, I found that Theodore Hines’ naturalization papers listed Oldenburg as his home. That gave the volunteers a location to look for his birth record, which they found within a few days. Now I knew his birth name, Theodore Haÿens Baltjens, his parents’ names, and his community.
Because there was no search engine for these records, I needed to go page by page, which was time-consuming. I felt overwhelmed. How could I do that without understanding the German language? At first, these records were Greek to me. Some of the 1700 ones are in Latin. Looking back, I wish I would have studied Latin and German in college instead of French! If the writing is legible, someone can translate the German and Latin. If I’m lucky, the records will have surnames underlined.
Theodore had a first wife, but no one researching this family knew her name. To find their marriage, I assumed he was probably no younger than 20 when he got married. I pulled up the marriage records in that village from 1841, looking at the entries on each page. The following year, 1842, is where I found their marriage record. Unlike many marriage records, this one included both partners' parents. What a find! I solved that mystery.
Here is the translation: 26 November 1842, Ackermann (farmer) Theodor Haÿens Baltjens of Neuscharrel, son of Eilert Haÿens Baltjens of Neuscharrel and Regina Haÿen Schmidt and Tecla Knipper of Neuscharrel daughter of Herm Knipper of Neuscharrel and Helena Behnen. Witnesses: Heÿe Eilert Baltjens, a farmer from Ramsloh, and Johann Knipper, a farmer from Neuscharrel.
From my research, I know Heÿe Eilert Baltjens was Theodore's brother, and Johann Knipper was Tecla's brother. I can imagine both families celebrating that happy occasion.
In the beginning it was a challenge to work with these files. It took lots of time and patience. I still can't translate every word, but I'm getting better. But now, after many, many hours, I would hate to have missed out on all the joy of discovering a new family member, a marriage, or even a death. I’ve not just visited these records once; I've been through them over the last three years, again and again, searching for more ancestors. I am so thankful to that Facebook group for directing me to these church records.
While looking for Theodore’s family, I came across the Neuenkamps, Thobens, and Gerdes, all neighbors of Theodore in his small village of Neuscharrel, Cloppenburg, Lower Saxony. More than likely, these families knew each other and maybe spent time together farming or attending church. The Knippers, his inlaws, were also part of this community.
In my research I've found whole families: mother, father, and several young children who all died within days of each other, and women giving birth and dying shortly after that. Even though I have no connection to these neighbors, these events brought tears to my eyes and questions as to how the small community dealt with all of the deaths.
If you have Catholic ancestors and know their village, many, but not all, church records are on Matricula. The records include Taufen (Birth), Trauungen (Marriage), and Beerdigungen (Death). Some churches will have other documents, including civil registries. As I mentioned earlier, research involves going page by page. That slow process gives me a real feel of the community.
If you are on Facebook and need help, join the German Genealogy and German Translations groups. As I mentioned, the German Genealogy group helped me find my ancestors' village and translate German records. There are also Facebook groups for specific regions. I belong to the Genealogy Lower Saxony Group. In all these groups, many members are German or German-speaking and are willing to help.
In addition to the Facebook groups, Ernest Thode's German and English Genealogy Dictionary is a great resource when translating the records.
These records have a few problems, from misspelled names to inaccurate ages in death records. Some pages are damaged, so they can’t be translated. However, these invaluable records have played an essential role in unraveling some of my ancestors' mysteries. If you have Catholic ancestors and have not used these records in your research, join me in visiting these communities. It will be well worth your time.
That’s a fantastic marriage record! I’m so used to seeing the bare bones lines in ledger books in the states. I have a 6th cousin who sent me our shared ancestors German Catholic records and he translated them for me (he’s in Germany). I now realize through your article how much time he saved me by doing that.
Congratulations on the breakthrough! And thank you for the inspiration to check out Facebook groups! I hadn't thought to look for country-specific genealogy groups, but now I've already found a few that might be able to help me with my own roadblocks 😃