ARCHIVPORTAL-D

Photo by Catarina Carvalho on Unsplash

My focus has been on German research and after a recent webinar, I learned about this site ARCHIVPORTAL-D which provides a handy way to locate archive materials across Germany. Let’s look.

I like this site because it has a map of Germany that allows you to select the area of Germany that you’re interested in. Once you choose an area, you can then filter to find contact information for a variety of items including civic and church records. Once you do that, you will find the physical address of the archive as well as any digital links to the material. However, the material available in the digital archives can vary from the 1800s to the 1970s and beyond. It isn’t a total solution to finding your ancestor records but I do like that instead of searching the web to find these archives, there is one convenient place to filter your search.
As an example, I searched for Rhineland-Pfalz archives and once I chose the digital records, I was able to filter the church records and after that to genealogy information. I couldn’t find any digital records to search but there is a wealth of information about what is available at the archives and how to use them.
Diocesan Archives | Diocesan Archive Trier
Genealogy | Diocesan Archive Trier
In today’s world we like our digital records. Unfortunately, not everything is digitized yet and we should explore these options, especially if we haven’t been fortunate enough to find digital records. I hope you take some time to explore these German archives. Happy exploring!