We learned how to locate records for German immigrants in American Protestant church records in a class we watched yesterday. Many of the records include the village where the immigrants were born, which is what we all need to find church records in Germany.
Most records include critical information by the 1850s. They were written in German using the Gothic alphabet until about 1870. After 1870 you will find records written in both Latin and Gothic. Most churches began to use English by 1900.
I was interested to see that many of the examples used by the speaker were from Ancestry's database called Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Church Records, 1781-1969.
Roger Minert has published a set of books called German Immigrants in American Church Records. This is an ongoing series published beginning in 2003. The set of books concentrates on Midwest states and can be found at the Family History Library and other libraries around the country.
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