German Researchers

From GenWiki

We get quite a few inquiries from our friends looking for help regarding research in Germany.

This list shows some of the professional researchers.

Please be aware this is by no means a complete list and it will be updated frequently.

In order to do a thorough research, there could be a lot of time involved and it could get quite costly. Therefore, before you enter into any agreements, make sure to know ALL the details involved.

We are NOT recommending a specific researcher or company. It is your OWN responsibility to verify all the facts beore you sign anything.

[edit] Searchingforyou.org

• International Tracing Services and Genealogy
• Ancestor and descendant search
• Reuniting people with their birth families
• Locating former military members of World War II occupational forces and locating their child or children overseas
• Locating the birth parents of adopted children.
• Fixed price packages:
  • Genealogy research: fixed rate € 125 three generations, each additional generation € 55.
  • People search: fixed rate € 300.

For more details see website at Searchingforyou.org

[edit] Heureka! - the historical research bureau

Genealogical database for the 'Emsland' and the 'Grafschaft Bentheim'

You are looking for your roots in Germany? A great number of emigrants left their homeland for a better life in the "New World" since the 19th century. Our database contains actually about 900.000 persons, in particular from the present-day counties Emsland und Grafschaft Bentheim in northwestern Germany.

You can send a fee-required inquiry of our database with the form on our website. The research fee amount: 19 Euro [or 23 US-Dollars].

The inquiry contains an extract of all persons with this surname from our database. The listed people are not yet genealogically linked. [If there are no entries concerning your requested surname, no fee is payable!]

If you wish a linked list of ancestors, please notify us separately, on the form. Costs for research in this case are calculated on the basis of an hourly fee of 29 Euro [or 35 US-Dollar]. In most cases the costs for researching and linking your ancestors are between 58 and 290 Euro [or 70-347 US-Dollar]. You can also set a limit in costs or agree to a step-by-step progressional plan.

For more details see our website at Heureka! - The Historical Research Bureau

[edit] Beyond History

Did your ancestors emigrate from Germany?

Beyond History is a Hamburg-based professional genealogical research service for Germany with a special focus on emigration research.

We search for your emigrant ancestors in the Hamburg passenger departure lists covering records of over 5 million emigrants during the years 1850 – 1934 but also use other complementing sources and our own data bases. Additionally, we are researching civil, church and other records in local archives throughout Germany and assist in the transcription of historic documents. We are fluent in German and English and can read the German scripts.

Beyond History

Wendloher Weg 8

D-20251 Hamburg / Germany

fon: + 49- 40- 46 77 77 35

fax: + 49- 40- 46 77 77 34

e-mail

I have dealt with Beyond History and I have found them to be outstanding.
 They are especially knowledgeable about the Hamburg passenger lists. 
They are a joy to work with - I recommend them. Ed from Albany, New York

I have worked with Beyond History in the past and, in fact, am again currently working with Beyond History on a project.
I can sincerely say, I have only good things to say of this company.They have great communications skills,
 work in a timely manner, and quite frankly have found more information than I could ever have hoped for.
I feel very fortunate to have found this company.
Gail Baerny,Kirkland, WA,USA

[edit] HISTORICAL FAMILY RESEARCH

• Consulting, research, ordered research
• Work on site in the archives of Munich, Regensburg, Passau, as well as in other South German churches and state archives.
• Providing:
  • Church book entries,
  • Latin and German translations.
  • Topographical maps of the area of origin
  • Local history of town of origin
  • Meaning of family names, etymology
  • Entry of coat of arms
  • Photographs of house of birth.

Email

[edit] Martin Koepple

Martin Koepple
Panoramastr. 31
D-73207 Plochingen
Germany
Email

• Services:
  • Specialized research in the Baden-Württemberg, Palatine, Bavaria area.
  • Other German states on request.
  • Search and evaluation of city and state archives (civil records).
  • Can supply history of places.
  • Fluent in the English language.
  • All documents will be transcribed and translated into English, including Latin documents.

[edit] Rating Researchers

And here is a comment from Michael:

Rating German researchers is different from the Feedback function of a buying site, such as eBay or Amazon. I find feedback on such sites to be very useful in terms of vendors and products. More than once the feedback has steered me away from an obsolete product to a newer one or one that works.

Rating researchers is quite different. The search for ancestral documentation in non-trivial in the best of cases. Language and culture is a bigger barrier than one may think (see my earlier posting on one set of my experiences in this regard). We in the US typically have scant information for the researcher to go on. The researchers are human; they do not like to fail. There are few central archives in Germany. The information we seek is typically in a local archive. But which one? One can look in the town archive and not find the ancestor, only to look in the district archive and find it. This is two searches; each costing the researcher time. And then we get the bill and gulp. My point is that any rating of a researcher is a rating of a researcher and of us, a team rating. How do we use that? I, for one, think it not fruitful.

I make no mention of rip offs because I know of none. I have used 8 researchers in Germany and have not come even close to being ripped off. Spent money to no avail? Yes, too much. But I am looking for needles in the German archive haystack. I find researchers by asking researchers that I have found success with to recommend one for the next area. The researchers specialize in areas to minimize travel time and costs. This referral process is the same as I use in the US. In the US, I use only 'licensed' researchers; the full license, not the practicing license. And I ask each for referrals to the next area. The good ones know which other ones are good. And the good ones are amazing. They find documents you would not believe existed, in places you could not have guessed if you did not live in the locality. On the way, I have a number of bad experiences with US researchers before I figured out a way to select them.

The one bad experience I had in using a German researcher was because she was in a different specialty than historical genealogy. She told me she specialized in kinship research for inheritance purposes but I was desperate, and naive. That was $200 down the drain but a good lesson.

So, you have my thoughts. Now, how about experiences with BEYOND HISTORY? - michael

[edit] FAMILY RESEARCH IN NORTH-BAVARIA

I am specialized on a little area in Upper Franconia in North Bavaria, an area between the towns of Hof, Muenchberg and Plauen, with a diameter of about 50 km. My database contains now actually about 150,000 individual people. Inquiries to my database are free of charge; my researches in archives to link persons, are with costs. For more details see my website at [http:www.ancestors.in.bava.ria.ms]

Karl Greim Schleizer Street 28 D-95028 Hof / Bavaria

Email