Many times, it is very difficult to find the place of origin in Germany. There is one source that is not mentioned very often which was very useful for me. The source is church registration records in the U.S. When a new member joins a church, they often have to register. In my case, I was trying to find the place of birth of my oldest uncle. In the church registration records of new members in my home town church, my grandparents had to state the place and date of each baptism of the current family members to document that they were members of the Lutheran church and had been baptized. This information confirmed the place of baptism of each of my grandparents and also my oldest uncle!! I don't know if all churches had this kind of record, but it is sure worth asking about. Unfortunately, as we are searching, if we don't ask the right question, we don't get the right answer!! And, this is a source that many people do not know about.
I just returned from a wonderful trip to Germany visiting the areas of both Magdeburg and L�neburg. At the L�neburg Stadtarchiv, I was searching for an old address book to tell what houses my family lived in, which the archiv did not have for the years I was searching. I continued to ask questions as to what other records they had that would contain addresses. I ended up searching through several tax record books (not indexed), eventually finding my two families. I came home with wonderful old photos of my family homes from the archives along with new photos!! So, if one door closes, hopefully another door will open!
Joanne Becker
St. Michael, Minnesota