Fnding the Mecklenburg Parish Churchbook Duplicates on Ancestry and other new databases

mecklenburg-l
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For the English writers / speakers on this list.

The newest databases on www.ancestry.com (or it's various international versions) are not immediately added to the overall collections like Births, Marriages, Deaths or Census, etc., nor to the various state or country collections like New York or Germany.

To see the newest databases before they are added to their appropriate collections on ancestry do the following.

Note: this works for the USA and Canada version. I'm pretty sure but not positive it is very similar for the other international versions of ancestry.

From the ancestry.com homepage click on the Search tab at the top of the page.

On the search page, scroll down to near the bottom of the page. At the bottom of the column on the right side of the page click on "recent website additions"

You will then be taken to the page listing the newest databases that have been added or updated.

Under the posted date of 12/7/2009 you will see " Mecklenburg, Germany, Parish Register Transcripts, 1876-1918 (in German)." Click on that listing and you are at the database. Below the search form you will see a list of the parishes included in the database. Some of the parishes in this database actually include church records earlier than 1876.

Of course to use the database you need to subscribe to the world subscription or be at a library that has the library edition of ancestry.

This "Recent Website Additions" page is updated every time ancestry adds or updates a database on its site.

ALSO

For those with Mecklenburg ancestors, if you know the village but not the parish go to the following website of the Mecklenburg Genealogy Group and click on the "Locations" button. Then type in the name of your village and it will give you a list of matches that tell you the location of the village's parish. It will even give you a basic overview of where the village is on a map. This locations are only for Mecklenburg-Schwerin or Mecklenburg-Strelitz not all of Germany. This is a German site but it has several English pages. Of course, if may get multiple hits for your village name you will still need to figure out which village is the one you seek.

http://mfp.math.uni-rostock.de/

Hope this helps. Sorry for not writing this in German also but it's getting late and I'm tired.

Lisa

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Thank you for the information. When I was at the library, I tried to access the ancestry.de website but everything was by subscription. I will try tomorrow and look for the button you mention. When I searched the site for Dornheim, it only gave the older census sites.
John Dornheim

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Thanks, Lisa, for telling us how to find the churchbook duplicates. My church records of my grandfather's little home village are included!

Just to make sure I'm not wasting a lot of time browsing through the pages --- they are not indexed, right?

Mona-
searching Mueller and Regling in Triepkendorf.

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Mona,
   They are not indexed, but here's the advantage of browsing through the
   pages.
   First of all you get an idea of how the churchbooks are organized.
   Usually they follow a pattern of births, then confirmations, marriages,
   and deaths. The latter records are important because they usually list
   some parents' names and the town they're from.
   You get an idea of the family names and the places they are born. Even
   if you can't speak German, it's not too hard to be able to decifer that
   much. You will be amazed at seeing how many of the same names run
   through the records. If there's only one record of a name, then there's
   a good chance that they have more records in another churchbook.
   As you read the records, if you are not already familiar with these
   place names, make a list, then go to a detailed map of Mecklenburg of
   the time period, and find the places. That will give you an idea of
   other places to look too.
   I hope you find your grandfather's relatives!
   Cheryle