Genealogy Links
Variety of websites
Bavarikon https://www.bavarikon.de/ This site has lots of stuff! German school books, maps, pictures, and more!
Bayerischer Landesverein für Familienkunde, Familienforschung in Altbayern (Oberbayern, Niederbayern, Oberpfalz) und Schwaben. https://www.blf-online.de/ Members have access to several databases (25€ per year). Youtube videos are free. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-3u8xXRRsIbut2HnC1VUA/videos
BillionGraves - Cemetery memorials
Books We Own - A Look-Up Resource for International Genealogical Research
Find A Grave Debbie's profile (click "Virtual Cemeteries")
Genealogy Bargains (Thomas MacEntee) - https://www.facebook.com/genealogybargains https://genealogybargains.com/ (not updated)
Genealogy Events Calendar - many are virtual and free
Links galore (not my website) - https://sites.google.com/site/familyhistoryinternetsites/#_fs Family History Internet Sites: blogs, newsletters, FamilySearch, forums, libraries, archives, links, maps, records, societies, technology, tips
Linkpendium - Genealogy and Family History links
Myths about immigrants having last names changed upon entering the US: https://stevemorse.org/ellis/EllisMythNames.htm
Name finders in Germany - The information is taken from telephone books https://www.kartezumnamen.eu/en/
https://forebears.io/surnames http://geogen.stoepel.net/ http://legacy.stoepel.net/en
University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. https://search.library.wisc.edu/search/system Type a search term into the search box. An item of interest to Plain and Spring Green, Wisconsin, is the Doctor Marcus Bossard collection "Papers, 1887-1947" Call Number: M91-144 https://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/9911124649302121
Obits and more: https://www.theancestorhunt.com/blog/free-wisconsin-obituaries-and-obituary-index-links#.XuPxRUUzaUk
Panoramio - pictures by DebbieBlau (towns in Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, etc). Panoramio shut down forever in Nov. 2017, but some of my photos can be seen at Google Maps in the side panel. Credit me if the photos are used in any publications. Ask first before posting to websites.
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK): https://raogk.org/ Volunteer to do free genealogy or find a volunteer to help you. Offline since 2011, the site came back in January 2015. See https://raogk.fandom.com/wiki/Random_Acts_of_Genealogical_Kindness_Wiki
Sauk County Historical Society (Baraboo, Wisconsin)
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHeG6wF98F_kb0yYgephHLA/videos
Website: https://saukcountyhistory.org/
St. Anthony de Padua Catholic Cemetery, Germantown, Wisconsin - Pictures of grave markers/tombstones
Catholic Directories from 1888 to 1948 can be viewed online or downloaded as PDF; they are searchable: https://archive.org/details/bplcatholicdir?&sort=-date&page=3 The books have information about Dioceses in USA, parish priests, and more. Necrology pages have dates of deaths of priests. Look for a table of contents near the front of the book. A priest's name can be found in the page of the parish and also in the of priests. Missing years: 1889, 1891 to 1896, 1899, 1909, 1917, 1943, 1944.
Wisconsin books that can be viewed (many are free). There are at least 4 pages of book titles, however some links do not work: http://www.digitalbookindex.org/subject_search/search010hstregionalwisconsina/1
La Crosse, Wisconsin, History, website has books that can be viewed, downloaded, and related links, organized in categories, or browse all, there are also audio interviews: http://lacrossehistory.org/collections/religious-groups/catholic
Monroe County Local History Room and Museum, 200 E. Main St., Sparta WI 54655. Searchable indexes: https://www.monroecountyhistory.org/indexdata.php
Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Biographies, obits, and more https://www.ecpubliclibrary.info/echistory/search.php
Google Books: https://books.google.com/advanced_book_search?hl=en&fbclid=IwAR0zb2bhHQQra6Ts6nFm3aRoC-WbJdhou2RFqpSCVdDrjuL-m56HeA0aTiQ
Die Maus, Staatsarchiv Bremen, has a database that is free to search: https://die-maus-bremen.info/index.php
Click "Datensammlung" at the top, then "Auswanderung" to search for Bremen ship passenger lists at http://www.passagierlisten.de/. If you find a person of interest, you can then look for the original image at Ancestry.com. Under "Datensammlung" are other interesting databases.
Newspapers
Directions how to search the following 3 databases for newspapers and find microfilm reel numbers, click HERE where there are many more links to newspapers.
Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) - newspapers on microfilm
BadgerLink.net - online newspapers from 2005 to the present
NewspaperARCHIVE.com - online newspapers dating to the 1700s
Plain History Genealogy Group (PHGG)
Led by Gary Haas, meetings are held every other month at Kraemer Library in Plain, Franklin Township, Sauk County, Wisconsin. During Covid 19 times in 2020, meetings were held online. Check out Gary's newsletters with tutorials and tons of information: PHGG newsletters
Scrapbooks from the Plain and Spring Green, Wisconsin, area
Hosted at Gary Haas' Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B2fpkb2DGhQ7QWdjU0szR1pUSUE
There are two collections of scrapbooks:
0012_Blau-DeanBea-Scrapbooks (1 folder with indexes, 1 folder with scrapbooks): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B2fpkb2DGhQ7OW9NcWJwRHdLSkk
00010001_HomeNews_05_115_020_PDF: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B2fpkb2DGhQ7R25WTHRoM05FeE0
Collection of clippings: 00010002_MiscClippings: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lIH9mxtdTWTXsYhzcRR4k4vAhfITOmP0
Download the PDFs to your computer because the PDFs are searchable. You can search PDFs without opening each one separately. Here's how:
Open the folder where several PDFs are stored.
Open one PDF. Press Ctrl + Shift + F
A search pane will open on the right side.
Under "Where you would like to search?" choose "All PDF document in"
Type a search term and click Search
Results of the search will appear in the white space below the "Search" button. You may need to drag the right panel to the left to see the results.
Click + to expand each PDF to see details of the results.
Left-click on any result and the page will open on the left panel.
The search term will be highlighted in blue.
German tombstones, prayers cards and more
Bavarian State Society for Family History:
Bayerischer Landesverein für Familienkunde e.V.(BLF), genealogy in Altbayern (Oberbayern, Niederbayern, Oberfpalz) and Schwaben (Swabia). Home page
The BLF genealogy group is selling DVDs with genealogy information that includes:
Ancestors database: 133,000 people linked from research collections of 30 group members, and maps
8,700 prayer cards from Schwaben
Personal data for 80,000+ people from grave photos in Bavarian cemeteries (area of the Donau-Ries, northwest from Oettingen, Landkreis Neuburg-Schrobenhausen, west of Regensburg, and graves of 5 Jewish cemeteries in Donau-Ries). A list of cemeteries that were photographed is HERE. The cemetery project is explained HERE.
PDF table of over 130,000 Schwaben weddings. A list of towns and years included in this database is HERE.
List of marriages from Hohenburg and Kastl (Oberpfalz) from 1645 to 1755
62,000 obituaries (death notices) from the "Tagespresse" (Daily Press)
For more information: http://www.blf-online.de/blf-dvd-2012
Learn German
German handwriting
Type a name or words into the "Sökord" (search keywords) box, click "Sök" (search) and see how it looks in old Gothic handwriting: http://www.tydatext.se/tyskstil (This is a Swiss language website, but German is very much the same)
3-part series for learning to read Gothic handwriting: Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL0wFoBaCXs
Make transcribing easier
A program that makes transcribing easier is called Transcript by Jacob Boerema
English version: http://www.jacobboerema.nl/en/Freeware.htm
Open a scanned document on the top of the screen, and type the transcript on the bottom of the screen. The Transcript webpage has a free and paid version.