The German Familienstammbuch explained

If your ancestors came from Germany, you may have inherited a small bound book with a gold-stamped cover, full of certificates, stamps and old handwriting. That is a Familienstammbuch, a German family book. For anyone researching German roots it is often the best starting point, because it brings official records of several generations together in one place. This article explains what it is, how to read it, which German words you will meet and how to request records from Germany.

What is a Familienstammbuch?

A Familienstammbuch is a folder or book for the civil registration certificates of one family. It grew up alongside Germany’s civil registry offices (Standesämter), which have existed throughout the German Empire since 1876. Traditionally a couple received it at their civil marriage, and over the years the birth certificates of their children and later the death certificates were added.

Today the book is optional. Many registry offices offer one at the wedding, but couples can buy one elsewhere or do without. The book itself is not an official document; the certificates inside it are. Do not confuse it with the Familienbuch, an official register that German registry offices used to keep themselves. It was replaced by the marriage register on 1 January 2009.

What you will find inside

• The marriage record: a marriage certificate or, in older books, an entry filled in and sealed by the registrar, with the names, dates and places of birth of both spouses.
• The children’s births: birth certificates or pre-printed pages on which the registry office entered each child.
• Deaths: death certificates of the couple and their children, sometimes a note of divorce.
• Church entries in many older books: the church wedding, baptisms, confirmation or first communion, entered and stamped by the parish.
• In some editions, pages for the couple’s ancestors, a small pedigree chart or space for notes.

Families also tucked other papers inside: baptism certificates, vaccination records, death notices, photographs. Leaf through carefully before you take anything out.

How to read it: a short glossary

Most entries follow the same pattern, so a few dozen words get you a long way:

• Standesamt – civil registry office; Standesbeamter – registrar
• Eheschließung, Heirat – marriage; Trauung – wedding ceremony; Eheurkunde, Heiratsurkunde – marriage certificate
• Geburt – birth; Geburtsurkunde – birth certificate
• Sterbefall, Tod – death; Sterbeurkunde – death certificate
• geb. (geboren) – born; before a surname it means née: “Anna Müller geb. Schmidt”
• ledig – single, never married; verh. (verheiratet) – married; verw. (verwitwet) – widowed; gesch. (geschieden) – divorced
• ev. (evangelisch) – Protestant; kath. or röm.-kath. – Catholic
• Ehemann, Ehefrau – husband, wife; Sohn, Tochter – son, daughter; Eltern – parents
• Beruf – occupation; wohnhaft in – residing in
• Taufe, getauft – baptism, baptised; Konfirmation – confirmation
• beglaubigte Abschrift – certified copy; Auszug – extract; Randvermerk – marginal note (later changes such as a divorce)
• Symbols: * born, ⚭ married, † died

Note that German dates are written day first: 04.03.1921 is 4 March 1921. Place names may have changed, especially in areas that are now in Poland, Russia or other countries.

Using it for your research

Photograph or scan every page first, including the blank ones, so you can work on screen and spare the original. Then take each entry in turn. Copy all given names exactly as written, record women under their maiden names, and note every place of birth: it tells you which registry office or parish register holds the next generation. Older marriage entries often name the parents of both spouses, which gives you a whole generation at once. The religion tells you whether to look in Protestant or Catholic church books, and the registry office plus entry number lets you request the full register entry, which often holds more than the certificate.

Enter everything into a pedigree chart and cite the book as your source. Our article How to read and fill in a pedigree chart explains the numbering, and our free printable charts include a family group sheet that matches exactly what a Familienstammbuch covers: one couple and their children.

Requesting German records

If the book is missing, or you need a document it does not contain, write to the Standesamt of the town where the event took place: birth at the place of birth, marriage where the wedding was, death where the person died. Certificates are generally issued to the person concerned, a spouse and direct relatives such as children and grandchildren, and a fee is charged. Registry offices keep birth registers for 110 years, marriage registers for 80 and death registers for 30. After that, the registers usually pass to the local municipal or city archive, where they are open for research. For the former eastern territories of Germany, the Standesamt I in Berlin holds part of the surviving registers; many others are in Polish or Russian archives.

Older documents: Ahnenpass and church family registers

Some families also kept an Ahnenpass from the 1930s or 1940s. In the Nazi era it served to prove so-called “Aryan descent”, for example for civil servants or before a marriage. For genealogy it is still useful, because it lists parents, grandparents and often further generations with data taken from civil and church records. Check its entries against the original records where you can.

Before civil registration, parishes kept the church books. In some regions they also kept family registers (Familienregister) summing up a whole family on one page, best known from the Protestant parishes of Württemberg from the early 19th century. For many villages, researchers have compiled Ortsfamilienbücher, local family books that bring together every family of a parish from the church records.

Old German handwriting

Handwritten entries in older books are often in Kurrent, the German cursive script used well into the 20th century, or in Sütterlin, a simplified form taught in schools from 1915 until it was dropped in 1941. Printed parts are usually set in Fraktur. Alphabet charts help, and so does comparing an unclear letter with words in the same document that you can already read, such as printed field names. Volunteers in genealogy forums often help with single words.

From the family book to the family tree

A Familienstammbuch usually covers two generations, with luck three. Our guide How to make a family tree, step by step shows how to carry on from there. And if you would like your German family on the wall, you can design a family tree poster with us from a GEDCOM file or in the online wizard, with a preview before you order. Design your family tree poster.