Birth certificate Germany

[Thecatisboss]

I'm trying to trace my Grandmother's family in Germany and wondered if anyone has ordered birth certificates from Germany? I know her fathers name, area she was born in and date of birth but ancestry has nothing online. Thanks.

Findmypast has baptism records up to 1898 but I'm guessing that's too early?

Join one of the FB groups but I think you may have an impossible task due to their privacy laws.

Thanks for the help and replies.

@Saker yes too early unfortunately. She was born in the 1920s.

Germany doesn't have a centralised records keeping system.

You'll need to go directly to the registry office (Standesamt) for the city or town where the person was born.

I used Google translate for the correspondence and then Monzo Transferwise to make the payment.

All depends on location - we couldn't trace my great grandfather because that records office was flattened by the us airforce in 1943! All records destroyed. It's a shame because we traced as far as the shipping manifest to England but the trail is cut

@gogohmm
Could Lutheran church records help ?

@glasgow1983 and @gogohmm. Thanks for that I do know the town in Schleswig-Holstein which was very very quiet during the war. The only bomb was when a bomber tried to jettison its bombs in one of the many lakes there and misjudged from what my Gran told me!

Agree with others who have said that German research is very, very tricky. Their privacy laws are much stricter than they are here, nothing is centralised, very little is online.

19th century (or pre-WW1) records are good, I have had lots of success in looking for passenger lists, census records etc from that period. But then you have to remember that pre-1871 Germany didn't even exist and it was Prussia, Baden, Saxony and all those other small kindgoms.

20th century is harder for the reasons everyone knows about - 2 major Wars, bombings, destruction of records, split into East/West. And in general, Germans are not interested in exploring their family history in the way that other nations are.

The one positive is that archivists and librarians in Germany will speak at least a little English and any time I have emailed I have had a polite response within a few days saying whether they can help or not.

Yes I have several times. If you're applying for a certificate that falls into the "Datenschutz" (Data Protection) time period, you have to be able to prove direct descent. You also need to know the area where the person was born. If you have both of these things then just contact the relevant Standesamt. It's quite straightforward. In some areas (such as Berlin) you can submit your application online, others will want you to complete and send them an application by email.

DH has a relative born in Hanover apparently, in the 19th century who became a naturalised British citizen.
DH got the Naturalisation certificate but the details he wanted weren't there.
Information is very sketchy. Neither DH or I speak German. Where do we start?
All we have is the name, the year and the city.
We're not sure if he was Luthern or Jewish.

Getting nothing on the Ancestry site in Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1500-1971

We know he was married and died in England.

If the relative was born after 1874, you can obtain a copy of the birth certificate by contacting either the registry office (Standesamt) or the archive. If before and if he was protestant try Archion for church books.

@Thecatisboss I am travelling through Schleswig-Holstein in July if I can be of any help?

if relative is from a region heavily affected by first and second world war the certificate might be lost.

@MMAMPWGHAP Thank you very much for your kind offer. Unfortunately as @BlackLambAndGreyFalcon said it will fall under Datenschutz rules as she was born in 1921. I envy you for going it's a beautiful area and one I visited lots when a child. I used to swim in the freshwater lakes round there which is amazing and lots of walking etc round there.

I havent yet emailed any standesamt - my Gran was born in-between Plön and Lubeck so figuring out which is closer (& trying to construct an email in my rusty German!).

In good news though I found her marriage certificate - fairly easy to find British soldiers marrying abroad at that time! And my mother has found my great Grandmother's identity card which is fascinating (& I'm sure I can see a strong family resemblance!)

Ahrensboek?https://www.ahrensboek.de/Aemter/Standesamt.html

Deepl.com is a good online translator (better than Google translate).

Hi I wanted to come back to the thread to say I received my Grandmother's birth certificate yesterday! So am very excited indeed (I can't actually read most of it but am still so happy!)

The German Standesamt were lovely and helpful (but I did have to track down the district a bit so had to wait for British passport office there).

That's great news @Thecatisboss. If you're on facebook I can recommend this group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/372174623644310) for helpful advice and translations. Just post a scan of the certificate and I'm sure someone will be able to help you. It should tell you both her parents' names including her mother's maiden name so that should give you something to go on for searching for their marriage. The marriage recrods will be out of the DatenSchutz time period and depending on place may even be digitalised and available on Ancestry or other websites.

Thanks @BlackLambAndGreyFalcon for that Facebook group I've just applied to join it.