Germany

[Aylala]

Hello,

I am a beginner!
My son is very curious about his ancestry which on my side is European.
We moved to Australia when I was a child, 45 years ago.
The rest of the family moved back to the Netherlands and Wales, UK.
The thing is my mother doesn't want to talk about family at all.
Bad things happened during WW2 which apparently were never healed.
I managed to get the names of my grandparents on my mother's side by
looking on google and finding my uncle.
Although they moved back to the Netherlands sometimes before the war
both my grandfather and grandmother were born in Dortmund, Germany.
Grandfather was Dutch and grandmother, German.
What brought me to RootsChat was a google link to someone who was asking
about Dortmund. They recommended the Standesamt as a source for records.
Everytime I type variations on this I cannot understand the results.
All are in German and despite what everyone here says that the language is
similar to Dutch (I can read a little) I cannot make head nor tail of it.
Can anyone help please?

[Aylala]

I just found a post started by Berlin-Bob re German ancestry.
I will try some of the links. Thankyou.

[Aylala]

Well, the past few hours have yielded little.
The language is too difficult again.
The best site was http://gedbas.genealogy.net/index.jsp

The main problem is that my grandmother's maiden name is Freund which means the same as Friend.

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi Aylala,

Welcome to RootsChat

Ingeneral there is a lot less data online in Germany, so it's usually a question of knowing (or finding out) where exactly in Gemany, so you can write to the relevant Registry Office (Standesamt) or church records office.  You amy also need to prove that you are a dirct relation before they will tell you anything.

The Standesmat Dortmund is here:

Standesamt Dortmund

Südwall 2-4
44122 Dortmund

Tel-Nr. 0231/ 50-13331
Fax-Nr. 0231 / 50-26015


eMail: standesamt@dortmund.de

Try writing in english, with as many details as possible about your grandmother, and if that doesn't help, we can help you translate, or with translations.

Good luck,
Bob

ps I've moved this topic to the Europe board, as we have many good  helpers there
 

[Aylala]

Thank you for your welcome and thank you also for moving my post to the right place.
Yes I was feeling a little guilty that I posted without reading the whole forum choices first. Was rather tired from spending too much time in one go trying to find something.
I will definately write that email!

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi Aylala,

Yes I was feeling a little guilty that I posted without reading the whole forum choices first.

No problems ! - it's a big forum, and it takes a while to find out all the possibilities

Good luck with the e-mail,
Bob