This week’s #FridayFind is how to decode an Orssippenbuch!

Orts-what-er, you say? Go check out our last #FridayFind where we explain what an Ortsippenbuch is and why they’re so important to German genealogy research.

Okay, you’re all caught up on what an Ortssippenbuch is, you’ve traced a line back to a specific town in Germany, and you’re lucky enough that your local library has a copy of their Ortssippenbuch, now… how do you read it?

Even if you’re already fluent in German, decoding an Ortssippenbuch isn’t always obvious. Take the highlighted individual above. Roughly the section means the following:

On November 19th, 1863, Rudolf Albert Bratzler, a cobbler born on January 12th, 1837 married his first wife, Caroline Friederike Frick. Caroline was born on January 26th, 1940 and died on April 16th, 1865. They had one child together: Heinrich Albert, who was born on December 23rd, 1864. At some point, Rudolf emigrated to the US.

To learn more about Rudolf’s parents, find number 0328. To learn more about Caroline’s parents, find number 0902. To learn more about Rudolf’s second marriage, find number 0334.

How did we get all that? The infinity symbol (∞) refers to a marriage. An infinity symbol with a Roman numeral two in front of it (II.∞) refers to a second marriage. The asterisks (*) refer to a birth and the plus signs (+) refer to a death. Each individual is assigned a number (ex. 0331), so the numbers in angle brackets (<aus 0328>) refer to where you can find more information about a related individual.

Still struggling to make heads or tails of an Orssippenbuch? Email us at emma@backlog-archivists.com!