Primärquellen für die litauendeutsche Ahnenforschung 18./19. Jahrhundert

Genealogists who want to identify their Lithuanian-German ancestors have received an extremely valuable tool with the IAGL index. For the first time, the disparate source material on the history of the rural German settlement in southwestern Lithuania, which ended in 1944/5, is recorded in a single comprehensive index. At the center of this index are the traditional church records and civil status registers of the Evangelical Lutheran communities in Lithuania. Since these records and registries have significant gaps, it is necessary to use other sources that contain usable information. Of particular note for the first half of the 20th century are the indices of the Deutsches Ausland-Institut and the digitized holdings of the Einwandererzentralstelle (EWZ) of the Third Reich. Anyone who has used the IAGL index or their own family documents for genealogical research back to the middle of the 19th century is faced with a difficult problem: a gap in the Protestant church records in Lithuania. The purpose of this article is to describe ways in which Lithuanian-German genealogical research can at least partially close the gap. From the English translation, published: International Association of Germans in Lithuania (IAGL)