Recently we have discussed research in Germany. There is one alternative to going and trying to do it yourself. Hire someone to do it for you. Two people, from America, who make a regular habit of researching for others, besides for themselves, are Roger Minert and Shirley Riemer, who were the authors of the book, " Researching in Germany ", which I was using in the discussion here. In giving their comments, they were basing them on experience. Another resource is a local person, or, more exactly, a professional researcher in Germany.
A few decades ago, the family of Theodore Walker hired researchers in Germany to investigate the Gar/Gahr/Gaar/Garr family. In the Germanna community, this family is represented by Andreas Gaar and his wife Eva Seidelmann, who came with five children in 1732. To show the extent or scope of what could be accomplished, fifty Gaar/Seidelmann ancestors were identified (counting Andreas and Eva themselves). I am not aware that any other Germanna family has so many of their German ancestors identified. (If anyone knows a family with more identified ancestors in Germany, I hope they will speak up.)
There is very little hope of finding more because the church books have just about been exhausted. The return on a search of the civil records would probably not be worth it. And certainly it would better be done by a German professional.
To give an example of how difficult it may be to find information, the piece of information which ties Matthias Planckenbuehler (the first of the name in western Germany) back to Austria was found in a private Schloss (castle) in Gresten, Austria. The particular piece of information was not found in a deliberate search but as the result of a dedicated man from Germany who photographed the information in the lord's record books. From the photographs, he typed an abstract of the data. Thus, when an inquiry was made he was able to search his pages of typed sheets for relevant facts. The original books remain the private property of the family and they are not about to allow people to use their house as a library.
It is probably the case that no researcher in Germany knows all of the sources of information, because so much is in private hands. But a professional is apt to make more progress than a private American citizen.
This is no reason to postpone your visit to Germany. Don't expect to make much progress on your research, but do expect to have a good time. On our trip two years ago, we wanted to find Unterbiegelhof (a farm). It appears, rather imprecisely, on a map. The process of finding it, which required some local help, was a good part of the fun. A bigger part of the fun was in finding it and in being graciously entertained by the owner. A similar situation occurred with another farm, Wagenbach, where we sipped champagne with the owner. We learned nothing new, but we had the pleasure of walking on the ground where George Utz lived and worked, and where Mary Sabina Volck played.
(01 Feb 02)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.