The “Ortssippenbuch Diefenbach” is written in German but anyone can read the substance of the book. Let me give a typical family entry, the basic unit of presentation.
The numbers shown in "maroon" color are "family numbers" in the “Ortssippenbuch Diefenbach”.
I am not sure how well the special symbols will come through. The asterisk, " * " should come through ok. As a look-alike for a star, we can associate it with birth (“star in the east”). The two wavy lines, " » ", which is the mathematical symbol for “approximately” suggest water waves and hence baptism. The character " † " looks like a cross and is the symbol for date of death. The two side-by-side small circles, " ¥ ", for which I use the mathematical symbol for infinity, are the symbol meaning “married”. With a hyphen between the two circles such as "o-o" we have unmarried parents. Two circles separated with an x such as "oxo" means “divorced”. In some cases, the first date after a name does not have an asterisk or the wavy lines. Either both events (birth and baptism) occurred on the same day (not an uncommon event) or it was very difficult to discern the intention of the writer. The symbol " ® " (a "right pointing arrow", used by the author to signify "see" or "go to") points to a family number where more information is to be found.
(Note from Webmaster: To see the sybmols mentioned above, you must have the Microsoft (MS) Font "Symbol" installed and activated. This font is one of the basic MS fonts, and, unless you have deleted it or deactivated it, it should be on your system. If you do not have "Symbol" installed, you should certainly re-install it, since many/most webpages depend on it.)
The dates are given in the sequence day, month, and year, working from the shortest interval to the longest interval.
The choice of a “Fisher” record has no significance except that I got started looking for Ludwig Fischer. There is no Ludwig Fischer in Diefenbach.
Let’s see how well this note comes through.
(26 Apr 04)
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.