The word, Ortssippenbuch , is a combination word: Orts = Place, sippen = genealogy, buch = book. The people who make up these books are really dedicated, because doing one is much like Hank Z Jones' work with the New York Palatines. Some Germans have done several Ortssippenbuecher. The books are not too common in the U.S. (or in Germany). The most likely sources are the Library of Congress, the FHL in Salt Lake City (where a few have been microfilmed), or the New York City Public Library. (I believe that I own one but I can’t lay my hands on it just now.) Of course, the books are in German, but that is not a difficulty because they are understandable rather immediately. A German dictionary could be useful to look up a few words. Also, a detailed map is useful.
For a quick survey of a village, nothing can beat an Ortssippenbuch. Nearly always the books are indexed, so the fastest way to gain some insight is to peruse the Index. In the last note, I gave you a long list of Germanna names. This does not say that any of the Germanna people of these names came from Oberoewisheim or Neuenbuerg. But I would much rather start searching in the village Church Records where the name in question is in an Ortssippenbuch.
Very often, a name in one village will be found in adjacent villages. One can also use the telephone book as a research tool. In Beyond Germanna , I showed the results that could be obtained with the German Names software program.
I am convinced that much more history is to be found in Germany, especially of connections among the families that we know in America.
In doing an Ortssippenbuch, the author generally relies on the Church Records for his/her primary source of information. Some of the authors will consult the civil records also to help fill in the gaps. Occasionally, cross referencing to other Ortssippenbuch is done. In some books, the indexing includes the counts of the number of occupation and the place to which to emigration was made.
Please understand that these books are printed, not handwritten. There is no problem with the legibility or understanding what the letters are. In fifteen minutes, you can be at work using the Ortssippenbuch.
I did double check the information on the families I gave in the last note but most of them pertain to the Nineteenth Century. More information might be gained by consulting the Church Records for mentions of names that have too little information to construct a family.
(24 Feb 05)
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.