Best archives for RAAB in Bavaria 1590 to about 1820

[kidoncorner]

Best archives for RAAB in Bavaria 1590 to about 1820

The earliest information I have is Michael Raab, born about 1590 near Bad Kissingen and married in Burkardroth in 1623. Marriages and births took place in Burkardroth until 1676, when Johann Adam Raab married Marcia Ursula Stang in Würzburg. In the early 1700s, births were in Grafenrheinfeld or Würzburg. In 1799, my 2nd great grandfather, Theodor Phillip Joseph RAAB, was born in Ingolstadt but moved to Göllheim, Rhineland-Pfalz and married there in 1831. All of the above came to me without any sources which I now would like to develop.

I will be in Bavaria from September 1 to 14 doing research on RAAB ancestors. I understand that records in the Catholic Archives in Würzburg only start in 1876. I have asked for help from Markt-Burkardroth but they do not have records.

I would like to do some on-line research prior to my trip and also make any necessary appointments but do not know the most likely archives to start with.

Any guidance as to the best archives to visit would be appreciated.
Ted Raab
Fort Lauderdale, Florida USA

[gki]

Hello Ted,

I can't help you with specific archives, just some general notes:

- a public registrar was introduced in Bavaria only in 1876, marriages from before that time need to be looked up in church books. I believe your information about the church archive in Würzburg is therefore incorrect: they only provide information _until_ 1876. After that, you are expected to obtain such information from the registrar. Before that, you can use their services and study the books there.

- therefore, it is mandatory to know whether your ancestors were catholic or protestant.

- once you know that, you can google for the place name and "Kirchenbuch" and maybe use google translate on the result.

Generally, you should investigate the ancestors in the right order, ie first going to Göllheim, then Ingolstadt, etc.

The relevant church archives are however likely elsewhere. The books for Ingolstadt seem to be at the archive in Eichstädt:

http://www.bistum-eichstaett.de/dioezesanarchiv/liste-der-kirchenbuecher/

According to the list here:

http://www.landeshauptarchiv.de/wir-ueber-uns/landesarchiv-speyer/kirchenbuchverzeichnis/index.html

the catholic books for Göllheim are at the Speyer archive.

And of course all the books are in German (sometimes Latin), in strange scripts and can have horrible handwritings.

[Weltenwanderer]

Hello Ted,

I have been to the Catholic archives of Würzburg only this week and I can assure you that they do have churchbooks before 1876 In fact, they take data protection quite seriously - 120 years for baptisms.
They will not give you access to the real books, but to digital versions at their reading rooms. Access costs 7 Euros per day plus 40 Cents per record copy (you can only copy a small percentage of each page, which sucks).
Mind that Würzburg has A LOT of churches - there may be a dozen books around for the same year.
I doubt that there is an "Ortsfamilienbuch" (a collection of baptisms, marriages and deaths, ordered by surname) for Würzburg, and even if there is, there will most likely be a lock on it if it spans into the last 120 years. However, there may be one for Göllheim, since it is a smaller place.

Please find attached an example of how most, if not all pre-1800 records records will look like. As gki said, the handwriting before 1800 is often not very neat and you may encounter a lot of churchbooks written entirely in Latin.

If you cannot read a record that contains your family surname, please make a copy (adjust gamma / contrast / size before printing, if possible - the Würzburg records are usually tiny and dark by default), scan it with a high DPI and post it on the "Lese- und Übersetzungshilfe" subforum.

I would have helped you finding your Würzburg record in person, but I am leaving for Sweden the day after tomorrow and won't be back until December.

Cheers!
Weltenwanderer