Landesarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt

[ellend1]

Die Suche betrifft das Jahr oder den Zeitraum:
Genaue Orts-/Gebietseingrenzung:
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Zur Antwortfindung bereits genutzte Anlaufstellen (Ämter, Archive):

Good evening. I am located in the USA and would like to ask about the Landesarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt. I know I do not fully understand how the archives operate. By using the "Search" field on their website, I was able to locate the testament of my 3rd great-grandfather:

http://recherche.landesarchiv.sachsen-anhalt.de/Query/detail.aspx?ID=941039

Since I do not reside in Germany, I am unable to visit the archive. My question is two part:

1. Do fellow researchers in Germany (while visiting the archive for their own business) ever volunteer to copy a document for a researcher who is not in the vicinity?

2. Does the archive charge a fee to view and copy documents?

Thank you for helping me to understand what is possible.

Regards,

Ellen

[Sbriglione]

Hello Ellen,

1. Researches in the "Landesarchiv Sachsen Anhalt" in most time are not really easy because they do not give information to every document they have got on their homepage.
In most time they only give you information about the higher-ranking reference numbers and you have to take a look into the card-index of that reference number to learn to know what exactly they have got. Most of their card-indices are very old and incorporate lots of documents that do not exist any more.

2. They have got their archives in different towns and sometimes it is not really clear in which town you will find which higer-ranking reference numbers until you ask for them in an archive.

This is what makes it difficult to ask fellow researchers for help because to help you they will need to know which document you want to get - and if you are unable to find out which documents are existing in the archive this might be a little bit difficult...

On the other hand:

1. They have started to put more and more documents online even if you have to do a lot of "klicks" to find them in order of the higher-ranking reference numbers, the middle-ranking reference numbers, the lower-ranking reference numbers and the number of the document itself. The documents beeing online are even prepared for download.

2. If you exactly know the number of a special document you want to get and if you know in which archive it is you will have two options: a) you may ask the archive for a copy or b) you may ask if a fellow researcher in Germany might take photos for you. To take a look at the documents when you are in the archive does not take any money and to take photos on your own is free, too.

As you can see the biggest problem for you will be to get information about the concrete documents, their document numbers and the place where you may find them...

Greetings from Hannover (Germany)
Giacomo Sbriglione

[ellend1]

Thank you very much for your thorough and thoughtful reply!

I see this will be difficult because:

1. I do not really understand how to find more information from the link above, and

2. I see in the link above - the will has a prefix of "fehlt" - so perhaps it is not available.

But I appreciate your time in helping me to understand a little better.

Kind regards,

Ellen

[Sbriglione]

1. I do not really understand how to find more information from the link above, and

2. I see in the link above - the will has a prefix of "fehlt" - so perhaps it is not available.

To answer both:
You are absolutely right - the homepage of the archives is very unprofessional and poor in a way that even German users can become depressed about it and do not really understand how to act. It is really no fun to search there and some information is a little bit too unconcrete...
I think and hope that you are right about your interpretation of the prefix "fehlt" - even I think that these documents and categories have existed before worldwar II and do not exist any more...

Greetings again!

[Gastonian]

Hi Ellen:


To add to what Mr. Sbriglione has said: I had reason the other day to look at this particular archive as well. The document you want is from the former state of Anhalt. The former state archive of Anhalt was located in the castle of Zerbst until 1945, when it was bombed out. The remnants of that archive are now located in Dessau. The Dessau archivists have reconstructed what used to be in the Zerbst archive before 1945, but those portions now marked as "fehlt" are missing. They are not necessarily destroyed - there was some looting in 1945, and a few documents have been recovered from private hands - but they are not now viewable.


Regards


--Carl-Henry

[ellend1]

Please know I very much appreciate the kindness of the people in this forum who are so helpful to someone who does not speak German! Although I continue to have questions, I have learned so much from the members here. Thank you for your replies and your time.

Kind regards,

Ellen