Boost Your German Research

Understand Historical Jurisdiction

Join us for the April Zion Genealogical Society.

Meyer's Gazetteer is great for determining jurisdictions as of 1912. Germany was not a country until 1871. In the centuries leading up to that, land areas were constantly changing owners, names, and boundaries. One must understand who controlled a given area to find all possible records. Topics included in this lecture are:

Use of Meyer's gazetteer and its impact on the Family History Library catalog.
Macro jurisdictional changes in historical Germanic areas.
Tactics for determining jurisdictions of a village or small land holding over time.
Examples of changing jurisdictions for selected areas.
Key German vocabulary will be included.

Teresa has over thirteen years of genealogical research experience focused primarily on German immigrants in Illinois and the Midwest. She specializes in translating German church records written in the old German script and Illinois research.

Residing in the Chicagoland area, she has easy access to many significant research facilities: Cook County Recorder of Deeds; Cook County Circuit Clerk Archives; National Archives-Great Lakes Branch; Newberry Library; Chicago History Museum, just to name a few.

Teresa has invested in a quality education. She is a multi-year attendee of the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR). She regularly attends genealogical conferences, both locally and nationally. To assist with her focus on German research, she has completed two years of college-level German and continues to study the language.

Upcoming Events