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Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen), German Empire Genealogy

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Guide to Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen), German Empire ancestry, family history, and genealogy before 1945: birth records, marriage records, death records, both church and civil registration, compiled family history, and finding aids.

Saxe-Meiningen
(Sachsen-Meiningen)
German Empire Wiki Topics
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Getting Started
Saxe-Meiningen
(Sachsen-Meiningen)
Major Record Types
Reading the Records
Additional Saxe-Meiningen
(Sachsen-Meiningen)
Record Types
Saxe-Meiningen
(Sachsen-Meiningen) Background
Saxe-Meiningen
(Sachsen-Meiningen)
Research Resources
Germany Record Types
Germany Background

Historical Background[edit | edit source]

  • Saxe-Meiningen was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine line, located in the southwest of the present-day German state of Thuringia. It was established in 1681, by partition of the duchy of Saxe-Gotha among the seven sons of deceased Duke Ernst der Fromme.
  • In 1866, Saxe-Meiningen was admitted to join the North German Confederation. Since 1868, the duchy comprised the Kreise (districts) of Hildburghausen, Sonneberg and Saalfeld as well as the northern exclaves of Camburg and Kranichfeld.
  • In the German Revolution after World War I, Duke Bernhard III was forced to abdicate. The succeeding "Free State of Saxe-Meiningen was merged into the new state of Thuringia on 1 May 1920. Wikipedia

Getting Started[edit | edit source]

Getting Started with Germany Research

Links to articles on getting started with German research:

See More Research Strategies

Germany Research Tools

Links to tools and websites that assist in German research:

See More Research Tools
Ask the
Community

Historical Geography[edit | edit source]

Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen) within the German Empire

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Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen) within Thuringia (Thüringen) 1871-1920
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Former States of the German Empire Now in the State of Thuringia (Thüringen)

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To enlarge the map, click on this image. A second and third click will enlarge it further. Enlarge the view even further by zooming in with your browser.


History of Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen) in the German Empire
Geo-Political Differences Today
FamilySearch Catalog
(organized by 1871 Meyer's Gazetteer)
Wiki Pages

Saxe (Sachsen)-Meiningen 

1920: Became part of the current state of Thuringia (Thüringen), which was dissolved in 1952, and re-established in 1990. (Map)

Sachsen-Meiningen 

Finding Birth, Marriage, and Death Records for Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen)[edit | edit source]

Most of the information you need to identify you ancestors and their families will be found in two major record groups: civil registration and church records. To locate these records, follow the instructions in these Wiki articles.

1. Find the name of your ancestor's town in family history records.[edit | edit source]

Records were kept on the local level. You must know the town where your ancestor lived. If your ancestor was a United States Immigrant, use the information in the Wiki article Germany Finding Town of Origin to find evidence of the name of the town where your ancestors lived in Germany.

2. Use gazetteers and/or parish register inventories to learn more important details.[edit | edit source]

Your ancestor's town might have been too small to have its own parish church or civil registration office. Find the location of the Catholic or Lutheran (Evangelical) parish that served your ancestor's locality. Find the name of the civil registration office (Standesamt) that serves your ancestor's locality. Use the Wiki article Finding Aids For German Records for step-by-step instructions.

Germany was first unified as a nation in 1871. An important gazetteer, Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-lexikon des deutschen Reichs, "Meyer's Gazetter" for short, details the place names of villages, towns, counties (kreise), and higher jurisdictions used at that time. In the Research Wiki, FamilySearch Catalog, and FamilySearch Historical Records, the records of Germany are organized using those place names.

You can also consult Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen) Parish Record Inventories to learn the Lutheran or Catholic parish that would have kept records for your town.


At the end of both World Wars, the boundaries of the states were changed dramatically, as areas of Germany were distributed among the Allied nations. Eventually, after re-unification in 1990, the states of Germany settled into what they are today. It is also necessary to understand Germany by this system, as it affects the locations of civil registration offices, archives, and mailing addresses used in correspondence searches.

3. For birth, marriage, and death records after 1 January 1876, use civil registration.[edit | edit source]

Follow the instructions in Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen), German Empire Civil Registration.

4. For baptism, marriage, and death records, use church records or parish registers.[edit | edit source]

Follow the instructions in Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen), German Empire Church Records.


More Research Strategies and Tools[edit | edit source]


  • These printable handouts can be used for ready reference when reading German Handwriting.
Letters:
Vocabulary found on Specific Records:
Dates, Numbers, Abbreviations:
Miscellaneous Vocabulary:
Fraktur:
  • Fraktur Font -- Many forms and books are printed in this font.
German Given Names:
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