Germanic Latin and Extraction Aids

Germanic Latin and Extraction Aids is a collection of Germanic extraction materials provided by the Records Extraction Section of the Genealogical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Tucson Branch Genealogical Library in April, 1982.

The introduction tells us that “in many areas of Germany and Switzerland, parish records were kept in the Latin language. For the most part these parishes were Catholic; however, this was not always the case, especially in early records. Many Protestant parishes kept their records in Latin. At times the parish priests were not adequately trained in the Latin language. Because of this, if they did not know a term or phrase in Latin, they would substitute the phrase or term in a German equivalent. For this reason it is necessary to understand both German and Latin when working in Germanic Latin records.”

I recommend this book for anyone who is beginning research in German records.  There are several pages of reading exercises to help you see the handwriting you will have to deal with.  The challenge is for you to translate the handwriting in the exercises. I would make copies of the exercises to take home with me to work on and bring them back to check the answers in the back of the book to see how well I did. Because of this book, I was able to learn an invaluable skill which I find useful to this day.

Hardcover

Call number: 943 D2gla

Contributed by: Edie Sly