How to Find Your (German) Ancestry

I was a Greek kid all through High School and College and man I loved being Greek. There was something about saying, "I'm Greek". For some reason it was a big hit with the girls so I would find a way to work it into a conversation if my natural charm was not working. Since I had no natural charm, I dropped the Greek bomb on the ladies quite often. It all started back in Junior High School while studying Greek Mythology. Bacchus was the Goddess of Wine and it just made sense, or so my History teacher thought, to assume that my name, Bacus, was derived from the original Greek spelling of Bacchus. Who was I to argue the point. I was now a Greek Frankie Bacus instead of plain Ol' Arkansas Frankie Bacus. The fact that Bacchus was the Roman Goddess of Wine should have been a tip off, she wasn't even Greek. However, we were studying Greek Mythology and I was Greek because Mr. Bratton said so. Anyway, it sure helped my love life, which in Junior High School in the 60's consisted of sneaking off and stealing an occasional kiss. Also, the Greek Frankie, had much more confidence than the Arkansas Frankie and I was loving it. I was actually Greek until one day I thought I would perform an ancestry check. I wanted to see where in Greece The Bacus' were actually from and maybe see if we still had ancestors in Greece. I had to go back a ways just to get out of Arkansas. I swear I think the Bacus family was one of the first families to inhabit the woods that were Arkansas. I think that when the French went up the Arkansas river and landed close to a small rock and named the place, La Petite Roche, (Little Rock), that a Bacus had thrown that rock there to begin with. I am being facetious but I did not think my family tree had roots anywhere but Arkansas. Then, low and behold, there he was, John Bacus. The first Bacus came over on the boat and headed straight for Arkansas of all places. Not that I don't love Arkansas, because I do. But to come from overseas, you think maybe, New York, San Francisco, Florida maybe. Oh well, he chose Arkansas and I am personally glad he did. But now for the real shocker, John Bacus sailed here from Germany. That's right, Germany. I went as far back as the 1500's and there were no Greeks on my tree anywhere. I was praying that Ol' Goddess Bacchus could have had a Grandson leave Greece for Germany but I could not find any records that went back to the days when Zeus and Thor hung out on Earth. So, as you can imagine, I was crushed. I was not a Greek, I was a German. Not that there's anything wrong with that! But I know now how big of a favor Mr. Bratton did for me and my self-esteem all those many years ago. My friend Schmidty didn't get near as many kisses as I did.

Now that I am a German and proud of it, I wanted to get to know my German ancestors so I started once again with ancestry.com. I could only get so far. I started researching the web to see if that would help. I found sites like genealogy.com would have been helpful but it really got into DNA search. I really wasn't wanting to connect with anyone, I just wanted to see what I could find as cheap as possible. I did not want to get DNA involved in my search. I appeared that if I could get my hands on two sources, I could get the info I was looking for. The first is a book of German Civil Records and the other is a copy of German Church Registers. Upon further research, I found out where in Tennessee, (that's where I live now, with my wife, five kids and four Grand children, none of whom care that I'm not Greek after all) I could get my hands on those two documents. Visit your local LDS (Mormon) FamilyHistoryCenter (FHC) located in many of the larger cities. You do not have to be Mormon to visit that facility. I am told that your local FHC is a great source for information on German ancestry. However, I chose not to do that. I found a site that would do that for me, and then some. My-german-ancestors.com, for a small fee, would give me the benefit of all of his research. This gentleman actually had hard copies of the German Civil records and the various church registries'. He even has books entitled "Buergerbuecher" pronounce burger belchers. Not really but I got a kick out of pronouncing it like that. When you are knee deep in research, you'll be amazed at what you find humorous. Those "burger belcher" books contain lists of citizens within a town, give census information, and not only give dates but professions. This is really the way to go and all you have to do is give your name and pay his price. It was $29.95 then. It is probably a tad more now.

I found that if all you are looking for is fairly simple information on where your ancestors are from you could go to sites like ancestors.gov/genealogysearch.org . It was not an easy navigational process but if you can figure it out, it will help. Other sites that will help find your ancestors are footnote.com, onegreatfamily.com and kindredkonnections.com. Keep in mind these sites are not German specific, or Nationality specific, as you can tell by their names, but they will help locate your ancestors if that is what you are looking to do. Once again, if your goal is to get as much information as you can "muester" up, like towns, professions, dates, names, etc., then my-german-ancesters.com is my recommendation to you. This site gives you the benefit of hundreds of hours of research.

Please, if you are of German decent, do not take any of my German jokes personal. Now that I am one, I can poke fun at us. I can use the "G" word because I am one. Jeff Foxworthy might say it like this, "you might be a redneck if you are from Arkansas and you're poking fun at the Germans". Peace to all, and to all, ahweidersein. (I hope that's how you spell it...consider the source.)