FAQ.Rheinpfalz (Palatinate)
December 1998
Contents
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Contents:
Q1: Where is the Rheinpfalz (Palatinate)?
Q2: What was the Rheinpfalz's recent history?
Q3: What were the administrative areas of the Rheinpfalz (Palatinate)?
Q4: What were the court districts in the Rheinpfalz in 1900?
Q5: How do I find locations and maps for Rheinpfalz?
Q6: When were civil registers introduced?
Q7: Is there a listserv for Bavaria family researchers?
Q8: Any websites of interest to Rheinpfalz researchers?
Q9: Where are Mennonite congregations in the Rheinpfalz?
Q10: Are there emigration records available?
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Q1: Where is the Rheinpfalz (Palatinate)?
A1: The Rheinpfalz (Palatinate) was a Bavarian district. Its capital was
Speyer (pronounce:SHPY-er) located West of the Rhine river.
Today it is a district of Land Rheinland-Pfalz of the new Germany
together with Rheinhessen and the (formerly Prussian) districts of
Koblenz, Trier and Montabaur.
Q2: What was the Pfalz's recent history?
A2: France annexed the area in 1802. After Napoleon's defeat, the Pfalz
reverted to Bayern (Bavaria) and was known as Rheinpfalz or Rheinbayern and was separated geographically from the main area of Bayern.
Q3: What were the administrative areas of the Rheinpfalz (Palatinate)?
A3: In 1890 the Bavarian Rheinpfalz had the following (13) Bezirksaemter
(counties):
Bergzabern,Frankenthal,Germersheim,Homburg,Kaiserslautern,
Kirchheimbolanden,Kusel,Landau,Ludwigshafen,Neustadt/Hardt,
Pirmasens,Speyer,Zweibruecken.
Q4: What were the court districts in 1890?
A4: The highest court was the Oberlandesgericht in Zweibruecken.
http://www.jura.uni-sb.de/laenderberichte/rh-pf.htm
The lower courts were
Landgericht Frankenthal with (6) Amtsgerichte:
Duerkheim,Frankenthal,Gruenstadt,Ludwigshafen,Neustadt/Hardt,Speyer.
Landgericht Kaiserslautern with (9) Amtsgerichte:
Kaiserlautern,Kirchheimbolanden,Kusel,Lauterecken,Obermoschel,
Otterberg,Rockenhausen,Winnweiler,Wolfstein.
Landgericht Landau with (6) Amtsgerichte:
Annweiler,Bergzabern,Edenkoben,Germersheim,Kandel,Landau.
Landgericht Zweibruecken with (9) Amtsgerichte:
Blieskastel,Dahn,Homburg,Landstuhl,Pirmasens,St.Ingbert,
Waldfischbach, Waldmohr,Zweibruecken.
Of special interest are the land deed records with no published survey known todate.
Q5: How do I find locations and maps for Rheinpfalz?
A5: The best German gazetteer is
Meyers Orts- and Verkehrslexikon des Deutschen Reiches,1912 edition,
which is available on microfiche in the LDS Family History Centers.
There is LDS microfilm #068814 available of
Karte des Deutschen Reiches, scale 1:100000, 1km = 1cm
which may be loaned thru the LDS Family History Centers.
It covers Germany for 1914-1917.
Topographical Maps (Messtischblaetter 1:25000) and a historical
map of 1797 may be purchased from
Landesvermessungsamt Rheinland-Pfalz
Postfach 1428
56073 Koblenz, Germany
(Ask for their map catalog or Kartenverzeichnis)
Q6: When were civil registers introduced?
A6: Civil registers of births,marriages,deaths were introduced by the
French in 1792. The Civil registry office is called Standesamt.
Q7: Is there a listserv for Bavaria family researchers?
A7: There is presently no mailing list for anyone with a
genealogical interest in Bavaria.
For the Palatinate (Pfalz) mailing list
Pfalz-L@rootsweb.com
send SUBSCRIBE message to
pfalz-L-request@rootsweb.com
Q8: Any websites of interest to Rheinpfalz researchers?
A8: http://www.genealogy.net/gene/reg/rindex.htm
http://www.genealogy.net/gene/reg/RHE-PFA/rhein-p.html
http://www.qrz.com/gene/reg/RHE-PFA/rhein-p.html
Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe.
Archivbestand des ehemaligen Auswanderungsamtes.
http://www.bawue.de/~hanacek/info/karlsr01.htm
http://www.lad-bw.de/gla.htm
Surviving records of the Auswanderungsamt, including
extensive indexes, are deposited here.(1866-1911)
Microfilm copies of the indexes, but not the records themselves,
are in the Family History Library (FHL), in Salt Lake City.
Bistumsarchiv Speyer
http://www.kath.de/bistum/speyer/bsarchiv.htm
Ev. Kirche der Pfalz , Speyer
http://www.evpfalz.de/arc_home.htm
If you have no access to the Web (www), you can direct web files to your email box by sending a request to
getweb@usa.healthnet.org
or to
www4mail@unganisha.idrc.ca
with the message HELP or
get http://.....
( This would NOT work for home pages with "frames")
Q9: Where are Mennonite congregations in the Rheinpfalz?
A9: Here are statistics of the Mennonite congregations in Rheinpfalz:
(data from Menn.Lex.III)
1857 1887 1914 1934 1954
------------------------------------------------------
Neudorfer Hof 90 140 130 109 138
Weierhof 159 303 444 466 560
Obersuelzen 84 120 120 100 128
Kuehboerncheshof 84 123 140 132 215
Sembach 320 550 514 358 360
Altleiningen 120 35 - 32 40
Eppstein 81 112 132 119 120
Ludwigshafen - 122 131 130 100
Kaiserslautern - - 80 63 83
Friedelsheim/Kohlhof 25 164 186 229 244 Zweibruecken/Ernstweiler 103 166 135 142 266
Zweibruecken/Ixheim - - - 129 -
St.Johann 70 40 27 - -
Branchweilerhof 35 64 45 66 65
Deutschhof 82 90 119 170 122
--------------
total 1253 2029 2203 2245 2441
Q10: Are there emigration records available?
A10: The state archives have many emigration records which were filmed by the LDS FHL.
For details see:
Learned, Marion Dexter, 1857-1917:
Guide to the manuscript materials relating to American history
in the German state archives, Washington, D.C.,
Carnegie Institution of Washington. Publication no. 150 , 1912, 352 p.:
-also Kraus reprints NY 1965-
p.214-215: Speyer; p.229-237 Karlsruhe
(there are a number of updates done by the LOC Manuscript Division,
call no.L173.L4 Suppl. 1929-1932, vol.2 p.56-58 for Speyer
and vol.2 p.71,240 for Karlsruhe).