Where could I find Germany birth records? [closed]

+4 votes
221 views
I am searching for Henry Ortwines parents, and his date of birth. I know he was born around 1829 in Hesse, Germany and he was murdered in 1904 in Pennsylvania, United States. I saw one thing on Family Search stating his parents were Wadin and Juliana but I am searching for more information. Where can I find birth records in Germany roughly 1820s-1830s?
WikiTree profile: Henry Ortwine
closed with the note: Found answer
in Genealogy Help by Elissa Ertwine G2G5 (5.4k points)
closed by Elissa Ertwine

The names of the parents come from this death register:  https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89KN-BSQW?i=443

2 Answers

+6 votes

You can try Archion at https://www.archion.de/en/?auto=&cHash=790e25b61192bd53221c6fee80c5cbc3 , if the family was Lutheran (Evangelical). However, you will need to know the name of the town where the family lived.

The site in in a English and German. To view records you will need a “pass.” The passes start at €19.90 for one month and 50 image downloads. There are also 3 month and 1 year passes which allow more downloads.

FamilySearch does not have a significant collection of church books for Hesse.

To stress the importance of knowing the location: without knowing the town, your chances of success are very slim.

by George Fulton G2G6 Pilot (635k points)
+4 votes
According to the Germany Wikipedia-entry to the town Hesse in Alsace-Lorraine, the town belonged to

Germany until 1661,

was French from 1661 until 1871,

got German again after the Franco-Prussian War until 1919,

and after WWI got French again.

This means if Henry was born about 1830, you don't need German birth records but French ones.
by Jelena Eckstädt G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)

The article from FamilySearch on the Alsace-Lorraine should be helpful. https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/img_auth.php/a/aa/Research_in_the_former_Alsace-Lorraine.pdf

I suspect that Elissa mistakenly accepted the place name suggestion from Wikitree for "Hesse, Saarburg, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany".  The 1870 census entry on the profile says he's from Cour Hesse which is most likely an attempt to spell Kurhessen:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electorate_of_Hesse

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