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Baden-Württemberg

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Surnames/tags: Germany Baden_Wurttemberg Baden_Württemberg
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Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland

This page was created to offer a place to collaborate on Baden-Württemberg research. You can ask questions in the comments below or offer suggestions on new resources to attach to our resources list.

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Overview of Baden-Württemberg

Flag and Coat of Arms:
State of the Federal Republic of Germany: 25 April 1952
Capital: Stuttgart
English: Baden-Wurttemberg
German: Baden-Württemberg
Replaced: Baden, Württemberg-Baden, Württemberg-Hohenzollern
B-W location in Germany
The third largest state in Germany. A parliamentary republic and partly sovereign, federated state formed in 1952 by a merger of the states of Württemberg-Baden, Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern. An area of 35,751 square kilometers supports a population of around 10.8 million people. It is considered one of the top destinations for tourists in Germany.

Maps

Baden-Württemberg is located in southwest Germany, east of the Rhine. It shares borders with the German states of Rhineland Palatinate, Hessen, and Bavaria. International borders are shared with France (region of Grand Est), and Switzerland (cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, Aargau, Zürich, Schaffhausen and Thurgau).
Coordinates: 48°32′16″N 9°2′28″E

History

From Wikipedia: The history of Baden-Württemberg covers the area included in the historical state of Baden, the former Prussian Hohenzollern, and Württemberg, part of the region of Swabia since the 9th century.
In the 1st century AD, Württemberg was occupied by the Romans, who defended their control of the territory by constructing a limes (fortified boundary zone). Early in the 3rd century, the Alemanni drove the Romans beyond the Rhine and the Danube, but they in turn succumbed to the Franks under Clovis I, the decisive battle taking place in 496. The area later became part of the Holy Roman Empire.
The history of Baden as a state began in the 12th century, as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. As a fairly inconsequential margraviate that was divided between various branches of the ruling family for much of its history, it gained both status and territory during the Napoleonic era, when it was also raised to the status of grand duchy. In 1871, it became one of the founder states of the German Empire. The monarchy came to an end with the end of the First World War, but Baden itself continued in existence as a state of Germany until the end of the Second World War.
Württemberg, often spelled "Wirtemberg", "Wurtemberg" or "Wuerttemberg" in English, developed as a political entity in southwest Germany, with the core established around Stuttgart by Count Conrad (died 1110). His descendants expanded Württemberg while surviving Germany's religious wars, changes in imperial policy, and invasions from France. The state had a basic parliamentary system that changed to absolutism in the 18th century. Recognised as a kingdom in 1806–1918, its territory now forms part of the modern German state of Baden-Württemberg, one of the 16 states of Germany, a relatively young federal state that has only existed since 1952. The coat of arms represents the state's several historical component parts, of which Baden and Württemberg are the most important.

Culture

Because Baden-Württemberg was created for administrative reasons it contains a number of different cultures within its area. The Black Forest in the south western portion borders France. It is known for its wood carving, cuckoo clocks, and confections. It also was home to many "glasshutten" where glass has been made for centuries (see Black Forest). In the south east section is the Bodensee Region home to Lake Constance and on the border with Switzerland and Austria. It is a haven for both water enthusiasts, hikers, and bikers. It is known for its production of world renowned Ravensburger jigsaw puzzles (see Bodensee Region). Also in the south east located above the Bodensee Region are the Swabian Mountains. It is a mecca for mountain sports, cave exploration, and geologists with its massive limestone formations (see Swabian Mountains). In the center you will find the Stuttgart Region with its vineyards, castles, museums and urban culture. Shopping is a favored activity here (see Stuttgart Region). And to the north is the densely populated Urban Regions featuring the cities of Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Heilbronn and Heidelberg. Each city has a lot to offer in terms of museums, arts, crafts, and research facilities.

Research Help and Regional Resources

Online Resource Compilations

Vital Records

Religious Facilities

Emigration

Local Cemeteries

Libraries

Colleges and Universities

They often have local records and have professors who are versed in local lore so can be a wonderful resource and many are multilingual.
  • Baden-Württemberg is home to some of the oldest, most renowned, and prestigious universities in Germany, such as the universities of Heidelberg (founded in 1386, the oldest university within the territory of modern Germany), Freiburg (founded in 1457), and Tübingen (founded in 1477). It also contains three of the eleven German 'excellence universities' (Heidelberg, Tübingen, and Konstanz and formerly, Freiburg and Karlsruhe).
  • Wikipedia: Universities and Colleges in Baden-Württemberg

Local Phone Books

Local Genealogy Groups

WikiTree Free Space Pages and One-Place Studies

Have you created a page that you'd like included below? Add a profile comment below with a link to what you would like to contribute. The following pages were created by our project members:

WikiTree Categories

English: Category:Baden-Württemberg, Germany (6 Subcategories)

German: Category:Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland (2 subcategories)

Translation Aides

In Germany a number of different written languages and dialects were used. Below are some links to sites which may help you with old documents.




This is an active Germany Project page with up-to-date information.
Last updated by Traci Thiessen: 19 Jul 2022




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Comments: 38

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Just traced back my ancestors, 6 generations, to Ludwig and Elizabeth Laufer who migrated to Australia from Wurttemberg Germany in the 1800s https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61241496?searchTerm=laufer%20%22harwood%20island%22 They became successful Sugar Cane farmers at Harwood Island New South Wales. Laufer-165 & Hofmann-1246.
posted by Anonymous Phillips
edited by Anonymous Phillips
Oh fantastic! Isn't trove the best?! Are you a member of the Prussian settlement in Australia team and a member of this team?
posted by Kylie Haese
Hi,

I just added several family to the category here. I have some German Travel documentation on this profile and found small story that been handed down on them to photos. I am in America but my ancestors were from Baden- Württemberg I love to learn more to understand them and my culture. Through my research on family I found few things I do have further back people but I do need help verifying connections and making sure I have correct people. Any help on these profiles would be appreciated.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dörrer-5

Billie

Hi Team,

Thanks for adding me! I was born in Ulm, Baden Württember; a good share of my ancestors are from Württemberg.

Is there a biography section template we should follow for persons before 1700?

posted by Markus Brenner
edited by Markus Brenner
Hallo, Markus!

My wife's (Helga) family is also from Ulm; she was born in Pfaffenhoven an der Roth just across the Danau from Neu Ulm. Would you happen to know how to find her father's family lineage? We've been able to track it back to Martin Erdle (1853-1900) but cannot find any information on him or his parents (see his profile for more info). Do you have any contacts in Ulm that could get us any of the current resident Erdle family information? We'd like to contact them to get more info, if possible. I have searched multiple German genealogy databases without much luck. Vielen Dank, Larry Ridgley

posted by Larry Ridgley
Hello Larry,

I believe I can help you. I added scans of Martin Erdle's baptism record to the references in his profile. It turns out the birth place was wrong; instead of Nerenstetten he actually was born in Langenau. The error comes from Ancestry.com, where scans for Langenau are erroneously tagged as "Nerenstetten und Wettingen". Martin's parents were Caspar Erdle and Brigitte Unseld. I added these to the biography. I will add additional information as time permits!

(Update) Well, it turned out Martin Erdle was born out of wedlock: The father, Georg Caspar Erdle, was the widower of the mother's sister. From the records the marriage between Georg Caspar Erdle and Christine Unseld only lasted for 10 months when the mother died. I assume there was a brief affair between Georg Caspar and Brigitta Unseld, however they did not marry. Instead, Georg Caspar remarried Maria Schuler on 16 November 1852, two months before Martin Erdle was born. I created WikiTree entries for both parents and attached the relevant sources.

posted by Markus Brenner
edited by Markus Brenner
I noticed Barbara (Müller) Mayer 1583-1626 is unsourced if anyone has expertise in this time period. Thanks!

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Muller-1992

posted by Karen Lowe
I found scans of Barbara's birth record both on Archion and Ancestry. I added the information to her page.

Digging a little deeper, I also found her marriage and burial records. Since they all are from the same place (Oberensingen) I am reasonably confident the information is correct. I also have been looking into the profile of her husband, Hans Mayer. Unfortunately the profile is in a bit of a mess; I was able to confirm the birth in Neckarhausen which fits with the marriage record (added source). There is a duplicate entry for the wife, however I am not quite sure how to deal with that. I also doubt that Hans Mayer died in Switzerland, but without further evidence I won't touch his death entry.

posted by Markus Brenner
edited by Markus Brenner
Hello B-W team! I recently learned of your existence. I don't really have the bandwidth to be proactively involved but I did want to let you know about a personal project I started that some of your members might be interested in. It should have been set up as a Space: project but was created before we had the distinction of Project: and Space: pages and I haven't gotten around to fixing/changing it. But this is a project I've been working on for most of the last twenty years. I seek researchers (anywhere, not just on wikitree) working on descendants from this group of emigrating Schwenningers. See:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Schwenningen_Emigrants_of_1847

posted by Jillaine Smith