Germanic Genealogy Society

Welcome to our society’s home page!

GGS aims to assist descendants of German immigrants find and understand their ancestors. To reach this goal, GGS offers educational webinars, meetings and conferences, study groups, a library collection, a monthly E-News, and our GGS Journal which features research of members and the knowledge of professional genealogists. GGS was founded in 1979 in Minnesota.
 
GGS Membership includes a complimentary hour of research assistance, webinar handouts, online access to past Journals and E-News, and reduced rates at meetings.
 
GGS is a founding member of the International German Genealogy Partnership (IGGP). This partnership includes the umbrella organization of many of the genealogical societies in Germany today, - the Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft genealogischer Verbände (DAGV). Other IGGP member societies represent areas of German settlement in countries around the world.
 
We at GGS invite you to begin, or continue, your pursuit of your people. The map shows what they left.
 

The time period and jurisdictions of the Norddeutscher Bund / North German Confederation 1866 – 1871 
 
Map



UPCOMING
EVENTS
August 1
German FAN Clubs of Olmsted County, Minnesota: Immigration to Assimilation
Gary Heyn will discuss tracing German immigrants in a Minnesota County (Olmsted) including Rochester and surrounding areas. He used a process called the FAN (Family/Friends, Associates and Neighbors) approach to identify and make family connections.   Register
August 17
German Document Translation Group Meeting
These meetings are usually held on the 3rd Saturday of each month in the Mississippi Room at the Minnesota Genealogy Center.  At these meetings we help each other transcribe and translate the old German Script.  We ask that documents be scanned and the images saved to a flash drive, which will ...
August 17
GGS Library Workshop and Library Day
GGS Library Day and Library Workshop - with a presentation by Diane Schmidt GGS volunteers will be available at the Minnesota Genealogy Center in Mendota Heights from 1:00-4:00 to help researchers with their Germanic genealogy questions.   Diane Schmidt will do a presentation about How-to books in the GGS ...
August 22
Find Family in Numbers: How to Find and Navigate German Census Records
Gail Blankenau will discuss how to find and use German census records. She will talk about the many different words used to describe a census in Germany and about what information they contain and how to access them.   Register