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).