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The Genealogical Research Division of

Bavaria-Swabia Jewish Records

Introduction:

Schwaben Region

While not known to everyone, the so called “Medinat Schwaben” formed a unique Jewish-German cultural landscape which experienced its zenith in the first half of the 19th century.

The majority of Jewish communities belonged to one of two distinct political entities: the margraviate of Burgau south of the Danube and the earldom of Oettingen to its north.  The political conflicts between the house Hapsburg, the local gentry and the civic leadership in the case of Burgau and the interconfessional strife between the Catholic and Protestant branches of the Oettingens provided the Jewish communities with enough “wiggle room” to ease their precarious struggle for existence.

The Jewish communities formed part of villages within these political entities which were comprised of Jews, Catholics and Protestants. In some of those villages Jews occasionally even formed a numerical majority.  The Jewish communities maintained a tight network of familial and cultural interconnections extending to communities in adjacent regions, such as Wassertrüdingen in Unterfranken as well as Laupheim and Buchau in Baden-Wuerttemberg. 

In view of its particular history and geography “Medinat Schwaben” should be considered as a unit by Jewish genealogists.

About the Data

We are in the fortunate situation that the University of Augsburg, the Bayerisches Staatsarchiv in Augsburg and local historians, among them Rolf Hofmann, Doris Pfister and Peter Fassl have taken a special interest in the Jewish history of the region.  As a consequence, we not only have an exhaustive catalogue of available documents accessible on the internet, but Rolf Hofmann has already transcribed most of the BMD (birth, marriage & death) registers and grave lists in the Oettingen area.

The Pfister/Fassl catalogue has pinpointed corresponding documents for the other regions in Bavarian Swabia.  Most of the BMD registers were collected by the Nazi “Reichssippenamt” for its criminal purposes.  The system of Jewish Civil Records in Southern Germany has its own fascinating history(click here).

This situation created a unique opportunity for Jewish genealogists not only to develop an integrated genealogical database for a defined Jewish population in Southern Germany in the early 19th century, but to also expand our understanding of the historic, geographic, cultural and economic circumstances which allowed this society to flourish.

Number of Records in the Database
Community Births Marriages Deaths Matrikel Circumcisions
Altenstadt 489 80 379 714 a
Augsburg 652 215 389 1138 a
Binswangen 532 a a 158 a
Buttenwiesen 413 106 435 1245 a
Ederheim 216 39 139 a a
Fellheim 465 84 378 734 a
Fischach 768 139 577 419 a
Günzburg a a a a a
Hainsfarth 684 140 598 a a
Harburg 620 122 606 a 131
Hürben-Krumbach 1870 302 1392 a 236
Ichenhausen 2856 836 1635 408 a
Kleinerdlingen 329 77 319 59 a
Kriegshaber-Augsburg 95 17 92 a a
Memmingen a a a a a
Mönchsdeggingen 522 95 349 a a
Nördlingen a a a a a
Oettingen 306 89 400 a a
Osterberg 39 16 32 a a
Pfersee-Augsburg 182 4 161 a a
Steinhart 254 55 196 45 a
Steppach a a a a a
Wallerstein 272 332 435 62 a
Total: 28,173 11564 2748 8512 4982 367

Acknowledgments

This database and, above all, its content, is the result of the enthusiasm, skill, good eyesight and a lot of hard work and persistence of a group of dedicated volunteers.  They have invested hundreds, even thousands of hours transcribing the copies of original 19th-century civil records we received from the Bavarian State Archive in Augsburg.  The records were often almost illegible.  But with patience and mutual support, a reasonably accurate version was created.

The volunteers are:

Ralph N. Baer, Esther Bloch, Naomi Bloch, Ralph Bloch, Erwin Bosch, Rolf Hofmann, Stuart Hollander, Ernest Kallmann, David T. Lewis, Pierre Malpart, Reuven Mohr, Marcelo Rosenbaum, Sonja Uhl, Rachel Unkefer, Adam Yamey, and Werner Zimmt.

For anyone researching ancestors who came from this area, this incredible material is without parallel. In this regard, we would like to specicially thank Ralph Bloch of Jewish Genealogy in Bavaria-Swabia (http://jgbs.org) for choosing that JewishGen be the home of this incredibly vital information, and for gifting this information to us.

It is our hope that this new generous gift will not only benefit the thousands of people researching their German Jewish roots, but also to serve as a model to the many people who have created valuable online resources but do not have a way to make sure that their work will remain accessible for future generations. 

Additional Resources

Below you will find articles and books relevant to our research.

  9. Steinmeier, Nördlingen 1988; ISBN: 3923645899.

Searching the Data

There are currently 28,026 records in this data set, which can be accessed via the  JewishGen’s German Collection.

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