The inhabitants of the state are divided into three " tribes ". The inhabitants of Oberbayern, Niederbayern and Oberpfalz are called " Altbayern ". The inhabitants of Oberfranken, Mittelfranken and Unterfranken are called " Franken " and the inhabitants of Schwaben are called " Schwaben ".

There are some points which should be cleared up, before you start your own research in Bavaria. The best sources, and in older days almost only sources, are the church records of the different parishes. To start out with research, the main item is therefore to find out the exact place where your ancestor lived. From there you should find out, which parish was responsible for this place. Then there are normaly two possibilities. Either the records are still in the parish, or the records have been colleted by the relevant diozese. If the records are in the parish you are at the mercy of the local priest, if he answers your questions or not. NOT is the answer to about more then half of the parishes.

If you ever think of doing your own research right there in a parish you might face something like this :

The above is a page from a marriage contract between Leonard YBERL and Maria WIDMAN from 26 Januar 1703 in the parish of Lengenfeld in the district of Oberpfalz.

If the records are in the diozese your lucky, because they do research for you ( normaly ). Passau is presently very slow at answering but they have a good reason. They´re starting to put all their church records into one big datafile. It´s presently only a pilotproject.They all they charge you for their work ( of course ) and at present ( 1998 )the fee is about DM 80,- for one hour.

The borders for the diozeses are not strictly according to the district borders. Watch out for this fact.

The addresses of the diozesan archives are :

Archiv des Erzbistums München und Freising - for most of Oberbayern
Karmeliterstrasse 1
D-80333 München
Has about two thirds of the church records in its archive.

Archiv des Bistums Passau - for most of Niederbayern
Luragogasse 4
D-94032 Passau
This diozese has started a pilotproject of putting all church records into a computer file.

Bischöfliches Zentralarchiv - for most of Oberpfalz
St.Petersweg 11-13
D-93047 Regensburg
Has all church records of the diozese in its archive

Archiv des Erzbistums Bamberg - for most of Oberfranken
Domplatz 3
D-96049 Bamberg

Archiv des Bistums Eichstätt - for most of Mittelfranken
Luitpoldstrasse 2
D-85072 Eichstätt

Archiv des Bistums Würzburg - for most of Unterfranken
Bruderhof 1
D-97070 Würzburg

Archiv des Bistums Augsburg - for most of Schwaben
Hafnerberg 2/II
D-86152 Augsburg
Has most of the church records in its archive.

LUTHERAN CHURCH :

Landeskirchliches Archiv
der Evangelisch Lutherischen Kirche in Bayern
Veilhofstrasse 28
D-90489 Nürnberg

If you need to go back beyond the church records, one chance are the land owner´s records. They are a rather complicated bunch. In order to work with them you need to know not only who owned the county, or larger area, for the timespan in question, but you also need to know which noble man owned the very farm you are researching. Sometimes the land belonged to Count X and the farm was, for some reason or other, given or bought by count Y. And Count X and Count Y are keeping their recods at separate locations. Nice touch and very helpful !

STATE ARCHIVES for different parts of BAVARIA :

Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv
Schönfeldstrasse 5 - Postfach 221152
D-80501 München

Staatsarchiv München - for Oberbayern
same as above

Staatsarchiv Landshut - for Niederbayern
Burg Trausnitz
D-84036 Landshut

Staatsarchiv Amberg - for Oberpfalz
Archivstrasse 3
D-92224 Amberg

Staatsarchiv Bamberg - for Oberfranken
Hainstrasse 39
D-96047 Bamberg

Staatsarchiv Nürnberg - Mittelfranken
Archivstrasse 17
D-90408 Nürnberg

Staatsarchiv Würzburg - for Unterfranken
Residenz-Nordflügel
D-97070 Würzburg

Staatsarchiv Augsburg - for Schwaben
Salomon-Idler-Strasse 2
D-86159 Augsburg

Staatsarchiv Coburg
Herrngasse 11
D-96450 Coburg

I do have a friend who is a professional researcher and this lady would be happy to help you in your resarch for a fee of about DM 40,- for one hour, which is half of what the archives are charging. She is very busy untill March 1999 but you could get on a waiting list in the meantime, if you like. Please contact me if you wish her help by my e-mail address

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