Notices were placed for different life cycle events, in both German and English. Key German vocabulary is provided below.
What should be indexed?
- All individual notices (obituaries, births, birthdays, anniversaries, marriages, deaths, and bar mitzvahs)
- Do not index individual names in other sections such as "Personalia", individual articles and advertisements
If you have trouble deciphering a notice please leave a comment in the last column
Remarks/Comments
Please continue to read below to see what information should be entered in which columns.
Event/Record Type This indicates the type of notice. Please enter one of the following codes. In the brackets are the key German words to look for.
D = Obituary (Death) - These notices (almost) always have a black border. [Tod, Ableben, Hinscheiden, verschied, entschlief, starb, gestorben]
T = Thank you (for any event) [For Deaths-Danksagung or Statt Karten (instead of cards)], will also have a black border]
X = Birthday [Geburtstag]
A = Anniversary [Goldenen Hochzeit (50 years), Silbernen Hochzeit (25 years), __ Hochzeitstag]
B = Birth [Geburt]
R = Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah
E = Engagement [Verlobung]
M = Marriage [Vermählt, Hochzeit]
U = Unknown or Unable to determine
Each Aufbau issue generally arranged family notices in the above order. If you encounter a type of notice that is not described above please enter a "U."
Examples of these notices are shown at the bottom of the page.
There may be up to
Event Date
Enter the day, month and year in the separate fields provided, for example: December 29, 1951 would be entered as
Event Day: 29,
Event Month: Dec,
Event Year: 1951. In German the date is preceded by the word "am" (on the)
If the month or day cannot be determined, please leave those fields blank.
Names
There are multiple name fields depending on the type of notice.
For obituaries and birthdays enter each person's name on a separate line, for example, if there are two deaths or two birthdays. Enter each person's name in
Surname and Given Name. If a maiden name is provided (preceded in German by
geb.) then enter it in
Maiden Name.
For these notices, you may encounter people who anglicized their names. In those case enter the current names in the fields described above and their former names in
Other Surname and
Other Given Name. This also applies to women who show a former married name (widowed, or
verw.). A former name may also be indicated by
früher or previously. Be careful though as that more frequently denotes a former residence.
For births and bar/bat mitzvah notices, follow the above general Name instructions for the child's name. Enter the parents' names as follows:
Enter the father's first name in
Groom's Given Name and his surname in
Groom's Surname
Enter the mother's first name in
Bride's Given Name. Only enter a surname in
Bride's Surname if a maiden name is provided. If there is more than one surname for a father/husband or mother/wife, such as due to shortening a surname or anglicization, enter the other surname in round brackets "( )". For example Flegg (formerly Flegenheimer) would be entered as "Flegg (Flegenheimer)."
For notices containing information on an engaged or married couple (Marriage, Engagement, Anniversary, Birth, Bar/Mat Mitzvah):
If it's not entirely clear which set of parents relates to which child who is engaged or married, use the surname of the first set of parents for the child on the left/top and the surname of the second set of parents for the child on the right/bottom.
Enter the husband's first name in
Groom's Given Name and his surname in
Groom's Surname
Enter the wife's first name in
Bride's Given Name. Only enter a surname in
Bride's Surname if a maiden name is provided. If there is more than one surname for a father/husband or mother/wife, such as due to shortening a surname or anglicization, enter the other surname in round brackets "( )". For example Flegg (formerly Flegenheimer) would be entered as "Flegg (Flegenheimer)."
For obituaries the surviving family members will be listed. Their surnames only should be entered in the
Survivors field and can include the surname of the deceased if the survivors share the same surname. Each surname should be separated by a comma. Please list each unique surname only once. This field can also be used to note the surnames of children placing birthday or anniversary notices for their parents.
Places
Only the original places of origin in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia or other German-speaking places should be recorded. Copy the punctuation for each place as it appears in the notice. If their are multiple towns listed separate each one with an ampersand (&)
Examples: Weingarten (Baden), Göllheim/Pfalz, Frankfurt a.M.
The place of residence after emigration will not be recorded.
For birthdays and obituaries use the
Town of Origin field.
If you are indexing places of origin for a married couple or parents of a child enter the husband/father's town of origin in
Groom's address and the wife/mother's town of origin in
Bride's address.
For couples, it can be confusing to know which town is associated with which person. For consistency, list the town of origin that is on top or on the left in
Groom's address and the one on the right or the bottom as
Bride's address unless it is otherwise clear which town applies to which person. If only one is town is listed use the Groom's address field.
How should umlauts be handled?
If the name is printed with an umlaut (ä,ö,ü) or an ß you will need to covert those characters as follows:
Examples:
Bär -> Baer
Löwe-> Loewe
Grün -> Gruen
Strauß --> Strauss
Examples of Notices and Indexed Fields
Obituary
Event: D, Event Day:7 , Event Month: Dec, Event Year: 1952, Surname: Mannheimer, Given Name: Emma, Maiden Name: Einstein, Town of Origin: München, Survivors: Hené, Maney
Birthday
Event: X, Event Day:10 , Event Month: Oct, Event Year: 1952, Surname: Michel, Given Name: Julius, Town of Origin: Osthofen bei Worms, Survivors: Michel, Kahn
Anniversary
Event: A, Event Day:27, Event Month: May, Event Year: 1952, Groom's Surname: Bramson, Groom's Given Name: Joseph, Groom's Address: Hamm a. Sieg, Bride's Surname: Tobias, Bride's Given Name: Johannah, Bride's Address: Köln a. Rhein
Birth
Event: B, Event Day:13, Event Month: Sep, Event Year: 1952, Surname: Marx, Given Name: Ronald Felix, Groom's Surname: Marx, Groom's Given Name: Helmut, Groom's Address: Hagen, W., Bride's Surname: Simons, Bride's Given Name: Hannelore, Bride's Address: Hamm, W.
Bar/Bat Mitzvah
Event: R, Event Day:14, Event Month: Jun, Event Year: 1952, Surname: Oppenheim, Given Name: Jack, Groom's Surname: Oppenheim, Groom's Given Name: Günther
Engagement
Event: E, Event Day:15, Event Month: Aug, Event Year: 1952, Groom's Surname: Hofmann, Groom's Given Name: Rudi, Groom's Address: Breslau, Bride's Surname: Pfeffer, Bride's Given Name: Susanne, Bride's Address: Lübeck
Marriage
Event: M, Event Day:21, Event Month: Jun, Event Year: 1952, Groom's Surname: Salomon, Groom's Given Name: Otto, Groom's Address: Köln a. Rh., Bride's Surname: Laserstein, Bride's Given Name: Elenor, Bride's Address: Königsberg, Pr.