The German Interest Group

of The Eastside GenealogicalSociety (EGS)meeting

When: Friday, May 3, 2024 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm PDT

Zoom Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/mrwca3bd

(This presentation will not be recorded.)

Topic:  National-Socialism – “Euthanasia” and family research
During the Nazi era, people were transferred from hospitals and homes for the disabled to various institutions in the German Reich and in the annexed territories and murdered there. This took place in 2 phases.
Based on the speaker’s own relative, it is possible to follow his path in today’s Poland and the Pomeranian institutions until he was murdered in Meseritz (today Międzyrzecz) in Brandenburg. There will be an overview of the history surrounding the forced sterilization of mentally ill and disabled people and their murder (“euthanasia”).

Presenter:   Inga Guttzeit

Inga Guttzeit, is a Citizen Scientist and Genealogist residing in Lübeck, Germany. She has been doing genealogical research for more than 20 years. She is a volunteer on several projects such as “Transkribus for Hanse-Documents” where she is helping to train the Transkribus AI Software platform, building the “Hanse-Recess Model” enabling better transcriptions of handwritten and printed documents of the Hanseatic League. Inga is a member of the “Working group for research into Nazi-“euthanasia” and forced sterilization” ( www.ak-ns-euthanasie.de ) which was founded in 1983 and she is a member of the group “Researching Lübeck 20th Century”. She has spoken several times in person and online about genealogy and Euthanasia. In June 2023, she began working on a remembrance book (Gedenkbuch) for victims of National Socialist-“Euthanasia” who were born in, deported from, or lived in Lübeck. Inga’s areas of research are Silesia, East Prussia, Thuringia (South), Schleswig-Holstein (near Kiel) and the Salzburg Protestant Expulsion. 

More information: Visitors are always welcome. Our website is https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/

When: Friday, April 5, 2024 from 12:30 to 2:30 pm PDT

Zoom Registration required:  http://tinyurl.com/mrz2hzw3

Topic: “Germanic Genealogy on Facebook: Prussia, Austro-Hungary, Russia, Denmark, Swiss & more!”   

This Facebook group was established to provide a forum for those that had ancestors from ANY region where German was, or is, spoken to include Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Ukraine, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, etc… and all the areas where those Germanic people emigrated to around the world.  The group is entirely a volunteer-based group, although we have many professional genealogists that are members and donate their time as they are able.

We cover a variety of topics in the group:

·         Genealogy/Family Tree Building

·         Geography of the regions

·         History of the regions including immigration/emigration

·         Cultures/Traditions from the regions

·         Record searching and sources

·         Languages of the regions & translations of records, postcards, letters – mostly German, but also Polish, Russian, Danish, Latin

·         DNA Matching via GEDmatch Ancestor Projects

Presenter:  Laura Kaatz

Laura Kaatz is a semi-retired international business development exec and an avid hobby genealogist who started on genealogy in 1990.  She has traveled extensively throughout Europe for business & pleasure (including genealogy-focused trips) and has a special interest in the former Prussian provinces now in Poland where her husband’s ancestry is from – including Brandenburg, Pommern, Posen & West Prussia.  She and her partners (Native Germans & Americans) who are admins for the Facebook group belong to many other Germanic Facebook groups, but they felt there was a need to cover multiple geographies due to migration of Germanic people and unknown “German” locations for those doing genealogical research.

More information: Visitors are always welcome. Our website is https://egsgermangroup.wordpress.com/