German Census Records, 1816-1916: The Where, When and How of a Valuable Genealogical Resource with Roger P. Minert

Dr. Minert’s work provides a comprehensive guide to understanding and utilizing German census records, which can offer additional family information from the 38 German states of the German Empire.

Roger P. Minert bio

Roger P. Minert was a professor of family history at Brigham Young University (BYU) until he retired in 2019. He is a professional genealogist and an emeritus Accredited Genealogist (AG). He has a background in German language study. He has published reference books for genealogical work on German immigrants, guides on conducting German genealogical research, and books about the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany. He frequently presents on German family history topics at genealogy conferences.

Minert has written more than 120 books and articles on German family history research and teaching the German language. His research focuses on family history research, especially among Germans and German immigrants. In one study, he found that local church records were most likely to have records of the birthplaces of German immigrants in the United States. Federal census records were the least likely to provide birthplace information for German immigrants, and naturalization records provided birthplaces only ten percent of the time. Minert’s Deciphering Handwriting in German Documents: Analyzing German, Latin, and French in Vital Records Written in Germany is often recommended as a reference for deciphering German vital records.