Last changed 2026-10-06 · first mapped 2026-09-23 Follow what changes.
Comes out as a sheet for the reading room — what to ask for, who holds it, and every link written out in full.
This place
Where to begin
You know your family came from Liepgarten. Here is the order I would work in, cheapest and easiest first — and what to do when that runs out.
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Work out which country your year belongs to
This is the step almost everybody skips, and it is the commonest reason a record that exists cannot be found. The ground did not move; the border did. A baptism here in one decade may sit in a different country's archive from one twenty years later.
Years Who governed Whose archive 1181–1637 Duchy of Pomerania no archive holds this yet 1637–1815 Swedish Pomerania in the west; Brandenburg-Prussia in the east
archion · riksarkivet-se · familysearch 1815–1871 Prussia — Province of Pomerania
archion · szukajwarchiwach 1871–1919 German Empire
archion · bundesarchiv · szukajwarchiwach 1920–1939 Germany; Danzig a Free City
szukajwarchiwach · archion · bundesarchiv 1939–1945 German occupation
arolsen · bundesarchiv 1945–2026 Poland — West Pomerania and Pomerania
szukajwarchiwach · geneteka Do this: take the year you are looking for, find its row, and note the archive. That is the one to search — not the one the village is in today.
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The things that catch people out here
1637–1815, Swedish Pomerania in the west; Brandenburg-Prussia in the east. THE FORGOTTEN TRAP. Western Pomerania was SWEDISH from 1648 to 1815, so its administrative records of those years can be in Stockholm rather than Berlin or Szczecin — which almost nobody thinks to check.
1945–2026, Poland — West Pomerania and Pomerania. THE TRAP, the same one as Posen. Stettin is SZCZECIN and Danzig is GDAŃSK; the registers mostly stayed and are catalogued under the Polish names, so a search for the German one finds nothing at all.
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Find the parish, because that is where the book was
Before civil registration, the parish priest kept the register. A village without its own church was written into a neighbour's book.
- Saint Mary Church
- Mariä Himmelfahrt
- Martin-Luther-Kirche
- Church in Meiersberg
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When you run out — and you will
Everything above is what this atlas knows. It is not everything there is. Nine places in ten on this map have never been surveyed by anybody, so a gap here is usually our silence rather than the record's absence.
Do this: write to the archive named in the era table for your year, even if we hold nothing for it. Then tell us what you found — a gap somebody has personally closed is the most useful thing a stranger can give this map.
The archives named above: archion · riksarkivet-se · familysearch · szukajwarchiwach · bundesarchiv · arolsen · geneteka. What each one holds and why.
Whose archive this ground was
Liepgarten sits in Pomerania and Danzig. Which empire held it decides which archive holds its records — and for some of these years that is not the archive you would guess.
| Years | Who held it | Whose archive that means |
|---|---|---|
| 1181–1637 | Duchy of Pomerania | no registers survive Before registers, and then barely after them. |
| 1637–1815 | Swedish Pomerania in the west; Brandenburg-Prussia in the east | Archion · Riksarkivet — Digitala forskarsalen · FamilySearch THE FORGOTTEN TRAP. Western Pomerania was SWEDISH from 1648 to 1815, so its administrative records of those years can be in Stockholm rather than Berlin or Szczecin — which almost nobody thinks to check. |
| 1815–1871 | Prussia — Province of Pomerania | Archion · Szukaj w Archiwach |
| 1871–1919 | German Empire | Archion · Bundesarchiv · Szukaj w Archiwach Standesamt civil registration from 1 October 1874. |
| 1920–1939 | Germany; Danzig a Free City | Szukaj w Archiwach · Archion · Bundesarchiv Danzig is neither German nor Polish between the wars but a League of Nations free city keeping its own registers. |
| 1939–1945 | German occupation | Arolsen Archives · Bundesarchiv |
| 1945–2026 | Poland — West Pomerania and Pomerania | Szukaj w Archiwach · Geneteka THE TRAP, the same one as Posen. Stettin is SZCZECIN and Danzig is GDAŃSK; the registers mostly stayed and are catalogued under the Polish names, so a search for the German one finds nothing at all. |
No volumes recorded here yet.
The ground worth walking
Within 25 km — 1 place · 6 parishes · 5 burial grounds.
A register belongs to a parish, not to a village. A hamlet with no church of its own was written into the book of the church it walked to — and that book is catalogued under the other place's name. This is the ground to search before concluding a record does not exist.
Correctly placed and unread. A gap here is this atlas's silence, not the record's — the registers may well exist and nobody has walked them.
The nearest parishes
A church is a parish and a parish is where a register is kept — the register of a hamlet with no church of its own is kept at the church it walked to, so the distance is the useful part. Wikidata's coverage is very uneven: 34,612 churches in England against 105 in central Istria, so a short list here means thin data and not an empty landscape. Unchecked, and only inside a mapped record region.
- Saint Mary Church ↗ 2.3 km
- Mariä Himmelfahrt ↗ 3.2 km
- Martin-Luther-Kirche ↗ 5.4 km
- Church in Meiersberg ↗ 5.9 km
- St. Petri ↗ 6.8 km
- Protestant church in Blumenthal ↗ 8.3 km
Where the burials are
The other end of a parish: the register records the burial and the ground holds it, and a family that left no other trace very often left a stone. These are points on a map, not record collections — from Wikidata and OpenStreetMap, nobody here has visited one, and whether the burial register survives is a question for the parish or the municipality above. Grounds OpenStreetMap has not named are here too. They used to be left out, on the reasoning that a shape with no name is not a place anyone can ask about — which cost Senj its own graveyard, 2 km away and unnamed, while a named one 7 km off was all this page would show. Being unnamed is a fact about the map data, not about the ground. Only inside a mapped record region.
- Jewish Cemetery ↗ 1 km Wikidata
- A burial ground ↗ unnamed in OpenStreetMap 1.8 km OpenStreetMap
- Friedhof Parkweg ↗ 3.2 km OpenStreetMap
- Friedhof Hoppenwalde ↗ 3.3 km OpenStreetMap
- Anonyme Urnenstelle ↗ 3.4 km OpenStreetMap
1 volumes catalogued here
The level below «a collection covers this place»: which book, for which years, and the link that opens its images. From FamilySearch's own catalogue. Nobody here has opened any of them. You can, though — mark the pages you have searched on any row below and this browser will remember where you stopped.
- Taufen, Heiraten, Tote 1826 ↗ 1826–1826
National sources for Germany, unverified
From Wikidata, CC0 — the national archive and the national library where the country has one. Nobody here has opened these. The link answered when it was asked and that is the whole of what this map knows about them. They are listed because a country with no named source at all is the worse answer: 199 of the 237 countries here had nothing but the worldwide services, which cover everywhere and therefore say nothing about anywhere.
- German Federal Archives ↗ national archive
- Collection of German Prints ↗ national library
- German National Library ↗ national library
- German National Library Leipzig ↗ national library
- ZB MED - Information Centre for Life Sciences ↗ national library
The sources for Germany
National and regional sources that cover this ground whether or not anybody has walked it here — which makes them the answer, not the consolation, for a place with no volumes recorded on it. A country-wide body is listed whatever the distance; a provincial archive is a claim over its own province, so those are the nearest ones. 27 more cover Germany and are on the country page.
- Arolsen Archives Nobody has walked this one yet Bad Arolsen, Germany
The international centre on Nazi persecution: concentration camp records, forced labour and displaced-person files, searchable online. Worked by the Blažević archive against cards already held on disk. Not yet surveyed. - Arolsen Archives Images, free, no account Bad Arolsen, Germany
The former International Tracing Service. Concentration camp, forced labour and displaced-persons records for some seventeen and a half million people, free and fully indexed. - Bundesarchiv A catalogue entry only — the paper is not photographed Koblenz, Germany
The German Federal Archives. Civil and military administration of the Prussian provinces, the wartime records, and the card indexes of the expelled — much of it for ground that is no longer German. - Landesarchiv Berlin Nobody has walked this one yet DE — 135 km
Landesarchiv Berlin — a German state or church archive. German civil registration began in 1876 and parish registers before it are largely with the Landeskirchliche Archive, so which of the two holds a record depends on its date. Harvested from Wikidata and its address opened; what is online and what it costs is unchecked. - Evangelisches Landeskirchliches Archiv in Berlin Nobody has walked this one yet DE — 141 km
Evangelisches Landeskirchliches Archiv in Berlin — a German state or church archive. German civil registration began in 1876 and parish registers before it are largely with the Landeskirchliche Archive, so which of the two holds a record depends on its date. Harvested from Wikidata and its address opened; what is online and what it costs is unchecked. - Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv Nobody has walked this one yet DE — 161 km
Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv — a German state or church archive. German civil registration began in 1876 and parish registers before it are largely with the Landeskirchliche Archive, so which of the two holds a record depends on its date. Harvested from Wikidata and its address opened; what is online and what it costs is unchecked. - Landesamt für Kultur und Denkmalpflege Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Landesarchiv Nobody has walked this one yet DE — 172 km
Landesamt für Kultur und Denkmalpflege Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Landesarchiv — a German state or church archive. German civil registration began in 1876 and parish registers before it are largely with the Landeskirchliche Archive, so which of the two holds a record depends on its date. Harvested from Wikidata and its address opened; what is online and what it costs is unchecked. - Landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Abteilung Dessau Nobody has walked this one yet DE — 243 km
Landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Abteilung Dessau — a German state or church archive. German civil registration began in 1876 and parish registers before it are largely with the Landeskirchliche Archive, so which of the two holds a record depends on its date. Harvested from Wikidata and its address opened; what is online and what it costs is unchecked. - Landeskirchliches Archiv Kiel Nobody has walked this one yet DE — 264 km
Landeskirchliches Archiv Kiel — a German state or church archive. German civil registration began in 1876 and parish registers before it are largely with the Landeskirchliche Archive, so which of the two holds a record depends on its date. Harvested from Wikidata and its address opened; what is online and what it costs is unchecked. - Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv – Abteilung Wolfenbüttel Nobody has walked this one yet DE — 290 km
Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv – Abteilung Wolfenbüttel — a German state or church archive. German civil registration began in 1876 and parish registers before it are largely with the Landeskirchliche Archive, so which of the two holds a record depends on its date. Harvested from Wikidata and its address opened; what is online and what it costs is unchecked.
Sources that cover everywhere
Not about Germany in particular — these reach most of the world, which includes here. They are listed after the local sources because a body that holds this ground's own paper is a better first stop than one that holds a little of everywhere's. Worth knowing they exist all the same.
- Internet Archive Images, free, no account
Full-text search across millions of digitised books, including parish histories, nobiliaries and local monographs that name ordinary people. - Arolsen Archives Images, free, no account
The former International Tracing Service. Concentration camp, forced labour and displaced-persons records for some seventeen and a half million people, free and fully indexed. - BillionGraves Images, free, no account
GPS-tagged headstone photographs. Smaller than Find a Grave but its coordinates are per-stone, which Find a Grave's often are not. - Find a Grave Images, free, no account
Volunteer-photographed headstones and cemetery indexes, worldwide, with very uneven coverage. Owned by Ancestry but free to read. - WikiTree Images, free, no account
A free, single shared tree with an unusually strong sourcing culture. Not a record source. - Yad Vashem — Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names Images, free, no account
Names and testimony pages for victims of the Shoah, free. - FamilySearch Images, free, account needed
The largest free collection of record images and indexes in the world. A free account is required, and a minority of images are restricted to Family History Centres and affiliate libraries. - Geni Images, free, account needed
One shared world tree. Useful for finding other researchers on the same line; not a record source, and its assertions are only as good as their citations. - JewishGen Images, free, account needed
The central Jewish genealogy resource — town-level KehilaLinks, burial and Holocaust databases, and revision lists for eastern Europe. - Geneanet Partly free, partly paid
Member-contributed trees and transcriptions, strongest in France. Much is free; a Premium tier gates some search and images. - Ancestry Images, behind a paywall
The largest commercial collection. Strong on the English-speaking world, censuses and immigration; weak on continental parish registers. - MyHeritage Images, behind a paywall
Commercial, with a large tree network and good European newspaper and directory coverage. Search is free; opening a record is not.
FamilySearch collections that reach here
A collection is a claim over an area, not a book standing in this town — so these are ranked by how specifically they reach Liepgarten. A free account is needed to open the images, and some are restricted to a Family History Centre.
Narrower than the country but catalogued under some other district. Listed because a collection's title is not always where its records end, and never because it covers this ground.
- Germany, Rhineland, Diocese of Trier, Catholic Church Records, 1543-1958 ↗ 1543–1958 2,928,234 records covers Prussia, Germany 80 km
- Germany, Prussia, Brandenburg and Posen, Church Book Duplicates, 1700-1875 ↗ 1700–1875 1,700,252 records covers Prussia, Germany 80 km
- Germany, Baden, Church Book Duplicates, 1804-1877 ↗ 1804–1877 732,740 records covers Baden, Germany 738 km
- Germany, Baden, Archdiocese of Freiburg im Breisgau, Catholic Church Records, 1463-1931 ↗ 1463–1931 623,353 records covers Baden, Germany 738 km
Worth searching, and worth knowing it is a national index rather than a local one.
- Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1971 ↗ 1499–1971 70,856,117 records 367 km
- Germany, Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 ↗ 1558–1898 23,453,302 records 367 km
- Germany, Prussia, Posen, Catholic and Lutheran Church Records, 1430-1998 ↗ 1430–1998 11,671,064 records 367 km
- Germany, Prussia, West Prussia, Catholic and Lutheran Church Records, 1537-1981 ↗ 1536–1981 9,681,724 records 367 km
- Germany, Württemberg, Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Catholic Church Records, 1520-1975 ↗ 1519–1975 7,153,108 records 367 km
- Germany, Marriages, 1558-1929 ↗ 1558–1929 5,258,875 records 367 km
- Germany, Prussia, Silesia, Catholic and Lutheran Church Records, 1551-1992 ↗ 1550–1992 4,516,465 records 367 km
- Germany, Deaths and Burials, 1582-1958 ↗ 1582–1958 2,684,734 records 367 km
- Germany, Rhineland-Palatinate, Diocese of Mainz, Catholic Church Records, 1540-1968 ↗ 1539–1968 2,212,680 records 367 km
- Germany, Prussia, Pomerania, Catholic and Lutheran Church Records, 1544-1966 ↗ 1543–1966 2,163,005 records 367 km
- Germany, Hessen-Nassau, Diocese of Limburg, Catholic Church Records, 1601-1919 ↗ 1601–1919 1,512,303 records 367 km
- Germany, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Census, 1901 ↗ 1900–1901 1,249,431 records 367 km
- Germany, Bavaria, Nuremberg, Civil Registration, 1803-1886 ↗ 1803–1886 1,235,779 records 367 km
- Germany, Bavaria, Catholic Church Records, 1650-1875 ↗ 1650–1875 1,140,810 records 367 km
- Germany, Prussia, Saxony, Census Lists, 1585-1935 ↗ 1585–1935 991,875 records 367 km
- Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia, Paderborn, Catholic Church Records, 1612-1909 ↗ 1612–1909 845,889 records 367 km
- Germany, Bavaria, Middle Franconia, Brenner Collection of Genealogical Records, 1550-1900 ↗ 1550–1900 747,273 records 367 km
- Germany, Hesse, Frankfurt, Civil Registration Deaths Indexes, 1928-1978 ↗ 1928–1978 566,222 records 367 km
- Germany, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Census, 1867 ↗ 1867–1868 519,566 records 367 km
- Germany, Hesse, Frankfurt, Civil Registration, 1811-1814, 1833-1978 ↗ 1811–1978 296,780 records 367 km
- Germany, Saxony, Church Book Indexes, 1500-1900 ↗ 1499–1900 278,753 records 367 km
- Germany, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Catholic and Lutheran Church Records, 1639-1943 ↗ 1639–1943 253,326 records 367 km
- Germany, Prussia, Pomerania Church Records, 1544-1945 ↗ 1543–1945 252,071 records 367 km
- Germany, Saxony-Anhalt, Diocese of Magdeburg, Catholic Church Records, 1608-1945 ↗ 1608–1945 250,769 records 367 km
- Germany, Saxony, Diocese of Dresden-Meissen, Catholic Church Records, 1621-1976 ↗ 1621–1976 248,365 records 367 km
…and 31 more.
See who held Liepgarten between 1800 and 1920 →
The jurisdiction answer — which empire held this ground, and therefore
whose archive — could only be got at from the map until now. This opens it there, on
1863; drag the year from any point between 1181 and
2026.
Everything in Germany · All 40266 places · Correct something on this page