Map Guide to German Parish Registers – Grandduchy of Baden, second edition, written by Kevan M. Hansen is part of a series compiled to make accessing German records easier. “Its purpose is to aid in identifying what church records to search if a specific town is known. If only a general area is known, perhaps from a passenger list or naturalization record, this resource can also aid in identifying which church parishes can be found in that locality and facilitate accessing those records.”(Foreword by Kavan M. Hansen) The Baden volume is made up of over 2,226 places and the book has a total of 291 pages. This new Second Edition has been completely rewritten. Although the majority of the data is the same as the First Edition done in 2004, the Second Edition has MANY CHANGES.

Leland K. Meitzler, Manager Editor at Everton’s Publishers and Owner-Manager at Family Roots Publishing states, “German research is challenging for Americans, but buy no means impossible. Using these volumes and the techniques found in the preceding text, you should have a good chance of success.”

Leland also states, “Searching in Baden, Wuerttemberg, Hessen, Bavaria, etc. is often totally hopeless unless the name is extremely rare. In that case, and assuming relatives remained in the area, it may be possible to locate where the family lived by using directory information available online today. The most popular site used currently is the Geogen Surname Mapping site. Additional records will be needed to research the families and that is where this book can become very helpful.

Some of Baden’s genealogical resources are church books, emigration records, lineage books, periodicals and genealogical collections, archives and repositories and gazetteers.

Map Guide to German Parish Registers – Grandduchy of Baden provides the following:

Identified the parish where your ancestor went to church based on where they live.
Gives the Family History Library microfilm number for your family’s parish records.
Identifies every city, town, and place that included residents.
Visually identifies church parishes for Lutherans and Catholics within each district.
Identifies neighboring parishes, just in case your ancestor may have gone to an alternate parish.
Aids in conducting area searches, particularly across district or regional borders.
Provides visual identification of search areas in which to look for your family.
Helps in determining proximity of one area to another.
Aids in determination of reasonable travel distances from one area to another.
Identifies population centers in each church parish.
Identifies archives, repositories, and other resources.
Aids in identifying the location of minority religions.