MyHeritage Added Exclusive German Record Collection



MyHeritage announced the addition of an exclusive death records collection from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, from 1874 through 1938. This collection is part of civil registration death records which have been made available by the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen.

The Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia, Death Index 1874-1938 index is searchable. The collection includes 2,450,551 records. It includes images of the original civil registration records with many rich details. MyHeritage is the first to fully index these images, which makes them more accessible and readily searchable than ever before.

Civil death registration records in Germany are called Personenstandsrigister. MyHeritage notes that these records are an excellent source of genealogical information. The records were kept by the German Civil Registrar, cover 98% of the population and became mandatory in all German states by 1876.

Records may contain the first and last name, maiden name, gender, religion, date and place at the time of death, age at death, date and place of birth, residence, name of spouse, and names of parents. In addition, the records include administrative information such as the certificate number, date of registration, and the signature of the person reporting the death, as well as the signature of the registrar.

MyHeritage hopes that this exclusive collection expands the horizons of your family history research in Germany. The 2.4 million records in the North Rhine-Wesphalia Death Index 1874-1938 is the first in a series of planned updates to the collection.

Anyone can search those records for free. To view the records or save records to your family tree, you will need a Data or Complete subscription with MyHeritage. Data gives you access to all historical records. Complete gives you access to everything MyHeritage offers.

Those who have a family tree on MyHeritage will be automatically notified if records from this collection match your relatives. The notification will come from MyHeritage’s Record Matching technology.

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