Zion Genealogical Society
of Lake County, Illinois
Including Beach Park, Gurnee, North Chicago, Park City, Wadsworth, Waukegan, Wildwood, and Winthrop Harbor

Boost Your German Research – Understand Historical Jurisdictions

MONTHLY LECTURE SERIES
April 21, 2025
In person and Zoom
Lecture starts promptly at 8:00. They typically last an hour, with 15 additional minutes for questions.
Presented By: Teresa Steinkamp McMillin

Meyer’s Gazetteer is great for determining jurisdictions as of 1912. Germany was not a country until 1871. In the centuries leading up to that, land areas were constantly changing owners, names, and boundaries. One must understand who controlled a given area to find all possible records. Topics included in this lecture are:

  • Use of Meyer’s gazetteer and its impact on the Family History Library catalog.
  • Macro jurisdictional changes in historical Germanic areas.
  • Tactics for determining jurisdictions of a village or small land holding over time.
  • Examples of changing jurisdictions for selected areas.
  • Key German vocabulary will be included.
About Your Presenter
Teresa has over thirteen years of genealogical research experience focused primarily on German immigrants in Illinois and the Midwest. She specializes in translating German church records written in the old German script and Illinois research. Residing in the Chicagoland area, she has easy access to many significant research facilities: Cook County Recorder of Deeds; Cook County Circuit Clerk Archives; National Archives-Great Lakes Branch; Newberry Library; Chicago History Museum, just to name a few. Teresa has invested in a quality education. She is a multi-year attendee of the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR). She regularly attends genealogical conferences, both locally and nationally. To assist with her focus on German research, she has completed two years of college-level German and continues to study the language.

How to Join Our Lecture Series

Hybrid meetings are held both in person at the Zion-Benton Public Library and on Zoom.
Accessing the Zoom Meeting
You Must Register to attend this free zoom presentation. Send in an email your first and last name and inform whether you are a member or not, and your email address. Send that email registration to vam1488@gmail.com by the Sunday evening prior to the zoom meeting. You will receive an email back giving you the details to link in to the meeting on Monday. Make sure that you've installed the Zoom software before the event and you'll use that link to join the meeting when it begins.

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