October 3 is Tag der Deutschen Einheit — German Unity Day — and October 6 is German-American Day. Let’s celebrate “Ahnenfest” – Geneanet’s German ancestor festival – with free access for American members to our Premium German collections from Oct. 3-10!
Do you have roots in Germany? October 3 is Tag der Deutschen Einheit (Germany Unity Day), a national holiday in Germany since 1990 which celebrates the reunification of the country at the end of the Cold War. And October 6 is German-American Day, when 40 million Americans celebrate their German heritage. At Geneanet, we have decided to celebrate these two holidays together as “Ahnenfest” – Ancestor Festival –, with a full week of free access to our Premium German records and collections from October 3-10 inclusive!
The upper Midwest has the highest percentage of German-Americans! Many German settlers bought through tickets from US railroad agents in German cities; passengers disembarked in Eastern seaboard ports and boarded trains West directly. Data source: US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, image: Abbasi786786 at Wikimedia Commons, license CC
Geneanet is available in German and we have over 54 million birth, marriage, and death register records in our collections — 155 million indexed individuals! –, usually reserved for Premium members, available free during Geneanet’s Ahnenfest. Search them through our German vital records search engine or our portal for all German documents or our main search screen with all options enabled or through our brand-new Collections Catalog page. You can even upload your family tree to Geneanet — perhaps you will connect with your German cousins!
Just getting started in German genealogy? It can be complicated: fluid borders, the impact of wars, records held mostly at local level, documents written in Kurrent or Sütterlin script or Fraktur typefaces, not to mention strict privacy laws! Read our comprehensive guide Resources for German Genealogy. Ancestors from Alsace-Lorraine? Read our in-depth guide Finding Your Ancestors From Alsace-Lorraine.
Take advantage of our rich collections with advanced Premium search options such as search by couple, by occupation, by parents, by events, as well as spelling variants, geographic area and wildcards. And search our Genealogy Library with millions of pages of books and newspapers. Tap into our archival records, books and newspapers and grow your tree!