Here’s a tip about correcting places in Ancestry German databases. Some of Ancestry’s German records show Evangelisch as a place name in search results. Don’t add this as a place name in your tree!

Evangelisch Is Not a Town

Evangelisch is not a town; it’s a religion, meaning Protestant (Lutheran). The record above comes from Ancestry’s Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898. It’s a great database with millions of indexed entries. Records like the one in the image above signify that a baptism occurred in a Lutheran Correcting Places in Ancestry German Databases examplechurch, followed by the specific name of the town where the church was located.

When adding this information, especially to your online Ancestry tree, take care to eliminate Evangelisch from the place name field. Note it as the religion, but move it out of place names.

The image at right shows the same record in FamilySearch’s Germany Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 database. The record entry has the same information as Ancestry, but the baptism location gives only the town, as it should.

Correcting Places in Ancestry German Databases

Check your online tree to see if you’ve included Evangelisch. If your tree is only online at Ancestry (which I don’t recommend doing), you’ll have to change each place individually. If you sync your tree to Family Tree Maker, you can use the FTM software to make a global change.

And that’s it for today’s post: genealogists using Ancestry German records databases or copying information from other Ancestry trees, please note that Evangelisch is not a town.