For questions about ancestors and records in the country of Germany. This includes previous political entities within the geographical boundaries of the present-day or historic Germany.
Germany is a member country of the European Union; the term is also commonly applied to a series of nation states identifiable in Central and Western Europe since the beginning of the Common Era.
Use this tag for any place which can be found in Uetrecht, E. Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs (Meyers Place- and Traffic directory of the German Empire). Fifth Edition. Leipzig, Germany: Bibliographisches Institute, 1912-3. Meyers Orts is the standard reference from which the place name jurisdictions were taken for the catalog of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and FamilySearch Historical Records. See Meyersgaz.org for an online searchable version which incorporates links to maps from Karte des Deutschen Reiches. Berlin: Kartographische Abteilung der Königlichen Preußischen Landesaufnahme, 1845-1916.
For more information, see the FamilySearch Wiki article Germany Gazetteers: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Germany_Gazetteers
For information on the formation of Germany, maps of the German Empire at its greatest extent, and changes after the publication of Meyers Orts see Wikipedia: Territorial Evolution of Germany: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_Germany
