Dr. Roger Minert, Church History and Doctrine

The funding sought and granted under the MEG program was to be used to continue a project begun in September 2003 under the title “German Immigrants in American Church Records.” To date, some 60 students have contributed to this research designed to identify German, Austrian, and Swiss immigrants whose names are included in the records of German-language churches in the United States (principally in the Midwest).

Students employed in this program identify candidate churches, correspond with the custodians of church records, and rent those records on microfilms or as photocopies or digital images. Students then extract the names, check the extractions of other students, and edit the final entries in preparation for publication. The work requires knowledge of an archaic German handwriting alphabet (commonly called “Gothic” in the United States), mastery of German language terms occurring in records dating back to the 1830s, as well as a thorough knowledge of geo-political aspects of the Germany that existed before 1918.

The research performed under this grant was done in the family history center of the Harold B. Lee Library. The principal investigator was able to spend a great deal of time with his research assistants in both training and supervision aspects of the research. All of the students listed below did work of high quality and developed superb skills that will enable them to conduct historical and genealogical research under other circumstances when they leave BYU.

Prior to the award of this grant in February 2011, nine volumes had been printed in this series under the title shown above. Picton Press of Rockland, Maine (one of the top three publishers of genealogical books in the United States) prints and markets the books. Under the current award, Volumes 10 and 11 have appeared in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Volume 12 is now being indexed by the publisher and will appear in November 2012. Volume 13 will be submitted to the publisher in November 2012 and Volume 14 in December 2012. Work began on Volume 15 in May 2011 and completion of the projected two volumes is scheduled for late 2013 and early 2014.

Ninety-eight percent of the funding awarded was used for student wages. The remainder was consumed by microfilm rental fees and postage. This project did not involve student travel.

The following students were paid for their research involvement in this project from February 2011 through August 2012:

• Camille Andrus
• Chloe Bailey
• Katrina Fulkerson-Nelson
• Sarah Arnesen
• Megan Dilworth
• Ashley Jones
• Kohl Ludwig
• Sheri Peterson
• Becca Smith
• Coby Vail
• Mary Moberly
• Hannah Ryan
• Denney Snyder