GGD Ancestry Database

Welcome to the Galizien German Descendants Genealogy Database. The Galizien German Descendants genealogy database has been created by combining the genealogy research submitted by many individuals whose German ancestors migrated to Galizien beginning in the early 1700s and whose descendants subsequently migrated to many other parts of the world, including back to Germany.  To this, we added the 64,000 people from the resettlement database.  The GGD Genealogy Database, which is only available to GGD members, allows members to search for names, villages and locations and then to see the matching results from all family trees submitted by GGD genealogy researchers and members. This allows researchers to better identify data matches or data errors compared to their own data.  The database is only available to members and requires the use of a separate password .  For advanced users:  Quick-Link to the database,  For everyone else, see number 1 in the list below..

The goal of the GGD Genealogy Database is to provide GGD members a home location for researching and sharing their data with other genealogy researchers also focused on their German Galizien ancestry, possibly even distant cousins. The individual GGD researchers and members provide their data in a file known as GEDCOM, which is a file format for exchanging genealogical data between different computer systems.  Practically all genealogy websites and software programs use this format to share the data. This means members can build their own genealogy database online or on their own computer and then export the GEDCOM file to share the data on another home computer or online website.

Please consider sharing your family history with other GGD members and/or with the rest of the world.  A discussion of the benefits, privacy considerations, and instructions on how to send us your GEDCOM are HERE.

Instructions for accessing the GGD Ancestry Database

1. The database is only available to members and requires the use of a separate password, not your email/password combination used on the main website..
2. If you are a current member, make sure you're logged in, then click HERE for the username/password, which are updated periodically.
3. Then click HERE to go to the Ancestry Database.
4. Please be aware that the GGD Genealogy Database is built from the individual research of GEDCOM owners identified in the Search Results as “Trees”.
5. The default Search is for “All Trees”, but you can also select one of the Trees for your Search, listed below.
6. Search criteria can include Names. Locations and Dates for Birth, Christening, Death and Burial and Spousal Names.
7. Your Search Results may contain multiple occurrences of the same person, but with different personal data, as identified by the different GEDCOM owners.
8. Clicking on a person’s name in the Search Results, brings you to the Family View for that person. From the Family View, you can select additional Text and Chart Views for Ancestors, Descendants, Relationships and Timelines.
9. Except for the Resettlement tree, if you notice a currently living person listed, please let us know at so that we can remove it.

GGD has collected following GEDCOMs from its members and other researchers:

• Schuster, Spanier, Czemeres & Nostadt Family (7,080 Individuals; 2,148 Families) (Surnames found in this database)
  Donated by member W5 in 2005 - Tracing the ancestors and descendants of the Schuster, Spanier, Czemeres and Nostadt families in Galicia.

• Nostadt Family an updated version of the Nostadt branch of the above tree (846 individuals, 279 families) also donated by member W5 but in 2021.

• Albert - Seitz Family (38 Individuals; 19 Families) (Surnames found in this database)
  Donated by member P25 in 2005 - Tracing the ancestors and descendants of the Albert and Seitz families.

• Johann Jacob Phillipps Family (1,017 Individuals; 367 Families) (Surnames found in this database)
  Donated by member P9 in 2005 - The tree of ancestors and descendants of JOHANN JACOB PHILIPPS born 29.05.1751 in Zillingen, Kreis Saarburg (Lothringen, Lotringia), emigrated to Galizien in 1784, to  Ugartsthal.

• Schick - Lauber Family Genealogy (2,583 Individuals; 1,164 Families) (Surnames found in this database)
  Donated by member S2 in 2005 - The ancestors and descendants of Friedrich Schick and Elisabeth Lauber from Germany to Felsendorf & Steinau, Galicia.

• Schmalenberg Family (70 Individuals; 11 Families) (Surnames found in this database)
  Donated by member S10 in 2006 - Schmalenberg family with roots to Neudorf & Kolomea, Galicia and Wayne Michigan, USA.

• Slawski - Krammer Family (3,537 Individuals; 1,348 Families) (Surnames found in this database)
  Donated by member S11 in 2005 - Slawski-Krammer Genealogy with roots to Bukovina, Galicia, Palatinate and Switzerland.

• Walter, Essig, Illyek & Grohly Family (303 Individuals; 94 Families) (Surnames found in this database)
  Donated by member W36 in 2006 - The trees of ancestors and descendants of the Walter, Essig, Illyek & Grohly families.

• Ackermann, Frambach Family (221 Individuals; 79 Families) (Surnames found in this database)
  Donated by member G12 in 2013- The descendants of Valentin ACKERMANN, born about 1750 in Germany - from Bandrow, Galicia to New York, USA. Member G12 credited the OFBs made available through Manfred Daum with helping him in his search.  He also donated a 23 page report on the first 3 generations which can be viewed here  and a pedigree listing for the Wolf-Ahnenlist  families (the numbers match standard ahnentafel pedigree numbering).

• Dittmer [Dittmar] Family (760 Individuals; 274 Families). (Surnames found in this database)
  Donated by member G43 in 2010. Descendants of the Dittmer families from 1712 in Rheinland Germany and on to Brigidau, Galicia and Manitoba, Canada. Other families include Fiebelkorn, Freyer, Gauer, Gross, and Stettner.

• Defee/Corcoran Family (1,268 Individuals; 436 Families) (Surnames found in this database)
  Donated by member C11 in 2006- Descendants of Paul Defee born 1767 in France and immigrating to Bruckenthal.  Includes Deffe/DeFea/Defee/Wolf/Czoch/Iskra/Jarski families to their arrival in the USA.

• Streilein-Mattern Family (3,170 Individuals; 1,1116 Families)
  Donated by member S8 in 2021.  The ancestors of the Streilein and Mattern families going back to the 1700s in Germany. Many are associated with the villages of Bandrow, Siegenthal, Prinzenthal, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA.

• Porth, Schick, Froehlich, and Richter Family (275 individuals, 96 families)
  Donated by member W55 in 2008.  This small group of families come from Russia, Volhynia, and Galicia from the mid 1800s. 
  
  
• Buffi, Schick Family (3,187 individuals, 852 families)
  This tree contains 440 years of Buffie (Buffe, Buffi, Buffy) and Schick family ancestors, beginning in the Rhineland of Germany, and to include the 150 years spent in Galicia. It includes over 700 marriages, interconnecting it with many other families from the former Habsburg crown lands of Galicia and Bukovina. Many families who immigrated to Canada are represented. Submitted by member B40 in 2021.
  
  
• Bardua, Kandel Family (71 individuals, 36 families)
  Surnames include: Schwartz, Kleckner, Schönherr in Zichydorf, Banat; Schüssler, Millecker, Lenhardt in Kudritz, Banat; Schwartz, Kory, Pierson/Person in Morawitza, Banat; Kalupsky/Chalupsky in Blumenthal, Banat; Bardua, Kandel, Heuchert in Kolomea, Galicia; Kuntz, Holzer, Kraft, Wolfe, Folk (Volk) in Kutschurgan, Russia; Macht in Volga, Russia.  Submitted by member S119 in 2022.
  
  
• Schuster-Hojden  Family (1876 individuals)
  This tree contains ancestors of Stefania Schuster/Szuster (born 1902) includes the surnames: Heil (Goddelau, Gross Gerau, Germany), Michel and Steffen (Neider Saulheim, Oppenheim, Hessen, Germany), Hoyde/Hojden, Hanslik and Buchshandel (Bohemia), Materna (Fornferna, Allenstein, Ostpreussen, Prussia), Ritter (Oftersheim, Baden Wurttemberg, Germany) and Wolf, Imhoff, Firring, and Grimon (Achen, Moselle, Alsace Lorraine, France) back to the early 1500s. Submitteed by member K127 in 2023.

• Konrad, Rudolph Families  (23,929 individuals, 7,683 families)
  A very large interconnected family going back to the 1600s and including hundreds of surnames,  This monumental work was collected by GGD's first president with the help of others and submitted to GGD in 1999.  Steve Stroud passed away in 2019.

• Resettlement Database (64,074 individuals)
  The GGD 1939 Resettlement Records database has been extracted from Immigration Center documents, stored in the Berlin Document Center after World War II. This database is just a tiny portion of the files available on microfilm. See our dedicate website page for much more detail.

These GGD members have some family history online:

• Gauer (member G8)
• Heuchert (member H44)     site retrieved from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
• Strecker (member S144)

If you find a connection with one of the surnames in these GEDCOMs the best person to contact is the member who donated that GEDCOM. Each GEDCOM on this page is identified with the number (e.g. W5, P25, etc) of the member who created this GEDCOM. GGD members can look up this member number in the Members address file  and then use the address in that file to contact the author of the GEDCOM you are interested in. The password for this members only file is given to members. If you are not a member contact  with details of your connection (including which GEDCOM you wanted to view) and we will pass your information on to the author in case he thinks you are related.