Skip to Main Content

German Genealogy

German Newspapers

German-language newspapers are a valuable source of obituaries and other genealogical Information, and you do not have to be an expert in the German language. This presentation will offer tips for locating and deciphering obituaries in German newspapers. Download the class handout as a PDF.

Westliche Post was a German-language newspaper published in St. Louis from 1857 to 1938. Death notices are in German and printed in Fraktur, a Gothic typeface. This index is based on issues of the newspaper now digitized and available from Newspapers.com:

The current index covers issues for 1876 – 1895 with the following gaps:

  • Jan. – June, 1879; July – Dec., 1881; Jan. – June, 1882; July – Dec., 1885; July – Dec., 1886;  April – May, 1890, July–Sept. 1895.

Dates in the index are the dates on which notices were published. Names followed by an asterisk (*) were published in the newspaper as probable misspellings. In such cases, a reference to the entry with the probable correct spelling is included.

The index is an ongoing project; further years will be added as work progresses. 

See "Aids for deciphering German death notices" from this finding aid for a guide to the Fraktur typeface, a word list with English equivalents and other helpful information.

Photocopies of indexed articles may be requested by email from the History and Genealogy Department. Limit of three searches per request. Please review the library's lookup policy.

Anzeiger des Westens was a daily St. Louis newspaper published in German from 1835 until it merged into the Westliche Post in 1898. The following is a list of death notice translations published in the Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal. The publication can be viewed at call no. R 977.8 M678J in the History & Genealogy Department or on the Missouri State Genealogical Association Website.

  • “Deaths, Anzeiger Des Westens (Sonntagsblatt), 1876.” Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal Vol. XXIV, No. 2 (2004) pp111-116.
  • “Deaths, Anzeiger Des Westens (Sonntagsblatt), 1877.” Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal Vol. XXV, No. 1 (2005) pp56-60.
  • “Deaths, Anzeiger Des Westens (Sonntagsblatt), 1878.”  Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal Vol. XXVII, No. 2 (2008) pp123-127.
  • “Funeral - Notice Data from Anzeiger Des Westens (Sonntagsblatt) (St. Louis) 04 Dec 1881 – 27 May 1883 (1/3).” Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal Vol. XXIX, No. 1 (2009) pp. 47-50 [covers 4 Dec 1881 – 18 Jun 1882]
  • “Funeral - Notice Data from Anzeiger Des Westens (Sonntagsblatt) (St. Louis) 04 Dec 1881 – 27 May 1883 (2/3).” Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal Vol. XXIX, No. 2 (2009) pp. 87-90.[covers 25 Jun 1882-17 Dec 1882]
  • “Funeral - Notice Data from Anzeiger Des Westens (Sonntagsblatt) (St. Louis) 04 Dec 1881 – 27 May 1883 (3/3).” Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal Vol. XXIX, No. 3 (2009) pp. 164-167.[covers 24 Dec 1882-27 May 1883]

The following files may be downloaded as PDFs.

Fraktur Guide (162 KB): A guide to deciphering the Gothic typeface used in German-language publications.

German word list (122 KB): A list of German words commonly used in death notices with their English equivalents.

"Deciphering Death Notices in German Newspapers" in PastPorts, Vol. 3, No. 1 (January 2010) 

See also "Westliche Post death notices | Examples of published death notices" (web page) elsewhere on this website.