Scanning my files

We recently bought a printer-copier-scanner that has a sheet feeder, and that is my opportunity to digitize the huge amount of paper records I have. Especially the photocopied Kirchenbücher (German term for Parish Registers) for the German towns that my ancestors called home.

The Igeler-säule, a monument
to a textile trading family of the
Roman era in Igel, Germany. The
monument stands next to the
hotel owned and operated by
my cousin Oskar Blasius.

I've begun with the full set of early Kirchenbücher from Igel in Rheinland-Pfalz that were microfilmed into the Bistums-Archiv Trier and the Latter Day Saints Family History Library (FHL) as film 0585855. This film includes several large divisions that are called "Items" in the FHL catalog. The Items contain the Kirchenbücher in these groupings:

• Item 1. Hüffelsheim. (registers of Hüffelsheim, not photocopied)
• Item 2. Gemeinde Hümmel, Dekanat Adenau, Regierung Bezirk Koblenz. (registers of Hümmel, not photocopied)
• Item 3. Gemeinde Hümmel, Dekanat Adenau, Regierung Bezirk Koblenz. (not photocopied)
• Item 4. Gemeinde Hümmel, Dekanat Adenau, Regierung Bezirk Koblenz. (not photocopied)
• Item 5. Gemeinde Hümmel, Dekanat Adenau, Regierung Bezirk Koblenz. (not photocopied)
• Item 6. Gemeinde Hümmel, Dekanat Adenau, Regierung Bezirk Koblenz. (not photocopied)
• Item 7. Gemeinde Igel, Dekanat Konz, Regierung Bezirk Trier. KB1.
• Taufen (baptisms) 1706-1713, 1720-1732, 1738-1778. 
• Einzelne (various)1794, 1800, 1804, 1806. 
• Heiraten (matrimonies) 1706-1713, 1748-1778 (sehr Lückenhaft). 
• Sterbefälle (deaths) 1706-1722, 1749-1778. 
• Einzelne 1790-1796.
• 9951 [Contents page] Taufen 1706-1713 (p. 4); 1720-1732 (p. 11); 1738-1778 (p. 35); 
• Einzelne 1794, 1800, 1804, 1806 (p. 122). 
• Heiraten 1706-1713 (p. 125); 1748-1778 (sehr Lückenhaft) (p. 127). 
• Sterbefälle 1706-1722 (p. 141); 1749-1778 (p. 142); 
• Einzelne 1790-1796 (p. 161). 
• Spirituale testamentum pro vita et morte. Verschiedene Nachträge 1732-1754 (p. 166).

The old St. Dionysius church of Igel, built in 1759. Note the
Igeler-Säule in the foreground right. The church became a
chapel with the building of a new church along 

• Item 8. Gemeinde Igel, Dekanat Konz, Regierung Bezirk Trier. KB2.
• Taufen 1752-1759, 1784-1794, 1797. 
• Sterbefälle 1790/92.
• 3913 [Contents page] Taufen 1752-1759 (p. 1); 1784-1794 (p. 19); 1797 (p. 88). 
• Sterbefälle 1790/92 (p. 89).
• Item 9. Gemeinde Igel, Dekanat Konz, Regierung Bezirk Trier. KB3.
• Heiraten 1753-1761, 1784-1795.
• 3914 [Contents page] Heiraten 1753-1761 (p. 1); 1784-1795 (p. 5). 1752: no matrimonies performed. 
• Item 10. Gemeinde Igel, Dekanat Konz, Regierung Bezirk Trier. KB4.
• T. H. St. (baptisms, matrimonies, deaths) 1779-1783 (1779, 1781, 1782, 1783) Doppel.
• Taufen 1794, 1797-1800. 

Stairway to the chapel

• Heiraten 1797-1798. 
• Sterbefälle 1797, 1792/3.
• 3915 [Contents page] T.H.St. 1779-1783 (p. 1); 1779, 1781, 1782, 1783 Doppel (p. 57). 
• Taufen 1784 (p. 119); 1797-1800 (p. 119). 
• Heiraten 1797-1798 (p. 133). 
• Sterbefälle 1797, 1792/3 (p. 137).
• Item 11.Gemeinde Igel, Dekanat Konz, Regierung Bezirk Trier. KB5 through KB 13.
• T.H.St. 1784-1793.
• 3916 [Contents page] T.H.St. 1784. 
• 3917 T.H.St. 1785-1786. 
• 3918 T.H.St. 1787. 
• 3919 T.H.St. 1788. 
• 3920 T.H.St. 1789. 
• 3921 T.H.St. 1790. 
• 3922 T.H.St. 1791. 
• 3923 T.H.St. 1792. 
• 3924 T.H.St. 1793. 

View of Igel from the old Reinig neighborhood
of Wasserliesch, across the Mosel River. My
great-grandmother Susanna Reinert was born
in Igel, and my great-grandfather John M. Kohn
was born in Wasserliesch.

It has taken about two days to scan each group of 35 pages into one PDF file after another. The resulting 17 files range from about 60 to 275 MB, generally depending on the number of pages. Using Adobe Acrobat, I slim down the file size to the range of 7 to 20 MB and rotate pages as needed, if the photocopies changed orientation at some point. Then I merge each packet of 35 pages back into a single file that represents the full Item.

But the work isn't quite done with these steps. I still must go through each file, add PDF bookmarks to ease navigation, and add comments where I have had post-it notes that contain translations, summaries, orother information.

Update 2013.06.23: All the Igel documents are completely scanned.

For future work, I have digitizing for these locations:

• USA KS Mitchell county 19th-C censuses
• USA KS Mitchell county research trip in 2001
• USA KS Mitchell county maps, church registers, cemetery canvasses, deeds, news articles
• USA KS Osborne county maps, deeds, censuses
• USA MN Houston county maps, deeds, censuses related to families Arnoldy, Gillen, Reinert, Schandler, and Schwinden
• USA OH family documents for Brandon, Cosiano, Coscignano, Deneke, Derry, Flauto, Gast, Hoon, Iacano, LoPiccolo, Maxwell, Morton, Nanik, Pounds, and Ventura
• USA PA Allegheny county documents for families Elliott, Ohnsat, Rahenkamp, and Rothamel
• USA WI Dane county documents for families Butler, Kennedy, and Ryan
• USA WI La Crosse county documents for familes Bauer, Becker, Beranek, King, Kohn, Petrick, and Troyanek

• 

  Igel from above, about 2001
  

  
  

  DEU (Germany) B-W (Baden-Wurttemberg) Breisach documents for families Salinger and Vogel
• DEU B-W Main-Tauber-Kreis Königheim documents for Stephan family, primarily Kirchenbücher 
• DEU N-W (Nordthein-Westfalen) Kr. Höxter Brakel documents for Deneke, Franke, and Wiethase families, primarily Kirchenbücher 
• DEU R-P (Rheinland-Pfalz) general documents, some from Landesarchiv that includes Entlaßungserkundigunge (Permits to emigrate)
• DEU R-P Amerikaauswangerungen aus dem Landkreise Trier Rheinland 1855-1900 by Josef Mergen (Update 2013.06.23: scanning complete)
• DEU R-P Krieg am Westwall by Khristoffel
• DEU R-P Kr. Saarburg Saarburg-Filzen Kirchenbücher 
• DEU R-P Kr. Saarburg Wasserliesch Kirchenbücher 1752-1797
• DEU R-P Kr. Saarburg Wasserliesch Kirchenbücher 1752-1907
• DEU R-P Kr. Saarburg Wasserliesch Familienbuch monograph by Peter Kohns
• DEU R-P Kr. Trier-Land marriage extracts from Kirchenbücher  near Igel, 1840-1870 (Update 2013.06.23: scanning complete)
• DEU R-P Kr. Trier-Land Igel Kirchenbücher 1818-1908 (Update 2013.06.23: scanning complete)
• DEU R-P Kr. Trier-Land "Familienbuch" monograph by Franziska Kandel (Update 2013.06.23: scanning complete)
• DEU R-P Kr. Trier-Land Langsur Kirchenbücher 1758-1900 (Update 2013.06.23: scanning complete)
• DEU SCSN (Schlesien, a part of former Ostpreußen) Kr. Falkenburg Grüben extracted records from Kirchenbücher
• LUX (Luxembourg) Canton Fôret/Grevenmacher Wasserbillig Registres Paroissiaux

If you, my reader, have a special interest in the digitized or photocopied records, please leave a comment on this posting.

© Thomas G. Kohn, 2013.