Prefatory note: These credentials are intended to give you an idea as to my background, so that you can be a better judge of my expertise. They are not intended to solicit research assignments.
For information as to what services I still can offer, click here.
Edward R. Brandt, Ph.D., A.G., was a co-founder of the multi-national Federation of East European Family History Societies. He served as vice-president until 1996, convention program chair in 1994 and 1995, and chair of its 1996 convention. In this capacity, he became acquainted, either personally or by reputation, with a large percentage of North American genealogical experts on all countries in Eastern, East Central and Central Europe, as well as a number for the Balkans.
He is generally familiar with a broad range of genealogical resources for Central and East European countries, but is a Germanic specialist. He was a co-founder of the Germanic Genealogy Society, served on its board in several capacities, contributes frequently to its journal (formerly newsletter), and co-authored GERMANIC GENEALOGY: A GUIDE TO WORLDWIDE SOURCES AND MIGRATION PATTERNS, a trail-blazing book published by that society in 1995, with an expanded 2nd edition in 1997.
He wrote most of the material on East and South European countries, as well as on immigrant countries outside Anglo-America. His contributions included chapters on the geography, history and religion of German-speaking people and also on passenger departure and arrival lists. He aided in compiling the information on resources in the Germanic countries (but very little about Switzerland), Western Europe, the U.S. (mostly immigration) and Canada (mostly western Canada), as well as the chapters on place names (mostly list of gazetteers) and surnames (minor contributions), the extensive annotated bibliography, and the dateline of Germanic history.
Of course, no person can prepare chapters on such a broad range of countries and topics, based only on his personal experience. Therefore, much of the information he compiled came from personal contacts or extensive reading, much of it in German-language publications.
After accreditation as a German specialist in 1989, he gave an eight-lecture series on RESEARCHING GERMANIC ANCESTORS, available in published form (with a ninth booklet added since then). Some of these lectures are on topics where the material never gets dated, but others have been superseded to a greater or lesser degree by other publications, new information and changes. He did not renew his accreditation in 1999, since he is no longer engaged in Family History Library research.
One of the projects he planned (currently on indefinite hold) is a series of articles on "An Overview of Germanic Settlements in Eastern Europe" for the East European Genealogist. It is uncertain whether this series will ever be completed, although two articles were published.
Book reviews have appeared in many periodicals, including the newsletter and journal of the Germanic Genealogy Society, the Mennonite Historical Quarterly and the German-Bohemian Heritage Society Newsletter, with lecture outlines in The German Connection.
He wrote the historical background information in WHERE TO LOOK FOR HARD-TO-FIND GERMAN-SPEAKING ANCESTORS IN EASTERN EUROPE: INDEX TO 19,720 NAMES IN 13 BOOKS, compiled by his son. Of course, there were some 8 million German-speakers in Eastern Europe, so this book is only one volume of what would have to be a large multi-volume encyclopedia to resemble being comprehensive. This book is strongest for Galician German, Danube Swabian and Russian Mennonite pioneers, with all the classic works on these settlers indexed.
Ed translated and adapted pertinent parts of Martina Wermes's resource list and published it under the title, IMPORTANT ADDRESSES AND TELEPHONE NUMBERS FOR THE FIVE NEW (EASTERN) STATES OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY. He added an appendix, including a bibliography for historic East and Central Germany, which has been updated on several occasions. There are more comprehensive address books available for Germanic genealogical research in general, but few if any English ones which are as extensive for genealogical resources in the former Communist-ruled states.
Brief articles serve as a guide to the holdings of the Austrian National Archives and the German Federal Archives. He has also written about Palatine migrants to Eastern Europe in The Palatine Immigrant and about their descendants in the Galizien German Descendants Newsletter.
"DIE FAMILIENFORSCHUNG DER RUSSLANDDEUTSCHEN IN NORDAMERIKA" [Family History Research by Germans from the Russian Empire in North America] in Rainer and Irina Zielke (eds.), Ratgeber '95: Familienforschung Mittel- und Osteuropa, was written for German-speaking genealogists.
In 1991 he took a seven-week trip to Europe, with most of the time spent in Poland and Germany. Since his, his father-in-law's and his mother-in-law's ancestors represent three distinct lines of eastward migrants who were or became German-speakers and lived in what is or was Polish territory, he developed a secondary field in Polish research, but that expertise is restricted by a lack of knowledge of Polish. He co-founded the Polish Genealogical Society of Minnesota, served as program chair for several years, and still contributes to its newsletter occasionally. His latest book is RESOURCES FOR POLISH-AMERICAN AND POLISH-CANADIAN GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH (2nd ed., 1998).
In addition to many articles on Germanic genealogy, he has written an illustrated heritage booklet on the Mennonites in Poland, WHERE ONCE THEY TOILED: A VISIT TO THE FORMER MENNONITE HOMELANDS IN THE VISTULA RIVER VALLEY. He served as a contributing editor for Mennonite Family History for quite a few years.
Numerous articles relevant for Polish and Polish German genealogy have appeared in the Polish Genealogical Society of Minnesota Newsletter, The Minnesota Genealogist, Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia and Clues (its annual genealogical issue), Wandering Volhynians, Der Stammbaum (genealogical issue of the Heritage Review), and Heritage Quest.
Likewise, he has a strong interest in records and resources in and for the Commonwealth of Independent States, especially Ukraine, from which all of his and his wife's ancestors came to North America. He authored or co-authored articles on genealogical resources in the former Soviet Union in the Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, the East European Genealogist and the German Genealogical Society of America Newsletter. These articles no longer represent the latest or most comprehensive information about the CIS.
During his 1991 trip he also visited the Hungarian National Archives. This resulted in his book on the subject, based on an out-of-print Hungarian guide, but including considerable information from American sources. This book, CONTENTS AND ADDRESSES OF HUNGARIAN ARCHIVES, has some limited supplementary information on Germans from pre-World War I Hungary.
He is an honorary member of the Akademie für Genealogie, Heraldik und verwandte Wissenschaften in Germany and the Anglo-Germany Family History Society in the United Kingdom. A few years ago, he belonged to more than 30 genealogical, historical or multi-purpose societies in four countries, most of them devoted to Germanic research, but including Polish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Czech/Slovak, Rusin, Jewish and multi-ethnic groups. But in recent years he has been forced to curtail his activities.
His many genealogical lectures and seminars included appearances in Alberta, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin. Most of these dealt with Germanic topics, but he has also spoken occasionally about resources for Polish and Hungarian research, as well as on records of the former Russian Empire. Health reasons now prevent giving the all-day seminars he loves.
Mary K. Meyer listed him in Who's Who in Genealogy & Heraldry. He loves the challenge of deciphering poorly handwritten material in the Gothic script. He has compiled three personal family histories, co-authored a fourth, started a fifth and plans more if possible.
He became a genealogy addict in 1966 when he accidentally stumbled onto a gold mine of information about his mother-in-law's Galician ancestors at the Austrian National Library. This led to extensive on-site research in Europe, where he worked for seven non-consecutive years. Most of this involved checking pre-1785 records in Rhineland-Palatinate, but he also did some research in numerous other repositories (parsonages, archives) in Germany, and a few in northern Switzerland, France (Alsace) and (interwar) Poland. This included some work as a genealogical detective, unraveling puzzles where printed publications and parish registers provided incorrect information as to the place or surname. He won the Minnesota Genealogical Society's Babe the Blue Ox Award of Merit in its 1996 Paul Bunyan Tall Tales Writing Contest with "Whence the Rauschenbergers?"
In 1991 he visited major archives and resource centers in Berlin, Leipzig, Marburg, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Koblenz, Vienna, Strasbourg, Lodz, Radom and Budapest.
He has done some American colonial, British and Scotch-Irish research on his granddaughters' colonial line, but is no expert in these areas. Such limited other American research as he has done has been ancillary to researching continental European records for clients with German-speaking ancestors.
What did he do when he wasn't a genealogist? Mental health administrator, Foreign Service officer, State Representative, political science and history professor in nine institutions (including military bases, a prison and a hospital), co-editor of the first college text on Minnesota government, unpaid citizen lobbyist who drafted the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act, organizational activist, speaker on public affairs topics, prize-winning lyrical poet and anthology editor, and a great diversity of temporary blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Born in southwest Kansas Dust Bowl in 1931 and grew up in Manitoba (1938-51). Worked in seven countries, lived in nine states and two Canadian provinces. Tumbling tumbleweed of Wandervolk stock. At 65 succumbed to the grave danger of living in the same house for ten years.
Started off as a farm boy who didn't speak ANY written language until almost eight, but soon discovered that the REAL world is that of books and dreams.
This web page first posted on Prodigy August 9, 1999.