German-American Genealogical Partnership- Initial Announcement and Invitation 
April 2015
 
The Germanic Genealogy Society (GGS) of Minnesota and its affiliate Pommern Regional Group (PRG) are announcing plans to create a German-American Genealogical Partnership between German genealogical organizations.
  
This proposal is a joint effort between DAGV (Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft genealogischer Verbände  e. V.)  [German Federation of Genealogical Organizations] which has 63 member societies and Germanic Genealogy Society (GGS) along with other genealogical organizations or professional researchers in North America that wish to participate.
 
 This partnership would form a permanent German-American genealogy structure between countries and organizations for sharing contacts and genealogical research. This partnership is meant to be inclusive of all organizations (and individuals) interested in German genealogical research.
 
The goal is to strengthen and showcase each individual organization. Participation in partnership does not override members-only access to special society resources; individual society member benefits will be preserved.
 
Schedule of partnership planning meetings
Initial formation and planning meetings will be held in St. Paul, MN, May 28 and May 29. Representatives of interested organizations are invited to attend in person or by webinar.  Chairman Dirk Weissleder of DAGV will be the speaker at the GGS conference in St. Paul, MN on May 29 and 30.
 
Some of the goals we wish to accomplish by this partnership are:
  • Create a bond between organizations in Germany and North American
  • Facilitate improved and easier contacts and exchanges between Germany and North America
  • Share approach and strategies for researching in each country
  • Focus on sharing research data, ancestral and descendant research of immigrants
  • Create a list of most valuable references, resources and websites
  • Create contact list for organizations, speakers, researchers, guides, historians and translators
  • Share access to genealogical databases (some may be subscription only)
  • Develop web pages (or website) to describe the partnership and share information
    • Web pages would describe German and American genealogy written in German and English. They would be written from both the American and German perspective.
Future vision:
  • Develop expanded web pages with new resources
  • Promote family reunions (across the ocean)
  • Explore the possibility of creating an umbrella organization for German-American groups in North America
  • Hold periodic North American German genealogy conferences (2 or 3 day events)
  • Include one additional day devoted to meetings for society leaders
  • Create an immigrant database (or point to existing databases)
  • Create a new publication