Christmas Sale on Archion.de Passes and Vouchers (Gift Certificates): Save 20%

If you have ancestors from Germany who were Evangelische in religion, you may have heard of the Archion.de website. It was founded in 2016 by the Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland with eleven regional Evangelische churches. The website has continued to grow through the years and currently has over 175,000 church books digitized and now 25 partner archives which include primarily protestant archives as well as archives of dioceses, states, towns and associations.

From Friday December 6, 2024, through Friday, December 13, 2024, Archion.de is having its annual Special Christmas Offers -- a 20 percent off sale on 3-month or 1-year passes and vouchers/gutschein.

Passes -- Paid-Access starting from time of purchase.

3-Month Pass is regularly €52.20 now on sale for €41.75 including VAT
This pass allows an individual user to access the digital church book archive for three months (90 days) starting from the date of subscription, as well as up to 150 image (PDF) downloads.

1-Year Pass is regularly €178.80 now on sale for €143 including VAT
This pass allows an individual user to access the digital church book archive for one year (365 days) starting from the date of subscription, as well as up to 600 image (PDF) downloads.

Vouchers/Gutschein -- Pre-paid Coupons/Vouchers/Gift Certificates

3-Month Voucher is regularly €52.20 now on sale for €41.75 including VAT
This voucher allows an individual user to access the digital church book archive for three months (90 days) starting from the date of redemption by the recipient, as well as up to 150 image (PDF) downloads. Vouchers expire two years after their issue date. Except in legally specified cases, vouchers cannot be recharged, re-sold, transferred, or paid out in cash value.

1-Year Voucher is regularly €178.80 now on sale for €143 including VAT
This voucher allows an individual user to access the digital church book archive for one year (365 days) starting from the date of redemption by the recipient, as well as up to 600 image (PDF) downloads. Vouchers expire two years after their issue date. Except in legally specified cases, vouchers cannot be recharged, re-sold, transferred, or paid out in cash value

You must create an account prior to making a purchase. Or be logged in with an existing account. When making your purchase, if you want a pass (which starts immediately) select "Book # Pass Now" but if you want a voucher be sure to scroll down and select "Buy as a Gift Voucher." Purchases can be made using a credit card or PayPal. Passes and Vouchers do not automatically renew.

The Archion website is in German with some English translated website pages. You are able to browse the contents of the website for free meaning to see what is available. Uploaded digitized church books are shaded in green. If a location or book is not shaded in green than it is not yet uploaded. The forum boards are also free but you must be logged into the website and have the site in German (DE.)

The church books are organized first by the regional holding archive and the regional division and the parish location where you can then see what records types and time periods are available. At this time the digitized church records are mostly NOT electronically indexed so this is a browse and manually search like you would have done in the days of microfilm. And yes, the record images are in German in that old Schrift handwriting for the most part.

If you know the name of the parish you seek you can search that parish name to see if it comes up. But sometimes spelling matters so a manual search for the parish is suggested on the Archion.de website. Church books are added daily. Generally, in batches from three or so different archives each month. The almost monthly email newsletter usually informs what was recently added, what is currently being added, and what will be added next.

Remember, in Germany records are not centralized so you really need to know your origin village and determine its parish location before jumping across the water to the old country.

Also, remember German time is 6 hours ahead from Eastern Time so take that into account and don't wait for the last minute -- you might be 6 hours late.

See you at our favorite library!
LE