Bibliography on the Colonial Germans of North America, Especially the Pennsylvania Germans and Their Descendants; by Emil Meynen; 636 pp.; Paperback; Published: 1937; Reprinted: 1982 ; ISBN 9780806309644; Item # CF3850D

Anyone wishing to know what has been written on the Pennsylvania Germans will welcome the reappearance of this classic bibliography. Anyone aspiring to a command of the literature on the Pennsylvania Germans must master its contents; and anyone doing research in Pennsylvania-German genealogy must have it at his side. It is basic, and no efficient research can be done without it.

Divided into subject categories, the bibliography contains citations to all published writings dealing with the Germans in colonial North America (chiefly Pennsylvania), whether in the form of general histories, magazine articles, newspapers, pamphlets, mug-books, church records, town, county, and state histories, or printed genealogies, and it attempts to give as complete an account of the printed source material as possible. It is in effect the starting point in Pennsylvania-German research because it acquaints the researcher with everything that had been published up through the cut-off year of 1933.

Altogether the bibliography contains citations to about 8,000 items which range across subjects as diverse as immigration and architecture. The bulk of the citations, however, are to books and articles dealing with such subjects as emigration from the Palatinate, the German settlements in Pennsylvania and other colonies, immigration and migration, church history, local history, biography, and genealogy, this last group alone encompassing citations to no fewer than 1,700 family histories. An excellent place to begin research!

Used wisely, this book will eliminate the need to ransack whole libraries in search of answers.