Document review

Tell us about your German ancestor

There is no charge, and it commits you to nothing. Only your name and email are required: answer the rest with what you know, and leave blank what you do not.

About you

Full name

Phoneoptional

Marital statusoptional

Where you liveoptional

City and state is enough at this stage.

Your German ancestor

Everything in this section is optional. Answer what you know. What you do not know is often exactly what the research is for.

Who in your family came from Germany?optional

Their name, and anything you know about themoptional

Dates, the town they came from, the ship, where they settled.

Did your German ancestor leave Germany before 1904?optional

German law treated emigration before and after that year differently, so the date changes which records a file needs.

Yes, before 1904No, in 1904 or laterI do not know

Did that ancestor become a citizen of another country?optional

YesNoI do not know

If yes, roughly when?optional

Does anyone in your family already hold German citizenship?optional

Was the family Jewish, or persecuted between 1933 and 1945?optional

We ask because Article 116 (2) of the German Basic Law is a separate route, with different requirements, for the descendants of people persecuted on political, racial or religious grounds. Leave it blank if it does not apply or you would rather not say.

Was the immigrant ever registered with a German consulate?optional

Has anyone in the line served in armed forces, military police or similar?optional

Documents

If you already have records of your German ancestor, send them now: birth or marriage certificates, a passport, a work card, an embarkation record, a baptism record. If you have none, that is normal and not a problem.

Attach filesoptional

Up to six files, PDF or photo. Large photos are reduced in your browser before they are sent.

I agree that Hannover German Citizenship, LLC may contact me about this enquiry and keep what I sent in order to answer it.

There is no charge for the document review.

What happens next

Ana Cecília Werlang reads what you sent and writes back from the United States.
We tell you which records your family line would require, and whether they can be reconstructed from the archives.
Questions of German nationality law that your file raises are examined by Fabio Werlang, a European lawyer admitted in Portugal and Brazil.

What this is not

This form does not produce a decision about your case and does not create a client relationship. Ana Cecília Werlang is not a lawyer and does not assess cases. For questions of United States law, including tax and immigration, you need a lawyer admitted where you live.

Your data

What you send is stored in our own systems and is used to answer you. It is not sold and not shared for advertising. Any documents you attach are kept in private storage that only our team can open.