The first thing to understand is the term genealogy. By definition, it is the study of the history of families and the line of descent from one’s ancestors. It is the history of one’s genes which are our basic physical units of heredity. Our genealogy, therefore, is the tracing of these basic units, the people of our ancestry. The most logical way to research our genealogy, our ancestry, is to use the facts that we know and trace each line back into the areas we do not know. A line of descent is a family tree (or pedigree) tracing directly from a specific ancestor, the root, up to the present or to a certain period of time, the branches.

How to start
To research METZENSEIFEN ancestry, you need to start in the present time with yourself. Follow either parent’s line back to the ancestor who immigrated from METZENSEIFEN, noting the locations of all family births, marriages and deaths back to the family’s immigrant. Clues can be found in obituaries and naturalization documents as well as birth, marriage and death records.

You can also locate and identify your first American ancestor by tracing your family back through the censuses. Often, censuses show only the country of birth. However, certain censuses show the year of immigration. Some censuses show the year of naturalization. Using these clues, you can search naturalization records and ship passenger records. The ship passenger records often show the closest relative in the immigrant’s country of origin and may give the relative’s address.

Church Records
If you have discovered that some of your immigrant ancestors were from Ober-Metzenseifen or Unter-Metzenseifen and known as VYŠNÝ MEDZEV or MEDZEV and located in eastern Slovakia, you are in luck. The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (also known as Mormons) has been preserving various records throughout the world, mostly through microfilming. Currently, there is a very time-consuming effort to digitize all their records. Unfortunately, the microfilms for Ober- and Unter-Metzenseifen have not yet been digitized. The microfilms for these two towns range in date from as early as 1668 to as late as 1895. The microfilms of the Roman Catholic parish registers include births and baptisms, marriages, deaths and confirmations of the residents of the two towns. There is also a separate microfilm containing the history of the towns. These microfilms can be rented through your closest Family History Library of the Mormon Church. You can check their locations on the Family Search website.

Possibilities of this site
The other option you can use as a help in your research is the Metzenseifen website. Through the hard work and diligent efforts of many volunteers, a very large and comprehensive amount of information is available to those who wish to learn about Metzenseifen and the mostly German people who have settled and populated it for centuries. Check the tabs for history, genealogy, culture, church, databases and others. They contain many beautiful photos, delicious recipes and fascinating information, e.g. historical objects.

Expand and share your data collection
If you are not already a member of this free website, consider registering and joining our researchers as we continue to find connections with each other through our ancestors.