Hi all! Continuing the series on reading the old German script. Today’s lesson: Sütterlin.

This video will show you the main differences between Sütterlin and Kurrentschrift, picking apart how the letters are different. Take a listen and pay attention! Future episodes will walk you through real-life examples from a variety of records.

So why make these videos? When I first started learning to read the old script, there were very few examples of the letters in practice. I learned best by seeing the lettering over and over again, slowly picking out words as I learned to recognize the individual characters. Sure, other videos help with learning how to write in old script and even learning how to read it, but I wanted to teach others in the same way I learned.

It took me six years to become mostly proficient at reading old script. It’s my hope to expedite this process for you. Especially with the acquisition of land registers and other atypical records, it is extremely important that the public can read them. Stay tuned for future episodes that will focus on Standesamt files, Kirchenbücher, Grundbücher, guild registers, immigration files and more!

Christopher DeWuske

I founded this website to help others make connections with their genealogy. I've been at my own family history since 2014 and have made significant progress since then. My hope is to one day determine where my family name came from. In the years since I started my genealogy, I've become something of an expert on the resources and history of Pomerania. I'd like to share what I've learned with you to help you on your own journey to discover your heritage. With the right information and enough patience, I believe researchers like us can break down the barriers to our family histories and make more freely available so others can trace their families as well. Let's work together to rebuild the stories of our ancestors!