I have written a brief history of my grandfather, Francis H. Brooks, but I have not published it at this time. Several years ago while studing the census records in California for Francis Brooks, I realized that he may have been born in Italy and not in Austria. (More on that discovery later). My grandson, Geoff Brooks, filled a mission in Austria and he has had a interest in the Brooks line of ancestors. He wants to return to Austria and Italy this year with his wife that also served a mission in Italy. We have agreed to buy his airfare to Germany if he will try to find the birth record of Francis Brooks whom we believe was born in Dorf Tyrol, Italy. He is doing some extensive internet research in preparation for this trip. I will include a copy of his email to me regarding his progress as noted below.
Hi grandpa.
I have been very busy with various aspects of this research. I have been spending a lot of time on the web trying to pinpoint which landes archives will have the best chance of having the record. Because of what i have found i highly doubt that the record we are seeking will be in the church in dorf tirol.
The more i have been looking it seems that almost all records have been collected and put together in several locations, i.e. Land archives. I have found 2-3 that i think will have the record. The first is in Bozen. I have the contact information for that archive and i have been working with my friend ENGIN (a friend i made in
innsbruck) to contact them and ask if they have the records from the Dorf tirol. Engo tried last week to call but he didnt realize the number was in italy and not austria, Different country codes, so he thought the number was disconnected. He is going to try again this week. If he is unable to get a hold of them i also have thier email address and i will send them an email towards the end of this month start of next month and see if i can find anything out. I also have been able to make some contacts over there with some church geneology people (ward members). I have one in austria and Ky, my wife, has been trying to get a hold of someone in one of her wards in italy that does genelogy. The second location is the tiroler landes archive. They have mircofilm there from several cities that has to be ordered before hand. (that is in innsbruck) I am trying to find out whhich cities are available. A lot of this is very hard to work through from over here. And i dont think there is enough time to to it all while we are over there. So i am trying as hard as i can to set some things up before hand.. The biggest problem is my german is a bit out of practise so i am taking longer to understand how it works there.
there also might be a land archive in Milan. Both Bozen and Milan are close to Dorf Tirol. I have recently found something that says it wasent until 1939 that it was austrias job to gather records of birth, deaths, marriages ect. Before that time it was the job of the state recognized religous orginizations - on assignment from the government. i.e the catholic church. the article went on to say that many foriegn guests come to tirol to look for thier ancesters hoping to find and complete there family tree. Unfortunatly geneology is only possible if you know the exact village where the baptism, marriage,or death took place. Once you know the place then you need to order the microfilm and look through it. it says that most common on the mircofilms is name registers. It also says that tirol is the first autrian state to have all of the church materials on mircofilm. Ok if that stuff didnt make much sense its because it was translated from german from the tiroler landes archiv webpage it had a whole bunch of tips and information to other sites. So i have not been working on this and i have not forgotten about you, its just been that i have been working on a different aspect of the research. It is so interesting. I am really just trying to insure that our time in austria and italy is best used and that the records that we need are available and that we know where we need to go.
Love
geoff
Anyone reading thsi blog that can assist us in our search in Austria and Italy should contact geoff atgbrooks@gmail.com
RHB
