Are you researching Catholic ancestors in Germany or Austria? Matricula is one of the most indispensable tools in a researcher’s arsenal. This online portal contains a vast holding of digital fonds of Catholic church books across Germany and Austria, with free access to high resolution scans. Most of these originals are held in various Archdiocesian archives and their availability online on Matricula consolidates the work load for the researcher.
This past year, a large collection of church books from the Archdiocese of Paderborn (in NRW) has been added, including St. Regina of Rhynern on October 16, 2020. Excellent news for me, as my KOCKERBECK and OSTERMANN ancestors hailed from in and around Rhynern; now all I need is some more time to dig through the new fonds! However, I was successful already in locating the baptismal record of my 4x great-grandfather Johann Dietrich (gennant Theodor) KOCKERBECK on 02 Aug 1778 as well as the marriage of a set of 7x great grandparents – Johann Hermann OSTERMANN and Sibilla MITTROP on 14 Feb 1702 in the records of St. Regina. Tracing the OSTERMANN line is a challenge; as not all male descendents carry a fixed OSTERMANN surname but rather a Hofname instead, a naming convention popular historically in Westphalia and subject of a later blog!
The link is below: https://data.matricula-online.eu/en/
Happy searching!
Tolksdorf Genealogical Research 