Beethoven and Goethe, the German Shakespeare, were glad to see liberator Napoleon come, and glad to see occupier Napoleon go. Napoleonic la

You’re tracing your family back, and the spellings sometimes just go crazy.

Save letters! I have a treasure trove of memories downstairs. So began the email from my mother earlier this week.

We have kept the old word “merry” from a day when Christmas was anything but a Silent Night

Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized the 17th of December, 1770, in Bonn, a small city on the Rhine River.

French Germany? France is French and Germany is German, as a general rule, so how could you have French Germany? Well, borders can be flu

The first U.S. president born in the United States (so after the country’s founding) didn’t even speak English as his first language.

The whole month of October is German American month. But wait! October 6 in particular is German-American Day. So many have contributed.

The largest emigration ports from Germany to the New World were the Hanseatic cities Bremen and Hamburg, Germany’s leading ports even today.

At various times, there were dozens of imperial cities, from towns of a few thousand people to some of the largest cities.

Kaffeeklatsch, a very gemütlich, cozy gathering. It translates as ‘coffee chit-chat’

I love scouring old newspapers. I hit the jackpot with Joseph Billman from Erie - German-born and Civil War veteran.

English, Dutch and German are all related languages - the languages diverged - you can see it in how the same original words now differ.-

The main Celtic traditions for genealogy are the Irish, the Scottish and the Welsh. Complicating matters, Irish settlers brought Gaelic from

Why do some family names end in -son and some in -sen?

We’d talked about how much the German dialects vary, looking at dialect forms of the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s compare High German and Dutch.

In honor of Mozart's birthday on January 27th, we look to a curious Mozart connection or two crossing the Atlantic.

Sewing, in addition to laundry, used to be a responsibility that almost every woman had. And yet it can be tough to get insights into this p

The tribes that coalesced into Germans spoke 'the people’s/ popular language’ as opposed to Latin

Not long ago, a friend asked me why we say Germany when the Germans use the word Deutschland. The words aren't even related! Good quest