German ancestory prior to 1700?

Question:

German ancestory prior to 1700?

Does anyone know the best way to go about trying to trace your family history prior to the 17th century. I usually hit a snag around 1650 to 1680. I'm interested in the Westphalia area and especially the Trier diocese.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Westfalia isn't so bad to research. The real problem is that most of the records you need from that era are archived but not digitized and on the internet. You'll want probate, land and religious records to get through the next 250 years. Around the year 1400, that will change again (less land ownership, more peasants), but it's a good place to start. Your choices are to visit Germany and visit the Westfalen archives, find a kindred spirit in the area willing to do the research for you and you reciprocate on this end, or pay someone (I hire lots of grad students from the History dept at colleges in Europe) to go pull the records for you.

For the religious records it's much easier. They will happily share, but you may have to write to the parihes to get the records you need. Many won't be filmed until certain bishops change their stance on releasing original documents that are inevitably destroyed in the filming process.