Bistumsarchiv Hildesheim
Pfaffenstieg 2
31134 Hildesheim / Germany
As memory of the Diocese Hildesheim the Diocesan Archive stores its official documents: Certificates, files, official books, single documents, card files, files, maps, plans, drawings, posters, seals, print material, photographs, films, audio documents as well as other information media of the episcopal curia, the episcopal ordinariate, the cathedral chapter, the parishes, the Caritas association of the diocese, different Catholic associations and epicscopal institutions.
The territory of the diocese includes the part of Lower Saxony that lies east of the river Weser and parts of the federal state of Bremen, namely North Bremen, i.e. the parts of Bremen located north of the river Lesum, and Bremerhaven. It is one of the largest dioceses in Germany but almost exclusively consists of regions where Catholics are a minority and therefore live in the diaspora. The deanship Untereichsfeld located in the south of the diocese and the villages of the old “(small) foundation” in the Hildesheim area have a predominantly Catholic population.
The diocesan archive stores the completed church books of the parishes from the diocese Hildesheim and makes them accessible within the framework of the Ecclesial Archive Law. The following overview lists the duration of all baptism, marriage, and death records stored in the diocesan archive, while the other directories - e.g. the first holy communion or confirmation registers - are not listed: www.bistum-hildesheim.de/fileadmin/dateien/PDFs/Bistumsarchiv/kirchenbuecher.pdf
At Archion, you find the church books from different parishes of the cities Brunswick, Celle, Göttingen, Hanover, and Hildesheim online.
If you need a church book for your family research that is not (yet) recorded online with Archion, it is possible to research on site in the Diocesan Archive Hildesheim. Furthermore, the complete inventory of church books and certificates is available in the digital reading room within the framework of the protection periods of the Catholic Archive Law: http://www.dile.bistum-hildesheim.de/
Please find further information on the homepage of the regional church archive: Bistumsarchiv – das Gedächtnis des Bistums | Bistum Hildesheim (bistum-hildesheim.de)