HIST 212: Thinking About the Dead (Elizabeth Miller) - Fall 2025

$10/year A bargain for anyone with Swiss/South German Mennonite heritage. Multiple databases from various sources with varying degrees of reliability, but generally accurate. Of the big databases, "Hostetler" (with many, many Amish families) is very accurate but no longer updated; “Johns” (large and growing); "Kidron" inputs data from multiple published genealogies without necessarily resolving discrepancies.

$40.00/download. Uses Brotherskeeper software or $20/2 yrs online access. Edited compilation of West Prussian/Russian Mennonite families (1.6 million individuals). Users can "adopt" the database and edit/enhance families of interest to themselves. Worth the price, especially if you are just beginning your own database with some family representation.

Includes full text of obituaries from Herald of Truth (1864ff.), Gospel Witness, Gospel Herald, and The Mennonite, as well as random additional obituary information. Well­ organized, easy to use. Overall the obituaries provide lots of good information (earliest and most recent published obituaries sometimes very brief)

Indexes (and provides full text of some) obituaries from Mennonite Weekly Review, Christlicher Bundesbote and several other publications.

Subscription information/some index information

Subscription information