IGGP Conference 2025 - Columbus, Ohio
JUNE 13-15 2025
The 2025 International German Genealogy Partnership conference will once again return to America’s Midwest and heartland of German immigration.
The Palatines to America and its president, John Harder, announced that PalAm would be hosting the conference in Columbus, Ohio, during the IGGP Partner Gala.
The year and location are special in that PalAm will be marking its 50th anniversary in 2025 and will be hosting in the city where it was founded.
PalAm is one of the IGGP’s larger partners and will be bringing its national organization as well as six state chapters to the planning process. Those chapters are located in Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
According to the PalAm website, “So many German-speaking immigrants were from the Palatinate (Pfalz) region during the 1600-1700s that Englishspeaking people soon called anyone who spoke German a ‘Palatine.’ Our organization is interested in researching all German-speaking ancestors.”
Ohio has a strong German immigrant history. People of German heritage were among the earliest white settlers, many of whom moved from Pennsylvania during the late 1700s and the early 1800s. Others, who came to help build canals in the 1820s and 1830s, established communities across the state.
Cincinnati is well known for its Over-the-Rhine community, which was an important center of German immigrant culture. But as early as 1855, these immigrants faced backlash from native-born Americans — a pattern repeated across the country during World War I, which led to the decline of a rich German-speaking culture in Ohio and the U.S. More about German history in Ohio.
Columbus was also a hotspot for German immigrants. German Village is a historic neighborhood just south of downtown that was settled largely by German immigrants in the mid 1800s. German descendants at one time comprised as much as a third of the population of the entire city of Columbus.
Watch for details on IGGP 2025 as the planning proceeds.
The Palatines to America has appointed its planning team for the 2025 International German Genealogy Partnership conference, which PalAm will host in Columbus, Ohio. John Harder, PalAm president, leads its planning team.
The year and location are special in that PalAm will be marking its 50th anniversary in 2025 and will be hosting in the city where it was founded.
German roots in Columbus
German Village is a historic neighborhood south of downtown that was settled largely by German immigrants in the mid 1800s.
Many German immigrants served in the American Civil War, early the respect of fellow residents. By 1865, the community was flourishing with businesses, schools and churches. The schools were so good that English-speaking residents of Columbus chose to attend. Sturdy brick homes with wrought iron fences along tree-lined streets were built. The former City Park was renamed Schiller Park in 1891.
But World War I sparked anti-German sentiment, and Prohibition in the 1930s led to the closing of local breweries. The neighborhood was declining, and people were leaving for the suburbs.
Facing the threat of neighborhood demolition, the German Village Society was created in 1960 to promote its preservation and rehabilitation. Today, German Village is a success story of urban renewal and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974. Its brick homes are desirable, and the neighborhood features shops and restaurants as well as the fountains and flower beds of Schiller Park.
