Trisha Cornforth, German news reporter for "Der Kanadier"
newspaper as well as for CFN/RFC radio and television,
from the end of 1978 to the end of May 1994

The original "Der Kanadier " was the weekly newspaper for
the Canadian Forces stationed in Europe. It was published in Lahr
in the Black Forest, Germany, from 1 July 1970 until 25 May 1994,
i.e. until just before Canadian Forces Base Lahr closed down
in mid-August 1994.

Trisha has stayed in Lahr as a self-employed English teacher
(VHS adult education classes and local companies) and as a
translator (e.g. for Burda sewing and needlework magazines).
She is president of the Lahr German-Canadian Friendship Club,
the Lahr Canada-Haus Association and the "Schwarzwald Tänzer"
square dance club (founded by Canadians in 1967).

Were you married in Lahr? Were you or your children born in Lahr?
Do you have the marriage or birth certificates?

While the Canadian Forces were stationed in Lahr from 1967 to 1994, many hundreds of Canadians got married and many thousands of Canadian children were born here and therefore officially registered at the Lahr Registry Office (Standesamt).

When CFB Lahr closed down in 1994, I tried to find out the exact registration numbers for an article in the last edition of our weekly newspaper “Der Kanadier”. Unfortunately the statistical records were not available for the years 1967 to 1981. Individual marriages and births were of course registered during that period - this simply means that German and Canadian registrations were not recorded separately at the time and it would have been too much work for the employees to go through the lists to find out! But the available figures for 1983 to 1994 showed an amazing total of 702 Canadians married and 3 943 Canadians born in Lahr.

Of course, all those married or born in Lahr have German marriage or birth certificates.
Such important documents occasionally get lost because of hurried postings, frequent moves from place to place, fires, etc. In the last few years several people have e-mailed me to request information about obtaining replacements - including one lady whose recent message also got lost, so I have no return address!

I therefore asked the officials at Lahr Standesamt for the practical details (mailing address, costs, methods of payment, etc). We have translated these into English and French to meet your needs. See the relevant display which will remain permanently online under section info


Lahr Registry Office

Information for getting a copy of a German birth certificate
or other official documents

1 document (birth, marriage or death certificate) costs   7.00 Euros
Each further duplicate document (if exactly the same) costs 3.50 Euros


These fees must be paid in advance in cash or by sending a cheque made out in Euros.

Please send the cheque together with a letter containing exact information: your full name, date of birth and names of parents

to the following address:

Standesamt Lahr
Rathausplatz 4
77933 Lahr/Schwarzwald
Germany


Email: standesamt@lahr.de

Trisha Cornforth
info@kanadahaus.org