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The Association for Computer Genealogy (German: Verein für Computergenealogie, abbreviated CompGen) is a German non-profit organization, founded in 1989 in Dortmund, Germany. Initially called the Association for the Promotion of Computer-Aided Genealogical Research, the aim of the association is to "promote scientific research in genealogical related fields". The official webpage is only in German.
As of 2022, CompGen has a global membership of over 4,200 people in cooperation with other German genealogical research organizations.
CompGen operates its own web services, including a database, forums and mailing lists. They also work with other genealogical projects such as GenWiki. Members can publish their results through the association without advertising.[1]
CompGen uses a "Historical Place Directory", a project that creates a location database, useful for family researchers, historians and sociologists.
With the data-entry-system (DES) for historical personal data, the association has created a technical basis for historical crowdsourcing projects. Users can record digitalized printed or handwritten sources into the database.[2]
After an initial recording project during the 100th anniversary of the First World War from 2014 to 2018, CompGen was able to record around 8 million personal data records from official casualty and death listings of German soldiers during the First World War (1914–1918).[3]
The association is now expanding in recording historical address directories, police reports and church registers.
All data and information provided can be used online free of charge, even by non-members.
The association publishes a quarterly magazine, Computergenealogie (CG), subscription to which is included in the membership fee.
In addition, a 200-page booklet "Familienforschung (Ancestry research made easy - computer genealogy for everyone)" is published at irregular intervals.[4]