Prof. Thomas Riechert and regional church archives are working on behalf of the Protestant Church to develop a meta-search tool for church history research data
How can personnel data from numerous church archives and databases be made more accessible for historical research? Experts from archives, academia and the digital humanities addressed this question as part of the ‘Meta-Pfarrerrbuch’ project at HTWK Leipzig.
Improving the interlinking of historical personal data
Parish registers are among the most important sources for research into church history. They contain information on pastors and other church officials and have, until now, been available predominantly in printed form or as separate digital databases. As a result, comprehensive research has so far been possible only to a limited extent.
The aim of the ‘Meta-Pfarrerrbuch’ project is to bring together selected basic information from various databases into a single metadata database, thereby enabling research across numerous datasets. The metadata database does not store the actual data records itself, but instead refers to the respective original databases and links them together. In this way, the data remains with the responsible institutions but can be searched collectively.
This should make it easier in future to answer historical research questions – for example, regarding the career paths of clergy, their training or their family relationships. At the same time, it will bring to light data sets that could not previously be included in cross-dataset research.
HTWK Leipzig is developing the technical basis
The project was launched in 2022 at the suggestion of the Association of Church Archives. Contact with HTWK Leipzig was established through Prof. Dr Thomas Riechert, who had previously provided academic support for the Saxon online parish priest search. The Protestant churches are funding the meta-database project and commissioned HTWK Leipzig to develop the meta-database.
At the start of the project, the project team investigated which data sets were already available in digital form and how they were structured. A total of 106 different data fields were recorded and documented. For the joint metadata database, the participants subsequently agreed on 26 key fields to serve as a common basis for linking the various data sources.
In parallel, the project is developing a common vocabulary for terms such as family relationships, life stages, public offices and educational pathways. This will enable information from different databases to be described in a standardised manner and linked together.
Workshop at HTWK Leipzig
On 7 July 2026, the Meta-Pfarrerbuch working group met at HTWK Leipzig for a technology and strategy workshop. Participants included representatives from church archives and members of the Digital Humanities working group at HTWK Leipzig.
In the first part of the event, Prof. Thomas Riechert presented the research data infrastructure that had been developed and demonstrated how to import data from various sources. Participants were then able to try out the meta-search in practice through mini-tutorials, discuss questions and identify further requirements for the project’s development.
The concluding strategy workshop focused on the future of the research platform. Topics discussed included the long-term operation of the meta-search function, the integration of further datasets, and future research projects based on the shared research infrastructure.
Through the development of the metadata database, HTWK Leipzig is helping to make historical personal data from church archives more accessible and to create new opportunities for digital historical research.
