Daily AncestorWohnort
Wohnort is German for "place of residence": where a person lived at the time of the record, not necessarily where they were born.
Civil records and many church registers have separate lines for Wohnort (residence) and Geburtsort (birthplace). For a bride or groom from another village, the Wohnort shows where they lived when they married, while the birthplace leads to their baptism.
The related word wohnhaft, residing, is common in civil records: wohnhaft zu Elberfeld. Do not mistake the residence for the place of origin.
As seen in a recordGerman civil marriage record, 1890s
Wohnort: Gelsenkirchen; Geburtsort: Lichtenau, Kreis Büren
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Daily Ancestor. "Wohnort." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/german/wohnort. Last checked 2026-10-28.