The German Card is the best $5 I’ve ever spent, certainly in research terms.

The SGGS German Card is a four-panel card, hinged and laminated, that folds up to the size of a credit card. Around the outside edges of the panels are Kurrentschrift or Alte Deutsche Schrift (“old German script”) and Fraktur alphabets, showing both upper and lower case, arranged so that you can hold each letter directly under the German word you are trying to decipher. It is designed to be carried in one’s wallet or purse for use in the library or at the archives. I have one in my wallet and one by my desktop computer.
This pocket research aid is exclusively available from the Sacramento German Genealogy Society.
The German Card includes:
  • Old German alphabets – upper case and lower case, for both the old German handwriting and the printed Gothic font
  • Basic German vocabulary words as used in church and civil records
  • U.S. census dates for years in which pertinent immigration information appears
  • Basic German genealogy resources
  • Major symbols used in old German genealogical recordkeeping
  • Soundex Code
ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS
The German Card can be ordered from the United States, Canada or overseas.
From a U.S. address:
  • payment (check in U.S. Dollars payable to “SGGS”)
  • a stamped self-addressed business size envelope (When ordering two or three cards from a U.S. address, please affix and additional 55¢ in postage.)
  • your name and shipping address (if your name and address are printed on your check, just write “German Card” on the memo line of your check and you won’t need to include a note giving your name and address.).
From a Canadian or overseas address:
  • payment (check in U.S. Dollars payable to “SGGS”)
  • a large self addressed envelope and two International Postal Reply Coupons (IRC’s) for the first card and one additional IRC for every additional set of two cards ordered
  • your name and shipping address (if your name and address are printed on your check, just write “German Card” on the memo line of your check and you won’t need to include a note giving your name and address.).
Then mail your order to:
SGGS
P.O. Box 660061
Sacramento, CA 95866-0061