Professional Genealogist
Katja Wüstenbecker, PhDKatja Wüstenbecker, PhD, CG® is a historian, certified genealogist, and founder of My German Ancestors, a research and heritage service dedicated to helping English-speaking descendants reconnect with their German roots. She specializes in German-American family history, German archival research, and the translation and interpretation of historical records.
Katja earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Marburg, Germany, where her award-winning dissertation examined the experiences of German Americans in the American Midwest during World War I. She has taught U.S. history at several universities, including Webster University in Vienna, Austria, and has published extensively on German emigration to the United States.
Through My German Ancestors, Katja conducts research in German archives, transcribes and translates historical documents, and helps clients discover the towns and villages their ancestors once called home. She also shares insights on German history, genealogy, and cultural traditions through her YouTube channel, My German Ancestors, where she provides practical guidance for family historians researching German ancestry. Her work is dedicated to making German records and historical context more accessible to genealogists around the world.