In many ways, it has been easier to obtain old documents from Germany thatn it has from New Jersey or New York.  The existence of organized church books that had a quasi-public function has been a treasure trove.  On the other hand, not only did I start without knowing how to speak German, but the old writing seemed to make these records almost impenitrable.  If I could see how the words are spelled, at leastr I could look them up in the dictionery!  Even most modern Germans have  trouble with the old script.  However, with practice, I have gotten better.  At least I can now recognize names and dates.  It helps that the books are fairly structured so you know where to look for what.  I do fairly well with names as I know what I am looking for, and usually the names are written more carefully (or even in Latin script) by the scribes.  Here are some sample alphabets that have been helpful to me.  I confess that I stole them from the web and can no longer give attribution.  I also give some of the on-line translation sites and dictionary that have been helpful to me. If you have better resources, please let me know.