by GermanXJW 9 Replies latest jw friends
If you live in the United States and you have German ancestors that left their home country in the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th century it is likly that they left Germany via the harbor of Hamburg.
The City of Hamburg has begun to scan all Emigrations Lists.
You can do a search here:
http://www.hamburg.de/fhh/behoerden/staatsarchiv/link_to_your_roots/english/index.htm
The brief search result is free.
German
UADEU-FRG
Thanks for sharing this GermanJW. I am doing my scan right now!
Somestimes I read the German websites to see what is going on over there, but I guess I missed this one.
Thanks for that link! I do have German ancestors that migrated at the end of the 19th century. i'll scan it when i get home. How exciting as i've done quite a bit of genealogical research.
I don't have any German ancestors but my children do from their father's side of the family. My 16 year old son has been learning the German language for 2 years now. In fact, I am sending him to Berlin this summer for a 2 week program of intensive German language study. There will also be included some tours of Berlin. He should have a really fun time.
Hummel Hummel Morse Morse!!!
Ja ich bin Deutsch auch! My German History starts in Oest Preusen(East Prussia) as my Mother was born in Ortelsburg and Opa was born in Konnigsburg. And now the whole family resides in Hamburg as they settled there after the war.
Lets go to the Fish Markt!!
Beans
Thanks, GermanJW. I'll have to check.
When we were living in Switzerland, we took a trip to Germany to try to find the little village my dad's famly came from. The name was Bucha and all we knew was that it was somewhere near Leipzig. I spent some time with maps before we left and located *two* towns called Bucha in that general vicinity. So we set off from Leipzig early one morning. All we had to guide us was a photo of the church my distant cousin took when he visited the village (he told my parents it was very difficult to find). We found a community center in the first Bucha, and in our stumbling German tried to find out about the other Bucha, because the one we were in wasn't the right one (wrong steeple on the church). Turns out there are FIVE Buchas within about 100 kilometers of Leipzig. We set out to find each one; it took us all day to drive to the first four on the list. Naturally, it wasn't any of them. But the next morning, after a very long and tedious trip, we finally found the right Bucha. It's a tiny little village, only several hundred residents. We found some locals who opened up the church for us, and I got to stand inside the church where my greatgrandfather and his siblings were baptized and married. It was pretty exciting. I still correspond with a girl we met there.
While we were in the area, we picked up a local phone book. Whenever my dad visits anywhere, he tries to find other people with the same last name--Bornschein--and he rarely does. I think all the Bornscheins in the US are our relatives. :-) But in the Leipzig phone book, there were pages and pages of Bornscheins, even one with my father's first name (Herbert) and several with the same first and middle names as some of my ancestors.
We love Germany and miss being able to visit there so easily. While we lived in Europe, we took two trips to the Mosel River area to buy wine, which is just about all gone now. Ah, those lovely Reislings. Maybe we'll get back there some day.
Julie Feuerbacher (yes, another German name)
Dear Gjw,
I have been waiting for someone who knows German to show up as I need someone to look something up.
Have you ever heard of a person called Stormberger?
He was a mystic or prophet or whatever and lived late nineteenth century. He prophetised about forty years before l914 that World War would break out. He also prophetised the second world war and also that the Germans would lose. So Hitler had all his books and writings destroyed.
If you look up the name Stormberger in a search engine a whole bunch of articles show up, but most of them are copies of one another. There are many references in German that I can not read.
Now I see that you have a method of locating German emmigrants. If Hitler destroyed the predictions in Germany, perhaps German decendants in other countries have these predictions and they were not destroyed.
It would be interesting to find a link betweeln Russell and the 1914 prediction. He certainly did not get it from the Bible because he is out twenty years. I believe a lot of German immigrants settle in Pennsylvania, Russell's home territory.
If you are insterested in this subject, I hope you can follow up on it. I am sure any efforts in this regard would be very appreciated by many on this board.
belbab
My ancestors on my father's, fathers side came from Northern Ireland, but they married German women for five gerations, once they got here in the 1750's. The oldest ancestor's wife was named Ann Reifsnider, the next was Magdalina Witmer (beautiful name, I think), followed by Kathleen Swartz. I forget the name of the next one. My great grandfather married Alice Stahl.
My hubby's side are all German.He has a lot of relatives in Berlin still-hav'nt been over for a couple of years...He has an Uncle Woolfgang!Great name eh!?
I have a very old photograph of a German 1840s preacher relative;it's terrifying;thank god there's no new system;you would'nt want to meet him!!
I might do.
Monica Jarvis;mother Jane Haus;Daventry
