Americans were alarmed at the arrival of German troops on American soil, viewing it as a betrayal by King George III. Several American congressmen declared they would be willing to declare independence if King George used German soldiers.[5] German soldiers provided American patriots with a propaganda tool; they were derogatorily called “mercenaries,” and were referred as such in the Declaration of Independence:

“He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat [sic] the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. [6]“

Despite American propaganda, contemporary writers suggested that German soldiers were well respected and well cared for, both by Americans and British.[7] At the conclusion of the war, Congress offered incentives for German soldiers to stay in the United States.[8] Great Britain also offered land and tax incentives for German soldiers willing to settle in Nova Scotia.[8]

Here is the link: http://lagis.online.uni-marburg.de/en/subjects/index/sn/hetrina

A lot of times in these first marriage documents they may give their hometown. Some cities have early marriage indexes for marriage licenses but don’t stop at these, get the license and see who married them. It should give either a pastor’s name or the dreaded Justice of the Peace (probably no more info if he married them). Then find the church that pastor was at and check the church books. Or if there is no marriage index, you will have to check churches around where they lived. Find them in a census and then start looking for churches in the area where they lived. Maybe the local library or historical society could help you with finding a church more popular with a certain ethnic group.

Also, always check for the children’s baptisms. In some cases they may have asked where parents were from or of course you need to get the sponsor’s names. They could be a sibling of your immigrant or a family friend from the old hometown village, you should research them if all else fails. If your ancestor came as a child and they were born in Germany but in the States by the time they were old enough to be confirmed, make sure to check the church books for confirmations (about the age 12-14). A lot of times it is just a list of names but some pastors asked where they were baptized, so there could be a hometown.

And lastly, make sure to always check church records for death entries too. Not only the civil record (death certificate) or obit will tell a hometown the church record could also say. I have a friend whose gr-gr-grandfather’s place of birth was mentioned in his death entry even though he had been in the country for over 50 years. So you just never know.

Hometown information is more prevalent in Protestant records but by no means should you not look at Catholic records too. They are usually written in Latin but may give you parents’ names if not a hometown. This is one of the most important steps in German research and not to be overlooked.

Happy Hunting.

I was telling my German business partner about this and he offered to write his thoughts on some ideas of where to check for that elusive hometown.

Before you think about doing research in German records have you looked at everything that is available in the U.S.?  Have you looked in the local church records where your ancestors went to church?  Often at the Protestant churches (especially in death records and marriage records) the Pastor may have written down, from what area or town come they came from. But be prepared that this church book can be written in German. The following page gives you a little bit help with that.  http://narafriends-pittsfield.org/gechurch.htm

Also if the hometown or area is not given don’t be upset. Often people from the same area in Germany moved to the same settlement in the U.S. You must imagine what a big step it was to move to a new country by yourself or with your family. To settle next to other family members, friends and neighbors who had emigrated before made the start and life in the new world much easier. You could still speak your mother language, local dialect, keep your traditions and got help with the papers for the government etc. Keep this in the back of your mind and with this knowledge look again at the church records. Where did the other people in there come from?  Is there any information given for that? If your ancestors lived in the parish with all these folks, could be that he came from the same area or town. Try to map the towns you find in the church books on a map, to get an idea where the people came from.

Take a look at your local library. Have they got microfilms for the local newspapers, possible a German one from early years. Try to find the obituary for your emigrant. Have you ever taken a look at his gravestone, the funeral home or cemetery records to find more information? What about the death certificate and family bible. Try to find the family member who has the family bible of the emigrant. Maybe this person also has old letters that will you give more information. Don’t forget the probate records.(Kathy:  Even for the women too, I found a hometown mentioned in a great-grandmother’s will when she left her clothes to her oldest daughter still living in Germany. Even down to the street address.)

If your ancestors owned land look at the land records of course, or military records, you never know what surprise you will find there. Try also to locate the papers for citizenship and if you can the ship records. Often groups and families from the same village emigrated together. If you are lucky the ship records tell you the hometown and not only Germany, but be prepared always for misspelling in every record. Again, it might be a good idea to research some of the other people on a ship’s record to find where they came from as they may have been your ancestor’s neighbors.

I hope this gives you a fast overview of where you could find information to help you find your ancestor’s hometown.

First off, we spent some time in the town itself, entering through the Cleves Gate, an impressive three storied city-gate from 1393. The bridge like entrance, which in earlier times ran over the town’s ditch, leads to the main gate.

Once inside this fairytale, medieval city our first stop was at the Market Pump, from about 1652. Before water pipes and well organized fire brigade were commonplace, a certain number of houses in the direct vicinity formed a community around a water pump. Such a pump-neighborhood was responsible not only for water-supply and fire protection, but also for an organized neighborly help. To this end they still have an annual pump festival, called the pump fair.  I think the statutes transcend time, looks familiar, doesn’t it? (Kids can’t wait for Mom to quit talking)

The focal point and jewel of the city is the Cathedral, which owes its status not to an Episcopal seat, but to its importance for the region. The church is a five-aisled basicilia with a monumental façade with twin towers. The patron is St. Viktor. According to legend Viktor and his companions, members of the Theban Legion, were executed at Birten.  As Christians they refused to offer sacrifices to the Roman emperor. Their bodies are said to have been thrown into a marsh and later recovered by St. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, and buried in a Roman cemetery.

There are lots of other historical buildings, architectural styles (gothic, rococo etc.) and of course the market square surrounded by open air cafes. My favorite thing to do; afternoon kaffee und kuchen and watch the world go by.  But also at the end of the street we come to the reconstructed town wall and the impressive Kriemhild’s Mill, (a large windmill) which is not only one of the landmarks ofXanten, but is also a bakery and open-air café.  Xanten also has a Chocolate and Confectionery Museum, where the main attraction is the chocolate well with its bottomless filling of sweet chocolate. Yum.  As if this delightful town wasn’t enough to spend the afternoon seeing, we then went back outside the town walls to go tour the Roman Park.

After being in Italy a last year and experiencing the massive crowds trying to vie for a shot of this classic building or Cathedral or this statue etc., Xanten was heavenly and you truly are able to see ROME without the crowds. There were a couple of school groups visiting that day but we just timed our walk to the site they weren’t visiting and we had a wonderful opportunity to read all the signs, take pictures and imagine ourselves back in a chariot riding down the street.

For around 400 years Xanten was one of the most important Roman cities on the Rhine. Some 10,000 men, women and children lived in the impressive city, which was named Colonia Ulpi Traiana by the Emperor Trajan in A.D. 98. The fact that its area has hardly been built upon since the Middle Ages is a lucky chance for archaeology. The remains of the Roman City have been able to be protected, researched and presented in the Archaeological Park since 1977.

First thing we came across was the Amphitheatre. Like the Coliseum in Rome, this is where the “games” were held. On public holidays popular performances were animal hunts and fights to the death and then the gladiators would take the ring for their performances. Of course these pictures

show how the amphitheatre was rebuilt on the foundations of the original. In the original the three lowest, wider rows of seats were reserved for VIP’s. Wooden chairs were set up here. On the upper tiers the audience sat directly on the stone steps. The seats running right around offered room for 10,000 people.

Next up, the Harbour Temple, looks like the Roman Forum to me.  This was the second largest temple in the town but it is not known to which deity it was dedicated. It was nice to be able to roam around over this temple without fighting a crowd. It gives a good idea of how to picture what Roman life was like.

Then on to the most fascinating of all, the RömerMuseum.  This large, very impressive building of steel and glass was built on the original foundation walls of the entrance hall to the Large Baths. At the time, the Large Baths offered everything the inhabitants of the Colonia needed for relaxation and personal hygiene. This is where the Romans met with their neighbors and friends, exchanged news, cut deals and sometimes even made political decisions.  The baths are extensive and you can walk over them on ramps and platforms and you can almost feel the steam rising. It was fascinating.

We spent hours in the rest of the museum, highlights of the exhibition include the important collection of weapons and equipment of the Roman army, statues, a long mural painting and even a Roman barge that can be viewed floating freely in the air between two stories. At the entrance to the museum is a slab of walkway with actual footprints and wagon ruts from Roman times!!

So much history packed into one small town, you can travel back to the Roman times and end up in the Middle ages before you depart. It was a wonderful visit and if you are in the area I recommend it highly!

Immigrants to the USA were unable to apply for citizenship immediately upon
arrival. The standard residency requirement for someone who wanted to
become an American citizen was five years within the USA from the date of
arrival. A person could normally file what was known as the Declaration of

Intention or “first papers after having continuously resided in the USA
for approximately 2 years. They then had to wait an additional 3 years before
filing the “final papers,” formally known as the Petition for Naturalization.

The degree of detailed information these forms contain will vary from one
person to the next; some specify an exact town of birth, others state only
the country (or German “state,” such as Baden, Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, etc.)
As a *general* rule, Declarations of Intention are often more detailed than
Petitions for Naturalization, and documents for naturalizations AFTER 1906
tend to be more informative than those prior to that time. (There was a
change in the naturalization laws in 1906 which brought this about.)

Before undertaking naturalization record research, it is vital to note that
until 1940, foreign-born *children* under the age of 21 became American
citizens when their foreign-born *father* did, and until 1922, MARRIED
foreign-born *women* became US citizens when their foreign-born *husbands*
did. (The laws changed again these respective years.) The children and the
man’s wife DID NOT file separate and individual citizenship papers for
themselves—normally, only the father/husband would have filed this
documentation. This often makes it difficult to research the pre-1922
naturalization of a married woman or the pre-1940 naturalization of a minor
child who received derivative citizenship, as there may be no documents
which recorded the process—if documented, it will be under the name of the
father or husband receiving the primary citizenship, not under the
children’s names or that of the wife.

Children over the age of 21 and/or children who were married (regardless of
age) did NOT qualify for derivative citizenship. They had to file separate
papers for this process themselves, and they had to fulfill the other
requirements for citizenship separately from their fathers

Remember that any person BORN IN the United States was a citizen of the USA
from the moment of their birth, *regardless of any alien status of their
parents.* Be certain you determine whether the child of an immigrant
ancestor was indeed *foreign-born* before searching for a naturalization
record.

US Naturalization (citizenship) research can be complex and

time-consuming. For those with an interest in researching

United States naturalization, here are some excellent Web

sites which provide detailed practical assistance and background

information on US citizenship, its acquisition, and how to
research the naturalization process of your ancestors.

RootsWeb Lesson on Naturalization
http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson16.htm

National Archives Guide to Naturalization Research

http://www.archives.gov/research/naturalization/index.html

Immigration Law (publication) article on Women & Naturalization Circa
1802-1940 Part 1

http://www.ilw.com/articles/2003,0317-smith.shtm

I think I have calmed down enough now to write…

I first got hooked on genealogy by finding my parents and grandparents on the census records at the Brown County Library. Then going to the courthouse and finding vital records made me want to find out more. There were many ‘aha moments ‘and big breakthroughs in the beginning years. Then the ‘aha moments’ slowed down and I worked more on putting the pieces of the puzzle together. My husband and I did make several trips to other states looking for dead relatives. (One exciting find came in a dusty basement storage room of the Springfield, Ohio Courthouse. There we paged through and copied the actual will and sale of possessions of my great great great grandfather.) The next logical step would be to go overseas, but I was never big on traveling that far. Then came my husband’s surprise gift; a trip to Germany geared especially for genealogists. As a follow-up from the last OCGS newsletter, I would like to share a few memories from our trip.

Family Tree Tours (http://familytreetours.com) is an organization consisting of two partners, one in America and the other in Germany. For first-time overseas travellers like ourselves, it is the only way to go. The organizers purposely keep the group small, 12 to 20 people. Together they do the most incredible job of organizing the whole tour. We didn’t have to worry about interpreters; they had an English speaking guide wherever we went. Transportation was no problem; they gave us our train passes (Bahn) along with the schedules. They set up meetings in the towns we wanted to visit with someone familiar with our ancestor’s history. They also set up tour guides so we could learn more about the history of our ancestors’ homeland. The tour also allows plenty offree time to explore whatever we wanted. We experienced little German communities that have the authentic atmosphere. All their beforehand work and preparation paid off in a worry-free visit. A lot of preparation went into getting ready for the trip, but once we got there, it was all worth it!

Our first day our group went on a day cruise down the Rhine River. This was the perfect start of our journey in Germany. The German landscape is filled with vineyards, castles and rolling hills. We learned several things about the German culture while there. One of which, they are very punctual people; if the train (Bahn) leaves at 9:09, you better be on time. And if something still works, don’t change it. The cobblestone streets and sidewalks have been there for hundreds of years and still work. Although, after walking on them for a few days, I think they are highly overrated.

We visited two churches of Jake’s ancestors and it was amazing to see they hadn’t changed in a hundred-plus years. Before leaving on this trip I had kidded it just may be like the WDYTYA show where they hand you all these documents upon arrival. Well, guess what. It turned out even better. Besides years of ancestor documentation, we also found living relatives.

Prior to the trip we sent in the information we had on my husband’s ancestors from the Rhineland District. Our first free day, our leaders organized a visit to Zerf. Jake’s great grandmother, Eva Rommelfanger was born July 15, 1836 in Zerf. At the age of 18, Eva came to America with her mother and 5 siblings. Eva’s father had died in 1846. It turned out the Mayor of Zerf, Manfred Rommelfanger is my husband’s 4th cousin. He is also a professor and could not join us, but his wife, Edith Rommelfanger met us at the train in Saarburg and graciously spent the day introducing us to Zerf. We first visited St. Laurentius Church. It was an awesome feeling walking into the church and knowing it was just the same as when our Eva was baptized there. After having lunch, we went back to her house. She served a wonderful dessert, gave us ancestry papers and even allowed us to scan some of the old pictures from the family album. Edith had a very good command of English and we will always remember her kindness. She then drove us back to the train in Saarburg.

Another day a visit to the city of our Jacobs ancestors was arranged. Jake’s great grandfather, Herman Jacobs was born in Bickenbach Dec. 4, 1822. The tour’s German partner had warned us that the only Jacobs family there were not very interested and at first didn’t want us to come to the house. He then contacted the Mayor of Bickenbach who agreed to show us the city and the church. When we arrived at the Mayor’s house he presented us with a book of the city; The History of Bickenbach. We were extremely fortunate Dr. Michael Frauenberger, esteemed genealogist from Boppard could join us, as the others spoke no English. After a few more calls to Willi Jakobs, he had relented. When we got to his house, his wife and their three grown children were there as well as his brother and his wife. We brought a scrapbook of our documentation, pictures and descendants of Herman Jacobs. Come to find out, Jake and Willi are third cousins. We showed them the baptism record of Willi’s great grandfather. Their great grandfathers were brothers and not only that, but Jake and Willi were both born June, 1939. They couldn’t have been nicer to us. They allowed us to copy some of his grandfather’s records with invaluable dates and names. A memory we will never forget. We had thought we could visit cemeteries, but that is a whole other story. In most cities in Germany, the cemeteries are very small and usually next to the church. They are only allowed to occupy a plot for 25 years. We asked what they did with the beautiful head stones and were told in most cases, they just throw them away. In the scrapbooks we brought to both German families we included a picture of Eva and Herman’s tombstones. Eva died April 24, 1891 and Herman died Dec. 22, 1900. The German relatives were amazed their plots and head stones were still there. There is so much more I could add about our trip. Another aspect that made it so much fun was the great group of people on the tour. We all shared a passion for genealogy and we all shared in the joy and excitement of each other’s discoveries. I have been asked many times if I would do it again. My response; “In a heartbeat!”

It truly was a genealogist’s dream trip!

Genealogy Tours

Gene Atkin

Thinking about your immigrant ancestors, have you sometimes wondered who their ancestors in the “old country” were and what their lives were like? It would be fun to travel to the places they came from, but you aren’t “ready” to go there. You don’t know the language they spoke or how to do research “over there”. This was my situation a year ago with respect to my mother’s German-speaking ancestors who had immigrated from Rhineland Prussia and Luxembourg. Like me, you would like to know whether there are cousins, descendants of ancestors who didn’t immigrate. You would like to see buildings the ancestors knew and that might still be standing.

A new genealogy method is evolving to help identify and better understand the ancestors of our immigrant ancestors and their other descendants who did not immigrate. I spent two wonderful weeks in Europe last month touring with a group that included only other genealogists (and some patient spouses). The tour company I traveled with (www.familytreetours.com) asked me to provide well in advance such information as I had about my Germanic immigrant ancestors. With this information, the company’s associate in Germany, a skillful genealogist, used contacts and other sources to identify more of my ancestors’ ancestors and the communities in which they lived, and also to find descendants interested in meeting an American cousin.

Central to the purpose of our travel, the tour company planned individual day trips for tour members to go by train from the group’s hotel to ancestral “home towns.” I went to five, two on an overnight trip. Each time, an English-speaking person met me at a train station and took me, as appropriate, to meet cousins and to local places of genealogical interest. The company even gathered timetables, rail platform numbers, and purchased needed train tickets from tour fees.

The tour I was on included group activities for other days — a day cruise on the Rhine, a scholarly lecture, and visits to an archive, two museums, and several Roman ruins — all of which provided good insights. Nothing is quite like a leisurely river cruise to help one adjust to the change in time zones. The various excursions were timed to provide occasions to learn to use German trains and ticket machines. The passenger trains are electric, go most everywhere, use wonderfully welded tracks that give a smooth ride, and almost always run on time.

For me, the trip was a great way to expand my genealogical horizons. With the tour company handling all the “infrastructure” planning details, all I had to do was follow travel directions, enjoy the people I visited, and find room in my luggage for all the new family trees and books about the local history I collected along the way. If you are inclined to learn more about ancestors “across the pond,” a tour with a company oriented to meeting the needs of genealogists may be just the thing for you.

Our next day was very interesting and full of history. We had a tour of our home base town Boppard.  We had a very charming English (from England) guide who gave us an interesting tour of this very old city, back to the Romans, with the remains of a Roman fort in town (a piece of video is on my Facebook page) After this tour and lunch we then visited the Evangelisch Church Archive which is the repository of the Evangelish Church records for all of the Rhineland, where we were met by the President of the Rhineland Pfalz genealogy society and the Director of the Archive.  The Director gave us a wonderful overview of the Archive,what kind of records it contains, some of the interesting things people may not know of, such as military parish records. I think these tours of the Archives are very informative and going with a small group you get to see and learn a lot more than if you went as an individual. I doubt very much they would take you down to the bowels of Archives and show you such things. Like one of the interesting documents we saw from the 1300′s.

To round out the day, we had a lecture by a history Professor from the Univ. of Mainz, who has done much work on the emigration from the Pfalz area.  He presented a slide show with information on what the Pfalz area was like in the 1700′s onward, how it was divided up into so many territories and that if you even went 1 km away you could have crossed a “border” and owed someone else taxes or if you wanted to marry the girl in the next village and it was in a different territory you had to get permission from both governments and pay both, so it was very difficult to be a poor man at this time. The story progressed and he told the reasons for emigration, how they proceeded once they decided to leave and where and how they lived in the New World.  Although the video is not Hollywood caliber, I will try to have a special showing for newsletter subscribers this winter of this lecture,

Of course on the free days on our tours is when folks go out to their hometowns, we had folks go nearby in the Pfalz area and even some who went into Luxembourg. I always anxiously await their return to hear how things went and it sounds like they had a wonderful time. Some were led by local historians and one was surprised with about 15 cousins showing up.  For another we had arranged for someone to meet her at the Archives, where she was able to touch the actual emigration papers for her ancestor from the 1850′s. Of course she couldn’t take the originals but got copies.  She also learned of another daughter who had emigrated before (she thought she had stayed in Germany or died) but now she knows she must find her in the U.S.  It is always fun to hear their stories. I am going to ask if perhaps some of them will write a short story of their adventures to share with everyone.

After we moved to our second home base town  Speyer, we had a historical tour and then some of us took the train down to Ludwigshafen, where in all places at the train station is a small Archive for trade unions BUT it also houses a collection of over 3000 Ortssippenbuchs, which are family registers or genealogies so to speak, from all over Germany.  If you know your town and it has been lucky enough to have someone from the town or a local historian transcribe the church books or civil registers and put all this info into a book you have struck Gold

We were shown the shelves with all the books and learned how to use them and were able to check if any of our towns were there. I am lucky enough to have bought an Ortssippenbuch for one of my towns a few years back and you can use them to trace siblings lines etc, plus of course getting your direct line back usually as far as the church or civil books go. I also learned this time that this area of the Rhineland was under Napoleon’s rule in the late 1700′s-1815, where he had introduced civil registration and abolished church books. After his demise most of Germany that had been under his control stopped civil registration (until 1875 when the country of Germany started it again) but most of the Rhineland kept it, so if you have people from around this area you should know there may be Civil Register books for your towns.

Here is a link for the photos for the 2011 Rhineland Tour

http://www.flickr.com/photos/family_tree_tours/

We visited farm homes typical for this area where the house and barn were in the same building. The large building would house the animals in the front and the living quarters in the back. The “kitchen” so to speak contained the open fire pit; without a chimney the smoke would rise to smoke the sausage and meat hung above the fire. Plus it would permeate the room. Without many windows, smoke in the air, and the smell of animals, I don’t imagine life was too easy.

These larger farmhouses were home to the farm landlord or overseer. Most of our ancestors who decided to emigrate would have been from the landless classes, the tenants (Heurerlinge), day laborers. They would have lived in smaller cottages. Interesting thing I found out on this trip though was through one of our tour members, she had traced her line back to the 1600-1700; s and found many family farms. Due to inheritance laws lots of the emigrants were sons who would not inherit the farm, so throughout the generations they would have become the Heuerlinge and eventually they emigrated. So if you want to find the farmhouse you need to trace back as far as you can. Of course, everyone’s story is different but this is a goal to go back as far as you can.

(I have a few books left for sale by a local historian from this NW area who explains the farm system, the reasons for emigration, the voyage and how they made it to Bremerhaven or a port city and then the settlements in the U.S. There are lots of names of emigrants from the town and area around Venne, Germany. If you have an interest in this book let me know. It is called “Venne in America”).

In more explanation of a comment above, due to inheritance laws common during the 19th century, where in this area of Germany the youngest son inherited the farm. The other sons only had the opportunity to work for their brothers or as a day laborer at someone else’s farm. Through in some marriage requirements (they might have to prove they were healthy, able to work, owned a cow and were able to lease a cottage) and you can see how the pull from America and other places helped stir emigration fever.

See video from Freilichtmuseum.

http://www.youtube.com/user/FamilyTreeTours?feature=mhee

Emigration – Bremerhaven

So we saw how our ancestors lived at the Freilichtmuseum and learned a little about an occupation they may have had (cigar-making) at the Tabak Museum, then we had a very interesting lecture from the head archivist from the County Herford Archives about emigration. This archivist showed us one of the 13 volumes of Emigrant Books containing “permission to emigrate” papers they have collected over the years. They have worked hard to index these and great news for us these indexes will be put online later this year. This is great news because without an index it would be very hard to find these papers on your own. The papers are usually kept in an Archive or the local courts filed by year and then maybe by month and if you knew this much then you would have to look through all the papers for that month (plus reading old German script) to find your ancestor’s name.

After the decision to emigrate was made, a whole list of preparations had to be made. First, one had to get an emigration permit from the authorities’ at the government office. The emigrants who were tenants sold whatever they had of household goods, which was minimal. Those from the small cottage farms sold their house and land.

In addition to the cost of the ship passage, there were other expenses with which they had to contend with. The travel cost to Bremen or the port city was needed, meals and accommodations there until a ship was ready to depart, plus necessary travel accessories such as a mattress, pillow, blanket, and eating utensils. Imagine this journey with 4 or 5 children in tow; you thought a family car trip was bad.

We will have this video of the Lecture as a Webinar in the near future. Check back at our website or on Face book www.facebook.com/familytreetours to get the date. It is an interesting talk on the emigration process. Also there is more detail on the whole emigration process in the book I mentioned earlier, “Venne in America”.
Next post HOW THEY LEFT, our visit to Bremerhaven