I've enjoyed reading accounts of how Hannovarians fared in the Americas -
here's an account of my bloodline:
The last 3 wars on the European mainland were the reason I wasn't told until
the morning of my wedding day in the 1960's that my mother's mother was the
daughter of a German, or Austrian as an aunt describes him and as Gary
mentioned bombs have destroyed family heirlooms, documents and archive
records. Luckily a daughter-in-law of my gt.grandfather Hermann Flamme was
the type who wouldn't take silence as an answer 
and thus I have been
able to piece together a life of hardship in the KOH and England for my
direct line. With the help of Klaus I found the Catholic Flamme family.
Franz Flamme the miller and houseowner of Liebenberg could read and write,
he had a wife and family who could also read & write but he strayed from the
straight and narrow and in 1823 Heinrich Flamme was born to a Lutheran unwed
mother. Heinrich, then a servant at Immenrode married Sophie Ehlers a
farmers daughter in Gross Mahner June 1854. If he had learnt to read and
write he would have discovered the vicar had entered the Sept. 1854 baptism
details of his new son incorrectly - namely father & son's names were
interpolated. The court records of the time show provision of a building
specifically for widows, which gives an idea of upheaval. After a period of
calm the record shows a massive rise in population. With unrest rumbling in
1864-ish my gt.grandfather Hermann was brought across to England with 2
other children to have a chance of a 'better' life busking the streets of
England and later on at 16 yrs old was officially working in a sweat shop as
a 'tailor'. In 1852 the musical Bielstein family were living in Salzgitter
and in 1861 they had set up a music school in Hull, England in 1871 Hermann
was living next door with his musician uncle Conrad Ehlers from Salzgitter.
Conrad had fled his home years before to evade being mustered into the navy
and I'm presuming this was about the time there was trouble between Austria
and Denmark. I assume there were differences in dialect between villages in
Hannover because 'Flamme' was written as 'Flemme' in the Salzgitter 1852
census and the same applied in England where Hermann's name was written as
'Flemme'. By the 1890's Herman was married, had a family and gone into
business opening his first greengrocery shop which by 1899 had become two
shops and he branched out making his own recipe icecream but he'd had to
anglicise his name to 'Fleming' because there were rumblings in Europe
stirred up by Bismarck 1890-1902 - (that's when the Kingdom of Hannover was
lost to Britain who had gained it in a dowry centuries before.) In 1900
Herman was walking the streets looking for work. I've read Germans were
targeted, shop windows broken etc.
WWI came about because Britain went to the aid of Belgium who she had a
treaty with. It will surprise some of you to learn that Kaiser Bill sent
helium filled airships to bomb England. Once again it didn't do to
advertise you were of German descent. Herman had to report to the police
station daily and his 3 youngest sons were conscripted and sent to France
with the Royal Army Medical Corp and official medal records show them as
'FLEMME'. His eldest son William Henry b1877 was eventually commandeered
into the army and perished in the Somme Sept 1918 aged 41 recorded with his
Angliced surname of 'Fleming'. His cousin was sent to an alien's camp. If
my memory serves me right there were 12 million deaths in WWI. Bitter sweet
is the knowledge that in 1914 reservist Heinrich Flamme died defending
German, his homeland. The Allies decided that the Great War would end all
wars and set about moving territorial boundaries - Britain organised
Treaties with all and sundry and that's the key as to why we ventured into
Europe again.
When Hitler decided to take back all that he considered was German land in
1938 the rest of Europe was helpless because all the countries he marched
into had a treaty with Germany and all Hitler had to do was say he was
looking after their interests. At the time Britain had a pacifist
government but once Hitler had moved into the country he didn't have a
treaty with, Britain had to act (and I think it was Poland). Hitler had
secretly amassed thousands of war planes against our few dozen biplanes and
monoplanes - we asked America for help and it came back in the form of
manual warning sirens which came in handy for the blitzkreig on London :-))
I noticed a comment about France - this country was split, the Vichy French
were pleased to see Germany's advance and some French pilots defied orders
and flew their planes to England. I rather liked the way Churchill put it
years later -"The French will never come to our aid - they owe us too much".
Re the two Germanies: After the hostilities ceased, Winston Churchill, who
was ill at the time, was outmanoevred at Yalta by Lenin and the US President
Trueman. I haven't read Trueman's account of why he acted as he did.
I haven't been able to find the official record of Herman's death but I do know he died in the house he built with the help of his sons in a beautiful Yorkshire village. He'd planted an orchard of apple trees and in the days of 'dry' toilets(johns) he'd built a wooden shed, inside which he'd made double 'seats', one lower than the other for the visiting children. Up until the mid 1960's (when sewers were laid) a horse drawn covered wagon would visit each house in the village to empty the toilets
Jb got it exactly right - I'm a royalist. Like Holland our monarchy is only
a figurehead, not an absolute ruler, non-political and whatever any world
leader says to her or asks advice on, it never goes any further. The crown
has a stabilizing effect and brings in more visitors than our Tony. We can
thank Oliver Cromwell for that - I think the dictator Franco must have
copied Cromwell. Presidents and prime ministers come and go and are very
expensive on the upkeep.
Best Wishes to everyone for a healthy happy new year.
Rena