Dortmund

hannover-l
1

Hi Bill,

Could you post a digital image of the letter and the funeral notice somewhere? (the list doesn't allow attachments). Please forgive me, if you have done so, I have only now started to follow this thread. With just the information I have read so far my assumption would be that one or several members from your family "emigrated" from Lower Saxony / Hannover to Dortmund in the 19th century (quite common and more likely than the other way round) but stayed in touch also after 1900.

It would then be normal that letters were sent from one place to the other. As for the funeral notice, please note that while "city, state" is a normal way to describe cities in the US it is not very common here. The format would rather point ot alist of two cities. So, probably the funeral notice represented both parts of the family, the one in Dortmund and the one in (the city of) Hannover; and the funeral notice just indicates that relatives lived in those two cities, a quite common practice for these type of notices.

As mentioned above, if you could post digital images somewhere we could have a look.

Btw. is the family name "Mädel" confimed? You may know that "Mädel" is a variant of "Mädchen" or girl, so would not necessarily be the name.

Regards,

Nils

2

Hello,

    I have searched for Bill's family from Hannover for quite some time. I
have thought that there may have been a small town named Dortmund in the
Hannover area. I have a large German AutoAtlas which includes many of the
small towns and there are many. However it does not include a Dortmund in
the Hannover area. I have searched online "Dortmund Hannover" and it shows
this:

"Dortmund M."
        
That seems to be in the the city of Hannover with this:

Heinrichstraße 32
30175 Oststadt, Hannover, Germany
+49 511 665231

   I'm not familiar with the city of Hannover? What would "Dortmund M."

Thanks,
Barbara
    
Hi Bill,

3

Hi Barbara,

"Barbara Stewart" <raybarbara@san.rr.com> schrieb:
online "Dortmund Hannover" and it shows

this:

"Dortmund M."
        
That seems to be in the the city of Hannover with this:

Heinrichstra�e 32
30175 Oststadt, Hannover, Germany
+49 511 665231

   I'm not familiar with the city of Hannover? What would "Dortmund M."

that's a man or a wife with the family name DORTMUND and the first name
(abbr.) M.

Forget a town named DORTMUND in the Hannover area. That does not exist,
not today and never before.

Regards,

Wilfried (Petersen)
who lived several years in the city of Hannover and were often at the
city of Dortmund

4

Hello Wilfried,

    I appreciate your answer. I have done a lot of German genealogy work and
I know that there can be very small towns that may not always appear on
maps. The Autoatlas is so helpful, but I know from experience that there are
often very small towns that are not even included there.
   
   Bill has searched for his family for many, many years. He is not a young
man, but one who is still hopeful to find the answers to complete the
history of his family.

   I am hoping to find something valuable about his ancestors from Hannover.
I will continue to search for Bill's his Wendt family. That is what
Hannover-L is all about, is it not?

Barbara

Hi Barbara,

5

Dear Bill and Listies,

Bill, you mention your mothers people came from the Kingdom of Hannover circa 1850. The family kept in touch until at least circa 1925 because you have a letter postmarked from Dortmund, and a funeral announcement that mentions Dortmund, Hannover.

Westphalia (German: Westfalen, is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Bochum, Detmold, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Hagen, Minden and Münster and included in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia" was applied to several different entities in history. For this reason specifications of area and population are greatly differing. They range between 16,000 and 22,000 km2 (6,200 and 8,500 sq mi) in land area, and between 4.3 million and 8 million inhabitants.

There is, however, a general consensus that Münster as well as Bielefeld and Dortmund are part of Westphalia.

After the Congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Prussia received a large amount of territory in the Westphalian region and created the province of Westphalia in 1815. The northernmost portions of the former kingdom, including the town of Osnabrück, had become part of the stat

es of Hanover and Oldenburg.

Above information I read a wikipedia.

My question is ....

Is Dortmund located in the Northern section of Westphalia?

Was Dortmund ever part of the Bishphoric of Munster? I also read that the northern portions of the Bishphoric of Munster went to the Kingdom of Hannover after the Congress of Vienna.

If Bill's family who came to the U.S. circa 1850 were born in the era around 1815 when all the territory changes were being made...

Is it possible this is why they refer to Dortmund/Hannover?

Warm Regards,

Barbie-Lew