Searching the Osnabrück, Hannover, Wolfenbüttel emigration records is done
by going to the website:
http://app.staatsarchive.niedersachsen.de/findbuch/
It is a little confusing to use, especially if you don't know German. On
the first page:
Choose one of the three locations on the bar & click Abschicken
Go to Index in the middle of the page and click
Fill in the surname you are looking for in the box "Suchbegriff"
Choose Personen where it says nach Ort
Click on Suchen starten and you will get a list of persons who emigrated
from Germany with that name. Or you may get nothing! Try the same search on
all 3 locations.
Note the number on the right column. That number will direct you to the
town later. Click on a name that matches a person you are looking for and
you will get a code that will be what you use to order the record.
Finding what area the person comes from is not easy. On the Hannover
site, it often names a town right in the code. For Osnabrück it is harder,
although it sometimes names the town or part of it. Don't presume anything
about the town . You need to go back to the page where you first clicked on
Index and this time click on Gliederung.
There you will see a list of towns and if you click on the numbers on
the left, you will get a listing of the numbers of people who emigrated from
that area. The numbers start with 1 and go up from there. So if the number
is 5 digits it will be closer to the bottom of the list. But you have to go
to the one that has the number in it from the right column of the page with
the list of names. When you find the right one, the code will match the
code you saw earlier tied to the name you were looking for. I know this is
confusing. I have explained the process many times on this site and it
never is very clear!
Then, you can order the records from one of the 3 locations. The email
addresses are:
Hannover - poststelle@staatsarchiv-h.niedersachsen.de
Osnabrück - poststelle@staatsarchiv-os.niedersachsen.de
Wolfenbüttel - poststelle@staatsarchiv-wf.niedersachsen.de
You have to realize that these emigration records cover only certain
years--and not everybody is listed there. None of my relatives are. You're
lucky if you find them!!
If you still have trouble, let me know personally and I will try to
help. Several people on the list have explained that the ordering process
is fairly easy. They will send you the records by regular mail and then you
send the money ( I think even a check will do.) I haven't done that part.
It is relatively inexpensive, so I hear. In the duplication of some names,
I would not order records until you know whether it is your ancestor. You
can always write to the addresses given above and maybe they can help you.
As to what kind of information can be obtained by ordering records, I am
including a translation of the forward from the Osnabrück page that was done
by Fred Rump. See below.
Good luck!
Barbara
Vorword
Among the most significant social-historical phenonema of the 19th
century was the emigration wave from German lands toward North
America. The following directory attempts to encompass this
emigration for the period of 1825 to 1870 for the then extant
Landdrosteibezirk (regional administration) of Osnabrück which is
composed out of the present Counties of Osnabrück, Emsland and
Grafschaft Bentheim as well as the city of Osnabrück. The attempt to
cull data out of the archive is obviously on a best effort basis and
there is no way of knowing how many people emigrated without first
obtaining permission. Estimates vary but illegal emigration could be
as numerous as the legal ones.
Under emigration this document refers not only to the 'classical' use
of the word where emigration meant to go overseas, but also any
migration from the Kingdom of Hannover (since 1866, the Prussian
province of Hannover) to another European state or German state. The
given goal of destination may not have corresponded with the actual
goal quoted in the documents.
The source documents without exception were the files maintained by
the Lower Saxon State Archives in Osnabrück. Specifically the mid-
level (Landdrostei) and lower level regional (Ämter, Vogteien)
administrative districts as well as those documents held by the
archive from the various city archives (for example, Osnabrück,
Bramsche, Lingen, Neuenhaus & Quakenbrück).
The schema (classification) is ordered based upon the administrative
districts used in the second half of the 19th century by the
Landdrostei region of Osnabrück and encompasses next to the four
independent cities of Lingen, Melle, Osnabrück and Quakenbrück the
various Ämter (districts) which were in turn devided up into
Kirchspiele (parishes). Within the parishes the emigrants are listed
alphabetically. The source references about any individual emigrant
are further ordered along the following schema: (1) Name and place of
residence, (2) date of birth or age and a birthplace if other then
the place of residence, (3) occupation, (4) name of the parents, (5)
family members also emigrating with reference as to their
relationship such as wife, brother, daughter, son etc., (6) religious
affiliation, (7) goal of emigration, (8) emigrations timing,
mentioned is the exact date but sometimes only the year an emigration
pass, a consent agreement was issued or the year the home residence
was vacated, (9) value of possessions, (10) comments, here follows an
abbreviated explanation giving the reasons of emigration for example
via references to family status or economical situations.
Archivist Herbert Budde did the analysis of the documents. He had
completed this task in 1982. Data entry was accomplished using
various available labor resources. The primary destination goal of
the emigrants leaving the area of Osnabrück was the USA with the most
often given city destinations being: Baltimore, Cincinnati, New York
and St. Louis. The city of Milwaukee, as well as the state of
Wisconsin, appear noticeably seldom in the sources even though this
area was a main destination of German emigration to America. People
from Osnabrück also emigrated to Argentina, Australia and Brazil. One
even finds individuals going to Chile, Cuba and the Dutch East/West
Indies. The Netherlands without question dominates the number of
emigrants within the European state system. One needs to remember
though that the often mentioned goal of Amsterdam was not necessarily
a final destination point for the folks going there. It may well have
been nothing but an interim stop over for people going somewhere
overseas. The difficulties and dangers of an overseas emigration in
the 19th century can not be overemphasized - in the beginning it was
on sailboats and later on steamers. The most common explanation of
the 'why' of emigration that is revealed by the documents is the hope
for a 'better life'. By itself this indicates that the predominant
emigration push comes from the lowest and underprivileged social
strata of society who would dare all to achieve their goal especially
for their children. In the emigrant records of the people from
Osnabrück the most common occupations listed are maid, male and
female farm servants or day laborers. We can therefore assume that
the majority of the emigrants were landless and dependent workers in
a largely agrarian society. On the other hand we also find many
craftsmen and laborers. To complete the scenario there were
sculptors, men of the cloth, gymnasts and literary types who also made their
way overseas.