Hannover Archives help Bitte

hannover-l
1

Guten Morgen,

            I apologize for posting this in English, but my German I very
rough.

            I am going to Hannover in late April for the purpose of doing
genealogy research. I would like to go to the state archives in Hannover and
to the archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

            Can anyone give me some advice on what I should do ahead of
time? Do I need to make an appointment at either place? Can I find somewhere
a list of what each facility contains? Will I be able to view the original
records - do they use microfilm for viewing the records? I want to make sure
to make maximum use of my time there.

            I have located all my ancestral villages, and will also be
making trips to them during my stay. I am trying to find contacts for all
these churches before I go as well.

            Any advice you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Carole

2

For Carole Townsend,

I have been to the State Archives once about 15 years ago and have been to
the Ev. Luth. Church Archives 4 times, the last time being last year. I had
a hard time understanding what to ask for at the State Archives and very
little help was available, probably because of my poor ability to speak
German.

At the Church Archives, however, there was always someone who spoke English
and they were always very helpful. The Church Archives have microfiche
copies of all the Ev. Luth. Church records from churches in Lower Saxony,
most go up to 1875. I think they have other records also but I was only
interested in examining the church records. It is very important that you
make reservations as they have limited readers for use by researchers. Their
e-mail address is http://www.evlka.de/archiv/index.html

Go to this site to learn more. http://home.att.net/~arnielang/Hannover.html

Paul Scheele

3

Hello Carol,

I have a lot of ancestors in the former Amt W�lpe, perhaps I can help you.

            Can anyone give me some advice on what I should do ahead of
time? Do I need to make an appointment at either place?

Definitely yes! If you want to read the churchbooks, get in contact with the Kirchenbuchamt Hannover: http://www.kirche-hannover.de/kirchenbuchamt/ and make a date for your visit. Write in English, people there will answer. It costs 6 Euros a day, I think. You will find there all churchbooks of all villages in the former Amt W�lpe on microfiche. But be aware of the fact that all these books are written in our old german handwriting. Do you know the old letters ?
You cannot find a village named W�lpe, because it never exists. The former counts of W�lpe had a castle that was called W�lpe; these counts died in 1302 and their castle was destroyed about 1630. It layed near the village Holtorf (north of Nienburg); today you can see only a little hill at this place.
There is no village "Wedem" in Amt W�lpe, but there is a small village "Wenden" which I know. What are the names of your ancestors ? Tell me, perhaps I can help.
I wonder if it is helpful for you to go to the Landesarchiv (= statearchive) in Hannover. You won`t find churchbooks there, and you need already detailled information about your ancestors (names, villages,...) to find anything. It is a big archive with lots of documents, but unfortunately most of the documents from W�lpe burned during bomb-attacs in WW II. There are still a few, but as I said before, you must know exactly for whom you are looking for. For visiting the Landesarchiv it is not necessary to make a date, because they have a big readingroom. It costs 9 Euros a day.

            I have located all my ancestral villages, and will also be
making trips to them during my stay. I am trying to find contacts for all
these churches before I go as well.

Which villages are you looking for ? If they are in lower-saxony, you will find all churchbook-microfiches in the Kirchenbuchamt Hannover.

I hope I could help you and my English is not to bad.

Greetings from "W�lpe"

Susanne

4

How would I find information on the Schroeder family? All I know is that the Schroeder family came from the Hannover area and to Minnesota around the Chatfield area. Two brothers came and where Fred and William in about 1879 time frame. Thanks for all your help. Gerry

5

Gerald -

you're going to have to do some more poking in the US records before you can look in Hannover. Were the brothers naturalized? If so, you may find their town of origin in the naturalization papers; look specifically for the naturalization declaration of intention or petition. Also, local church records from that time period may have an indicator of where they were from. Another suggestion is to look at their obituaries and/ or death certificates for more information. Also, in the late 1800's it was popular to have county "brag books" - kind of like Who's Who today, only on a county basis. These books listed the history of the county as well as information about industry, churches, schools, etc. Then there is always a section on the people who lived in the county, and these bios often have information about their place of origin. See if the local historical society can help you in your search.

Regards,
Sylvia

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It would also be helpful to know where you have looked already.
John Dornheim

7

This may be common knowledge, but for the benefit of those who don't know,
the Hannover Archives are easily searched online at:

I have found scores of ancestors documents as far back as the 1400s, and the
staff at the archives answered my English email questions in English, and
even told me how many pages were in each title.

If you print out the document titles before you go, you can spend less time
in the archives and more time sight-seeing in the brisk April weather.

Best wishes,

Mark

8

Someone suggested that I list the surnames and towns I am looking for when I
go to Germany, so I will do so. Where know, I have also added date of
immigration to the USA. All these German immigrants settled in DuPage County
Illinois, or in Chicago Illinois. If anyone has any information on these
surnames, please let me know. I do have exact birthdates, but just curious I
anyone might have knowledge of these surnames in the village listed.

Joachim Heinrich Friedrich Oetke: Ostedt April 1883

Dorothea Weidler: Gerdau April 1883

Wilhelm Neddermey(i)er: Erichshagen July 1848

Wilhelmine Dorothea Marie Ebeling: Landesbergen, Nienburg Could be the same
as Neddermeyer, but we are not sure

Heinrich Daniel Johann Fiene: Rodewald July 1847

Catherine Marie Louise Kruse: Stoeckse around 1847

Heinrich Friedrich Konrad Ebeling: Pegesdorf - July 1850

Friedricke Wilhelmine Caroline Lindemann: Lodingsen - not sure but before
1856

Wilhelm Dierking and Wilhelmine Bergmann: Wedem Amt Wolpe both about 1859

Herman Friedrich Benninger: Rodewald - either 1865 or 1867

Maria Westendorf: Spriehusen (Mecklenburg) Between 1864 and 1867

Thanks so much for the many responses - it is wonderful to be able to talk
with others.

Carole

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If your ancestors were tradesmen and not farmers, as mine were, they might have moved to another village each generation as they were apprenticed elsewhere and found positions in other villages as carpenters, smiths and tailors after their apprenticeships ended. Often they married the owner's daughter where they could inherit the grain mill or the blacksmith business.

I went to "the village of the family Bove" in the Nordrhein in 1992 and stood in their church, tears welling up as I wondered how many generations upon generations of baptisms and weddings and funerals my ancestors had prayed through in that church in which my dream of touching my roots was now coming true.

In 2004 I went back to the Nordrhein with 14 additional villages to visit -- and more since! The young men simply moved every generation! And then I was finding that their wives came from other villages and had family homes and businesses I needed to visit, also!

Carole, the best thing I did was to look up my villages on the Internet before the 2004 visit, and get in touch with people who were running the village websites. Maybe I was answered by the guy who sends out the water bills or the village archivist -- whoever knew a little English. In one case it was a fellow genealogist who had put up the web site for that village. It was so great to go to these villages and already have contacts and people who welcomed me there! And the Internet and email are free and available to us 24/7! We are so blessed!

Researching: Costello (Galway and Mayo), Cotter, Durcan/Durkin, Higgins, Kelly, Lynch, McCarthy, Raftree/Raftery (Galway), Shannon, Sullivan, Welsh, Amacher, Baur, Bove, Cremer, Ehlen, Fischer, Gansberg (Bremen/Hoya/Gandesbergen), Giefer, Hamacher, Hense/Henseler, Hofmann/Hoeffeler, Jackler/Jackelen, Jaegers, Koch, Kratz, Krebs, Marlo/Morlot/Morlo, Mueller/Meller, Mertes, Pick, Reetz, Rheinges, Reichardt/Reichert, Rick, Schmieden, Seitz/Zeidt, vonAlleman/ Vollerman, vonMeer, Weiskopf, Zens, Albright, Compton, Corselius (PA>IA), Clemens/Clements(OH>MO), Daly/Daily (Galway/OH/IA/MO), Dispennett, Early, Fallon (Galway), Greene (Waterford), Callaghan (Cork/IL), Fitzgerald (IL), McCarthy, McGrath (Waterford), McSweeney (Galway), Moss, Mullenix/Mullinax, Prichard, Reilly/O'Riley/Reiley (Galway), Shelly (PA), Shook (PA), Schuch (NJ), Tye.