I thank all who responded to my post re the Kingdom of Hanover. I have printed some of the replies in the event I am succsessful in my search.
This is what I am trying to do. I am searching for the birthplace, baptismal location, etc of my ggrandfather Julis Wilhelm Burgdorf. He states on a document he attested to in New Orleans that he was born 'in Hildesheim in Hanover', about 1825. A search by a professional genealogist in Germany of both Catholic and Evangelical church records in the city of Hildesheim was fruitless. This researcher told me that Hildesheim can refer to a 'territory' as well as the city. I understand this to be similar to a county or state in the US. and that all towns, villages in that 'territory are possible targets of my search. It occurs to me that I need access to a map of the Hildesheim 'territory' so that I can identify them by name. I then might be able to find a church resouce, like an archdiocese that may have records. While I think he was evangelical I cannot rule out that he was Catholic. I have an early 1900s picture of my father holding what appears to be bible and most obviously prayer beads. Yet the obituary of his father has a masonic emblem.
To be honest I do not know how to proceed. I have looked at a Hildesheim census records from LDS film, again no luck. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Max
Dear Max,
may I suggest following: Try www.familysearch.org and search for ALL Burgdorfs. Write down all places in Hannover, Hildesheim and Braunschweig where you find more than just one record. When finnished, try to locate those places in a map. Those, which a close to Hildeheim, are worthy to take a look at in the church book records.
I hope, it helps.
Kindly regards, from Langenhagen, Lower Saxony, Germany,
Björn