I am trying to find information about my great-great grandfather and his ancestors. Census records in the UK show that "Henrich Meyer" was registered as born in "Hanover", 1841. He arrived in London sometime between 1861 and 1869. He worked in the sugar refining industry in London.
Thanks in advance,
andy
Oh Andy!!
MEYER is one of the most common surnames in Germany and Henrich (Heinrich,
Henry) was also very common in that time. I think there were more than
thousand MEYER in Hannover. This is as to search the needle in the haystack!
Don`t you have more information, e.g. the maiden name of his wife?
Regards
Bernd Goertz
Hi Bernd,
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I realise that there is very little to go on. Henrich moved to London, and married an English girl. As he worked as a sugarbaker from what I have read elsewhere I think he was probably of jewish origin, and had little choice but to emigrate.
I agree with you that I will not get any further researching his past in Germany. Many thanks again.
rgds,
andy
Hi Andy,
I wouldn't say that there is no hope to find him, cause there is a list in
form of cards of all names that could be found in the church records of all
churches of Hannover. In the first step all "Meyers" should be selected,
then, in the next step only the Meyers which were born in 1841 and in the
last step the first name Heinrich or Henrich. In case of several persons
with the same name and date of birth it could be checked whether one of the
Heinrich Meyers not married or died in Hannover. This Meyer would be a
favorite. You wrote he was a sugar-baker and he was about 20 years old when
he arrived in England. In this case he learned sugar-baker in Hannover.
Contact Kirchenkanzlei in Hannover.
Email: Kirchenbuch.Staki.Hannover@evlka.de
Might be they can help you in doing that what I wrote before. Of course, you
have to pay for it. Presupposed he is really born in the city of Hannover
and not in the area around.
Regards
Bernd
Hello Andy,
There are several Heinrich Meyer's in the Sugar Baker's data base have you looked at this? Do any fit your Heinrich?
http://www.mawer.clara.net/intro.html
You could also contact the author of this data base and ask for his advice <bryan@mawer.clara.co.uk>
You should also join the "Anglo German Family History Society". They are very helpful and you can ask for information, join their members interest list etc. submit an inquiry to be published in their Journal.
Have you checked the publications of the AGFHS in your local library? perhaps you can order the titles through inter library loan. There is a list on their webpage.
Locations where sugar bakers worked in the UK look at map
http://www.mawer.clara.net/locations.html
Check "Metzner - Shipping Lists" held by the AGFHS.
There is a lot of research you can do yourself,as you did not give the list much information to go on.
Before you begin your research in Germany it is necessary to have the name of the parish (if Heinrich was born in Hannover) to obtain the church records from the city of Hannover.
You will need to check all the BMDs certificates for your ancestor's children to see if a place in Hannover is mentioned. What information is on his marriage certificate? were the children baptised/christened in any of the German churches? If he was Jewish have you checked with their community?
If he was born in the State of Hannover you need to establish the name of the town/village. There is no consolidated BMDs index for Hannover either the city or the State.
Once you have established this you may find the LDS (Mormons)have filmed the records for the place you are researching. Then you can hire the films yourself.
Listen to the Fred Held Video it will explain how to research your German ancestry, you may need to listen more than once to understand all his hints etc. it runs for about 20 minutes.
If all else fails, I presume you live in England, if you locate more information, visit Hannover church archives in Germany yourself.
Good luck with your research,
Elizabeth