Pam
I felt the same until I remembered that not all of the families
immigrated. If we're able to find a link, we could potentially find members of
our families that DID NOT immigrate. I was blessed with that situation this
past summer....a very distant cousin replied to a VERY old posting, and I
found that he was descended from a brother of my 4th great
grandmother....the only child in the family that didn't come to America in the 1850's.
What was more amazing, is that his parents and grandparents were in possession
of letters from America, including my ancestor, describing their lives and
updates on their families. Believe it or not, it took a couple of
American's to transcribe the old German script in the letters, but they were
beautiful! In addition, I found that the family still remained in the same
area, thus their church records are in the same place. He directed me to a
German website that gave me an additional 7 generations back from the
immigrants of the 1850's!! All of this in one summer...........to one of my
'brick walls' that had been in place for nearly 20 years!!!
Linda Nycum
In a message dated 12/10/2009 2:09:26 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
netkitty@hotmail.com writes:
Thank you Hans Juergen,
My ancestors emigrated by 1873 so this is all too late for me to find my
known ancestors in that listing. My researcher has already found their
baptisms going back to 1790's. It would be nice to see them myself
however. I have a dead end with one ancestor "Franz Krüger" who was
probably born about 1769 in Friedland. He is my dead end because we don't know
who his parents were or who he married.
Best wishes, Pam
From: HJKrull@aol.com
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:46:08 -0500
To: mecklenburg-l@genealogy.net
Subject: Re: [M-L] Mecklenburg Parish Records Posted
Linda that sounds wonderful and thrilling for you.
In my case my great grandfather Karl Krüger (born 1845) and is 5 siblings who survived childhood, plus his parents (Karl Krüger (born 1821) and Caroline Freund (born 1820) all emigrated. I would have to search for any descendants of my gr gr grandparents siblings. They were born in the 1820's and 1830's. I would doubt they would have had children born after 1876. Perhaps I could find the death of one my gr gr grandparents siblings and from there it might list who their survivors were. That would be something.
Dear Pam and All Others,
Yes, it is thrilling that these Mecklenburg Parish Records have been
posted. However, I want to tell you that I have done years of research
on my family, pinpointing many places where they lived in Mecklenburg
in various years.
In the 1980s I was able to spend a lot of hours looking at these
records (on microfilm), first one week in Salt Lake City and then many
times in the Philippines. I went through them page after page, parish
after parish. It was because I knew where to look that I was so excited
last night, and was able to find the records I hadn't found before. I
had not been able to look at anything past 1875 because of the films I
had ordered. Also, when looking at the records in the Philippines, I
only was able to make pencil notes, most of which were destroyed long
ago.
Another advantage that I had is that the NETZBAND name is not very
common. The earliest reference I have is to Kraase, and then from
Grosse Lukow up to Stavenhagen (Sulten), and then down to Waren.
My number one advice is to gather all available information on the US
side, and then try to "jump the pond." If you find the immigration
manifest, that can lead you to the emigration manifest which might tell
you the town they lived in right before leaving. That was a huge help
to me.
I hope this helps a little.
Cheryle
Gordon,
What a fascinating email! I am interested in knowing more about the
Civil War research. My husband and I have traveled to DC two summers to
search for pension records of our family, and this past summer tracked
down one errant family member in Michigan (in a graveyard!).
The families moved around a lot, mostly following wherever they could
get work. I found people in many records, and have just written another
post about it. One time in the mid-1980s, some of my cousins gifted me
with a week in Salt Lake City. I literally buried myself in the library
from the moment it opened until almost its closing time. My eyes were
bloodshot, almost not seeing, and I copied tons of microfilm pages.
I then took many of them with me home to the Philippines where my
husband and I were living at the time, and worked on those pages for
ages. I put lots of the names on a primitive database program
(PC-Script), and tried to make sense of them. About the late 80's, the
Mormons opened a temple in Manila and a small, one-room
non-airconditioned library somewhat near us. I ordered some microfilms
(took 6 mos), and spent more hours. Unfortunately, I haven't been able
to look at any records since then. We later moved to South America, and
then returned to the US in 1996.
So, when I saw these records, I just was overjoyed. I just wish my
Grand-Aunt Rose were alive because she inspired me so much. I know she
would be thrilled to know how much I have found.
Cheryl
Wow, Linda! I wish I was you. I had been looking for my Charles Krueger since 1991 or 1992(?). He stated he immigrated in 1855 at the 1900 census; in the 1880 and on his burial records, it was stated he came from Mecklenburg. I have researched the Hamburg Passenger List and some Mecklenburg parishes but to date, I couldn't find him.
I am now re-researching census, children's birth records, etc, anything to find a mention for the village he came from.
Oddly enough, there were so many Kruegers in the same place he immigrated to, but I could not find any connections to each other as yet.
Any suggestions on how you found your relatives in America?
Evelyn