I am new to this list , I am researching , among others , the KRAMER'S / CRAMER'S from Hanover , Germany . My 3rd great grandparents were Gerd Kramer / George Cramer b. 1835 in Moordorf , Germany & Gesina DIERKS b. 1853 in Oldenburg , Germany . He immigrated to Iroquois Co. , Illinois where they married in 1871 .
My question is this , is Menslage in Hanover and is it close to Moordorf ?
I have found 2 immigration records for 2 different Gerhd Kramer's , one states his last residence as Menslage and the other as just Hanover . The one from Menslage fits as far as occupation as farmer , which the family was and the other as shoemaker , which does not fit .
I am trying to find proof as to which one is the right one . Any help would be appreciated . Thanks in advance , Kelly Cramer Hunter
First of all, Menslage is in Hannover SE of Loningen and straight east
of Quakenbrück. There are 5 Moordorfs listed in my German Autoatlas. They
are probably all in Hannover. The one closest to Menslage is near
Neustadt which is NW of the city of Hannover. It depends on what you mean
by "close" to Menslage. They are in the same wider area, but not
neighboring towns for sure. Sometimes there are very tiny villages that are
not listed in the atlas index. There is a Meerdorf very near Löningen. Also,
a Moorhausen near Menslage. You can use Mapquest.com to locate places on
maps. If you like, I can scan a map of the Menslage area and email it to
you.
The Mormon website (www.familysearch.org) lists the Geerd Cramer, the
shoemaker, as born abt 1836 in Hannover, in the 1880 census living in
California with his wife Therese. Unless he had a second marriage and took
up shoemaking, then that Cramer is not your ancestor.
Incidentally, the LDS website does have microfilm for Menslage/Herbergen
church records. I would think that would be something that could be helpful
to you (when you are sure of which Cramer is yours).
Good luck,
Barbara Stewart
Hello Barbara ,
Thank you for your info and help . I have been able to completely eleminate
the shoemaker now because my Gerd Cramer died in Iroquois Co. , Illinois in
1885 . I have a map printed out for Niedersachsen ( Lower Saxony ) Germany
but I have not been able to locate any places of interest except for
Hannover , I will give mapquest a try and see what I can come up with .
Thanks again , Kelly
Dear Barbara,
Is there a Mormon website tha actually gives you information? Intead of going to a
Family History Center? If there is, I'd like to know it.
Teedie
The Mormon website (www.familysearch.org) allows you to search for
persons on the Search for Ancestors page. They have the entire 1880 U.S.
census online which is VERY helpful if you don't know where to look for
someone.
However, there is a huge amount of information that is not online. On
that Search for Ancestors page, click on Family History Library Catalog.
Then, you can search for places, etc. The search results (if any) will list
things like church records, census etc. Then you will get a microfilm or a
book, etc. To view the microfilm, you do have to go to a Family History
Center. And I honestly don't know if they send actual books out of Salt
Lake. But I doubt it. But sometimes they will mention a book that you also
can find in the public libraries that have a genealogy collection.
As for geographical information, I have a wonderful Falk Autoatlas of
Germany and I use it constantly. However, you can use Mapquest.com to
locate many places as well. Once I found a VERY small village in the
Netherlands there and I was really surprised. So it is another source. But
I would mostly recommend the very detailed Autoatlas if you do a lot of
German research.