Hi Bob: I am not personally familiar with those villages but on local maps the area SW of Hannover (city) is still called Calenberger Land. You mention the quarry: Calenberg means Chalk Mountain, said to resemble the white cliffs of Dover.
As to why they left - yes, political and overcrowding were reasons, also rampant starvation, disease and devastated farms after the "French Time". Hannover was and still is primarily an agrarian state. Then there were the 'revolutions' of 1848 against the extreme reactionary king Ernst August (a different one than I mentioned in my previous email, the uncle of Queen Victoria) and later the fear and hatred of Prussia and her military. There were also religious reasons - not Protestant vs. Catholic as after the 30-year war but when Prussia tried to impose her brand of Calvinism on the staunch Lutherans. Also a number of minor but also interesting reasons. All of this is covered in detail in Vol. 3 of my book The Saxon Chronicle which I hope you will read (altho it would be better if you read the first two volumes first to get the complete background.)
My family comes from a little further north of Hannover - Kreis Hoya - but the situations all over the kingdom were basically the same. Hope this helps a little. Jane
Jane Swan
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