Love all the stories about Oldenburg during the World Wars.
My ancestors all emigrated before that, though. One of the reasons I started getting seriously into genealogy was to find out why.
The German community in central Missouri that was formed from this emigration started in the mid 1800's, and I suppose it was mainly do to the German Revolution of 1848 and subsequent rise to power of Otto von Bismarck and the Prussians, or the Deutsches Kaiserreich.
What was the environment like in Oldenburg during this time period that caused so much emigration?
The stories of the region in the early 20th century are moving and enlightening, even for those of us whose ancestors migrated to the Americas long before. Still, even earlier migrations have the same sad relationship to war and similar impacts on heritage.
My own ancestor traveled from Hammelwarden (on the Weser) to Texel (Holland) and came over to Fort Orange and Beverwick in 1639. He was 12 years old, apparently alone, and rapidly assimilated to life in a Dutch community by becoming part of the Dutch Reformed Church, using a Dutch version of his name (Marten Hendricksz), and his line spoke Dutch for the next 150 years at least. Being essentially an indentured servant for 6 years probably had an impact on his German heritage!
Do we have many list members looking at emigration that far back? If so, do we have any clear sense of why they emigrated or how they might have done it during the period of the 30 Years War? Traveling from the Weser to Texel during that period must have been interesting.
c
Dr. Christopher S. Beekman
Department of Anthropology
University of Colorado at Denver
My great-grandparents immigrated from Bockhorn and Gristede in the 1870s.
My dad said his grandfather came to get away from military service. I've
been told that once he was here, my great-grandpa made an effort to speak
English, though I'm sure there was still plenty of German spoken as well.
My g-grandpa worked for a few years near Freeport, Illinois. When he had
enough money, he sent for his bride. They were married in Illinois, then
set out by covered wagon for Adams County, Nebraska.
When they got to Nebraska in 1875, they were in an "American" neighborhood
right from the start. Adams County had just opened for settlement in
1872. The townships were checkerboards, with even-numbered sections open
for homestead and timber claims and the odd-numbered sections owned by the
railroads.
G-grandpa bought land from the railroad and did very well. But in
addition to a few Germans, there were large numbers of settlers from the
eastern states who were part of a general westward migration at the time.
Union veterans of the Civil War could deduct their time in service from
the homestead residence requirements, so many came to Adams County. There
were also some settlers who came from England, Scotland, France, Canada.
My g-grandparents had eight children. Only three of them married Germans.
One child married a McConnell. Another married an O'Malley.
As a kid growing up, I was unaware of any particular nationalies. "Aunt
Nettie" (German from Ostfriesland), "Uncle Earl" (English from Iowa),
"Uncle Will (Irish from Iowa)�they were all just my dad's aunts and
uncles.
About speaking German in the US, there is a story that the US was close
to adopting German as the official language, instead of English. That is
most probably not true, but the US was close to adopting German as one of
the official languages since there were that many Germans in the US.
My own great grand parents emigrated from Westerloy in Germany to the
Netherlands in
the early 19th Century (around 1815). It was quite common in Northern
Germany to work
in the Netherlands in the summer. They were called "Hollandg�nger". Many
Germans actually
emigrated to the Netherlands and worked in agriculture or building dikes. A
great many Dutch
people have German roots.
The Northern part of Germany has always been extremely poor due to the fact there was not that much
land that produced good crops. Additionally, the local land owners were not all that friendly to the
small farmers and workers.
The tradition of working in Holland is quite old. In the 17th Century the Dutch had their Golden Age of
economic expansion and wealth. That attracted German workers as early as the 17th Century.
Dr. Beekman,
One of my immigrant ancestors, Johann Heinrich Meentzen, was born in Oberhammelwarden
on 21 Mar 1814 and baptized at Hammelwarden on 27 Mar 1814. According to family lore, while a young boy, he served on a German ship which was engaged in smuggling. He was to be used as a witness against the crew in a trial and in order to avoid his testimony, he was put on a whaling vessel which was expected to be at sea for an extended period. This whaling ship, however, was wrecked on the coast of Norway and the crew was picked up by an American whaling ship and brought to the port
of New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1835.
I have not yet been able to document whether this story is true, although I have documented
that he arrived in New Bedford, MA in 1835.