Hello Lila,
"Lila Burmeister" <lburmeister@meekercoop.net> schrieb:
The locations that I am working with are Eddelsdorf, Gruensvolde,
Bornsen, Bardgorf, Bostelwiebeck, Altenmedingen (Parish) and Varendorf.
All this places should around my living place Bienenbüttel.
The information on my ancestors that I have is:
Jurgen Beneke and Catherine Riest were married at Altenmedingen in
1829.
Jurgen was born at Eddelstorf in 1799 and was a "hauswirt" there --
is that farmer?
Yes that is regularly right. The farm he was one should have been of normal size, if nothing else is given. You will find this name also for owners of similar rights on houses inside smaller towns, where the living was made also by other activities.
Catherine was born at Bostelwiebeck in 1805.
Jurgen & Catherine's son, Johann Henry Beneke was born at Eddelsdorf
in 1840
Johann was married in an unknown place to Elizabeth Backhaus,
As Bienenbüttel is and was a central place to most of the other places there is a slight chance to find this marriage here or in the nearby parishbook of Wichmannsdorfor Ebstorf.I might do some look-ups here in Bienenbüttel, if you will bear the fee for the use of the books. Those were at last 5,00 Euro each day. But of course the marriage might have been also elsewhere.
Elizabeth was born in 1853 in Gruensvolde accor-
ding to one source, and Bornsen according to
another source.
Which exactly source tells what ? "Grünwalde" is a small assembling of houses on the road between Rieste and Beverbeck, only about 3km from Bornsen, to small for being a village of its own, so it might be administraded by Bornsen. We have the same problem of correct naming today again. In seventies there was a reorganisation by which Varendorf and other places became part of Bienenbüttel. Since then and even more intensive since 1993 when a new postcodenumbering gave all this places the same postcodenr. you often find that people from Varendorf or other places inside the administration unit Bienenbüttel give there adress as Bienenbüttel instead of Varendorf, although there is a 15km distance. That is the fate,old names go lost.
Johann & Elizabeth's son, Hermann was born at Varendorf in 1879.
Johann & Elizabeth's son, Gustav was born at Eddelstorf in 1882.
All of them have Varendorf listed as their resi-
dence at the time of emigration to America in
1883.
These places are all so close together on the
map, but would people have moved around that
much?
Sounds quite normal. Those who were not the ones to take over the place lateron and had not the wealthyness for getting another farmplace of ones own, usually worked as farm help elsewhere. And sometimes also changed the farm and place of work.
Where would information for people from these places be recorded?
Of course in the parishbooks, others might have survived in local archives or the hands of intere-sted local historians. Bornsen belonged in former times to Amt Ebstorf. As Bargdorf is also one of your places of interest, you might look for the adress of Eberhard Behnke under www.telefonbuch.de for Bargdorf. He has published about Bienenbüttel and its history and might perhaps be of some help.
There is a difference between "Behnke" and "Beneke", but who knows, perhaps you are even anywhere connected with the same lines.
Greetings Hans Peter Albers, Bienenbüttel