Hi Stan,
Yes, English is my mother tongue.
As for history of the area, I don't have much historical information specific to Höxter and Brakel, and nothing at all for Ovenhausen.
First, did you try using simple URLs to possible websites for the towns and Kreis?
For one example, entering http://www.brakel.de , you are further connected to the official website for Brakel at http://www.brakel.de/home/index\.html . (Of course, the information is in German.) One of the site's tabs is "Stadtporträt", which contains quite a few links to its history. There is also a link to the Kreis there, to http://www.kreis-hoexter.de/ . This also has eventual links to historical information : follow "Die zehn Städte" , then "Geschichte und Kultur" to a summary with links.
For another example, entering http://meinestadt.de and following the map linkings, you can get to both the town and Kreis pages : http://www.meinestadt.de/brakel/home and http://www.meinestadt.de/kreis-hoexter/home have links to "Daten & Fakten" for historical info. These pages are unofficial, and probably commercial sites that offer Partner-Suche and advertisements. Smaller towns like Ovenhausen typically are not included in separate website addresses.
These links provide overview histories. If you hope to find focussed information on the period of Auswanderung, or focussed on a specific era, it might be better to search through scholarly periodicals here in the U.S. and --if you have some fluency in reading German-- German libraries. Many search engines are available for finding such periodical literature, in both languages, usually through the university systems. At my local university, I can order photocopies of the articles that are not online already. There is a wealth of information in both English and German. Of course, there is more in German, written both in Germany and in the U.S. or other countries.
With best regards,
Thomas Kohn
Wenn man eine deutsche Uebersetzung von diesem Brief an Stan auch braucht, das könnt ich gleich.
"Stan Huhman" <stanlyd@avalon.net> 29 March 2005 11:41 PM >>>
Tom,
I'm hoping you speak English, I'm not very good at Deutsch. Your
message caught my eye because I have ancestors in the area. I was
wondering if you have much in the way of history of this area?
Stan Huhman