Denise,
Where did they settle in the USA and do you know if they went to
church? If so, was it Lutheran?
Gary Beard
Greetings;
While checking the LDS microfilm today for the village Barkhausen, Kr.
Wittlage I found my great grandfather and great grandmother's marriage
document.... I think. I have been searching for this info for about 2 years
and now think I have found their hometowns in Germany.
I am asking for some advice from the list here. In America my ggf went by
the name Ernst Heinrich B�scher and reported his birth as 11 July 1838 in
the Hanover region. My ggm went by Marie Luoise Eleonore B�scher nee Huge
and listed her birthdate as 26 Dec 1840. The were married in Germany before
leaving for Cleveland in Sept 1864.
The marriage document from the Lutheran Church in Barkhausen lists the
following; groom Ernst Heinrich B�scher from the village H�statte born 5
July 1839, H�statte married Marie Elisabeth Huge born in Brackhausen6 Dec
1841. The marriage took place on 13 May 1862 in Barkhausen. Aufgebots
(banns?) also recorded in Buer 2 May 1862.
This looks like my great grandparents to me. The names except for the
Elisabeth match. The birthdates are off by one year on both. Since they
departed Bremen Sept 1864 the 1862 wedding date "works". Many Buescher's
and Huge's in Cleveland came from the area of Rabber, Barkhausen, H�statte
all in Kr Wittlage.
No American record exists that I have found with any village name in Germany
except the region of Hanover. The Bremen ship records don't exist... only
on the USA side.
The question is??? is this about as positive as it gets? What else would
verify that this Ernst and Marie B�scher are "mine"?
I also want to thank the folks this list who helped me in the past year
for suggestions on locating my ancestors.
Regards,
Lee
I would go back to the LDS film and search for the birth of a child in
1862-1864. If you can find the first child of this couple in Germany, and
the name matches your US data, you can be pretty sure you have a match. I
found what I believe may be my ggg grandparents marriage record in Germany,
but the names are slightly off (her surname is shown as "Bergener", while
the family history shows "von Bergen"). The date of the marraige is also
different than what I found in the US records. I was surprised to find the
record of their first son's birth in the same film, and the name and date
match the child I found with them in the US. This child was born only a few
months after the marriage, which is perhaps why the marriage date "shifted"
a bit in later records.
Lori
I think both names mean "of Bergen."
Well, more literally, "from the mountains", although the two names are very
different within Germany with respect to social status, one being a noble
name and the other common. The point was, however, that there can be
variations in the names recorded for a single person, but there are other
things you can find to verify that the records refer to the same person.
Lori
Lori;
Thanks for the note. All my records indicate that my great grandparents
(Ernst and Marie B�scher) did not have any children until they arrived in
the USA. As I worked backwards from Minnesota records I found their first
child, a daughter, listed on Minn census records and church records as
being born in Cleveland. I found her baptism listed in the Trinity
Lutheran church book in Cleveland and it matched the name and birth date
given in Minnesota and that also gave me my ggm's maiden name (Huge). Once
I had my ggm's maiden I started searching for both names B�scher and Huge.
I found them listed in Germans to America as Ernst and Marie B�scher
arriving New York Oct 7 , 1864 from Bremen with Cleveland destination.
After writing several dozen letters to B�scher's in the Hannover region I
found many B�scher's from the general area around Melle. People on this
list found Huge's in the Buer, Rabber Barkhausen area. I then ordered film
from LDS for these villages and started looking. That is what lead to my
finding the marriage record in the Barkhausen churchbook in 1862 for Marie
Huge to Ernst Heinrich B�scher. I found Marie Huge's birth record in the
same book. The marriage record listed Ernst's B�scher birth place as
H�satte. I obtained photocopies from the church secretary in Buer recently
for H�statte of Ernst Heinrich B�scher's birth. That record listed all his
brothers and sisters in addition to his mother and father. The birth dates
listed for both grandparents had the same month but the years were both one
year off. I will look further into the Barkhausen and H�statte films and
continue back in time.
Regards,
Lee