THE ORIGIN of the AHLERS family of Landkreiss Vechta.
The Catholic Ahlers families of Southern Oldenburg are all one and the same family . More precisely the Alers of Bakum , Bokern and Langfoerden ,the Ahlers of Vechta and Oythe belong to one and the same family as those living in Varnhorn, Vernhuesen Hogenbogen ,Erlte ,Siedenbogen and Emsteck .That was for long my supposition ,enforced by the absence of farm land holdings in the Ahlers name in all those places except Hogenboegen ,Varnhorn and Siedenbnogen,.where an Ahlers was undisputedly the Zeller or farmer .
Having an opinion is one thing ,coming up with the evidence is another . In my own search for a father for my ancestor Henrich Ahlers who married Anna Voet in Vechta in 1688, an elderly German Dr Josef Mahlmann from Cloppenberg came to my rescue . He explained to me that he was from the original Mohlmann family ,neighbours to the Ahlers farm in Siedenbogen ,a good few of whom had either married an Ahlers or acted as Godparent or witness at one of the many weddings one records in compiling family trees.
Dr Mahlmann consulted the results of a number of census reports held at varying times in Oldenburg and reported that as late as 1568 there was no Ahlers or Alers living in Bakum ,Vechta , or Oythe . Accountants refer to this as a form of negative audit verification .
We all know the reasons for the creation of a landless class of citizens ,which can be traced back to old German laws ,which forbade division of farm plots in order to accommodate all of a farmers children with a plot of land to live off . If you were not the eldest son ,your life would be distinctly different from his . So grew the class of the "Heuerleute ".
Now Dr Mahlmann did 2 more things . Firstly he discovered that around 1615 ,there were three brothers ,Henrich, Ahlert and Hilmer ,all born ca 1615-20 as sons of Alerdess (Ahlerdt) Living in Varnhorn . Alerdess was the grandson of Alerdt , who had just missed out on being Zeller of the Varnhorn farm by virtue of having an elder brother Hinderich who became Zeller after his father Johann Alerdess (born ca 1520) died . Now Henrich ,Ahlert and Hilmer did something to alter their lives .They decided to move away from the Ahlers birth territory to give themselves a chance . Hilmer married to Thalia decided to settle in Bakum and became the patriarch of ALL future Alers folk of Bakum . Ahlert decided to settle in Oythe and remain there .
Henrich (born ca 1615) had 3 sons ,Henrich born ca 1641 ,Bernard Johann (born ca1645) and Joannes (born ca1640 ) ,all are believed to have been born in Varnhorn .
Henrich ,who became Great uncle to my forefather , through his son Otto established an Ahlers presence in Bokern ,I believe near Lohne . ,while Bernard John and brother Henrich- Jorgen settled in Vechta We know that these moves took place around 1660 in time for the boys to be recorded on the 1661 Tax assessments of their place of residency (Wohnort ) . Now Dr Mahlmann did one more thing .. He attempted to discover which Ahlers had acted as Godparent in any of the relevant churches . The result was that not until 1673 did he find an entry in Oythe in which Bernard Johan Ahlers acted as Godfather to a certain Johannes Bernardus Roewekamp . Bless you Mr Roewekamp ,you had no idea how significant the choice of your Pate turned out to be !
Henry Aalders Hervey Bay Queensland Australia ...... 2 April 2009
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