Varel Lutheran Church Records - Hermann Friedrich JANSSEN AND Gesche Margareth HELMERS married 22 Jul 1774 in Varel

oldenburg-l
1

Good Morning Listers,

I am trying to discover the birth date, place of birth and parents of
Hermann Friedrich JANSSEN (born about 1750) who married Gesche Margareth
HELMERS on 22 July 1774 in Varel. It appears there is no mention of this
information or his parents in the Varel OSB. I presume then the next option
is the Church Records for Varel. If anyone on this list has access to these
records and is willing to look up this marriage, I would greatly appreciate
their assistance. I have the death date for Hermann Friedrich JANSSEN as 27
Mar 1808 in Varel, but am not sure what information is registered on Death
Records.

Best Regards from Brisbane, Australia

Marlene Brennan

2

Dear Marlene,

The information in the OSB is taken from church records, so searching the church records next is not a good strategy. Your ancestor may have died in Varel, but if his baptism is not in Varel church records, then he probably was born and or baptized in another town. Our ancestors moved more than we think. If his father was a tenant farmer, for example, he could have lived in a number of places before he married and died in Varel. The other thing to realize is that the each church parish may have served people from more than one village. The next logical research step is to check church records for other towns near Varel. And have you checked the index to OSB's on www.genealogy.net?

Nicole Wedemeyer Miller,
Champaign, IL

3

Hi Nicole,

There should be a record for the marriage of Herman Friedrich Janssen in
Varel in 1774 and a death record for March 1808. I thought there could be
more information in the marriage record or the death record. Would this
information be in the Oldenburg archives for those dates?

Regards

Marlene

4

Hi Marlene,

Now I think I understand what you are up to. Yes, seeing the original images may reveal a couple more details that were not put into the OFB. I think that it's the regional church archive that has the records for the dates you are talking about. Also, the Oldenburg Genealogy Society is in the middle of a project in order to convert church records to digital files. It's not clear whether that means transcribing them or scanning them. You may want to inquire. For more details about all of this, see their website (partially in English) for more info: http://www.genealogienetz.de/vereine/OGF/index_e.html. You can email the society's officers in English; they all seem to write it well!

Regards from the frozen cornfields of Illinois,

Nicole

P.S. You are the second Aussie researching German roots whom I've "met" online.

5

Hi Nicole

Thank you for this information. I have emailed someone from site enquiring
about the Lutheran Church records for Varel around 1774.

Best Wishes

Marlene