Wanderbuch

hannover-l
1

Greetings -

Thanks for the responses to my inquiry.

Sorry about the confusion on a Wanderbuch. My 1834 (yes 1834) German-English dictionary defines it as a passport used by a traveling journeyman, and that is exactly what the contents look like. My g-grandfather was a shoemaker and the entries in the book indicate he went from Hachmuhlen (his home) to Springe, Nienburg, Bremen and thence to Bremerhaven for his trip to the US.

I have assumed that the little sticker in the front of the book indicated something about my g-gf's military status. Probably Sven's suggested translation "parole" for the word Loosung is the right one. It appears to mean that he was indeed exempt from service until 1860. The text later in the book (militaerdienstfrei) simply confirms this.

Dick Halberstadt

2

Hi Dick,

Ya that makes sense with the shoemaker's Wanderbuch. And with the password
it could be that there is just the number written, and they told him what it
is but of course it is not allowed to write such password down. However
'Militaria fliest frei' as you wrote would have been also a fine password.

Sven