All persons intending to emigrate from Hannover were supposed to apply
for state permission before departing for America but this was not strictly enforced until
Hannover became part of Prussia in 1866. As a result, there is no way of knowing how many
persons did emigrate but certainly it was much greater than the number of official
departures would indicate. Information about emigrants who did apply for state permission
to leave that part of Hannover or Prussia now known as Emsland can be found in a series of
books located on the shelves of the reading room of the Staatsarchiv in Osnabrueck. This
series of books is divided first by Amt (district or county) and then each Amt is divided
by Kirchspiel (parish.) Within each Kirchspiel the emigrants are listed alphabetically,
with each emigrant's entry containing information in at least some of the following categories:
- Name, Place
- Date of birth resp. age
- Profession
- Name of parents
- Accompanying family with indication of relationship
- Religious denomination
- Destination (city, country)
- Date of emigration (or issue of ID-card, consensus, departure etc.)
- Assets
- Remarks (reason for emigration etc.) and reference numbers to original documentation
The amount of information varies from one entry to another. This example, for would-be
emigrant Johann Hermann Gebken, has his year and place of birth - 1838, in the village of
Breddenberg, in the parish of Boerger, in the district/county of Huemmling. He intended to
travel alone to North America. Item #10 states that "Several cousins and an uncle are
living in America. Application rejected due to military service obligation." Johan
Herman also had another entry in the index which had less information overall but included
his intended year of emigration - item #10 reading "Application rejected on August
12, 1859 as per § 4 of April 30.1859". Nevertheless, Johan Herman Gebken (his website entry) did manage to depart Hannover and
was married on June 19, 1860 in St Louis, MO to another emigrant from Boerger. He has not
yet been found on any passenger list and it is suspected he traveled under a different
name. (The above image of J H Gebken's entry, it's translation and the listing of
categories are courtesy of Ulrike Toebben.)
Item #10 on each emigrant's entry includes at least one reference to the
original documentation from which the information in the entry was taken. We have two
images of such documentaion. One is for emigrant Johan
Beckel and the other for emigrant Johan Gerhard
Otten and his family, both courtesy of Jack Martens. |
