Emsland
- Church Records
Records for parishes in Emsland
are not available through the Church of Jesus Christ of the
Latter Day Saints
| Unfortunately, the Catholic Church records
for parishes in Emsland were not filmed by the Latter Day
Saints although there are a couple of exceptions as noted
below. Most of the parish records can only be viewed in
Germany - in either Osnabrueck or Meppen.
Records for the Napoleonic period in northern Germany
(ca 1807-14) were considered civil documents and for that
reason some records (birth/baptism, marriage and death)
for those years can be found on microfilm at the LDS Family
History Ceters. There are also some Emsland parish records
on microfilm for part of the second half of the 19th century.
The reason for this exception is unknown to me. Searching
at a Family History Center under the town or village name
where the parish was located will let you know what records,
if any, were filmed for that parish.
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Osnabrueck Catholic Diocesan Archive
| Catholic parish records for
the Diocese of Osnabrueck (which includes Emsland) are on
microfiche and can be viewed at the diocesan archive in
Osnabrueck on Wednesdays. If you intend to look at records
there it is usually necessary to contact the archive several
months in advance to reserve a microfiche reader (cost 5
EUR/day.)
Dioezesanarchiv,
Bistum Osnabrueck
Grosse Domsfreiheit 10
49074, Osnabrueck, Germany
Telephone: (05 41) 3 18-418
Fax: (05 41) 3 18-425
http://www.bistum-osnabrueck.de/index.php
Medien & Informationen > Dioezesanarchiv > Familienforschung
> Kontakt
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Meppen
Catholic Family Research Facility
| The same Catholic parish records found in
Osnabrueck are also available, on microfiche, at the Katholische
Familienforschungsstelle in Meppen, Emsland. A reservation
for a fiche reader is necessary there too (cost 5 EUR/day).
They are open on Thursday and Friday of every week plus
the morning of the first Saturday of each month.
Katholische Familienforschungsstelle
Domhof 18
49716, Meppen
Telephone 05931-1 24 44 (M-F 8:30-12:00 & 4:00-6:00)
email address - fam.archive@KGVerband-Meppen.de
Information (in German) about the Katholische Familienforschungsstelle
in Meppen can be found on the webpage of the
Kirchengemeinde Meppen (www.KGVerband-Meppen.de
> Familienforschung.) Besides information
about the facility there are photos of it and a link to
a page which will let you know what years (before 1875)
are available for the churchbooks of the various parishes
in the diocese of Osnabrueck (which includes Emsland.)
Requests to this facility for family research should
be limited to one ancestor at a time and one generation
at a time. Before sending such a request you should have
a good idea about what parish to search and an approximate
year of birth for your ancestor and include parents' names
if you have them. If the information can be found, you
will normally receive a detailed transcription of the
birth/baptism record for your ancestor and for siblings
baptized at the same parish and marriage information for
the parents, if married in the same parish. There is of
course a fee for this research but it is quite reasonable.
Research involving very early records may cost a little
more.
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Baccum Family Database (Ortsfamilienbuch
Baccum) - online
| There is an online database with genealogical
information for villagers who belonged to the parish in
Baccum. http://www.online-ofb.de/baccum/.
Most of the information appears to have come from Catholic
Church records. |
Berssen Family Database (Ortsfamilienbuch
Berßen) - online
| There is an online database with genealogical
information for villagers who belonged to the parish
in Berssen. http://www.online-ofb.de/berssen.
Most of the information appears to have come from Catholic
Church records. |
Emsbueren Family Database (Ortsfamilienbuch Emsbüren)
- online
| There is an online database with genealogical
information for villagers who belonged to the parish in
Emsbueren http://www.online-ofb.de/emsbueren/.
Most of the information appears to have come from Catholic
Church records. |
Herzlake parish records - online
| Dr. Stefan Remme' website Zur Geschichte
von Dohren im Emsland (http://www.ewetel.net/~stefan.remme)
contains interesting information (in German) about the
villages of Klein and Gross Dohren, located in the parish
of Herzlake. His website also has spreadsheets of transcribed
Herzlake parish records of baptisms, marriages and burials
for all villages in the parish. |
Hesepe Family Database (Ortsfamilienbuch Hesepe) -
online
| There is an online database with genealogical
information for villagers who belonged to the parish in
Emsbueren. http://www.online-ofb.de/hesepe/.
Most of the information appears to have come from Catholic
Church records. |
Twist Family Database (Ortsfamilienbuch
Twist) - online
| There is an online database with genealogical
information for villagers who belonged to the parish in
Twist. http://www.online-ofb.de/twist/.
Most of the information appears to have come from Catholic
Church records. |
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Status Animarum (Church
census taken in 1749)
The Status Animarum was a census
taken in 1749-50 by the Bishop of Muenster in Oberstift
Muenster, land he owned in what later became Westfalen,
and in Niederstift Muenster, land he owned in what
later became Niedersachsen. The original census document
was filmed by the Latter Day Saints and is available on
microfilm through the Family History Centers:
#0920122 - for Niederstift Muenster
#0920120 - for Oberstift Muenster.
The Status Animarum for that portion of Niederstift
Muenster which was located within the boundaries
of present-day Emsland, Niedersachsen, has been transcribed
and printed in three volumes:
1) Status Animarum 1749 in den Gerichten Meppen, Haren
und Haseluenne
2) Status Animarum 1749 in den Gerichten Aschendorf,
Lathen, Huemmling und im Patrimonialgericht Papenburg
3) Status Animarum 1749 in den Kirchspielen Emsbueren,
Salzbergen und Schepsdorf
It was transcribed by Norbert Tandecki and Reinhard Cloppenburg
and makes up volume 3 of the series Beitraege zur
Emslaendischen und Bentheimer Familienforschung.
The three volumes were published in 1995 by the Emslaendischen
Heimatbund e.V., Schloss Clemenswerth, Soegel
This census lists all members of every household within
the area covered, sometimes including the surname of wife
and farmhelp but not always. There is a surname index
and a village index in the back of each volume. The three
books can be found at the St. Louis County Library Headquarters
on Lindbergh - R943 S797 v.1-3.
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Protestant Church records
| Although Emsland was, and still is, predominantly
Catholic, there were some Protestants living there too.
I've been told that Evangelical records for the former Grafschaft
Lingen (roughly the southern third of Emsland) are available
to researchers at a state archive in The Hague, Holland.
There may also be some central place in Niedersachsen where
they can be found but I'm not aware of any such location.
Sometimes a village or town may have its own copy of old
church records for one or both religions. These locally-kept
records, however, are often not available to outside researchers
although a local family history group in the village may
respond to a written request for information from such records.
Information about parish registers of the Ev-luth.
Landeskirche Hannover, Church district Emsland Bentheim
can be found at the website http://www.hist.de/yemsland-bentheim.htm.
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Emsland
- Civil Records
Emigration lists at the Staatsarchiv in
Osnabrueck
| There is a series of books on the shelves
of the reading room in the Staatsarchiv (civil archives)
in Osnabrueck which lists emigrants from that region (including
those from Emsland) whose names were taken from official
records. more
on this subject |
Travel Passes
A travel pass was issued to those who registered
their intention to emigrate with the proper authorities.
These passes exist today only in cases where they were preserved
by descendants of the emigrants. A Rakers descendant in
Cole County, MO, is fortunate to still have this document.
image of travel pass issued
in 1840 by the Kingdom of Hannover |
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Walter Tenfelde's book listing emigrants
from the former district of Lingen:
| Auswanderungen
und Auswanderer aus dem ehemaligen Kreise Lingen nach Nordamerika,
publ: Heimatverein Lingen (Ems), Lingen 1998, ISBN: 3-9800064-6-8
This book has been a tremendous
resource in putting together this website because the
former Kreise Lingen covered more than a third of present-day
Emsland. The book made possible the identification of
many Emslanders in the Mid-West who may have otherwise
gone unnoticed.
The St. Louis County
Library Headquarters on Lindbergh has a copy of the book
(R 973.04359 T292A) as
does the Quincy Public Library in their Illinois Room
(REF I 304.8 Ten.) Nancy
Moss in Clinton County has created a helpful on-line
index for this book (on the Clinton County GenWeb
page.)
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Emigrants from Varenrode
Records during the Napoleonic Period in Northern Germany
at the LDS Family History Centers
| For a short period of time in the early 19th
century Emsland was actually a part of France and because
of that, births, marriages and deaths had to be registered
with civil authorities. At least some of those records have
been filmed by the LDS and are available on microfilm at
Family History Centers in the U.S. They are often listed
with the Evangelical records for a particular town. |
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Passenger
Lists and Indexes
Family Tree Maker's Family Archives CDs
- indexes to Passenger Lists
- Passenger and Immigration Lists: New Orleans,
1820-1850 (CD# 358) - an index
- The entries on this CD seldom have a passenger's village
of origin mentioned even when that information appears
on the original passenger list.
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- Passenger and Immigration Lists: Baltimore, 1820-1852
(CD# 259) - an index
- Entries often have the village of origin mentioned
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- Passenger and Immigration Lists: New York, 1820-1850
(CD# 273) - an index
- Normally, the village of origin is not mentioned on
the CD.
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- Passenger and Immigration Lists: Germans to America,
1850-1874 (CD# 355) and 1875-1888 (CD#356)
- an index
- The entries on these 2 CDs seldom have the village
of origin mentioned even in cases where it was noted
on the original passenger list. Also, the port of arrival
(debarkation) is often missing and sometimes also the
name of the ship. That information can be found in the
Germans to America book series (see below)
which lists ship arrivals chronologically. In cases
where even the date of arrival is missing on the CD,
there's not much one can do to find the port of arrival,
date and ship name which one needs to find the original
passenger list.
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Germans to America series of
books listing passenger arrivals
| This series of books (numbering 67 volumes
at present and covering the years 1850-97) was edited by
Ira A Glazier and P. William Filby and can be found on the
shelves of the St. Louis County Library Headquarters on
Lindbergh (R929.3G393), and at many other libraries with
genealogical holdings.
The series (arranged chronologically by arrival date
at the US port) starts in 1850 and goes at least through
1888, listing German passengers who arrived at various
US ports. Each book in the series has an index. Unfortunately,
the place of origin for listed passengers is often simply
given as Germany even when the actual village of origin
may have been specified on the original list. It is always
worth checking the original passenger list on microfilm
after you find your ancestor's ship's name and date and
port of arrival.
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Original Passenger Lists on microfilm
| The original passenger lists for ships arriving
at the ports of New York, Baltimore and New Orleans are
available on microfilm at the St. Louis Public Library downtown
and at other libraries and archives in MO and IL. The New
Orleans passenger lists are available at the St. Louis County
Library Headquarters on Lindbergh. The lists are probably
also available through the LDS Family History Centers.
The type of information which appears on a passenger
list varies from ship to ship but it is a resource always
worth checking. In most cases the name, age, profession,
country of origin and destination of each passenger is
given and in some fortunate cases the village of origin
is actually listed. In some unforturnate cases only the
head of household is listed and sometimes without even
his age, although you may find out that he brought on
board 2 trunks and a pistol.
image from microfilm
of a passenger list page and detail
from that page
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Bremerhaven
| Most Emslanders left Germany from the port
of Bremerhaven, harbor town for the city of Bremen. A short
history (in English) of emigration from Bremerhaven can
be found at the following website.
http://www.deutsche-auswanderer-datenbank.de/
> German Emigrants Database > Information
> History.
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