oldenburg-l - Nachricht 2008-01 00178

[Johan Wiegman <jfwiegman(a)hetnet.nl>]

Hi,

About speaking German in the US, there is a story that the US was close
to adopting German as the official language, instead of English. That is
most probably not true, but the US was close to adopting German as one of
the official languages since there were that many Germans in the US.

My own great grand parents emigrated from Westerloy in Germany to the
Netherlands in
the early 19th Century (around 1815). It was quite common in Northern
Germany to work
in the Netherlands in the summer. They were called "Hollandgänger". Many
Germans actually
emigrated to the Netherlands and worked in agriculture or building dikes. A
great many Dutch
people have German roots.

See link on the language story from the US:

http://www.watzmann.net/scg/german-by-one-vote.html


best regards,

Johan Wiegman, the Netherlands


-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: oldenburg-l-bounces(a)genealogy.net
[mailto:oldenburg-l-bounces(a)genealogy.net]Namens mstulken(a)wi.net
Verzonden: vrijdag 25 januari 2008 18:59
Aan: Oldenburg-L
Onderwerp: Re: [OL] Oldenburg emigration


My great-grandparents immigrated from Bockhorn and Gristede in the 1870s.
My dad said his grandfather came to get away from military service.  I've
been told that once he was here, my great-grandpa made an effort to speak
English, though I'm sure there was still plenty of German spoken as well.

My g-grandpa worked for a few years near Freeport, Illinois.  When he had
enough money, he sent for his bride.  They were married in Illinois, then
set out by covered wagon for Adams County, Nebraska.

When they got to Nebraska in 1875, they were in an "American" neighborhood
right from the start.  Adams County had just opened for settlement in
1872.  The townships were checkerboards, with even-numbered sections open
for homestead and timber claims and the odd-numbered sections owned by the
railroads.

G-grandpa bought land from the railroad and did very well.  But in
addition to a few Germans, there were large numbers of settlers from the
eastern states who were part of a general westward migration at the time.
Union veterans of the Civil War could deduct their time in service from
the homestead residence requirements, so many came to Adams County.  There
were also some settlers who came from England, Scotland, France, Canada.
My g-grandparents had eight children.  Only three of them married Germans.
 One child married a McConnell.  Another married an O'Malley.

As a kid growing up, I was unaware of any particular nationalies.  "Aunt
Nettie" (German from Ostfriesland), "Uncle Earl" (English from Iowa),
"Uncle Will (Irish from Iowa)—they were all just my dad's aunts and
uncles.

Marilyn






> List members,
>
> The stories of the region in the early 20th century are moving and
> enlightening, even for those of us whose ancestors migrated to the
> Americas long before. Still, even earlier migrations have the same sad
> relationship to war and similar impacts on heritage.
>
> My own ancestor traveled from Hammelwarden (on the Weser) to Texel
> (Holland) and came over to Fort Orange and Beverwick in 1639. He was 12
> years old, apparently alone, and rapidly assimilated to life in a Dutch
> community by becoming part of the Dutch Reformed Church, using a Dutch
> version of his name (Marten Hendricksz), and his line spoke Dutch for the
> next 150 years at least. Being essentially an indentured servant for 6
> years probably had an impact on his German heritage!
>
> Do we have many list members looking at emigration that far back? If so,
> do we have any clear sense of why they emigrated or how they might have
> done it during the period of the 30 Years War? Traveling from the Weser to
> Texel during that period must have been interesting.
>
> c
>
>
> Dr. Christopher S. Beekman
> Department of Anthropology
> University of Colorado at Denver
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Werner Honkomp <werner(a)honkomp.de>
> To: oldenburg-l(a)genealogy.net
> Sent: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 1:25 am
> Subject: Re: [OL] Oldenburg History
>
>
>
> You asked for the reason of emigration from the Oldenburg province:
> "If you have enough bread, stay here, you don´t have to go only for the
> butter
> o America."
> See also this links:
> http://www.heimatverein-steinfeld.de/history/emigration.html
> http://www.honkomp.de/geschichte/tegen.htm
> http://www.honkomp.de/damme-auswanderung/chapter3.htm
> I hope it helps,
> erner Honkomp
>
>  Love all the stories about Oldenburg during the World Wars.
>> My ancestors all emigrated before that, though.  One of the reasons I
>  started getting seriously into genealogy was to find out why.
>> The German community in central Missouri that was formed from this
>  emigration started in the mid 1800's, and I suppose it was mainly do to
>  the German Revolution of 1848 and subsequent rise to power of Otto von
>  Bismarck and the Prussians, or the Deutsches Kaiserreich.
>> What was the environment like in Oldenburg during this time period that
>  caused so much emigration?
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