> Some of them, including my forbear Gottlieb Friedrich Moritz came from > Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) which was then in the Duchy of Braunschweig > (Brunswick) in the Kingdom of Hanover. Sounds to a German like "duchy of New South Wales in the kingdom of Victoria" would sound to an Australian :) Braunschweig was a state distinct and separate from Hannover, cf. http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/regio.htm http://www.genealogienetz.de/reg/ger1871.htm