Hi all. After I explained how to find your ancestor's emigration record in the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt, here what to do next. Either you are happy to have found the information and details from this digitalised emigration record abstract, or you need to move on digging. Of course first step could be to have a look at the entire original record. However, for this you will need to either visit the Staatsarchiv in Darmstadt or to find somebody able to do this for you. You also can try and give the archive a ring, sometimes they do research if asked. However, help usually costs money. Your contact in Germany or the archive employee can give you more information regarding the costs involved in this local search. Another good source regarding emigration are of course the different ship lists like Ellis Island etc. available in the U.S., but I am no expert there. Also the immigration records usually already have been looked at by U.S. researchers before digging backwards to the emigration record in Germany. In Germany, once you know the town of origin, you may like to analyse sources such as * Kirchenbücher (church records) * Gerichtsakten (court records) * Zivilstandsbücher (civil records) * other primary sources * Secondary sources such as * Familienbücher or Bürgerbücher (family books resp. citizen books) usually mainly based on church records often completed by further sources; Very valuable source as often much better structured and elaborated than church books, but sometimes containing misinterpretations or errors; never forget, these are secondary sources only... * Familienchronik (family chronicle) * Ortschronik (town chronicle) * Other relevant sources Unfortunately I am not able to do any archive research, as I am fully employed and on business travel most of the week. Even my personal research projects need to wait regarding any archive research actions for until I reached my retirement time. ;-) In case you need help, I recommend also contacting the german-speaking Hessen-List as you will find a lot of people there doing research in the relevant archives. Some of them can look something for you in parallel to their activities. Good luck and best regards, Thierry Dr. Thierry P. Dietrich ________________________________ Von: Cindy Phipps <[email protected]> An: [email protected] Gesendet: Montag, den 2. März 2009, 15:46:46 Uhr Betreff: Re: [HESSE] "Loritz" Darmstadt I hate to be a dunderhead, but after I find my ancestors on this site, what do I do next? Dr. Dietrich, I'm sure you will be the one to answer, so thank you in advance! Cindy Phipps ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thierry Dietrich" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 4:15 AM Subject: Re: [HESSE] "Loritz" Darmstadt Yes, I found it as well in the inventory within the HStA Darmstadt (HStAD): HStAD R 21 B So the original document you are searching is still available there (see the following link). http://www.hadis.hessen.de/scripts/HADIS.DLL/home?SID=F623-25A0FD4-C0A0E&PID=B0E2 @ALL: Here is the direct link to ALL Emigrationrecords from Hessen Darmstadt, so you can all search for your ancestors stemming from the former Grand-Duchy of Hessen (Hessen-Darmstadt) too: http://www.hadis.hessen.de/scripts/HADIS.DLL/home?SID=F623-25A0FD4-C0A0E&PID=2EFA Good luck, Regards, Thierry Dr. Thierry P. Dietrich D-61250 Usingen ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
Thierry and Eric, Thank you for the help with the web site. I already know when and from where this family group emmigrated. It would be fun to have a photocopy of the original though. Are there similar sites for the other regions of Germany? I have other branches in my tree containing Zieglers, Hornbostels, and Sacriders. If I accessed a German-speaking website, can I assume, as an ugly American, that the members speak English? thank you in advance, Cindy