Back to the story… Two days ago, I was sitting in the library looking at a microfilm of German church records. Searching for records of my immigrant family, I hadn’t found the parent’s baptismal records. I also hadn’t found baptismal records for the first five children. But, for the final child, the sixth child, I had finally found a record! Joyfully, I had found my German family in a village in present-day Germany. I continued to scroll through the microfilm looking at baptisms, marriages, and deaths. In each section, I did not find anyone with a Peters or Bünger, the...
Finding the village your ancestors came from is, in my understanding, the hardest part of tracing your family back to Germany and the associated countries. Even discovering the name of the village isn’t enough. There are often many villages (and other places) with the same name with many spelling variations. Just recently, I determined that my Peters ancestors most likely came from Bellin in present-day Mecklenburg-Schwerin. [Read more in this post.]To know conclusively, I needed to find records in this small village. I ordered the kirchenbuch – or church book – records which had been microfilmed by FamilySearch. The film...
My Grand Aunt Beulah, who did genealogy research for many years, has “Gustrow, Mecklenburg” as the place of birth of our Peters ancestors. However, the Hamburg passenger list, which I doubt she ever saw, says the family was from Bellin, Mecklenburg. To find church records, which are very important in German research, we need to know exactly where they lived. Meyers Gazetteer is a wonderful tool for locating places in present day Germany. At their website, I typed “Bellin” in the search box and got 5 results for “Bellin.” Filtering for the region of “Mecklenburg-Schwerin narrowed the results to only...
I’ve discussed my Peters’ family 1859 New York passenger list, but what additional information does their Hamburg passenger list tell us? 1859 New York Passenger List “New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1897,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 October 2016), entry for Joach. Peters and family, line 16, aboard Bavaria, Hamburg to Southampton to New York City, leaving Southampton 18 June 1859; citing microfilm M237, roll 193. 1859 Hamburg Passenger List “Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 October 2016), entry for Joach. Peters and family, line 50, aboard Bavaria, Hamburg to Southampton to New York City, arriving...
In Hamburg on June 14th, 1859, Joachim and Henrietta (Bingher) Peters, my third great grandparents, boarded the steamship Bavaria to start a new life in America. Traveling third class, or “between decks,” they brought with them their six children: Louise (14), Eckard (13), Carl (10), Wilhelm (7), Heinrick (6), and Friedhen or “Freda” (4). The Ship According to The Ships List, the Bavaria was built in 1856 as the Petropolis and was a 2,405 gross ton ship. She was 282.1 ft long and had a 39.4 ft beam, which I understand means she was 39.4 feet across at her widest point. She was a...
As I continue to share the story of my Peters ancestors’ 1859 immigration, today I’m sharing a map my dad made using Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 Editor. In a post last week, I discussed the various places their steamship, the Bavaria, passed on their journey. The details of the journey were found in a New York Times newspaper. In this post, I am retelling their journey as more of a story. I will continue to add details as I discover them. Map created by Jon R Stewart On June 14th, 1859, Joachim and Henrietta Peters boarded the steamship Bavaria...
As I continue to share the immigration story of my family, I watched Devon Lee Noel’s video tutorial: How to Make Blog Titles. Then, using Photoshop Elements, I created a graphic for this series about immigration. I’ve tried Photoshop Elements before, and got quite frustrated. But, I’m sure it’ll get easier with tutorials and practice! In my first post, I talked about how to find a newspaper article documenting your ancestor’s ship’s arrival. And, in my second post, I talked about the various places which were mentioned in my ancestor’s article and how they tied in with their trip. In...
Adding details to our genealogy makes our ancestor’s lives more interesting. Sometimes, we need to be creative to go beyond the “dates and places” that compose a large portion of our research. Although I had both the Hamburg and New York passenger lists for my Peters family’s immigration to America, I wanted to know more. In this case, an 1859 newspaper article, along with some research, gave me additional details to share about my immigrant ancestors. (For information on how I found the article, see my previous post.) Arrived. Steamship Bavaria., (Ham..) Laupe. Hamburg, via Southampton June 18. 1 P. M. with mdse....
During the summer of 1859, my great, great, great grandparents, Joachim [pronounced “Waa-Keem”] and Henrietta (Bingher) Peters emigrated from Germany to America with their six children. My Grand Aunt Beulah recorded this brief memory which had been passed down through several generations: “Seven days into his voyage to America, Joachim Peters directed his family to kneel on the floor of the cattle (not that kind of a vessel, but what we’ve been told all our life) boat that carried them and give thanks that they were leaving Germany.” Although Beulah found their New York passenger list decades ago, and I...
