Deciphering Misspelled Place Names

From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

 

Last week, we talked about Debra’s ancestor, Wilhelm Heinrich Weber, who was born in Wahlen, Alfeld, Hessen in historic Germany. She found the name of his birthplace in his church funeral record. That record gave his birthplace as “Whalen, Kreis Alsfeld, Hess. Darmstadt.”

 

To find information about places in historic Germany, a popular tool among US researchers is Meyers Gazetteer(https://www.meyersgaz.org/). We just call it Meyers. Originally in book form, this has been transcribed into a database with many added features, including wildcard searches. 

 

If you search for “Whalen” in Meyers, you will receive no results. That is because the town in the church record was misspelled. I will demonstrate a few solutions.

 

The second portion of the place name in the church record is “Kreis Alsfeld.” Kreis (abbreviated in Meyers as “Kr”) is a word that translates to district. It is kind of like us saying “county.” The scribe was telling us that Whalen was in the district called Alsfeld. So let’s see if Alsfeld is in Meyers. It is!

 

 

In that entry, we see that Alsfeld is a Kreis Stadt, which means it’s a larger city and the seat of the district Alsfeld. It’s kind of like Chicago is the seat for Cook County. In the light gray bar across the top of this entry, you’ll see the word “Related.” This will show me places related to Alsfeld. Click on that.

 

 

There are three categories. We want to know which towns are in the Kreis Alsfeld. I click on the arrow next to “Kr.” The window expands to show a list of town names. Read through the list to see if any name looks similar to Whalen. Almost at the bottom, there’s an entry “Wahlen 1) Kr. Alsfeld.” That is the closest match and it is the town we want!

 

Another approach to this problem would be to do a wildcard search, removing the vowels and the often-silent letter ‘h.’ Using this approach, I type “w*l*n” and press enter. Each * substitutes any number of letters. Doing this gives a LOT of results. But we know it’s in Hess. Darmstadt. See the “Filter results by region” at the top? From that list select “Hessen.” Once done, “Wahlen 1) Kr. Alsfeld” is the first result. 

 

 

I’m glossing over a whole lot of history about Hesse Darmstadt and Hesse. It’s too much to get into right now, but if you want to read more about it, see my blogpost from May 2020. https://lindstreet.blog/2020/05/21/german-states-and-provinces-as-of-1912-and-their-current-locations/.

 

Next week we’ll talk about finding those church records in the US. 

 

 

 

The Value of US Church Records

 From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

The German town of origin is necessary for conducting research in Germany because Germany was not a unified country until 1871. For later immigrants to the United States, this information may be easier to find on passenger lists than for earlier immigrants. For those early immigrants, United States church records can be a great source for that information. The challenge with using those records is knowing the religion of the immigrant, the church they attended, and where those records can be found and accessed. But when you do find them, they can be a gold mine.

 

My 4^th great-grandfather, William H. Weaver, or Wilhelm Heinrich Weber in German, immigrated to America at the age of eight in 1834. He died in Baltimore City in 1897. He was a founding member of St. Stephens Evangelical Lutheran church, which merged with Saint James in 1962.[1] The church is located on Hanover and Hamburg Streets in Baltimore City. Its records have been microfilmed and are available on the Maryland State Archives website (https://msa.maryland.gov : accessed 2025) under Special Collections > Religious Records.

 

Death records may provide the German town of origin for an immigrant as shown below:[2]

 

While the name is misspelled as “Whalen” it provides the Kreis (Alsfeld) and Länder (Hessen Darmstadt), which enables a researcher to locate the right town … Wahlen.

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[1] “Sts. Stephen & James Lutheran Baltimore,” German Marylanders (https://wwwgermanmarylanders.org : accessed 2025).

[2] St. Stephen’s Evangelical Lutheran Church Collection (Baltimore City, Maryland), Book 1, pp. 444–5, deaths, 1897, no. 20, Wilhelm Heinrich Weber, 31 May 1897; digital images, Maryland State Archives (https://msa.maryland.gov : accessed 2025), Special Collection 4216-1, microfilm SCM 1477; Maryland State Archives, Annapolis.

Finding German Emigration Records

 From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

 

In my last blog post, I showed my great great grandmother’s emigration record [Auswanderungsakte] from Baden in 1854. In this post, I am going to show you how I found her record on the Baden-Württemberg State Archive website [Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg]. The images of these records are not online, they must be ordered from the archive. But this particular state archive makes that process easy.

 

From the main page, you see a big white and yellow box with the word “Suche.” This means “search” and you can search for many things from this screen. In the top right corner, you will see a little link “EN,” which means “English.” You might be tempted to click that so you can see this website in English. But if you do that, this search box will disappear and the options available to you will, too. Stick with the German version and use tools, such as Google Translate, if you are not familiar with German.

 

In the “Suche” box, I entered my great great grandmother’s last name “Ohnemus” and I added the word “Auswanderung” which means emigration. I used no quotes. If you have a common surname, you can add the person’s first name or their town name, if known. Keep in mind to use the German variants of their names (e.g., Johann, not John). Press Enter.

 

In the middle of the resulting page, I see a heading “Staatsarchiv Freiburg” and below that “alle 21 Suchergebnisse im Online-Findmittelsystem anzeigen.” This means there were 21 results found at the Freiburg branch of the State Archive. To see those results, click on the diagonal arrow after the word “anzeigen.”

 

The next page shows the details of the results. Each result has its own box with information about it. I scrolled through the 21 results until I found one about Katharina Ohnemus who emigrated from Schweighausen in 1854. Each result has the emigrant’s name, the village they are leaving, their destination, and year. From here, I clicked on the “Findbuch” link, just to see some more details.     

 

From this page, you see a lot of the same information. The blue arrow points to the number of pages in this item. Five pages. The orange arrow is the Permalink that you can click on and copy. This allows you to save this item in your own documents so you can return to it more quickly. The red circle is the link to add this to your shopping cart. Click on that, and I’ll show you how to order this.

 

From this screen (don’t get scared with the German, use your translation tools), you will see that you have two options. You can order this item for viewing in their reading room OR you can have a copy made and sent to you. Keep clicking through. On the next screen, it will ask you to log in. If you do not have an account, you can create one. Once you are logged in, it will ask you if you want the full item (yes!) and if you want a digital or paper copy. Continue clicking through until all questions are answered and your item has been requested. The last time I purchased an emigration record was last year. It cost me 13€ and I used PayPal to send the money.  

 

Not all German state archives make this process so simple. Some archives have emigration indexes. Some have a similar shopping cart feature that allows one to order archival records. If you have questions, always feel free to contact an archivist. Do not expect them to do the research for you. Rather they can guide you to items in their holdings that might be helpful to your research. 

 

Emigration Records from Germany

 From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

[Written by Teresa]

When a person was leaving historical areas that became Germany, they were often legally obligated to get permission. This differed by time and place. Usually, nineteenth century migrants were under some obligation to register. The requirements generally ensured people paid their debts and men had fulfilled their military obligations. Not everyone abided by these laws. Good statistics are hard to find, but in my own experience, way less than half of emigrants went through this process. But when they did, records were created! I am going to show you an example today.

 

My great great grandmother, Katharina Ohnemus, received permission to emigrate in June 1854. She was leaving Schweighausen, Freiburg, Baden [today’s Schweighausen-Schuttertal in Baden-Württemberg]. Her emigration document [Auswanderungsakte] contains five pages and is full of good details.[1] She was nineteen years old, unmarried, and she planned to travel with her sister. Her parents were Protas Ohnemus and Franziska Offenburger.

 

She indicated that she had enough money for the trip. She intended to travel via France to New Orleans. Katharina and her parents’ signatures are all included.

 

I have never found her immigration record at New Orleans. Shortly after she arrived, she married Landolin Meyer who was also from Schweighausen.[2] I have not found his emigration record. 

 

Next week, I will show you how I found and ordered this record. 

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[1] Bezirksamt [district] Ettenheim, Baden, Auswanderungsakten [emigration records], Schweighausen, 1854, Katharina Ohnemus; Staatsarchiv [State Archive] Freiburg, Germany, B 701/1 Nr. 717. 

[2] St. Boniface Catholic Church (Quincy, Illinois), Marriages, Vol. 1, 1839–1857, p. 72, no. 14, Meyer-Ohnemus; church rectory. The church has since closed and these records are now on Ancestry.

How to Determine Which Town of Origin is the Right One?

From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

 

As we noted in the last post, conducting research in Germany requires knowing the German town of origin. Unfortunately, sometimes when you find the name of the town, there are more than one town with the same name! How do we narrow the choices down to the correct one?

 

Researchers are lucky with this 1880 U.S. census enumeration for Baltimore City where the enumerator provided specific town names in Germany. For Catherine Benamon, aged 79, her birth place is listed as Wallein. Her father’s birthplace is given as Fishpach and her mother’s birthplace is given as Wallan. Wallein and Wallan may be the same place. All three spellings have the potential to be wrong. 

 

 

A search for “Wallein” and “Wallan” in Meyers Gazetteer, https://www.meyersgaz.org, returned no towns with either spelling. “Fishpach” also returned negative findings. The correct spelling of “Fishpach” is probably “Fischbach” in German. Meyers Gazetteer returned 41 hits for that spelling. That is a lot of choices to go through. A passenger list for Catherine and her first husband, Kaspar Weber, had provided another spelling … “Wahlen.” Searching with that spelling located five choices; two in Hessen and three in Rheinland.

 

A reasonable hypothesis would be that the two towns are located in close proximity to each other. By viewing the historical map on Meyers Gaz, the first entry, Wahlen, Kr. Alsfeld, OHessen, Hessen, as you can see below, Wahlen and Fischbach are located near each other.

 

Looking at the other entries, did not result in the same findings. This makes this Wahlen a priority for checking church records. 

 

Sources:

1.     1880 U.S. census, City of Baltimore, Maryland, population schedule, p. 6 (penned), enumeration district (ED) 160, dwelling 44, family 50, Catherine Benamon; digital images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 October 2021).

2.     “Baltimore, Passenger Lists, 1820–1964,” database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 August 2015), passenger list, Jupiter, 16 August 1834, penned page 1, line 34, Caspar Weber; citing NARA micropublication M255, roll 1.

Finding a German Town of Origin

From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

Conducting research in Germany, requires knowing the German town of origin. Unfortunately, for many researchers that is the missing piece of information. Sometimes finding that critical piece of information can be easy. Other times, the search continues.

Debra found the town for her 4^th great grandmother, Sophia Philippina (Braun) Weaver, in Sophia’s obituary. It noted she was born in “Friedrichstahl, Germany.” However, sometimes the information is not entirely correct; spelling is always suspect. 

A search in MeyersGaz (https://www.meyersgaz.com) found no town of that spelling. You can use the wildcard feature in MeyersGaz to determine the correct spelling, which in this case is Friedrichstal; no h in the name. There are three findings for that name:

 

1.     Friedrichstal 1) Baden; D. (Village); Friedrichstal, Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Baden

2.     Friedrichstal 2); Wlr. (Farm or Small Village); Friedrichstal, Freudenstadt, Schwarzwaldkreis, Württemberg

3.     Friedrihstal 3); Ab. (Surface Mine); Friedrichstal, Marienwerder, Westpreussen, Preussen

That requires more work to determine which one is the right one. The third one, a surface mine, is probably not the right one, but one and two are both possible. 

 

In the next post, we will discuss what sources can help you identify the correct place when you have multiple choices.

IGHR Coming to a Close

From German Girls Genealogy (Teresa Steinkamp McMillin & Debra A. Hoffman):

 

Teresa and I finished our presentations this week in “Course One – Methods and Sources in Practice” coordinated by Rebecca Whitman Koford, CG^® and “Course Two – Intermediate Genealogy and Historical Studies” coordinated by Angela Packer McGhie, CG^®. These courses are hosted by the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR).

 

I am always amazed that while these courses can be intense, the benefits from attending them is inspiring. From the attendees and presenters that you meet to the wonderful information and sources that you learn about, it is a week well spent. I attended Amy Arner’s “Walking in Penn’s Woods: Pennsylvania Research” and had the joy of working on my Pennsylvania Germans for the whole week. I am excited to continue exploring new sources and learning more about my Biehl and Keefer lines. And yes, one thing I learned is that there are so many variant spellings, especially in early records!

 

If you have never had the opportunity to take an institute course, I hope that you will consider it for the future. It is time well spent!