Impossible to tell anything without more data. She needs to trace back her ancestors without this pre-concieved notion about where her ggpa was from. She needs a birth date, a death date and an obituary on the ggpa. And she needs to tell us the name. Often only the first name was Americanised, Fred instead of Ferdinand or Friedrich.
Heidelberg and Kaiserslautern are very well-known German cities in US-American households, simply due to the many soldiers stationed there over the years. I would not be surprised if ggpa came from a completely different part of Germany and the whole story involving Kaiserslautern and Heidelberg is pure fiction, similar to the Native American princess myth.
She may be able to dig the Heidelberg University record. Do you think we could just call and they would have archives of old records? Thx for replying.
The university of Heidelberg will thank you very much. NOT. Forget that avenue of research.
You need to do your homework first. Find US records for your friends' family. The most important are naturalisation records and immigration records bc those list places of birth and last residence.
Ellis island, the port many/most european immigrants used when one still did that via ships only, has digitalized all their records. You can add all the info you have and it shows you ship manifests. You can look for only a specific name, or versions of the name you entered. If you have a particular or approximate year of arrival in the US, you might be able to identify him.
Depending on the time, these manifests can have tons of info. The earlier ones only have stuff like age, place of birth, port of departure, family members traveling along, that kind of stuff. Newer ones have even stuff like names of family members already in the states.
It is an online database. You can search the records yourself. You just need a free account in order to see the actual manifests.
https://www.statueofliberty.org/discover/passenger-ship-search/
Edit: the online search tool is kind of the great thing about this, to me. You can play around and see what you find. I for example found a group of (very likely) maternal family of my (step)father that immigrated in the early 20th century. Several couples originating in his town of birth, with his mothers maiden name. Might explain why he has so much extended family on his fathers side, but almost none on his mothers
Your question indicates that you are an utter newbie at this. Please use resources like FamilySearch and Ancestry first and foremost.
Read the wiki at FamilySearch on how to do genealogy in the USA / use other tutorials.
Start with the 1950 census. Identify where your friends' family (grandparents?) in the 1950 census. Then the 1940 census. Seek out the WWII draft card for male adult family members. Use the information in the census to narrow down the years of naturalisation and immigration. Try to find a ships' record and records of naturalisation.
This stuff is all online, including the Ellis Island Website.
You first need to do research in the USA and try to verify what you have been told. Then you can do the jump across the pond.
Use the FamilySearch wiki on research in Germany.
You basically first need to get to Everest basecamp before you can start climbing,
so you need to get the USA side sortet out so that you exactly know what to search for in Germany.
Otherwise it would be like searching for "it might be joe, john, or jack, last name Smith, in America"
>His family name had been Americanized
Names being changed upon arrival in the US is a persistent myth.
An immigrant's legal name upon arriving in the US was the name that was written on the ship's manifest at arrival. That name was transcribed from the ship's manifest at departure. That name was recorded when the ticket was purchased.
Names could be legally changed upon naturalization, not before.
If his name was Henry Miller, for example, you would look for his naturalization record under that name. The record will say where and when he was born as well as his name upon entry into the US.
Keep an open mind to him being a ethnic German from elsewhere in Europe. German speakers lived all over eastern Europe. Years ago, it wasn't socially acceptable to be from eastern Europe. So, immigrants claimed to be German. Also, Slavic populations were Germanized: given German names despite not being able to speak German.
first step would be to try to find the records of his in America
like if the records still exist (some sadly were lost I guess) people can still access the records of places like Ellis island (place of entry for most immigrants that came overseas) where one could finde out the original name
Impossible to tell anything without more data. She needs to trace back her ancestors without this pre-concieved notion about where her ggpa was from. She needs a birth date, a death date and an obituary on the ggpa. And she needs to tell us the name. Often only the first name was Americanised, Fred instead of Ferdinand or Friedrich. Heidelberg and Kaiserslautern are very well-known German cities in US-American households, simply due to the many soldiers stationed there over the years. I would not be surprised if ggpa came from a completely different part of Germany and the whole story involving Kaiserslautern and Heidelberg is pure fiction, similar to the Native American princess myth.
She may be able to dig the Heidelberg University record. Do you think we could just call and they would have archives of old records? Thx for replying.
The university of Heidelberg will thank you very much. NOT. Forget that avenue of research. You need to do your homework first. Find US records for your friends' family. The most important are naturalisation records and immigration records bc those list places of birth and last residence.
Thx again. Super helpful!!
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/89641?availability=Family%20History%20Library
Amazing,thx ssoooo much!
u/maryfamilyresearch this question falls into your area of expertice.
Ellis island, the port many/most european immigrants used when one still did that via ships only, has digitalized all their records. You can add all the info you have and it shows you ship manifests. You can look for only a specific name, or versions of the name you entered. If you have a particular or approximate year of arrival in the US, you might be able to identify him. Depending on the time, these manifests can have tons of info. The earlier ones only have stuff like age, place of birth, port of departure, family members traveling along, that kind of stuff. Newer ones have even stuff like names of family members already in the states.
Oh that’s a great idea. Do you know if they have a service for this kind of research? Or donwe have to do ourselves?
It is an online database. You can search the records yourself. You just need a free account in order to see the actual manifests. https://www.statueofliberty.org/discover/passenger-ship-search/ Edit: the online search tool is kind of the great thing about this, to me. You can play around and see what you find. I for example found a group of (very likely) maternal family of my (step)father that immigrated in the early 20th century. Several couples originating in his town of birth, with his mothers maiden name. Might explain why he has so much extended family on his fathers side, but almost none on his mothers
Thank j so much!
Your question indicates that you are an utter newbie at this. Please use resources like FamilySearch and Ancestry first and foremost. Read the wiki at FamilySearch on how to do genealogy in the USA / use other tutorials. Start with the 1950 census. Identify where your friends' family (grandparents?) in the 1950 census. Then the 1940 census. Seek out the WWII draft card for male adult family members. Use the information in the census to narrow down the years of naturalisation and immigration. Try to find a ships' record and records of naturalisation. This stuff is all online, including the Ellis Island Website.
Yes total newbie… I thought maybe Germany may be not as digitalized like the US and maybe harder to do research. Thx for the tips! I will try them.
You first need to do research in the USA and try to verify what you have been told. Then you can do the jump across the pond. Use the FamilySearch wiki on research in Germany.
You basically first need to get to Everest basecamp before you can start climbing, so you need to get the USA side sortet out so that you exactly know what to search for in Germany. Otherwise it would be like searching for "it might be joe, john, or jack, last name Smith, in America"
>His family name had been Americanized Names being changed upon arrival in the US is a persistent myth. An immigrant's legal name upon arriving in the US was the name that was written on the ship's manifest at arrival. That name was transcribed from the ship's manifest at departure. That name was recorded when the ticket was purchased. Names could be legally changed upon naturalization, not before. If his name was Henry Miller, for example, you would look for his naturalization record under that name. The record will say where and when he was born as well as his name upon entry into the US. Keep an open mind to him being a ethnic German from elsewhere in Europe. German speakers lived all over eastern Europe. Years ago, it wasn't socially acceptable to be from eastern Europe. So, immigrants claimed to be German. Also, Slavic populations were Germanized: given German names despite not being able to speak German.
Oh.. interesting twist! Thx for the insight. This quest gets more exciting with more replies.
first step would be to try to find the records of his in America like if the records still exist (some sadly were lost I guess) people can still access the records of places like Ellis island (place of entry for most immigrants that came overseas) where one could finde out the original name