Emigrate
My name is Brandon Rosenhoover, I have been trying to find one of my ancestor, and all I can find is that he and his family had left Bavaria for North America in 1847. I cannot find anything on him. Was there anything happening in Bavaria in 1847 to cause them to emigrate? Any help would be welcome!!
Answers
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First you need to understand that in 1847, Bavarai didn ot have the same boundaries as the State of Bavaria today. It included an area along the Rhine, known as the Palatinate. So you need to include that area in your search for your ancestor.
As to conditions that may have caused them to emigrate, there was a great deal of unrest in Germany - and across Europe - around this time that culminated in the Revolution of 1848. For more info, see
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You'll want to find every North American record possible (church and civil) regarding his (and his wife's) marriage(s), death and the birth/death/marriages of his children. Newspaper obituaries too. Look for possible german language newspapers where he died as they often were where more complete obits were posted for German immigrants. And of course, actual immigration records, ships logs upon arrival as well as departure logs.
The goal is to find the most likely village/parish where he came from or was born and that can appear in any of the above records. And try to find his exact birth date. Every once in a while you can get lucky and find an indexed birth record but most records are not indexed so it will be a matter of searching the parish records where you think he was born.
Since you said he and his family immigrated, you will want to do the same for every member of his family. It can also be helpful to search for other descendants of the family to see if they might have records/stories/family bibles that might have key information.
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