Translation request
I have been attempting to establish both the location of birth and parentage of my wife's great grandfather who emigrated to the US around 1880 from Germany. There is no conclusive US documentation other than references to both Hannover and Braunschweig.
Sometime ago, a researcher in Sacramento imaged several documents from a Family Center, but they were largely illegible. I am trying to determine the credibility of the suggested details. I have run a search on the mother's name on Family Search and found what I think are the birth and christening documents I have in hand.
I need someone with the skills and ability to both access the microfilmed images, work through the poor image capture and translate the results.
The individual I am trying to document is Ernst Franz Ludwig Schwarze, born December 1859; mother's possible surname either Henrietta Schwarze or Louisa Burkman. I have no certain confidence in either individual.
I look forward to continuing this conversation.
Bob Faulkner
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Commenti
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Can you post a link to these pages? It's very difficult to read anything on them due to the poor image quality.
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The physical images I have are very difficult to read. I do not have any electronic linkage. I believe they were taken from a microfilm source through the Family Center in Sacramento.
Someone is going to need to reexamine these source documents again by accessing the microfilm again and see if they can get better resolution, or determine the actual source of the documents so I can pursue them in Germany on a Parish level. I am not necessarily convinced they connect to my research individual. That remains to be seen.
Bob Faulkner
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Can you re-contact the original research to at least get the film number for the copies you've posted. There are 57 different church entries for Hannover in the FS Catalog. You need to narrow it down a little bit for us. Catholic? Protestant? Reformed?
Was Ernst naturalized? Do you have any of the paperwork for that? Have you checked in newspapers here for an obituary that might havea ay clues? Have you checked for a German-language newspaper where he lived that might have mentioned him for any reason? Does his death certificate list anything more helpful than "Germany" for the birthplace?
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I found the original birth record on Ancestry.de:
Translation:
Place of birth: Hannover, Osterstraße 80
Gender of child: Boy
Full name of the child: Schwarze, Karl Ludwig Heinrich
Day and hour of birth in the year 1859: 7 December, 2 a.m.
Name, occupation and residence of the parents: Unmarried Johanne Friederike Henriette Schwarze from Eldagsen
Day of baptism: 18 December 1859
Name, occupation and residence of the witnesses: Master saddlemaker Ludwig Kraft in Vöhl in the Grand Duchy Hesse-Darmstadt, Master woodturner Heinrich Schwarze in Eldagsen
Comments: Baptized by Pastor Müller. As father of the child has declared himself in agreement with the mother the local journeyman saddlemaker Karl Ludwig Kraft, from Vöhl in the Grand Duchy Hesse-Darmstadt
Name of the keeper of the church book: Flügge, 19 December 1859
So, most of the information was correctly extracted and translated by your researcher. The child was baptized in Sankt Ägidien, Hanover, Prussia
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Thank you so much, Ulrich. There was a lot of illegible information on my image and I had some doubts with the accuracy of the transcription. thanks again.
Based on the provided information, I doubt we have a match. I have a different name and birth date. At least this pretty much eliminates this document.
This is what I know to be true: Name on US documents: Ernst Franz Ludwig Schwarze
Passport application: born in Braunschweig on December 20th, 1859
Naturalization document declares his rejection of loyalty to the King of Prussia
Census document consistently show Germany as place of origin
· 1900 census shows birth date of December 1860
Arrived in New York from Hamburg in July 1880
Family oral history says he swam in the Weser as a young man and left Germany to avoid military draft
Other tree shows parents Henry Schwarze (b 1837) and mother Louisa Burkman
At this point only very distant DNA matches in Germany with few responses.
I am going to revisit the marriage licenses and death certificate.
If anyone has any additional thoughts, feel free to share.
Bob Faulkner
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Ernst was naturalized in 1890, but he applied for citizenship on 2/2/1884 in Los Angeles. At that point, he had to file a declaration of intention, which would have more details about him, perhaps even the town of birth. Sadly, neither FamilySearch nor Ancestry seem to have the declarations online. But you could write to NARA and ask for a copy of his declaration of intention, which should appear in Volume 1-S. His citizenship is recorded in Volume 16, page 240 but has no further details. (Both these are from the District Court of Los Angeles.)
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I'm only seeing the name as Ernest Schwarze in the passport application:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9DX-CHN1?i=496&cc=2185145
How confident are you that this 1912 pasport application is for your ancestor? Did he have a wife Sophia then?
Is there any actual evidence of the middle names Franz and Ludwig? His 1900 census shows only a middle initial of H.
I find it difficult to believe that he would identify his place of birth as Braunschweig if he was born in Hanover. It might not be in the city but in the duchy. I don't think Hanover was ever in the duchy of Braunshweig.
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He did marry a sophia in 1905 so it looks like the above is his passport application.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-893H-C7HW?i=1141&cc=1804002
and his death record shows the parents:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89SF-G9JS-M?i=1610&cc=2001287
Parts of the Duchy of Braunschweig (i.e. Holzminden) were on the Weser river but the city of Hanover is some distance away from the Weser:
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I live in Los Angeles. Where would I find his Declaration of Intention? Hall of Records or Superior Court?
I will revisit the source of his middle names.
Bob
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NARA has a location in Riverside - https://www.archives.gov/frc/riverside you could call and see whether they have these microfilms onsite, or what your best option is for viewing them.
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The physical images I have are very difficult to read. I do not have any electronic linkage. I believe they were taken from a microfilm source through the Family Center in Sacramento.
Someone is going to need to reexamine these source documents again by accessing the microfilm again and see if they can get better resolution, or determine the actual source of the documents so I can pursue them in Germany on a Parish level. I am not necessarily convinced they connect to my research individual. That remains to be seen.
Bob Faulkner
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For "someone to reexamine these documents," it would be great if you could at least provide a film number for the ones you have. You may have to hire a local researcher to help you further.
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I want to thank everyone who has responded. It was very educational and informative.
I have another general question regarding research of German Parish records. Do you have to know the individual Parish to find the record? Have the various Parish records been digitalized, and if so, is there an index?
As an aside, I have been researching my wife's Polish side and all of the documents are either German or Russian (and a little Latin) depending on the specific area of partition.
Bob
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To answer your questions, yes, you have to know the parish in order to find the record. Many parish records have been digitized and are available on sites like FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, Archion.de (Protestant) and Matricula-online.eu Catholic). Many records on FamilySearch and Ancestry have been indexed, so it's possible to look for a name without knowing the parish and with a bit of luck, finding the right person. This happy occurrence would be more likely with an unusual surname, less likely with a common name like Schmidt, etc.
Many Polish records have also been digitized and can be searched at https://szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/
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