Bernhard Heger

markdhoff

Hello! I am Mark Denninghoff. I joined this group because I am trying to find information about my German family during the 20th century. My great grandfather's siblings stayed in Germany as well as both his parents. I don't know what happened to them.

I plan on visiting Germany this summer and I am trying to plan where I should visit to get information about this side of my family; What archives or locations should I search? I have the name a number of cities/ towns where some were living in the 1920s and 1940s that's it.

I have a name Heger that was KIA in Russia in March 1944. His dad Bernhard Friedrich Heger was a captured in North Afrika in May 1943.

hehesani63

@markdhoff

Hi,

Could you please give some more information? For example the names of the cities where the family was living?

Regards, Christine

sylviaelchinger1

Just for reference, German privacy regulations will make it a bit more difficult to search for living people. Birth records are locked for 110 years, marriages for 80 years, and deaths for 30 year - and sometimes local jurisdictions or archives may even increase this timeframe. To get information, you'd have to show evidence of direct relation to the person in question.

markdhoff

Bernhard Hegers' Maria mother lived in Castrop-Rauxel, Ickern.

In 1942 he mentions his wife Johana (Lang) Heger living in Cologne where they shared a home together.

Neunkirchen Saar is where is Johana (Lang) Heger lived and/or is from.

Bernhard Heger lived in Wiebelkirchen/Saar at some point according to his prisoner intake form.

sylviaelchinger1

Here's a link to the records on FamilySearch for Neunkirchen, but they don't go far enough (into the 1900s) for your purposes.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&placeId=45820&query=%2Bplace%3A%22Germany%2C%20Preu%C3%9Fen%2C%20Rheinland%2C%20Ottweiler%2C%20Neunkirchen%22&subjectsOpen=428683-50,519716-50

You could try looking for city directories (Adressbücher) that could help you track these people in the 20th century. The University of Cologne has digitized city directories, but again, they don't go far enough, only till 1920 for the digitized versions. You could write to them and ask if they have later volumes though.

https://www.ub.uni-koeln.de/cdm/search/searchterm/465672%20465671%20468245%20468244%20468243%20468242%20468241/field/katkea/mode/any/conn/and/order/date/page/4

And here's a link to Neunkirchen in Meyers Gazetteer. You can see that Wiebelskirchen is directly north of there if you click on the Map tab. https://www.meyersgaz.org/place/20293003

hehesani63

@markdhoff

Hi,

Just as @sylviaelchinger1 said the German privacy regulations are pretty strict and I didn't find documents online that would help you.

The town of Neunkirchen has a historical society and maybe they could help you if you told them that Berhard Friedrich Heger G3Y4-MD5 and his wife Johanna Lang G487-M51 lived in the area of Neunkirchen approx. between 1920 and 1940. Maybe they would have a chance to find Johanna's birth or the marriage of Bernhard and Johanna in newspaper of the area or via the population register.

This is their website. Their e-mail address is on the botton of the starting page:

https://www.hvsn.de/

Regards, Christine

hehesani63

@markdhoff

Just one more thought:

According to the letter that Bernhard Friedrich Heger wrote in 1945, he had a brother and a sister-in-law in Kansas. Has it been possible to follow up on that family?

Regards, Christine

markdhoff

Thanks so much for this. This gave me a lot to look at. I know much more about the brother and sister-in-law in Kansas. Louis and Lucia Denninghoff, my direct line ancestors.