[ German Cross-Index ] [ United Kingdom Cross-Index ]
[ Ethnic, Religious, National Index
]
[ Location (Address) Index ]
[ Master IndexPage ]
[ FEEFHS FrontPage ]
[ Website Index ]
"Anglo-German Family History Society"
by Chairman Peter Towey
© copyright 1996 Peter Towey and FEEFHS, all rights
reserved
First posted 30 December 1996 (Background Article by Peter
Towey)
In June 1997 the Anglo-German Family History Society will be
celebrating its 10th
anniversary. We have over 750 members, principally from England
but also from USA,
Australia, New Zealand and - of course - Germany.
People often wonder why so many English people have German roots.
There are several
reasons;
i) the proximity of the two countries, on either side on the
North Sea, and the ease of travel,
in times past, from one to the other by sea;
ii) the lack of any bureaucratic controls over immigration into
England until the late 19th
century; and
iii) England was ruled by German-born and/or German-speaking
monarchs from the accession
of King George I, the Elector of Hanover, in 1714 until
Victoria's reign - and she married a
German: Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
There were large movements of Germans into England from the
Palatines who came in in
1709 to the Prisoners of War who stayed on after the Second World
War; and now that we
are both part of the European Union, the number of Germans living
in England can be
expected to increase.
The Society aims to help its members find out about their German
ancestors through the
English records and then to help them with the German records.
As with most people trying
to trace immigrant ancestors, the first main hurdle is to
identify the immigrant and then to
find out where in Germany - or the German-speaking parts of
Europe - the ancestor came
from.
In England that is often very difficult. The main source would
be the naturalisation records
but few immigrants bothered with that until the 1890s. Anyone
could come and live in
England without obtaining naturalisation until the First World
War; naturalisation was
expensive and was only needed if you were an adult male and
wanted to leave real estate by
will or join a London Livery Company.
Naturalisation was, however, becoming more common by the 1890s as
anti-German feelings
built up in the political rivalry that lead to the First World
War. If you are lucky enough to
find naturalisation papers for your immigrant ancestor, they will
give you his age, date and
place of birth, parentage, and details of his wife and children
in UK. All the records are kept
in the Public Record Office, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Surrey, UK, and
there is an index to
them.
Another potential source is the church registers. Most German
who came to England were
Protestants though there were some who were Roman Catholics. The
Society is gradually
identifying the German churches in England and trying to index
their registers. In some cases
the register entries give the place of origin of the parties.
There have been German Lutheran churches in London since the 17th
century. St. Georg's
German Lutheran Church, Alie Street, Aldgate, in East London has
just closed after holding
services in German since the 1760s. Many Society members
attended the last service on 24th
November 1996 and it was a very emotional occasion. The church
is to be preserved as an
exhibition space (we believe) but it will not quite be the
same.
The Society holds indexes to the registers of baptisms, marriages
and burials for that church,
St Pauls Gemeinde Church, Hooper Square (the church was destroyed
in the blitz but the
registers survive), St Boniface's German Roman Catholic church,
London, and many others.
The most recent additions to our collection are the indexes of
the registers of the German
churches at Bradford, Yorkshire (1876+), Hull, Yorkshire (1848+),
Islington, North London
(1858+), and the Hamburg Lutheran Church, Dalston, North-East
London (1850+).
The main influx of Germans took place in the 19th century. There
were many reasons:
fleeing political and religious persecution or over-population at
home; looking for work in the
main industrial centre of the World - London; even getting lost
on the way to America! Yes,
that is true.
Germans on their way to America often left their ship in London,
walked to Liverpool and
took ship again for the New World. Many ran out of money or
energy (London to Liverpool
is quite a long walk!) and some were told by the ship's captain,
as they got off the boat in
London, that they had arrived in America. As many did not speak
English, it was often some
time before they realised that they had been swindled.
Many came over to work in the sugar industry, the main
concentration of which was in the
East End of London. From the late 18th century, the main sugar
refining companies were in
German hands and they preferred to import German labourers to
work for them. They came
mainly via Hamburg where the British Consul often acted as agent
for the Companies.
The job was very hot, hard work and dangerous and the second
generation of immigrants
usually looked for other work causing a need for further
recruitment from Germany to fill
their fathers' places. There are no records giving details of
where these "sugar bakers" or
"sugar refiners" came from but they can often be found in the
local East London church
registers or the 10 year censuses.
Censuses were taken in England every 10 years from 1801 but the
detailed schedules giving
personal details only survive from 1841. From 1851 the census
should give the age and place
of birth of everyone living in the Country on census night. It
normally only says "Germany"
or "Prussia" but sometimes you can be lucky and it will give the
town or village. Now that
the index to the 1881 census is available for the whole Country
and every Family History
Library, it is possible to track down every German in England and
Wales then.
Many Germans also came to join the British Army. During the
French occupation of
Hanover (King George III of England was also Elector of Hanover)
during the Napoleonic
Wars, the Hanoverian Army escaped to England and was
reconstituted as the King's German
Legion. Until Hanover was liberated in 1815, they served as part
of the British Army and
many of the personal records are at the British Public Record
Office. One of our members
has indexed them. Another member in Hanover is working on
indexing the records in
Hanover - including Army pension records.
Many other Germans escaped from French-occupied Germany at the
time and joined other
regiments of the British Army, the Royal Navy or the Royal
Marines. There are indexes to
the service records of all British soldiers who retired on
pension from 1760; the Navy and
Marine records are not so easily accessible but can be searched
if you know the ship he was
serving in. There are also records of British-registered
merchant seamen (some of whom
were German) for the mid 19th century and 1914 to 1941 - though
these latter are currently
being filmed and will not be available to be searched until mid
1997.
The German community in England was really destroyed during the
First World War. Due to
the fear of Fifth Columnists, spies and sabotage whipped up by
the Press, the Government
gradually interned all German males between 16 and 70 and
deported many back to Germany
during and after the War. Thus many people who had lived in
England for 50 years or more
were suddenly up-rooted and sent back to a Germany that they did
not know and which was
disrupted by war. Many British wives and children were deported
also - knowing no
German, with no relatives over there and at risk of being
persecuted for being English!
We are trying to get the records of the civilian German internees
in the United Kingdom
during the First World War. There were originally three sets of
books: the British
Government set; the Red Cross set and the set sent to the
Protecting Power. We have copies
of about half of the British Government set: 1916-1919, which we
managed to find in the
German Archives in Koblenz (where it had been sent in the 1950s).
But the Red Cross will
not allow access to their set and we are still trying to find
where the set sent to the Protecting
Power (the United States from 1914 to 1917 and then Switzerland)
now is. Any advice from
America would be gratefully received.
We are now beginning to unearth local records of the dole paid to
the dependents of the
internees and police records of aliens who had to report to
police stations every week during
and after the War, though many of those records appear to have
been destroyed. Incidentally,
aliens included US citizens and there are several of those on the
few lists we have so far
found.
The Society aims to publish more booklets on the special problems
of researching Germans in
England and on allied subjects. We have published booklets on
Sugar Bakers, German
Regiments of the British Army, German Churches in England; the
German Hospital at
Dalston in London and the German School in London. We have
several more in
prospect.
Up-to-date details of membership are available on our Anglo-German Family History Society
HomePage
P.S. Your weather does sound rather cold. We have had clear,
cold days in London all over
the holidays with one morning's snow which had gone by the
afternoon. Now we are
beginning to prepare for the New Year's Eve parties. I'll be
glad to get back to normal
afterwards. Thank for your Chistmas wishes. I hope yours was
very enjoyable. Best wishes
to you and all FEEFHS members for a Very Happy and Prosperous New
Year."
Peter Towey, Chairman, Anglo-German FHS
Teddington, England.
29 December 1996
0 - 0 - 0
[ German Cross-Index ] [ United Kingdom Cross-Index ]
[ Ethnic, Religious, National Index
]
[ Location (Address) Index ]
[ Master IndexPage ]
[ FEEFHS FrontPage ]
[ Website Index ]