Where We're From – Germany

Like Canada, this list will be relatively short, if in slightly a different way. Once I looked into it, it turned out longer than I expected. I considered putting Galicia on this list, but I think I will give it its own list, as it was a separate state, and passed from country to country, even if the original state was more German than not.

A map of these locations:

View My German Roots in a larger map

1. Frankfurt
My father, like my mother, was born out of the country. Unlike my mother, he was actually born a US citizen, as he was born on a military base while his parents were still stationed there. He did not live there long before the family moved back to the US.

My father's father was also born in Frankfurt, or more precisely, Frankfurt am Main, in the Jewish area of the city. He and all of his siblings were born there before things began to get bad for the Jews in Germany, and shortly after his youngest sister was born, the family escaped to France before immigrating to the US, sometime in the early 1930s.

My grandfather's parents moved to Frankfurt shortly after the first world war. My great-grandfather Alex moved there after being expelled from England for being a German national. My great-grandmother, Dora, moved there with her sister from their small town in hopes of finding a better life in the big city. The couple met there and married in 1919, raising their six children there before leaving in the early thirties.

2. Lübeck, Gelting, Schleswig
The Linkhausen family also originates from Germany, though I have only recently discovered this. Leonharde, my great-great grandfather's first wife, was born in Norway, but her father Ditlev was born in Lübeck, Germany, and most of his family seems to have lived in that general area for many generations before Ditlev moved to Norway.

3. Bardowick (Lynesburg), Holstein
My several-greats grandfather, Hans Heinrich Bordevick, was born 1769 in a suburb of Lynesburg, known as Bardowick, and this is where our family name comes from on this side of the family. As a young man, he left Germany and moved to Norway, becoming a citizen there and marrying.

4. Brunswik, Kiel, Holstein
Ditlev's mother Anna Margaretha died here in 1812.

5. Gelting, Schleswig
Ditlev's mother Anna Margaretha was born here in 1754, his father Detelf Anton died here in 1809, and his grandmother, Anna Johansen died here in 1765.

6. Niesgrau, Schleswig
Detlef Anton Linkhusen was born here in 1738, and his mother, Anna Johansen Grot was born here in about 1697.


And currently, that's all I know for both sides of the family. There is a branch of the Hansen tree that may trace back to Germany, but as of yet, I haven't firmed up that connection, so I left it out. As I said, Galicia is still to come as its own entry, even if it will be quite short. I am hoping someday to learn more about my family in that country, so for now I want to keep it separate, even though Galicia was basically a German state. As always, if my family reading this knows more, I'd love to hear it.

Coming Next: England

ETA: More locations in the Schleswig/Holstein area of Northern Germany.