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[John Winn]

John, your great great grandmother is from Hannover?? Amazing!!
We must keep in mind that Hannover now is just a city, the capital of Lower Saxony, but in the 19th century there was also the Kingdom of Hannover.

I found a list of communities in what is now Lower Saxony and there is nothing that fits...
I think we will all agree that the first three letters are Bal...

I thought I mentioned that to you once but yes, she apparently was at least from the kingdom. I, too, looked at lists of towns and didn't see anything that fit. And, yes, the first three letters do appear to be Bal. 'Tis a mystery.

Of course, we have to consider that the census taker could have just jotted down what he thought he heard and certainly might have not understood people with an accent so who knows. I'm asking because I've hired a researcher to see if anything can be found in Cincinnati and I thought if I could decipher the entry it might somehow be of use.

Thanks for looking, cousin !

 

[FarawayFriend]

I thought I mentioned that to you once but yes, she apparently was at least from the kingdom. I, too, looked at lists of towns and didn't see anything that fit. And, yes, the first three letters do appear to be Bal. 'Tis a mystery.

Of course, we have to consider that the census taker could have just jotted down what he thought he heard and certainly might have not understood people with an accent so who knows. I'm asking because I've hired a researcher to see if anything can be found in Cincinnati and I thought if I could decipher the entry it might somehow be of use.

Thanks for looking, cousin !

My pleasure!
No, you mentioned your great grandfather living in Berlin for a while during his studies, but I can't remember you mentioned Hannover.
Yes, it's a mystery...

 

[John Winn]

My pleasure!
No, you mentioned your great grandfather living in Berlin for a while during his studies, but I can't remember you mentioned Hannover.
Yes, it's a mystery...

It was my grandfather who studied in Berlin.

The real Germans are on my mother's side. Dad's side were Irish and English although there was this one German guy who snuck in somehow.

 

[Northern Light]

My great-grandmother was also Rosa, actually Rosalie, but she came from Ulm.

 

[John Winn]

Thanks everybody for giving this a go. I must admit that it certainly does look like "Baltimore" but do wonder why she'd claim Germany on all the other censuses. What mysteries the clouds of time do obscure.

 

[Northern Light]

Thanks everybody for giving this a go. I must admit that it certainly does look like "Baltimore" but do wonder why she'd claim Germany on all the other censuses. What mysteries the clouds of time do obscure.

Well, my husband has an ancestor in England who, over the course of six censuses, had five different ages and four differing places of birth. So confusing.
Bear in mind that the census takers were not always too concerned with accuracy and if you were not home, might ask the neighbours or the maid or anyone else that was handy.

 

[James N.]

Hey kids - I could use some help deciphering the lower word. It's from a census and is the name of the place where the person was born. The upper one is "Holstein" and in other documents the person in question said she was from Hanover or just Germany. Thus, I rather think the word might be the name of a city or town but I can find no towns or states in Germany that seem to fit. Anyway, if some of you who are used to reading old script could give it a shot I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

View attachment 296939

The bottom one is pretty obviously Baltimore, although the writer forgot to cross the "t" and dot the "i"!

 

[FarawayFriend]

Thanks everybody for giving this a go. I must admit that it certainly does look like "Baltimore" but do wonder why she'd claim Germany on all the other censuses. What mysteries the clouds of time do obscure.

Just thought... Baltimore was the port of entry for many German immigrants - the only two very distantly related girls from my family who emigrated to the US arrived in Baltimore too.
What if your great grandmorher's real place of birth in Germany had some Umlauts or was too complicated, like Hanerau-Hademarschen or Brande-Hörnerkirchen... and so the officer maybe said "oooookay....and where did you start your life in the United States?" to which the answer was nice and easy: Baltimore....

(And sorry I mixed up your grandfather and great grandfather again, I know I did that before. It was not meant offensive in any way!)

 

[Zella]

Just thought... Baltimore was the port of entry for many German immigrants - the only two very distantly related girls from my family who emigrated to the US arrived in Baltimore too.
What if your great grandmorher's real place of birth in Germany had some Umlauts or was too complicated, like Hanerau-Hademarschen or Brande-Hörnerkirchen... and so the officer maybe said "oooookay....and where did you start your life in the United States?" to which the answer was nice and easy: Baltimore....

(And sorry I mixed up your grandfather and great grandfather again, I know I did that before. It was not meant offensive in any way!)

Good thinking, Andrea! Some of my Germans came through Baltimore too.

 

[John Winn]

Just thought... Baltimore was the port of entry for many German immigrants - the only two very distantly related girls from my family who emigrated to the US arrived in Baltimore too.
What if your great grandmorher's real place of birth in Germany had some Umlauts or was too complicated, like Hanerau-Hademarschen or Brande-Hörnerkirchen... and so the officer maybe said "oooookay....and where did you start your life in the United States?" to which the answer was nice and easy: Baltimore....

(And sorry I mixed up your grandfather and great grandfather again, I know I did that before. It was not meant offensive in any way!)

No problem regarding grandpa.

Yeah, who knows how the census taker posed the question or how it was interpreted or who actually got interviewed. I'm convinced, though, that she and hubby lived in Cincinnati, Ohio and that's where her first three children were born so, wherever she was actually born, she was in Ohio by the time she was about 20. Lots of Germans in Cincinnati ! I'll just have to see if my researcher can find church records and the like and maybe extend my line back one more generation.

 

[FarawayFriend]

What if your great grandmorher's real place of birth in Germany had some Umlauts or was too complicated, like Hanerau-Hademarschen or Brande-Hörnerkirchen... and so the officer maybe said "oooookay....and where did you start your life in the United States?" to which the answer was nice and easy: Baltimore....

Seems this was what happened indeed. Thanks to some additional information I got from John Winn I found Rosina in our Lower Saxony State Archive - and her place of birth was "Hannoversch Münden". So very understandably the officer back then chose to write "Baltimore"...

 

[John Winn]

Seems this was what happened indeed. Thanks to some additional information I got from John Winn I found Rosina in our Lower Saxony State Archive - and her place of birth was "Hannoversch Münden". So very understandably the officer back then chose to write "Baltimore"...

Well, we do like to shorten things. I wouldn't have been surprised if the census guy just wrote "Balt." As it was he didn't bother to dot the i or cross the t (which caused me to miss the obvious and look for some place in Germany).