Emigrants from the former
Amt Damme, Oldenburg (now Niedersachsen), Germany,
mainly to the United States,
1830-1849
Foreword by the Website Editor
On the Genealogy Internet Forum (www.genealogy.net) for the area
of the old Duchy of Oldenburg (Oldenburg-L mailing list) many questions
have been asked about the "Ostendorf article". It was suggested by
Bryan Kercher of Houston, Texas that the entire article should be
transcribed and published on the internet for general use by everyone.
Spontaneously, besides the Editor and Bryan
Kercher, came other volunteers: Inez Schade of Amsterdam (unfortunately
had to drop out for health reasons), Diane Nelson of Goleta, California,
and Cherie Richards of Powell, Ohio. Each was to take one part
of the article to type in to the computer.
The Editor obtained written permission
from the Oldenburger Landesverein (the original publisher of the article),
and from the Ostendorf Family, represented by Franz Ostendorf of Damme.
Franz Ostendorf explained that his father Franz Ostendorf (Sr.) of
Langförden and Franz Sr.'s brother Johannes Ostendorf of Lohne worked together
all of their lives on it and that the emigration movement to the USA was
Johannes Ostendorf's most important work.
In the time period of about six months
all of the chapters were typed in German and the Editor prepared them for
the internet.
Translating it all to English will take
more time and volunteers. In the meantime other articles pertaining
to Damme - already in English - will be placed in the English section.
Thank you to Mrs. Elaine Moser of St. Louis, Missouri for the translation
of the article "Gemeindechronik Holdorf" (Chronicles of the Community of
Holdorf).
For the work of all these contributors
- Thank You!
Werner Honkomp, Oldenburg, October 01. 1999
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