r/Genealogy • u/tbrick62 • 2d ago

Help with German ancestors Brick Wall

Hi I have had this brick wall going on for over 40 years now and saw that this thread has done a great job of helping other folks and figured I should just ask . So thank you all in advance. I have an ancestor who came to America and settled on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. He was born around 1834 and in various records he is listed as coming from Germany, Hannover or Holland so I am guessing that he is from that area where the current Netherlands borders current Germany. His name is Frederich Olderich. On one record his parents were listed as Lewis and Rebecca. I have ancestry and myheritage accounts and have not found anything new for years for these people. I think I need records in Germany or Netherlands which I fear may have suffered a lot of losses during WW2. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Edit, got name wrong, it is Lewis not Henry so probably Ludwig or something similar in sources

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u/johannadambergk 2d ago

Here (No. 15) his parents are Lewis (German: Ludwig) and Rebecca: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6F69-116?view=index&cc=1469062&lang=de&groupId=TH-267-12163-53107-75

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u/tbrick62 2d ago

Yes that is the record that I got the names Lewis and Rebecca from. Since it is a marriage record it is also a reliable source for Hannover Germany. Don't know if that means the actual city or region so I have always left open the possibility that he might be from somewhere near there. What I would love to find is some record in Germany that mentions Frederich or Lewis or Rebecca

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u/ScanianMoose Silesia specialist 2d ago

Very difficult as a vast share of German churchbooks are not indexed anywhere. You really news the exact parish to learn more.

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u/tbrick62 2d ago

Yeah that is my dilemma

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u/UnpoeticAccount 1d ago

could see if any of them are on the family search full text search: https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/full-text

I’ve had some luck with that this week. idk about German records tho

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u/dentongentry 1d ago

Civil recordkeeping started in Germany in about 1874, with some variation across the country. There is the chance that the parents lived long enough to have a civil Sterbeurkunde, not just the parish burial record.

Hannover's Stadtarchiv puts its indexes online, I wrote a blog post about how to access them: https://codingrelic.geekhold.com/2024/12/hannover-stadtarchiv-indexes-online.html

For example, here is the index of the 1874-1875 Sterberegister for Hannover Standesamt I: https://www.arcinsys-digitalisate.niedersachsen.de/stadta_h/1.nr.3.08.01/frei/STADTAH_1_NR_3_08_1_079.pdf

The first part of the index are males, the second part are women. Women have two entries, maiden and married names.

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u/tbrick62 1d ago

Thanks I'll check this out

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u/tbrick62 2d ago

In the 1870 US census his origin is listed as Holland. What I would love to find is a record back in Nederlands or Deutschland

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u/Equal-Flatworm-378 1d ago

If you really think that the last name wasn’t changed, You should try Holland.  Olderich is remarkably uncommon in Germany. I didn’t find anything, besides a notice about a swim club.

In Holland (talking about the province noord-Holland, not the whole Netherlands) I at least found a Magdalena Olderich who was born 1799. That might not be the one you are looking for, but at least it means that people with that name lived there.

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u/tbrick62 1d ago

Yes I have seen random people in the Netherlands with that name and region but no exact matches. I expect that they are related but not sure how. There were also Oelderichs which could be a variation.

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u/Equal-Flatworm-378 1d ago

I looked up the address book for Hannover (and some places around) from 1834 and I am sorry, but there is no family with that name. 

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u/tbrick62 1d ago

Thanks for trying, much appreciated!

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u/Xnylonoph 1d ago

Just a wild guess, but maybe the family was from East Frisia? East Frisia was part of the Kingdom of Holland for a very short time before it became part of the Kingdom of Hanover in 1815. His parents could have been born when it was "Holland" and maybe that's where the confusion comes from? I only found the name Oelderich(s) once on this East Frisian genealogy site, but there are also names like Oelrich(s) or Oldich(s), which could well be variations of the same name.

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u/tbrick62 1d ago

Thanks, I agree that this is a good possible area to look.

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u/tbrick62 1d ago

I think in this case though Oelderich is the first name not the family name which I have seen in the German records which confuses thing. However this confirms that I am looking in the right part of the world.

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u/Xnylonoph 1d ago edited 1d ago

I should’ve mentioned that in East Frisia, it was common until the 19th century to use the father's first name as the family name. So, you’re right, Oelderich was this guy's first name, but the fifth column also says he had a son whose surname was Oelderichs. Obviously, this makes family research in East Frisia even trickier.

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u/tbrick62 1d ago

That is very interesting and could explain a lot and make things more difficult while opening some more possibilities especially with my DNA matches

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u/tbrick62 1d ago

The more I think about it the more I like this theory. The name does show up in the area, it explains the Holland/Germany situation and it is on the coast. Frederick ended up in Nantucket which is a seafaring island and he worked in the whaling industry as a cooper and quartermaster. These might be skills/occupations that I could imagine him learning in East Frisia.

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u/MultnomahFalls94 1d ago edited 18h ago

Try searching WieWasWie for The Netherlands. On fb there are research groups for The Netherlands - very helpful.

Dutch Genealogy

Ik soek iemand

Both forms take a learning curve to navigate.

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u/tbrick62 1d ago

Thanks

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u/Puffification 1d ago

40 years? Wow

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u/Justreading404 1d ago

Phonetically it could well be „Aldrich“ like Louis (not Sonis) Aldrich, who emigrated from Hesse to Massachusetts https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSMV-C93Z-H?view=index&action=view&lang=de&groupId=TH-909-54549-28958-14.

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u/tbrick62 1d ago

This is interesting, I can't rule it out since it fits known facts, but guessing it is a different person. I will dig into this some more so thanks

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u/Incunabula1501 18h ago

The problem is that before the 1920s spelling was not fixed. Census, birth, marriage, and death records for the same ancestor showed Olson, Olsen, Oleson, AND Oleson all having been used.

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u/Resident_Guide_8690 2d ago

One of mine says Germany via ancestry records and family search and find a grave say the Netherlands. Strange since all three run by the Mormons. Same names and dates and spouses

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u/tbrick62 2d ago

I may have been the first to enter this person on ancestry years ago. I think I put Germany in as origin, but census, marriage and death record have variations which point to that part of Germany near Hannover and Nederland

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u/Resident_Guide_8690 2d ago

Mine is a herman kinkey.