Holdorf, Oldenburg, Germany

Three years ago, Bill and I had the privilege of traveling to Germany. At the time, our nephew and his wife, Christopher and Sarah were living in Frankfurt. In addition to exploring the beauty of the entire country (plus parts of Denmark), we had two primary goals: 1) visiting the home of our von der Heide ancestors in Holdorf, and 2) attending Oktoberfest with Chris, Sarah and their friends in Munich. As I look over the pictures and information collected when we were there, I long to go back. What a beautiful country!

When you travel to the "homeland", you constantly have to remind yourself that although you may be walking the same streets, it is NOT the same place. Holdorf today is a modern, up-to-date small town in northwest Germany in a country that is part of the European Union. When our ancestors lived there, Germany as a country, was just beginning to exist as a unified country.

Our ancestors came from the Duchy of Oldenburg. If you look at the naturalization papers of "Henry Vonderheide" (first and last name Americanized), Henry renounced his allegiance to the "Grand Duke of Oldenburg and the Emperor of Germany." Henry was 47 years old when he appeared in the Mayor's Court in Covington, Kentucky on November 2, 1886. He had been in this country for five years.

When Henry and his wife, Elizabeth, and their three children left Holdorf, they were near the end of a massive migration from this area to the United States. Werner Honkomp, mentioned in the previous post, helped me discover the von der Heide history in Oldenburg. I've attached a copy of the document he prepared for me. (You can probably enlarge it by clicking on the document. If you are a family member and want a copy, leave a message in the comments section and I'll try to accomodate you).


Interestingly, when a child was baptized in the Catholic Church at that time, the priest often recorded the name of the farming community where the parents lived. At times you could tell from the baptismal record if the parent was a land owner, had a cottage or worked was a non-landowning hired-hand (Heuerleute). From these records we know that Hermann Henrich (Henry) vdH was Heuerleute by Colon gr. Bolling in Holdorf at the time of his marriage. (Colon means big farmer).

Sometime between 1870 and 1873 when "Henry" and Elizabeth were having their children, they relocated to the Heuerhaus of the Lampe-Gossling farm. That farm still exists and is located right on the Gross-Strasse (Main Street) of Holdorf. The next post will include pictures of the two possible places where the young Vonderheide family lived before making the decision to emigrate.