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Lower Saxony/Niedersachsen

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Surnames/tags: Lower_Saxony Germany Niedersachsen
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Lower Saxony, Germany/Niedersachsen, Deutschland

This page was created to offer a place to collaborate on Lower Saxony research. You can ask questions in the comments below or offer suggestions on new resources to attach to our resources list.

How Can You Help Improve Profiles In This Region?

  • There are extensive profile improvements that need to be done in this region and we could really use your help. See links, below.
  • Members with knowledge of this region can answer questions and offer guidance on this page, our Google Group and on G2G.
  • Ensure the information and links on this page are up-to-date (especially for archival and research site information)
  • Do you live in Lower Saxony? You can offer archive, library, church, etc. research visits for other members.
  • Create new Space pages for region-specific geographical, topical, or other, that include images, history, and anything helpful for collaborating and helping other researchers.

Links

We'd appreciate your help with sourcing, connecting, merging, and fixing database errors on the profiles in this region. Click the links below to get lists of profiles that use "Lower Saxony" and those that use "Niedersachsen" that need some love (click "get profiles" in the left column to generate a list):
  • UNSOURCED PROFILES: to get a list of unsourced profiles that need reliable sources added, click HERE to search "Lower Saxony", click HERE to search "Niedersachen". For more information/instruction on sourcing, see Germany Project Sourcerers Team
  • UNCONNECTED PROFILES: to get a list of unconnected profiles that need to be connected to the main tree, click HERE to search "Lower Saxony", click HERE to search "Niedersachen". For more information/instruction on connecting profiles, see Germany Project Connectors Team
  • UNMERGED MATCHES: To get a list of unmerged matches that need research and sourcing, with the goal to ultimately merge or reject the match, click HERE to search "Lower Saxony", click HERE to search "Niedersachen". For more information/instruction on merging and unmerged matches, see Germany Project Arborists Team
  • SUGGESTIONS: To get a list of suggestions aka database errors that need data doctor attention, click HERE to search "Lower Saxony", click HERE to search "Niedersachen". For more information/instruction on clearing database errors, see Germany Project Data Doctors Team.

Overview of Lower Saxony

Flag and Coat of Arms:
State of the Federal Republic of Germany: 1 November 1946
Capital: Hannover
English: Lower Saxony
German: Niedersachsen
Previous locations: created by the merger of the State of Hanover (Hannover) with Brunswick (Braunschweig), Oldenburg, and Schaumburg-Lippe, tt is the second largest federal German state
Lower Saxony location in Germany
Also known as Niedersachsen, Lower Saxony is the second largest German state by area and fourth-largest by population. Located in the northern part of Germany it is bordered to the north by the North Sea, and by the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Netherlands. And it surrounds the state of Bremen and the land side of the seaport Bremerhaven. It borders more states than any other German state. It also contains the seven Frisian Islands and the historical area known as Emsland. It is the largest fruit-producing state with its primary crop being apples. Its capital was once also a kingdom, the historic region of Hanover.

Maps

Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) is divided into 37 districts (Landkreise or simply Kreise), eight urban districts and two cities.
Map of Lower Saxony


Coordinates: 52°45′22″N 9°23′35″E

History

Lower Saxony formed in 1946, after World War II by merging the former states of Hanover, Oldenburg, Brunswick and Schaumburg-Lippe. Hanover, also a former kingdom, is the largest of these by area and population and was a province of Prussia since 1866. The city of Hanover is the capital city of Lower Saxony. The state of Lower Saxony adopted the coat of arms and other symbols of the former kingdom.

Culture

Germany has a number of different cultures. Lower Saxony has a large number of distinct regions each with its own history and culture. These districts include: Altes Land, Ammerland, Artland, County of Bentheim, Bramgau, Brunswick Land, Calenberg Land, Eastphalia, East Frisia, Eichsfeld, Elbe-Weser Triangle, Emsland, Grönegau, Land Hadeln, Land Wursten, Hannover, Harz Mountains, Hildesheim Börde, Hümmling, Kehdingen, Leine Uplands, Lüneburg Heath, Middle Weser Region, Oldenburg Land, Oldenburg Münsterland, Osnabrück Land, Schaumburg Land, Solling, South Lower Saxony, Stade Geest, Wendland, Weser Uplands, Wesermarsch, and Wümme Depression. Natural features are also very diverse including everything from mountains to prairies and forests and sea ports. Lower Saxony contains the largest fruit producing part of Germany with apples being its largest crop. It is also a major producer of livestock, wheat, potato, beet, and other crops. Dining reflects these abundant food groups. Silver, iron and salt mining have been important since medieval times. About 20% of its lands are parks and other protected natural areas. There are eight urban districts and two cities with special status: Braunschweig, Delmenhorst, Emden, Göttingen, Hanover, Oldenburg, Osnabrück, Salzgitter, Wilhelmshaven, and Wolfsburg. The people of Lower Saxony describe the area as Low German. Its origin is linked by a common ancient Saxon origin and the use of the Low German dialect known as Plattdeutsch, a dialect closely related to Dutch, Frisian, and English, and quite distinct from the official High German.

Research Help and Regional Resources

Online Resource Compilations

  • Genealogy.net: Online Familienbücher aka OFBs (regional family books). Also see THIS PAGE for Familienbücher that are not available online, but our members will do lookups for you.
  • WikiTree: Look-ups for Early Records Debstedt Germany
  • FamilySearch: Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany Genealogy
  • Rootsweb: Lower Saxony
  • Jewish families of Northern Germany Database
  • GenWiki: Lower Saxony
  • GenealogyLinks.net: Niedersachsen Genealogy
  • Linkpendium: Emsland Family Trees, Crests, Genealogies, Biographies, DNA, and More: Emsland, as used on this webpage, refers to the present-day district of Germany which bears that name. Emsland is a Landkreis (subdistrict) of the Regierungsbezirk (larger district) of Weser-Ems located in the Land (state) of Niedersachsen. The village of Lohne, which was formerly in the parish of Schepsdorf, is today part of Wietmarschen in the district of Bentheim. Nevertheless, it is included here because it was traditionally a part of the area now known as Emsland. There were other villages which were always outside of Emsland but belonged to parishes in Emsland - Drievorden and Engden in Bentheim which belonged to Emsbueren parish and Adorf and Neuringe in Bentheim and Nieuw Schoonebeek in Holland which belonged to Twist parish. Emigrants from those non-Emsland villages will sometimes be included here. Also treated as Emslanders are emigrants from Slagharen, Holland whose parents had been born in Emsland but were working in Slagharen before they emigrated to America.
  • The Ancestor Hunt: free online resources for international newspapers: see the section for Germany.
  • Genealogy.net: GenWiki, main page
  • German Roots.com: German Genealogy Resources on the Internet
  • WikiTree Category: Germany Genealogy Resources
  • WikiTree: Germany Project Resources

Vital Records

Religious Facilities

Emigration

Local Cemeteries

Libraries

Colleges and Universities

They often have local records and have professors who are versed in local lore so can be a wonderful resource and many are multilingual.

Local Phone Books

Local Genealogy Groups

WikiTree Free Space Pages and One-Place Studies

Have you created a page that you'd like included below? Add a profile comment below with a link to what you would like to contribute. The following pages were created by our project members:

WikiTree Categories

English: Lower Saxony, Germany

Subcategories:

German: Niedersachsen, Deutschland

Subcategories:

Translation Aides

In Germany a number of different written languages and dialects were used. Below are some links to sites which may help you with old documents.




This is an active Germany Project page with up-to-date information.
Last updated by Traci Thiessen: 19 Jul 2022




Images: 1
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
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Comments: 11

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Weber-9917 Marion Weber
I have added some information about East Frisia.
posted by Marion Weber
Retz-Schmidt-1 Gudula (Retz-Schmidt) Suskin
Historic address books for Braunschweig (1721-1971) can be found here:

https://leopard.tu-braunschweig.de/receive/dbbs_mods_64262

posted by Gudula (Retz-Schmidt) Suskin
Straub-620 Florian Straub
In my opinion too specific, I would rather recommend teaching the reader to use GenWiki, like https://wiki.genealogy.net/Braunschweig#Adressb.C3.BCcher
posted by Florian Straub
Thomas-29419 Steve Thomas
I have added the Niedersachsen National Land Archives (NLA) as a source for emigrant records.

Around 1850, many families were financially assisted to leave the Harz mountain region by the Kingdom of Hanover.

One example is Christian Schindler (1831-1905) who migrated on the ship Herder (migrant voyage to South Australia 1851). The record for Christian (https://www.arcinsys.niedersachsen.de/arcinsys/detailAction.action?detailid=v4434221&icomefrom=search) contains important biographic information.

posted by Steve Thomas
edited by Steve Thomas
Schindler-204 Michael Schindler
I communicate with Christian's GGGrandson in Australia almost every day.
posted by Michael Schindler
Langridge-71 Janet (Langridge) Wild
Hi guys,

Would appreciate it if the following profile could be reviewed please https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Todd-207 The profile came up in the suggestion feed for Surry in regards to birth location. 615 Birth Location Country not recognised

I have amended the location to the best of my knowledge in relation to his birth location. The profile could do with a bit more of a biography, a category and a sticker or flag

Regards Janet

Data Doctor, Surrey Team

posted by Janet (Langridge) Wild
edited by Janet (Langridge) Wild