The Anglo-German Family History Society (AGFHS) is a well-established group for all those who are interested in researching their roots among people from the German speaking parts of Europe, who have emigrated over centuries and settled in Great Britain or Ireland. We have developed considerable expertise and resources, and new members are always welcome. Here some of our members explain how joining AGHFS led to interesting discoveries in their family backgrounds, exciting journeys across the continent and many happy reunions.
In 2003, Andrew Güntert, a chartered accountant and lecturer living in the South of England, set out with his wife and two sons for a family holiday. They were about to take a break in Germany’s Black Forest region, but the main goal of their trip wasn’t to enjoy the sights of Rothenburg or enjoy the famous Europa-Park in Rust. They were going to visit relatives in a picture postcard village close by the Swiss border. Andrew says,
“I grew up knowing I had a strange German-sounding name, but my ex-RAF father refused to talk about his ancestry. An elderly aunt in Edinburgh had a piece of paper with an almost illegible name of a place beginning with ‘Ober’ written on it. Building up my family tree, using the internet and old family stories, I discovered I had a German great-grandfather, who came from somewhere in the Black Forest area of south-west Germany.”
Determined to find out more, Andrew joined the AGFHS, which had been founded in the 1980s to help people trace their German-speaking roots. By 2003, Andrew was sending out letters in English and German to schools in the Black Forest area, wherever that word ‘Ober’ appeared in the town or village name. He recalls,
“Two days later I received an email from a teacher in a village called Eggingen, who said her children’s parents knew of two brothers who had emigrated to Scotland in the 19th century, and the following day I got a phone call in poor English from a second cousin, who knew the story very well!
“That summer, my wife and I, and our children, travelled to Eggingen, where we met a huge number of my family. I’ve returned there often – the reunions invariably involve much consumption of the local Rothaus Pils, though I really can’t take the large quantities of meat eaten there.”
Visiting Germany or Austria to meet cousins seems to be a recurring theme among members of the AGFHS.
Jenny Towey’s great-grandfather, Nicholaus Rocker, also moved to Britain in the 19th century. Today, Jenny is the Anglo-German Family History Society’s Vice President. She explains,
“The society was launched in 1987, after the founder, Roy Bernard, wrote a letter to Family Tree Magazine. In it, Roy announced that all four of his grandparents were from Germany – and asked if anyone else had German ancestry. The magazine received about twenty positive replies. So, Roy wrote another letter suggesting a club be created and those interested should attend a preliminary meeting at his home in Berkshire.
Over a hundred people turned up!”
In the intervening years, the society has produced many booklets and research guides. It has established itself as the go-to source for those wanting to research ancestors who moved to the UK, from the German-speaking areas of Europe.
Peter Towey, who also helps run the society, admits there are additional hurdles to overcome when researching your German ancestors.
“The obvious ones are the language, the different German scripts, and the lack of a single national database in the Federal Republic. Fortunately, with help, all of these can be overcome. Many German societies can deal with English-language requests, and a little German can take you a long way.”
Eva Lawrence arrived in the UK as a child refugee, together with her parents, in 1939.
She’s explored her German family in detail.
“I found a little black notebook among my late aunt’s papers after she died. It was handwritten in German, and I could see that it was a travel diary. I took it to the Ancestry stall of the Family History Show at Olympia and asked for help. Passenger lists for America weren’t available on my modest subscription, but the advisor found me a passenger list for the year in question and the name Anselm Ungar sprang out at me. I’d seen it in a letter from my mother to this same aunt, trying to recall one of their childhood stories.
“l was given a print-up of the passenger list of SS Somner for May 1852, the month my great-great-grandfather Anselm Unger and his 11-year old son Julius travelled from Bonn to St Louis in a journey of their lifetime.
“Translating the diary took far longer than the original journey, because there were so many interesting issues of navigation and history to detain me. Who knew that transatlantic sailors didn’t use the Greenwich Meridian or details of the protocol for boarding sailing ships in Antwerp?
One of the diarist’s mentors in Bonn was the revolutionary and poet Johann Gottfried Kinkel, who fled to England from the Prussian police state. I learned more about my ancestor from Kinkel’s published correspondence. This one magic document has sparked years of fascinating discoveries.”
Marion Willett has enlisted the expertise of society members to solve puzzles about her own family.
“My grandfather was born in Whitechapel London; his parents were German and had not been naturalised. They were immigrants from eastern Germany, but he was British as he was born here. His father died a few months before his birth. His mother remarried and she and her second German husband were naturalised in 1900. The family were tailors, the family name was Lenke.
“When WW1 broke out grandad joined the Royal Flying Corps as an aircraft rigger and fitter. He transferred to the RAF when it was founded in April 1918. Later, he and his Irish wife ran a Roman Catholic seaman’s mission in Wellclose Square.”
Across the years, lots of Germans and Austrians have moved to London in search of work and, perhaps, fortune, and of course they founded German cultural centres, of which more a bit later.
The Anglo-German Family History Society’s Facebook group is full of colourful stories of German families, mysteries that society members are trying to solve, and discussions about German traditions. The society has meetings in London with presentations by guest speakers, sometimes themselves members of the society. These meet-ups are a good opportunity for members to compare notes and share stories about Germany, and German life in Britain. At one meeting the speaker, about to begin his presentation, asked if anyone present had German heritage and, of course, almost every hand went up!
At times (perhaps quite rightly), there was a turbulent relationship between Germany, Austria, and Britain, so the German language was often not passed down between generations. If you lived in Britain, it often didn’t pay to advertise your German-ness! Some German families who moved to the UK tried to assimilate by ‘anglicising’ their German names or taking British citizenship.
Others simply kept a fairly low profile in public, but were completely open about, and indeed celebrated, their German heritage in the home. This might include German food, at Easter displays of Bunte Eier, boiled and painted eggs displayed on windowsills, Christmas traditions, German music and, of course, there were exciting family stories about Germany!
Those wishing to keep in touch with their German roots today have lots of opportunities to do so, including German circles, organisations like the German YMCA in London, founded in 1860, which hosts lots of cultural events and, if you want to keep up with current affairs in Germany, the Deutsche Welle, the German equivalent of the BBC World Service, runs web-based German and English-language TV channels which are on-air 24 hours a day.
The AGFHS welcomes anyone with German-speaking heritage, including those with Austrian and Swiss roots. Details of how to join can be found here. If you have German or Austrian heritage, why not join us?
