The main reason Germans went overseas was recurring economic depression and loss of jobs as Germany industrialized. In Prussia, for example, 4% of the population, 288,000 people, lived on charity in 1855. (Hamenow 1966) Emigration presented hope and opportunity for a better life.
Among the German emigrants to America were some named "Mittelstedt". I made contact with descendants of several in the 1980s but they lacked details about their German origins and so no connection with my ancestors of Angern-Magdeburg was established.
TEXAS
Genealogical rsearch on the Mittelstedts of Texas was done by Louise Voutchas, great great granddaughter of Karl [or Carl] Theodore Wilhelm Mittelstedt (1818-1893) who emmigrated from Germany to Texas in 1870. Louise Voutchas authored the book Family History Mittelstaedt 1870 1992 (Copyright 1992) and sent me a copy.
Here is a chart summarizing Louise Voutchas' book.
Karl Theodore Wilhelm Mittelstedt is listed as "Mittelstedt" in the ship records, but has "Mittelstaedt" on his tombstone. His son August, who took his family to Texas two years after his parents (i.e. in 1872), is listed as "Mittelstadt" in the ship records. But the name on the tombstone of August and his wife is "Mittelstedt".
A grandson of Karl Theodore Wilhelm named Heinrich Carl (1873-1968) assumed the spelling "Mittelstaedt" as also did his family.
IOWA
Richard David Mittelstedt and his son Richard Eugene both of Iowa also replied to my enquiry. Their German ancestor who arrived in the USA in 1857 was named "Mittelstadt" which one son changed to "Mittelstedt" during World War I.
No link has yet been found between the Mittelstedts of Texas or Iowa with my ancestors in Angern, Germany.
FREE INTERNET and VARIOUS SPELLINGS
In September 2010 I searched for information about "Mittelstedt" on the Internet and found the following:
The website www.surname.web.org/Mittelstedt/genealogy.htm does not require users to subscribe or register. It has a link to "Mittelstedt Family Tree Search" which leads to the "Access Genealogy" page. Here, typing in "Mittelstedt" gave a list of 640,000 names. The first 2450 names are American Mittelstedts with more appearing intermittently after that.
Each Mittelstedt name is sourced to such references as the US Federal Census (1870, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930), the censuses in particular states, Border Crossings from Canada to US, Marriage/Divorce Indexes, Hamburg Passenger Lists (1850-1934), New York Passenger Lists (1820-1957), US Public Records Index, US Phone and Address Directories (1993-2002), Newspapers & Publications, and others.
Some Mittelstedts arriving in America were recorded as Marrelstedt, Mittalstedt, Mettelstedt, Middelstedt, Mittelstadt, Mittelstaedt, Mittelsted. Mispellings probably occurred because many immigrants could not read or write and therefore officials who recorded their details guessed the spelling from the pronunciation.
Another useful free website is www.familysearch.org/ which is further described on my page "MITTELSTEDTS EVERYWHERE".
www.whitepages.com/ found 139 USA Mittelstedts listed in the White Pages in 21 states (particularly Texas, Adaho and Wisconsin).
http://searchmylife.com/ had profiles for 248 Mittlestedts.
SOME ARRIVALS
The website www.immigrantships.net gives the names of passenger ships arriving in New York, the date, the number of passengers, their name, age, origin, occupation and destination. The Mittelstedt passengers on the ship John Bertram which arrived May 26, 1858 with 317 passengers were:
NAME
AGE
OCCUPATION
ORIGIN
DESTINATION
Christian
70
Farmer
Prussia
Detroit
August
38
Labourer
Prussia
Detroit
Friderika
39
Prussia
Dertroit
Carl
12
Prussia
Detroit
Wilhelm
7 1/2
Prussia
Detroit
Friderik
7
Prussia
Detroit
On the ship Albert — which arrived July 2, 1868 from Bremen — there was a Ludwig Mittelstedt, aged 23, a blacksmith from Prussia.
On the SS Lessing — which arrived June 21, 1876 from Hamburg and Havre (France) — there was a Julius Mittelstedt, aged 22, from Germany.
www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/germanstousa.shtml is a fee-requiring website except for passenger ships and their passengers from Germany to America 1722-1868. Each ship is named and its passengers listed — but I failed to find any Mittelstedts.
MORE FREE WEB RESOURCES
The USA's National Archives at www.archives.com/ are free to use. Click on "Genealogy/Getting Started", then "Immigration Records", and "German Immigration...1850-1897". This opens the webpage: http://aad.archives.gov/aad/series-list.jsp?cat=GP44
Here we learn that over 4 million passengers arrived. Typing "Mittelstedt" into the "Search" box produced a list of 74 arrivals named "Mittelstedt". "Mittelstadt" arrivals number 132, and "Mittelstaedt" 154.
www.ellisisland.org/ has access to 25 million records of passenger-ship arrivals to Ellis Island 1892-1924. A quick search turned up 25 named Mittelstedt, 60 Mittelstadt, 30 Mittelstaedt, and 4 Mittelsted.
www.castlegarden.org/ has a database of information on 11 million immigrants to USA from 1820-1892. "Search" brought up 80 named Mittelstedt, 132 Mittelstadt, 161 Mittelstaedt.
www.rootsweb.com/ has eight databases. Type the name in the box labelled "Search By Keyword" in each database. The number named "Mittelstedt" in each database were:
World Connect 263; Social Security Death Index 66; Californian Death Index 5; Texas Death Index 20; Early Death Records 2; Website Search 49; Alumni Lists 1; Land Records 1.
The 66 records in the SSDI include the full name, birthdate, deathdate, age at death and last address.
www.bremer-passagierlisten.de turned up 16 named Mittelstaedt or Mittelstädt but no Mittelstedts.
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PAYMENT
Much more can be found out on the Internet if one is willing to subscribe and/or pay.
http://search-ancestors.com/ requires payment for details beyond a bare list of names. The page "All New York Passenger Lists 1820-1957", for example, turned up about 100 people named Mittlestedt.
www.kindredconnections.com/ found 386 Mittelstedts from 1750 to 1950.
www.genealogylinks.net asks for both a "First Name" and a "last Name". Typing in "Heinrich Mittelstedt" gave eight "Vital records" -- four births, three deaths and one marriage. But to get further information you'll have to pay.
www.interment.net/data/search.htm has burial records and tombstone inscriptions from 10,000 cemeteries but only a few Mittelstedts.
www.distantcousin.com/ Typing "Mittelstedt" into "Search" gives a list of full names (and a few dates) for births, marriages and deaths of people named "Mittelstedt" and the source of the information such as the Marriage Index or Divorce Index. But to access the Index requires subscription and payment.
www.worldvitalrecords.com/ and www.genealogytoday.com/ provide extensive data but again not for free.
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
I've had a preliminary look at some "Mittelstedt" names listed in the free-usage databases. So far none coincide with names on my Genealogical Chart of the Mittelstedts of Angern. However, the descendants of 17 or 18 male Mittelstedts in Angern have not been researched. The pastor did not find a death record for most of these, which may indicate that they moved away from Angern. Therefore, the possibility of a connection with America remains.
REFERENCES:
Hamerow, T.S. 1966 Restoration, Revolution and Reaction . Economics and Politics in Germany, 1815-1871, Princeton Paperback Edition, New Jersey.
Konrad, J. 1982 German Family Research Made Simple Revised Edition, Summit Publications, Ohio.
Passant, E.J. 1971 A Short History of Germany, Cambridge, Great Britain.
