MITTELSTEDT EVERYWHERE
WORLD BOOK OF MITTELSTEDTS
The
World Book of Mittelstedts (1993, Halbert's Family
Heritage) is based on a "network of computer sources" — mainly
telphone books
— that searched 170
million households for the name "Mittelstedt". The
book has
the following table:
|
TOTAL
ESTIMATED HOUSEHOLDS
|
TOTAL
ESTIMATED POPULATION
|
NUMBER
of STATES WHERE HOUSEHOLDS RESIDE
|
MOST
POPULOUS STATE
|
USA
|
79
|
229
|
16
|
TEXAS
|
CANADA
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
ONTARIO
|
AUSTRALIA
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
SA
|
AUSTRIA
|
2
|
6
|
1
|
WIEN
|
GERMANY
|
106
|
288
|
9
|
SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN
|
The book lists the names and addresses of 184 people named
"Mittelstedt": USA 69; Canada 1; Australia 1; Austria 2; Germany
111.
PASSENGER LISTS
Many passenger records of emigrants to the United
States are on the Internet and include many named "Mittelstedt".
Here are some Mittelstedts who arrived in the USA from Russia:
NAME
|
ORIGIN
|
YEAR
|
AGE
|
Emilia
M
|
Gnadau
|
1908
|
7
|
Jacob
M
|
Gnadau
|
1908
|
6
|
Madalena
M
|
Gnadau
|
1908
|
4
|
Mathilda
M
|
Gnadau
|
1905
|
-
|
Reinhad
M
|
Gnadau
|
1908
|
-
|
Olga
M
|
|
1912
|
|
Robert
M
|
Taratino
|
1912
|
17
|
Passenger lists on the Internet that can be checked for free include:
www.castlegarden.org
www.ellisisland.org
www.bremer.passagierlisten.de
VARIOUS SPELLINGS and FAMILY
SEARCH
In the 19th century many emigrants could not read or write; clerks who
recorded the names of immigrants often interpreted the spelling from
the pronunciation. In America the umlaut (i.e. the ä) could
easily become "a", "e", "ae" or "ea" — and these four variants
might
in turn sometimes be interchanged. Until the mid-19th
century any one individual might pop up under a range of similar
names.
Therefore some people named "Mittelstedt" may be distantly related to some
people named "Mittelstädt",
"Mittelstadt", "Mittelstaedt", "Mittelstead", "Mittelsted", etc.
Louise Voutchas in Family History Mittelstaedt 1870 1992 says
that in the 15th century the name was spelt with the "e" above the "a".
In
the 19th century some people dropped the "e", others dropped the "a",
others kept both (either as "ae" or "ea"), and some used the umlaut "ä". She documents
the "a", "e" and "ae" variations in the descendants of her great great
grandfather who arrived in Texas from Prussia in 1870.
The Mormon church has a website titled FAMILY SEARCH at www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp
which lists only deceased people.
Filling in "Mittelstedt" on the home page brings up a list of the names
"Mittelstedt" "Mittelstädt" "Mittelstadt" "Mittelstaedt" "Mittelsteadt". We can also do
this country by country; In September 2010 I got the following number
of names:
USA 275; Germany
159; Canada 38; Denmark 5; Australia 18.
The Australian ones are all in Queensland and are all named
"Mittelstaedt"; my mother is not listed although named "Mittelstedt"
and deceased.
On the FAMILY SEARCH home page we can click on Ancestral File;
Pedigree Resource File; International Genealogical
Index; Census; Vital Records
Index.
Choosing Pedigree
Resource File and there filling in "Mittelstedt" and leaving "Exact
Spelling" off, generated a list of 97 names for Germany and 310 for the
USA. The International
Genealogical Index turned up 1742 names for Germany and 772 for
North
America.
For information about the IGI itself see: www.ancestor-search.info/SRC-IGI.htm
My ancestors back to 1537 would have produced numerous sons. My main
Genealogical Chart shows 17
or 18 Mittelstedt males from 1675 to 1824 about whose descendants
nothing is yet known. Of these, 13 or 14 are shown with no death date
—
which suggests they may have left Angern to live
elswhere. Also, the descendants of my great grandfather Friedrich
Heinrich Mittelstedt (1845-1906) number 14 males (that I know of) in
three or four countries, and probably others are still
missing.
All this suggests that some of the Mittelstedts, and some of the Mittelstaedts, Mittelstadts, etc, listed in the Internet
databases could be distantly related to those of Angern.
OTHER WEBSITES
http://pipl.com/ calls itself "The most comprehensive people search
on the web." A search on the name "Mittelstedt" gives a list of
Mittelstedts under such headings as "Personal Profiles",
"Publications", "e-mail addresses", Web Pages", News Articles", "Blog
Posts", etc. Several are listed who are doing family research.
Some other websites which are without charge for use are listed
on my "American Mittelstedts" page.
Websites which may be useful but require payment are:
www.longlostpeople.com/
www.ancestry.com/
www.familylink.com/
Searching
on "Mittelstedt" in Family Link and leaving the "Location"
box empty brings up the claim that there are 507 records for the name
"Mittelstedt" such as Birth, Death and Census records. But we get
absolutely no details not even a bare list of names. Filling in the
location, Germany or United States for example, tells us there are 52
and 145 records respectively.