The Family Left Behind
George left behind his father, of whom no later record has been found, a younger brother and sister, and his father’s family at Linse.
His grandfather Georg Ludewig had died in 1855. His Brand grandfather, Heinrich Christian Brand, died at Linse in March 1856. His aunt Carolina Ernestine Luise, “lawful daughter, remained unmarried, of the late master miller Ludwig Waßmann at Linse,” died there on 18 March 1858, aged 38, of a consumption (Lungenschwindsucht) “acquired in youth,” and was buried quietly on 22 March. His aunt Luise, Christiane Friederike Minna, married Ernst Georg Heinrich Leßing, a police officer at Norden, born at Halle on 5 May 1829, at Halle on 21 October 1858, after banns at Norden, Hameln and Halle; the entry names her father as “the late master miller Georg Ludwig Waßmann”. His uncle Heinrich Wilhelm, unmarried, died at Linse on 3 June 1861, aged 52, at about half past seven in the morning, of a nervous fever (Nervenfieber), and was buried quietly on 8 June. His death entry names both his parents, “the late machine-miller Ludwig Waßmann and Justine Marie Küster,” and gives him no occupation of his own.
His aunt Dorothea Luise Friederike never left Linse. After George himself she is the best-documented member of the family, and the only one traced to a grandchild. She married Heinrich Friedrich Christian Brand, prospective half farmer at Linse, at Halle on 24 June 1846, after banns on 7, 14 and 21 June. He was the brother of George’s mother, so two households had exchanged a son and a daughter across fourteen years; this is almost certain. In 1857 he is called a small cottager (Kleinköther), and an online family book gives him that rank from 1857 to 1902. Within a year and a half of her wedding, Dorothea’s husband lost his brother Heinrich Ludwig Wilhelm, his cousin Heinrich Christian of the Grupe household, and his mother.
| Child | Birth | Death | Married |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luise Dorothea Ludewine Brand | [24] April 1847, Linse; baptized 25 April | 1 May 1910, Hehlen | |
| Luise Karoline Dorette Brand | 19 May 1848, Linse; baptized 11 June | September 1848 | |
| Heinrich Friedrich August Brand | 1 April 1850, Linse; baptized 28 April | July 1850 | |
| Heinrich Wilhelm Georg Brand | 7 November 1852, Linse; baptized 29 November | 31 December 1852, of thrush | |
| a daughter | stillborn; buried 20 December 1855 | ||
| Ida Caroline Auguste Brand | 6 June 1857, two in the morning, Linse; baptized 28 June |
Luise Dorothea Ludewine’s first godfather was probably George’s father. Luise Karoline Dorette’s godmothers were “Miss Luise Waßmann from Linse,” her aunt Luise, and “Miss Luise Brünig from Bodenwerder.” When Heinrich Wilhelm Georg was born in 1852 his father was a lodger; the baby was buried quietly “toward evening” on 3 January 1853. One of Ida’s godparents was her aunt Caroline, “daughter of the late machine-miller Ludwig Wesemann at Linse”. Dorothea died at Linse on 12 May 1886 and was buried at Halle on 15 May, twenty-six years after George left.
George’s youngest brother, Carl Ludwig Wilhelm, took up the family trade. On 24 April 1872, at Bodenwerder, after banns at Kemnade and Bodenwerder, he married Johanne Dorothea Louise Hengst. The Kemnade register calls him a bachelor and miller at Kemnade, born on 4 March 1842 at Kirchbrak, the lawful son of the miller Heinrich Christian Ludwig Wesemann and his wife Johanne Wilhelmine Karoline née Brand. The bride was born at Bodenwerder on 28 December 1846, daughter of the master joiner Heinrich Hengst, possibly the late, and the living Louise née Schmidt; part of her surname is under a blot, so Hengst is probable. She was probably the twin Johanne Dorothea Louise baptized at Bodenwerder on 10 January 1847, daughter of the citizen and master joiner Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Hengst and Johanne Louise née Schmidt. The marriage entry does not call Carl’s father “late,” but it does not mark his mother as dead either, though she had died in 1852, so it cannot show that his father was alive in 1872.
Carl was the fourth generation of the family to work a mill. Which mill is not known. No mill at Kemnade appears in the archive catalogs, while the von der Schulenburg estate, which leased the farm at Kemnade with its Hehlen estate, kept many papers on its mills at Hehlen next door. One theory is that Carl lived and married at Kemnade but worked one of the Hehlen wheels on lease from the estate. The marriage entry describes his mill’s tenure with a word read as “[hereditary-rent mill?],” which would sit less easily with that theory, and no grant file for a hereditary-rent mill at Kemnade turned up, which argues mildly against that reading. No child of the couple was baptized at Kemnade to 1875, so either they had no surviving child before 1876 or, more likely for a young miller on another man’s wheel, they left Kemnade within about three years of marrying. After 1875 their lives would be recorded in the civil registers of the district of Ottenstein.
His sister Wilhelmine Luise Karolina, born at Kirchbrak in 1840, is not traced past her baptism. None of George’s brothers and sisters married at Kirchbrak, Linse or Halle between 1853 and 1875.
References
- Linse Kirchenbuch 1815–1853 (signature 04-03142, churchRegister 390716) and Linse Kirchenbuch 1854–1875, Kirchenkreis Bodenwerder, Archion online viewer. Full variant-name sweep of images 2–90 of the earlier volume, producing 29 hits and the bound-in W surname index at image 89; high-resolution reading of the 1832 marriage and baptism, the 1855, 1858 and 1861 death entries, and the 1857 baptism, 30–31 August 2026. Transcriptions:); the 1832 infant death (Verstorbene, Jg. 1832, Nr. 2); the 1838 stillbirth (Geborene, Jg. 1838, Nr. 10 and the unnumbered row following, Bild 27, written pp. 46–47); the 1846 marriage (Proclamierte und Copulierte, Jg. 1846, Nr. 1, Bild 58, written p. 149); the 1847 deaths (Verstorbene, Jg. 1847, Nrs. 1, 3 and 4); the 1852 death of Hanne Caroline Wilhelmine Waßemann geborene Brand (Verstorbene, Jg. 1852, Nr. 1, Bild 81, written p. 194); the volume’s own alphabetical surname index at written p. c. 197, Bild 83, B section read in full; and, in the 1854–1875 volume, the 1855, 1858 and 1861 deaths (Bild 46, 47 and 48, written pp. 215, 217 and 219) and the 1858 Leßing marriage (Trauungen, Jg. 1858, Nr. 3, Bild 35). Also, in Linse 390716: Bild 6 (1817 no. 3, the godparents of Dorothea Louise Friederike Wesemann), Bild 9 (1820 no. 2), Bild 10 (1822 no. 1), Bild 30 (1841 no. 6, the godmother Amalie Lüders née Küster) and Bilder 48–57 (the marriages of 1815–1841). Also, in Linse 390716: Bild 4–11, written pp. 2–15 (the baptisms of 1815 – January 1823, with 1815 no. 4, 1816 no. 2, 1818 nos. 2 and 4, 1821 no. 2 and the margin note of 5 September 1852 beside it, Bild 10, p. 13, and 1822 no. 2); Bild 14–19 (the godparents of 1827–1832); Bild 30 (1841 no. 8); Bild 33–46 (the baptisms of 1843–1853), with Bild 38 (1847 no. 3), 40 (1848 no. 2), 42 (1850 no. 1) and 46 (1852 no. 5); Bild 50–62 (the marriages of 1824, 1836, 1838, 1843, 1851 and 1853); Bild 64 (1817 burials, no. 1, written p. 161); Bild 66 (1822 no. 3 and 1823 no. 2, written p. 164); Bild 76–81 (the burials of 1847–1852, with the 1852 death re-read on enlarged crops). In Linse 390717: Bild 36 (1859 baptisms, no. 1); Bild 46–57 (the burials of 1854–1875, with 1855 and 1856 no. 2, Bild 46–47); the volume’s W index. Also, in Linse 390716: Bild 69 (the burials of 1830, no. 1, written p. 171). In Linse 390717: the marriage section of 1854–1875, read entry by entry.
- Halle Kirchenbuch “Taufen Beerdigungen 1800–1814” (04-03075, churchRegister 390649, 188 images) and “Trauungen 1800–1808” (04-03076, churchRegister 390650), Kirchenkreis Bodenwerder, Archion online viewer. Also: Trauungen, Jg. 1804, Nr. 3 (Brand–Sporleder); Begrabene, Jg. 1803, Nr. 36 (Bild 167, written p. 310, the Brünig child) and Jg. 1800, Nr. 24 (Johanne Marie Brand); Begrabene, Jg. 1804, Nr. 27 (Bild 170, the Mittelmüller infant); Taufen, Jg. 1805, Nr. 21, Jg. 1809, Nrs. 16 and 17 (Bild 96, written p. 187), Jg. 1810, Nr. 36 (Bild 110), Jg. 1812, Nr. 20 and Jg. 1813, Nr. 36. The volume has no surname index of its own; images 185 to 188 run to an Ende marker. Also Begrabene, Jg. 1805, Bild 172, Nr. 18 (the Leibzüchter Johann Heinrich Waßmann, 29 November 1805, aged 76). Also: Trauungen 1800–1808, Bilder 3–20 (every entry), Bild 14, p. 22, entry 1 (the 1803 marriage of Ludewig Wesemann and Justine Marie Küster) and Bild 18, p. 31, entry 5 (the 1807 marriage of Friedrich Wilhelm Brand and Caroline Louise Wesemann); Taufen, Bild 87 (1808), Bild 109, no. 33 (8 August 1810) and Bild 143, no. 31 (20 November 1813). Also: Trauungen 1800–1808 (390650), 1804 no. 3; Begrabene, Bild 167, 1803 no. 35 (Georg Ludwig Sporleder); Taufen, Bild 100 (1810 nos. 1 and 2) and Bild 129 (1812 no. 20); the baptisms of August 1809 – 1814 (about Bild 94–152).
- Ortsfamilienbuch Hehlen-Daspe, compiled by Manfred Sorge for the Niedersächsischer Landesverein für Familienkunde (ofb.genealogy.net/hehlen; 22,914 people, 7,339 families), published March 2024; and Ortsfamilienbuch Heinade. Also the online Ortsfamilienbuch Hehlen-Daspe for Dorothea Luise Friederike Wesemann (born 23 February 1817, died 12 May 1886 at Linse) and for the Wasmann shepherd family of Bremke.
- Kemnade Kirchenbuch 1869–1875 (churchRegister 390700), Archion. Cited in this chapter for the 1872 marriage at Bild 36, Entry 4, re-read at the viewer’s maximum zoom, and for the baptisms of 1872–1875, read in full.
- The baptisms of 1843–1851 read for a child of Heinrich Christian Ludewig Wesemann and Johanne Caroline Wilhelmine Brand, Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evangelisch-lutherischen Landeskirche Hannovers, Archion online viewer: Bodenwerder Kirchenbuch 1842–1852 (churchRegister 390581, Bild 3–59); Pegestorf Kirchenbuch 1822–1847 (390741, Bild 60–72) and 1848–1852 (390742, Bild 4–21); Eschershausen baptisms 1843–1846 (390614, Bild 4–33) and Kirchenbuch 1847–1862 (390616, Bild 5–54); Dielmissen Kirchenbuch 1831–1849 (390597, Bild 76–115) and 1850–1867 (390598, Bild 4–17); Hehlen Kirchenbuch (390664, Bild 12–58, 1842–1851); Grave Kirchenbuch 1843–1873 (390632, Bild 4–29); Hajen Kirchenbuch 1818–1852 (390641, Bild 66–84); Ottenstein Kirchenbuch 1841–1860 (390736, Bild 25–41, 1843 – mid-1844 only). Screen reads, mostly from screenshots. Also Bodenwerder 390581, Bild 27, nos. 49–50 (twins born 28 December 1846 and baptized 10 January 1847 to Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Hengst, Bürger and Tischlermeister, and Johanne Louise née Schmidt).
- Kirchbrak Kirchenbuch, Kirchenkreis Bodenwerder, Archion online viewer. The Kirchbrak Mills memorandum names Archion 390703 as the Kirchbrak register searched. The 1840 and 1842 baptisms stand in Kirchbrak Kirchenbuch 1831–1848 (churchRegister 390709): Bild 53, no. 14 (18 October 1840) and Bild 59, no. 11 (24 March 1842), both re-read on enlarged crops; also Bild 60–65 and 65–94 (the births of 1843–1848) and Bild 163–171 (the burials of 1847 from no. 15 and of 1848), with the alphabetical burial register, Bild 182–183. Kirchbrak Kirchenbuch 1849–1863 (churchRegister 390710): the births of 1849 – January 1852 (Bild 4–25) and the alphabetical burial register (Bild 172), with Bild 143 and 152. Kirchbrak Kirchenbuch 1862–1875 (churchRegister 390711): the alphabetical burial register (Bild 199), with Bild 172. The marriages of 1853–1875 in 390710 and 390711, every entry.
- Arcinsys Niedersachsen, comprehensive search for a Kemnade water mill, 1862–1882, run 16 September 2026. No login; searches and fonds browsed logged in full, all negative for a Kemnade-titled mill file; the search also identifies the Kemnade Hypothekenbuch, Brandversicherungskataster and Grundsteuerkataster files.
- NLA HA, Dep. 82, Abt. VIII: Nr. 47, “Verpachtung der Mühlen zu Hehlen (mit Inventaren),” 1811–1892; Nr. 91, “Versicherung der Gebäude des Vorwerks Kemnade,” 1842–1872; Nr. 117, “Neubau der Oberen Mühle zu Hehlen und einer eisernen Wasserleitung nach dem Schlosse,” 1881–1882. Catalogue level only.
- NLA WO, 40 Neu 13, Nr. 126, Vormundschaft für die drei Kinder des verstorbenen Rittergutsbesitzers Graf Werner von der Schulenburg aus Hehlen, confirming the Vorwerk Kemnade was leased as part of the Rittergut Hehlen, 1844.
- NLA WO, 130 Neu, 3 Nr. 991, Standesamtsbezirk Halle, 1875–1928; Nr. 1011, Sammelakte für die Standesämter des Amtsbezirk Ottenstein, 1876–1938; Nr. 1016, Amtsbezirk Eschershausen, 1906–1937.
- Halle Kirchenbuch 1845–1868 (churchRegister 390652), Bild 96, the 1848 marriage naming Karoline Küster, wife of the Bodenwerder innkeeper Heinrich Christian Ludewig Lönig.), Bild 22 (1849 no. 21) and the burials of 1852 – early 1868 (Bild 131–148), with p. 353 (1863 no. 1). Also the marriage lists of 1845–1852 (Bild 93–101) and of 1853–1868, every entry; the volume’s layout, sections I (baptisms), III (marriages) and IV (burials), with no confirmation section.
- Halle Kirchenbuch 1815–1844 (churchRegister 390651) and Kirchenbuch 1869–1875 (churchRegister 390653), Kirchenkreis Bodenwerder, Archion online viewer: 390651, the births of 1843–1844 (Bild 78–86); 390653, Bild 19 (1873 no. 2) and the burials of 1869–1875 (Bild 50–63), with p. 647 (1873 no. 7). Also 390651: the marriages of 1830–1844 (section III, Bild 99–113) and the combined alphabetical register (Bild 150–156); 390653: the marriages of 1869–1875, every entry.