A picture of this family is in the heading of this report. On a stool at the right my father Krijn Cornelis is seated, an identical twin to his brother Christiaan (left). In between her parents is daughter Cornelia and in a traditional pose on a bear's skin is youngest son Eduard. Daughter Wilhelmina Wietske is not on the picture, the child died after only 10 months. The family lived subsequently at: Bloemstraat 24, Goudschestraat 44, Zwaanshals 239a, Quintstraat 11d and Eben Haëzerstraat 126b at Rotterdam.

Handicapping is the fact that due to a Dutch law concerning privacy matters nothing that is more recent than 50 years is made available to the public. For that reason the investigated records were in general not newer than 1938.

As mentioned earlier, a marriage record of 1848 at Oegstgeest showed that my Dutch "ancestor" was born at Hahlen in 1823 and that his parents were Johann Heinrich Christian Horstmann and Anne Louise Dorothee Volkmann. The attachments to this record would certainly be especially interesting since they would have consisted of a written consent to the marriage from his father and a document from the Prussian authorities (a birth certificate?). Mrs. De Glopper told me that all original attachments were kept at the Rijksarchief (State Archive) at The Hague.

On enquiring there it came out that these documents burned during World War II when Allied Forces bombed parts of The Hague. The reason for this was that the Germans were launching V-I and V-II guided missiles targeted for London from bases there!

Some time later I discovered that this great-great-grandfather married a second time, to be precise in 1875. To this marriage certificate the same documents would have been attached, so there would be another chance... Alas, these burned also in the same bombardment.

After Oegstgeest I visited the city archives of Rotterdam, Delft and Leiden. Although the method of entering the contents of archives vary from town to town, it must be allowed that generally speaking they are perfectly accessible. Everywhere there are microfilm readers, photocopying machines and in Leiden even a number of computers is at the disposal of the searchers.

From the professions laid down one can deduce that the population has in general improved on education and social status. In the beginning of the 19th century the population was mainly simply or not at all educated (farmers, labourers, servant maids etc.). A very small part consisted of middle and higher class (craftsmen, teachers, doctors etc.). Generation by generation the middle classes have developed by better education and professions develop like office clerks, engineers, managers, contractors.

THE INTERNET

Thus I came to a second important source for genealogical investigations and that is the internet. Simply typing the name Horstman as an address or in a search engine resulted in several contacts, of which I mention mr. Michael Speh, who excelled with an extensive family tree on his website. When contacted via e-mail one of his first questions was after our religion. This is, in Dutch ears, a rather unusual inquiry. It proved to be very functional however. In earlier history many branches of families adhered to the protestant conviction (in Germany Evangelic Lutheran), whereas others remained Roman Catholic. As such the simple information on one's religion can determine whether one is at least possibly related to the same family branch. As a matter of fact the Horstmann family of mr. Speh originated from Rheine. He and mr. Nils Kanning at Petershagen put me on the trail to the best sources on the internet. The site of "FamilySearch.org" of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Salt Lake City, Utah, USA (the "Mormons") proved to be the most relevant and extensive. Of course everybody will have heard the story that those Mormons keep the records of "everyone" in their computers, and now it proved to be true. My Dutch ancestor was there also! Their archives are based on the old church books.

Also the afore mentioned town of Delft made these genealogical data accessible on their website ( http://www.archief.delft.nl).

Via the website of the Latter-day Saints I looked for many Individual Records and printed them. After having constructed a number of theories I didn't get any further. It is true that I found the website of the village of Hahlen, but no more was to be found than the village news and the village coat-of-arms, pictured here. The community, so it came out, was annexed by the town of Minden, situated in the Northern part of Germany between the Teutoburger Forest and the Harz, on the edge of the Weserbergland.

Furthermore it could be seen from the telephone directory that the region was virtually a cradle of Horstmanns. On the map, extracted from the website of Minden, one can see that Hahlen now only figures as a suburban town quarter, though of rural character. 
It also became clear that the region is very attractive for tourists: not only Minden is worthwhile visiting, but the same goes for nearby Rinteln and Hameln, town of the Pied Piper, which is in the same region.

Minden has an informative website as has Hameln, both places evoke historical interest. Near Rinteln there is a campsite on a lakeshore with a small beach. At that moment my wife and I decided to plan a short stay there to (partly) spend time to the family search.

THE CHURCH BOOKS

So I came to a third source that is indispensable, mainly for data before the Napoleonic era: the church books. I learned that the civil administration (towns, rural communities etc.) was only set up during the 19th century and that before that time churches normally recorded all these data. In the case of our family these records were the church books of Hahlen and Hartum, which are partly recorded on microfilm. These microfilms are in the Evangelical Church Bureau at Bielefeld and I went there for that purpose.

In a phone call I made an appointment to study the microfilm archives at the Church Bureau, especially to have a look in the church book of Hahlen. The original church books of the region are kept in vaults I presume, but are accessible via these microfilms. Having paid a fee of 5 Deutschemark I was admitted.

Since only the church books from 1801 onwards were filmed, it narrowed my search to my "ancestor" born in 1823 and his father, also a Johann Heinrich Christian Horstmann, born June 17th, 1801. The handwriting of the ministers (Pfarrer) varied widely in legibility, also due to the gothic lettering used. In earlier German language, the "Plattdeutsch" term for marrying is "Trauen" like the pronouncing in Dutch.

It touched me that on christening occasions also the names of witnesses were recorded, through which close friends and favourite relatives of the happy parents were revealed.

About 1800 and earlier customs and morals proved to be rather enlightened just as they are nowadays, in Holland at least. This is in contradiction to the strict morals of the Victorian period in the second half of the 19th century, in the first half of the 20th century up to the fifties even. From the church books one can easily see, that it was not uncommon to marry only after a pregnancy showed! People didn't seem to worry about these things. Also extra-marital births or cases of an "unknown" father occurred quite often (annotation "uneheliches Kind")

Until halfway the 20th century families had many children, also in the Netherlands, where even in the fifties in the province of Brabant families with 14 to 17 children were no exception. My own grandfather and -mother Lagendijk had 9 children! One of the underlying reasons for this would of course be the significant postnatal death rate. That is one thing genealogy makes clear.

Nearly every family was confronted with one or more children dying after birth or within a few years. It often occurred then that a next child received the same names as an earlier deceased brother or sister. They were most often named after their parents, grandparents or other esteemed relatives. In our own family the names Johann Heinrich Christian (or some of these) recur rather constantly.

During Napoleonic occupation many girl's names have French origins, like Anne Dorothee Louise.

THE CHURCH AND THE CHURCHYARD

At first sight this might probably not seem appropriate to visit and look for relevant data. But how often have we not walked over gravestones in the floor of ancient churches? On these gravestones naturally lots of data, like names and corresponding dates of birth and decease are engraved, therefore are interesting in our quest for the past.

Once arrived at Hahlen our first visit was to the church, that we supposed to be there. We used a map derived from the internet. We discovered however a most charming little chapel located on a slight elevation in the centre of a rural village. At first we didn't notice the modest chapel through the many trees, but a small sign reading "Kapellenweg" (Chapel Road) led us through an overgrown footpath and after some steps up to the chapel. All doors were locked.

According to inscriptions the chapel originated from 1503 and next to the main entrance two gravestones were leaning against the wall. One of them was hardly legible, but somehow one could discern the name "Horstmann" followed by the word: ge- or verstorben (deceased). Americans and English could achieve wonders here with their skills in "rubbing".

As might be known, this is the art of making inscriptions legible by fixing a wide sheet of paper over the gravestone and rubbing over it with crayon or charcoal. We have all done that as kids in a smaller scale on coins.

Since all doors were locked my wife took a picture of the interior through one of the stained glass windows. We imagined how our ancestor was baptised there in the presence of his proud parents....

 Around the elevation of the chapel a few farms were located, the "Dorfschenke" (village café) and the ancient "Dorfschule" (village school)

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A few hundred yards from there, across the busy Königstrasse (King Street), the cemetery lay hidden behind trees. We decided to have a look there, assuming one would always find something.

There we came into contact with the caretaker mr. Bernd Wiesenborn who even produced an ancient-looking register, in which starting from about 1890, all data of the deceased and buried were listed minutely. Furthermore another booklet with ancient data was kept in an old battered cookytin. It is extra­ordinary that such old information is still kept in such an obvious way! Mr. Wiesenborn indicated to us where the family grave of our branch of the Horstmanns was located. To our regret there was no gravestone, whereas most family graves indeed had one. We saw various stones of Horstmanns, even some of Petersen families (the name of my wife).

For more information the caretaker directed us to mr. Eberhard Brandhorst, who lived at the Molkereiweg. According to him this person was an authority on historical matters. When we called at the indicated address, nobody was at home.

After this we wanted to have a look at the church of Hartum, a village only 2 miles along the road. This is less than an hour's walk, a distance easily covered in the past. Close enough also to get to know the girls of the nearby village. We also got to know someone interesting there….

FAÇADES OF HOUSES AND FARMS

In the region in Germany that we visited, an old tradition is still visible, namely one whereby on the façade names and dates are carved of the people who commissioned this house or farm and who dwelled in it. These data are most often carved in elegant lettering in the oak wood in the main façade. Also very often a text with a religious and moral intent is added. To prove that this did not only occur in Germany we just have to look at the glasses in the town hall of Kapelle, where the following text can be seen: "There is a measure in all things".

On farms these carvings were very often part of the main entrance to the "deel", where the farmers entered with their carts.

Quite near the chapel of Hahlen the Hahnenfeldstrasse winds its way. When passing we noticed to our pleasant surprise an engraved text above the entrance of a farm. This text read: