Greetings,
Glad to be here. It's overwhelming right now. The translate button does not always work on every page. I know a small amount of German - from school (35+ years ago), traveling in Deutschland, and just a general interest in the language of my forefathers.
Right now, to start with what I'm looking for is the family Helmig/Helmich or Rotmann who served as caretakers/owners of the Helmig/ch Farm in Westerkappeln. As I understand it - the family is born with the name Rotmann, and the person who steps up to run the farm changes his name to Helmig. I do believe it's from one of the Colunus or Kolonus? that my branch of the family descends. But I'm still confused how they take the name Helmig to America, for example, if they will not be the next family member to fulfill the role of Colunus.
Right now my "want to have" list would be an old map detailing the locations of farms in that area - hopefully the Helmig farm. And just some clues on where to find information on the Rotmann/Helmigs from that area - farmers or not.
I am most open to suggestions, advice, and of course leads to my family history!
Cordially,
Wynne Helmig
a starting point would be the map site Arcanum [here]
if you need help on the genealogical research it would be helpful if you could share the full details of your family member(s) that made the crossing to the US
You're very welcome here... but might not a German Forum suit your needs as well or better? Maybe one of us knows of a useful site.