Report, written by Jörg Roffmann
Saturday, August 31. At 3 p. m. the bus picks up the participants
at first from the Comfort Hotel and then from the City Hotel. The ride ends
at the Museumsmeile near the old harbor, and the participants reach their
destination: the “Seute Deern”. There the old threemaster lies strongly anchored
as a restaurant and museum ship. On the steerage Dieter, Bernd, Gaby, Guido
and Jörg had prepared everything. After a “Hallo”, “Schön, hier
zu sein!”, “Wie geht’s Dir?” you can hear voices such as “Nice to be here”,
“I’m glad to ...”, “It’s wonderful to meet so many Roffmanns”.
The big wish has fulfilled to have descendants from Roffmann emigrates here
especially to the topic of this reunion “emigrants”. From Missouri traveled
Claire (83) with her partner J. T. (84!), Mary and Greg, Kenneth and Penelope,
Kathy in comparison with her “german daughter” Susy from Hamburg. From Illinois
came Phillis, her daughters Amy and Jennifer traveled from Arizona and Ohio.
Present again are the Hildesheim descendants from Wiesbaden with Karl (91!),
Gerd, Erika and Ingeborg from Achern-Großweier.
As before the Adenstedt part is the biggest one, and many came: Jörg
and Gudrun, Werner and Marlies, Willy and Margrit, Kerstin with daughter
Svenja, Wolfgang, Otto and Inge, and Karl from Hildesheim.
From the Schellerten line came Gerhard and Brunhilde, Andreas and Conny with
their children Oliver and Julia, Udo and Gaby with son Stephan, Gerda, Bernd
and Sabine, Jörg and Martina with their children Marc, Sven and Lisa.
As descendants from the Bremerhaven line came Kurt and Hans-Peter from Soest
and Dieter from Bremerhaven.
From the Ostpreussen line of the family traveled Helene and Alfred from Düsseldorf.
And from the Equord line there were present Dieter, Gaby and Guido from Bremerhaven.
After a restful coffee and cake break Dieter explains at first the history
of this special meeting place – the threemaster “Seute Deern”. Subsequently
Jörg gives a survey to the latest results about ancestor research. Already
about 1516 for the first time a Tileke is listed in the citizen book of Stadthagen
(near Hannover). There follow more entries about a Cord and a Margarete.
Then it comes to the actual topic emigration. The question why the Roffmanns
emigrated from Kemme is answered essentially by the overall bad situation
(surplus population, poverty, hopelessness for a better future and other
reasons). The strong regimentation of the people was illustrated by a petition
of pursuit of a hand grits mill from the year 1847 to the Royal Office in
Hildesheim by the later on emigrated Hermann. This was another reason to
leave Germany after the failed revolution 1847 / 48.
After this overall introduction next the Roffmanns’ emigration to East Prussia
was treated. Helene as a descendant gives an interesting report guided by
pictures about East Prussia how life took place in the Elchniederung near
the Kurisches Haff. On grounds of the difficult research conditions in today’s
Russia we don´t succeed up to now to combine this family part with
the others. A descendant of this line, Wolfgang Udo, emigrated from Germany
to Australia and founded a family.
The next topic is North America. It is to be supposed that the first Roffmann
family arrived with the sailing-ship “Fama” on March 12, 1849 in New Orleans.
With a riverboat the journey went on into the region of St. Louis, Missouri.
This could be the preferred region for the Roffmann emigrants. There is nothing
known about further descendants of the three daughters and the two sons.
One story was discussed in detail: Son Frederik died shortly after founding
the family and his stillbirth child.
The emigrants who arrived in New Orleans on November 22, 1852 with the emigration
ship “Hannah Crocker” settled directly in St. Louis. Their descendants are
known, some are present here today. They are Claire, Kathy, Mary and Ken,
partly with their partners. In this case its paid that the homepage “Family
Research and Archive Roffmann” was translated into the English language (thanks
to Karl from Hildesheim). Ken found this homepage via a search engine. Since
then he has been in contact with Jörg.
A branch of this family settled some 80 km distant from St. Louis in Worden,
Illinois. Arrival as well as the name of the ship are unknown yet. Astonishingly
the descendants of these emigration families did not know each other up to
now. These descendants got to know each other by the research activities
and by the preparations to this reunion. Present of this part are Phillis,
Amy and Jennifer. The Worden-family-part was found relatively simple: it
exists a churchyard list of Worden in the internet in which 12 Roffmann named
persons are listed completely with birth and death data. Some descendants
were very successful farmers. William and Charles founded a double farm with
more than 80 ha (211 acres) of land.
Meanwhile the press arrived. The reporter of the Nordsee-Zeitung interviewed
Ken acting for all American participants, after that Jörg and Dieter.
The group photo was taken on deck of the “Seute Deern”. The article is to
be found online in the archive of www.nordsee-zeitung.de. A copy is
enclosed to this report. In contrary of the article reporting on 60 participants
really we were 52.
After the delicious cold-warm buffet (there was a lot of fish) Dieter continues
the meeting with a report on Bremerhaven. Particularly interesting is the
rapid development to an emigration harbor as well as the growing businesses
to Bremerhaven. Today Bremerhaven is a significant emporium for goods from
all over the world.
It was already past 9 p.m. when Ken started his presentation about the Roffmanns
from St. Louis. Besides pictures about the families and the ancestors he
showes their today’s residences. Thus he gives a good impression how our
relatives live. Furthermore the pictures of St. Louis from ancient times
and today are very impressive.
All American participants subsequently get presents as special thanks for
their coming: Books about Hildesheim and Bremerhaven in English language
as well as framed historical maps of Kemme and colored extracts from the
big family tree.
In the course of the rest of the evening there are lots of interesting discussions
at the tables until about 11.15 p.m. This is the time for departure. The
bus brings the participants back into their hotels. Some of them took the
opportunity of the mild summer night to continue their conversations with
a good glass of beer or wine in one of the many pubs around the old fishery
harbor.
On Sunday, September 1 the night is over
for some guests of the Comfort Hotel at 6.30 a.m. On the marketplace of the
old fishery harbor gathered a lot of skaters. The organizers begin with loud
music to prepare them for their approaching start towards Bremen. In spite
of this event all Roffmanns are in high spirit. Some of the American participants
have made other plans for sunday (to get to know Germany resp. Europe). They
say good-bye to their german relatives and friends in the lobby of the hotel.
At about 10 a.m. there is a ride in a convoy to the “Historical Museum of
Bremerhaven”. It happens that there is a special exhibition about emigration.
This gives a fine and successful period to the motto of the reunion. Unfortunately
the “German Emigration Databank” did not work this morning. Never mind as
on the eve corresponding documents were shown the evening before.
The ride goes back again in a convoy. At 12.30 p.m. a typical sailors menu
is being served in one of the little restaurants around the harbor, so called
“Labskaus”. Only a few could not become friends with it.
Dieter and Jörg say good-bye already in the restaurant, and then all
assembled for a group photo at best weather at the harbor dam. Ken’s and
Amy’s idea to have the next meeting in the U.S.A. meets already with unanimous
approval at some participants.
Many thanks for coming, and until the next time!
Many thanks to the organizers Bernd and Sabine, Gaby and Guido, Jörg
and Tina and particularly to Dieter!
Family Archive / Family research Roffmann