Extracts from German Legal Newspapers
Regierungsbezirk Münster, 1830-1865
This database contains an index to items from the Amtsblätter for the Regierungsbezirk Münster for the years 1830 through 1865. During this period, emigration from Westphalia to the United States was high, and the goal of this project is to help researchers find the German hometown of an ancestor who appeared in a notice in this official publication.
Three types of items were indexed. (1) Steckbriefe give detailed information about individuals wanted in connection with a crime, and these items often include a physical description of the person sought. (2) Notices about men who were absent from required military service often contain the names of individuals who had emigrated. These notices contain varying amounts of detail but can include date and place of birth, father’s name, and when the man went missing. (3) Legal notices pertaining to inheritance cases sometimes involved individuals who had emigrated to America. Relatives, who are usually named, sometimes asked the court to declare the death of the emigrant so these cases could be settled.
Although most of the persons in the index were from Westphalia, some items include individuals from other areas of present-day Germany and Poland. The index also includes women who were listed in the legal notices or Steckbriefe. Items that detailed where an emigrant had gone usually specified America, but some items specify South America, Brazil, or a US state or town. Some items give more than one German location associated with the individual. In these cases, the birthplace has been indexed as the primary location and a different place of residence is included in the notes for the entry.
The index captures many important details, but researchers should always look at the original item to get complete information and ensure accuracy. The Münster Amtsblätter are digitized and freely available on the Universität Münster website.
From the link above, select the year given in the index entry and click on the thumbnail picture of the publication. Use the down arrow (underneath the ULB Münster logo on the far right-hand side of the page) to navigate within the issues for that year. Scroll down to access items contained in Beilage or Anzeiger issues. The page number given in the index entry is usually the page on which an item begins, so it may be necessary to go to the following page to see the complete item. Some items contain three or more pages of names. In these cases, the page number given is the page on which the man’s name appears and it will be necessary to locate the beginning and end of the item to get complete information.
Sample page from newspaper:
Translation of a portion of the page with names of interest found in the database:
