German immigration

[Sheila Whittingham]

I am trying to find when My Great-great grandfather came to England.He was born in Frankfurt in 1826, and attended both the Frankfurt and Paris Art chools.I know nothing more of his life before 1856, when he marries in Brompton, London.
His name was Philip Christian Stortz, artist and Photographer,  and he married a  Belgian lady Isabella DeBruyne.
Can anyone suggest how I can find out when he came to England please.

[D ap D]

If he left Germany in 1856, Frankfurt would have still been under the rule of the local regent. "Germany" comprised something like 138 sovereign states at that time. He would have needed permission from his head of state to leave the country.

I'm not 100% sure, but I would say that Frankfurt would have been in the Duchy of Darmstadt-Hessen or Darmstadt-Nassau (2 separate states). It is now in the state of Hessen. There are rootsweb mailing lists for all of these, all posters speak english, quite a few are locals with a wealth of local information.

Also get in touch with the German embassy. They are usually quite helpful.

If you need any help with German, just drop me a PM.

D ap D

[irene. seabrook]

my gt. gdf was German. I do not know when he came to England. In the 1901 census he states he was born in Germany but he is a british subject. He married my gt gdm, who was english in 1890 and their first child was born in 1892. He changed his name from Biner to Hermann. I do not know why. The family story goes that he was repatriated WW1 sent back to Germany( leaving a wife a 7 children) and the ship he was on was bombed and he was killed. I am hoping when I find time to go to the records office at Kew I can find him on the list of repatriated Germans. Finding information about him has been difficult because of the change of name which caused great difficulties in finding the wedding certificate. It would nice to be able to find out more about him but where would I get the information? Regards Irene

[foxglove]

Irene,
Have you tried looking at www.familysearch.org?
It appears there were a large number of Biner's living in Wuerttemberg.
I have a list of emmigrants from the Trier region of Germany (Prussia) between 1700 and 1900 but there are no Biners there.
There are a couple of Hermans with variations in spelling.
Hope this helps.
Foxglove

[irene. seabrook]

Thank u 4 your reply I could not match my gt. gdf up with any of his family members because I do not have enough information about him. I found details at the London Records Office about Germans that had become british citizens got the document number for the form completed by Charles Hermann and went off to Kew to view the document only to find in was the wrong Charles Hermann. If I did find the right document it would give all the details about his parents, his birthplace ect and perhaps I could then trace back but at the moment I am at the brickwall stage. Thank u for your interest. Regards Irene

[Sheila Whittingham]

Hi d ap D.
Thankyou for your help regarding my German ancestor.I'm not quite sure when he left Germany as the earliest info is in London in 1856, but he was in france before that.However you have given me more information than I would have ever found on my own, so grateful thanks for that.I have been researching Philip Stortz for nearly 3 years, and he has been a real puzzle, but slowly coming together.
I will Certainly be back in touch if I need help.
Sheila.