« Reply #5 on: Saturday 28 July 18 15:34 BST (UK) »
It wasn't just butchers who migrated from the several little Germanic states on the European mainland. My ancestor was from the part of Europe given to James VI of Scotland when his grandaughter married (Kingdom of Hanover). Idon't know about other parts of the European mainland but do know that every vicar in the KoH had to send a list of males who would reach their 20th birthday that year. These males were conscripted either into the army or navy. In the mid 19th century Prussia and Austria persuaded other provinces and princedoms to agree to one German state. Those rulers who didn't comply set themselves on a war footing. There are accounts that when Prussia invaded Hanover the Hanoverian soldiers who survived were conscripted into the Prussian army and received no wages for two years.
My ancestor was 10years and one day old when he and two other children arrived in England 1864 with his uncle who was a naval draft dodger. I have no idea where they sailed from but I think they landed in Kings Lynn, Norfolk in "The Wash" and travelled around Britain as wandering musicians before eventually settling in Hull. It was difficult travelling across the European mainland as you had to have permission to leave your area and all documentation was in triplicate. Illegal migrants were listed as auswanderer and their names circulated. I once saw a letter on the web written by an escapee who described how he tied a short plank of wood to each foot and "skied" along muddy ditches until he reached a port of safety.
The normal ports of Departure were Bremen/Bremerhaven and Hamburg where there were agents who would arrange passage to any destination and unfortunately I can't recall the name of another port that is now in the Netherlands. Some people made their way eastwards and sailed from Denmark. There used to be a free to view Scandinavian passenger list website but unfortunately I can't locate it - maybe one of the large genealogy companies has bought it. I suspect many people would have arrived in GB via a fishing trawler or cargo ship.
All ships arriving in GB had to provide the Port Authorities with a list of passengers they carried. These lists were kept for a few years and then destroyed (can't for the life of me remember whether it was 5 yrs or 10 yrs). Any that were missed would have been destroyed in the London Blitz, although I once did see online a couple of passenger arrivals in Hull that had survived.
This familysearch list is useful for trying to establish the origins/distribution of surnames:-
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Surname_Distribution_MapsI like this one for Germany and it indicates two places where the surname Weissman was sited. I wish I'd been researching that surname because when I entered my interest the surname flashed up all over the continent
http://geogen.stoepel.net/The value of talking to the older generation (who think they know nothing of value - but they do) and exchanging family stories with newly found cousins is immense. For example my late mother's sister intimated that her grandfather was an Austrian and I even phoned the Austrian archives to no avail. Then a cyberpal "cousin" sent me a newspaper cutting written by an old lady to a newspaper that mentioned the "draft dodger". I found her phone number and wonder of wonders it was one of my late mother's cousins b1918 who had remarried and moved away. Trumpets sounded, stars burst all around me when she casually said she knew where her grandfather was born as she'd written it down 70 yrs ago in 1942 (!!!) when another cousin had told her and she'd kept the note in her address book; "hang on Rena and I'll read to you".
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie: Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke
