Immigration help

[Hines001]

Hi i was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction

I have only recently started researching my family history and have come up with 2 problems so thought i would ask here.

1. I know my grandad's sister moved to America (Florida if family members have it right) and i know it was about 1975-6 but i have know idea where to look for this so was hoping someone could tell me.

2. My great-great-great grandad (Joseph Hien) was born in Germany 1821 i was wondering how i would research this further. Probably made harder as he changed his surname from Hien to Hines

Thank you for any help

Craig Hines

[Rena]

 My great-great-great grandad (Joseph Hien) was born in Germany 1821 i was wondering how i would research this further. Probably made harder as he changed his surname from Hien to Hines

Craig Hines

In 1821 what we now know as Germany was a number of small dukedoms, princedoms and a kingdom which belonged to Britain called the Kingdom of Hanover, which is now Saxony = Neidersachsen.   The first thing to do is to verify his given name because the Germanic peoples often gave their babies two or more other christian names which were given by the witnesses and the child's actual name was the one next to the surname e.g. Heinrich Christian Joseph Hien would be known as Joseph. This makes searching on familysearch.org rather difficult if we don't know the first name(s).

You stand more of a chance of finding Joseph's roots if you know the names of all his children because in those days they usually named a first son and the second daughter after the father's parents.

I've looked on the national archive catalogue for Hien and Joseph Hine in case there's a citizenship document but unfortunately not, altho' a Joseph Hine is mentioned as a plaintiff in the 1850's:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/search.asp

I've also looked on this site to see if he's listed - unfortunately not but it does give an idea where the surname can be found - enter the surname "Hien" in "Nachname":
http://gedbas.genealogy.net/

I'm afraid I've lost the url of a 19th century German surname distribution map but have found a website which gives the current locations of the surnames - I entered "Hien" in the Search facility and you should see the results on this page:
http://christoph.stoepel.net/geogen/en/Default.aspx

Relative Distribution for Hien (Download)
Considering the population density the most Hiens can be found in Landkreis Straubing-Bogen (BY), namely 629 phonebook entries per million people. The fewest live in Kreisfreie Stadt Hamburg.

Absolute Map for Hien (Download)
Most Hiens can be found in Landkreis Straubing-Bogen (BY), there are exactly 61 phonebook entries listed. The fewest live in Kreisfreie Stadt Aachen (1). (Please note: urban agglomerations can influence this visualization)

[shellyesq]

I don't think any passenger lists available online extend to the 1970's.  You can see some links here:  http://www.germanroots.com/onlinelists.html 

If the woman in question might still be living, you could try looking for information for her on www.switchboard.com or www.whitepages.com.  If she may be deceased, I would recommend looking at the Social Security Death index, which is free on www.rootsweb.com or www.familysearch.org.  There is also a Florida death index up to 1998 on ancestry.com.