Emigrants from the Kingdom of Württemberg before 1850 (English and German)
Emigrants and absentees from the Kingdom of Württemberg and surrounding regions, 1816–1835.
Friedrich R. Wollmershäuser
1. The making of this book
Around the year 2000, I had completed a database which included all emigrants, absent draftees, fugitives, missing and otherwise absent persons who are mentioned in the years 1785 to 1815 of the Schwäbischer Merkur and Schwäbische Chronik newspapers. While these data were waiting to be published, I started to evaluate the subsequent years of these papers. The goal were two more volumes, one with the entries from 1816 to 1835 and another one with the years 1836 to 1849. From 1850 onwards, official notifications were not inserted in any of these papers any longer, but in a newlyfounded gazette by the name Staatsanzeiger für Württemberg. It took twelve years to search through the two newspapers from the year 1816 up to 1835. Two more years were needed to proofread the database and verify hundreds of abstracts which appeared to be incorrect, by comparing them with the sources. About a third of those questionable entries turned out to be copied incorrectly from the papers, while the original entries for the other two-thirds seemed erroneous. Both newspapers, again in this period, turned out to be a goldmine of references about emigrants and absent persons. There were some major changes compared to the period before 1816, as almost all of the advertisements now came from authorities of the Kingdom of Württemberg. This realm was now divided into 64 districts (Oberämter) instead of, as before, into many districts and dominions where a few villages were just partially covered. The officials in these district offices, at the district courts, and at the local authority level could decide themselves where they wanted to have their advertisements published. Almost all calls for missing persons (before declaring them legally deceased) were inserted into the Schwäbischer Merkur or the Chronik. Only some of these offices actually proclaimed emigrations in these papers – optionally, this could be done in the government gazette (Regierungsblatt), the local newspapers, and the intelligencers at the provincial level. To compile all legal1 emigrations would require an additional evaluation of the aforementioned local papers and the province intelligencers. English was chosen as the language in which to publish the current abstracts because most of the readers will probably understand English better than German. Also, German users will be able to read the ads in the original text.
2. Public announcements by district authorities in Württemberg
By the late eighteenth century, missing persons from the Duchy of Württemberg were sought via advertisements in newspapers and intelligencers2 . In the period of investigation (1816–1835), the following periodicals were available for such announcements (the following list indicates the place of publication, the year of first appearance and the title of the paper)3 : A. Kingdomwide papers: Stuttgart 1785 Schwäbischer Merkur, Schwäbische Chronik. Stuttgart ~1700 Stuttgardische Zeitung, from 1831 Stuttgarter Zeitung Stuttgart 1807 Königlich württembergisches Staats- und Regierungsblatt; the low-echelon notifications are inserted in an attachmant by the name Intelligenz-Blatt (separately bound in some libraries), followed by Stuttgart 1837 Königlich Württembergisches Allgemeines Landes-Intelligenzblatt, followed by Stuttgart 1850 Staatsanzeiger für Württemberg. B. Individual provinces: Ulm 1821 Allgemeiner Anzeiger für den Donau-Kreis. Ellwangen 1819 Allgemeines Amts- und Intelligenzblatt für den Jaxtkreis C. Individual districts4 : Cannstatt 1824 Cannstatter Zeitung Backnang 1832 Murrtal-Bote Besigheim 1836 Neckar- und Enz-Bote
