I got the idea for this website while researching my own family. I found some information that are not only about my family but about the town Grambergen or about the Waldmark (which includes the neighbouring settlements Astrup, Krevinghausen, Ortbergen and Westrup). So I thought it would be great to share this information with other people.

One day I found a list of inhabitants of Grambergen that my great-grandfather made while being mayor of Grambergen in the 1920th. Just a few of the mentioned people are still living, some families have vanished from the area. My grandmother is missing on this list - maybe she was working somewhere else in 1922 and so she wasn't living in Grambergen when this list was made?
List of the inhabitants of Grambergen in 1922

In 1852, a census took place in the Kingdom of Hanover. So here is the list of inhabitants of Grambergen in 1852.

A very interesting historical documents is the funeral diary of the teachers Hoppe. In 1779, Johann Hermann Hoppe (15.01.1750-28.3.1814) became teacher of the lutheran school in Astrup. Next to his job as teacher, he went to the funerals with his pupils to sing for the people. He got a fee for it which helped to make his life easier for the job as teacher wasn't paid very good. Since 1787, Hermann Hoppe wrote down every funeral he accompanied. This diary is a unique document of the history of the Waldmark, to which Grambergen belonged, too. His son, Heinrich Wilhelm Hoppe (17.07.1787-03.05.1864), went on with this documentation after he got the job of his father in 1814.

Curious? Here are two years of this diary. I didn't translate it for a translation won't be the same. The typical language of that time would get lost.

Just a short note: 7bris means September, 8bris Oktober, 9bris November and Xbris Dezember.

There's no way to ignore Heinrich and Adolf Westerfeld when your are researching the history of Grambergen as being (in my case a former) inhabitant of this town. These brothers were regional historians and they were born in Grambergen. Which town of the size of Grambergen can look back to two historians?

Heinrich Westerfeld published "Beiträge zur Geschichte und Volkskunde des Osnabrücker Landes" (Contributions to the History and the Folklore of Osnabrück region) in 1934. He also wrote several articles for the "Osnabrücker Mitteilungen" so for example about the history of the schools in the parish of Schledehausen. (The "Osnabrücker Mitteilungen" is an annual book published by the Historical Society of Osnabrück since 1848).

Adolf Westerfeld wrote some articles for the "Osnabrücker Tageblatt" (a newspaper) in the 1950th and 1960th. For I'm sure nearly noone still has this papers, I published these articles here on this website for everyone who is interested. I haven't translated them - maybe I'll do that when I found time for this work.

First there's a series concerning the just mentioned funeral diary:
Ein interessantes altes Begräbnis-Tagebuch part 1
Ein interessantes altes Begräbnis-Tagebuch part 2
Ein interessantes altes Begräbnis-Tagebuch part 3
Ein interessantes altes Begräbnis-Tagebuch part 4

Pockenschutzimpfung schon im 18. Jahrhundert

Then he wrote about the people who lived in the "Siek" (which is part of Grambergen):
Von denen, die das Siek bewohnten part 1
Von denen, die das Siek bewohnten part 2
Von denen, die das Siek bewohnten part 3
Von denen, die das Siek bewohnten part 4
Von denen, die das Siek bewohnten part 5
Von denen, die das Siek bewohnten part 6
Von denen, die das Siek bewohnten part 7

A statistic that I found in the book "900 Jahre Schledehausen" shows that 196 people of Grambergen emigrated. That are 43 % of the inhabitants that Grambergen had in 1833. But this statistic doesn't include all years so there surely have been more of them (maybe abt. 300!).
I draw up a list with all emigrants of Grambergen of whom I know.
Additions and corrections will be appreciated.
List of emigrants from Grambergen.

In addition, I started to collect biographies of emigrants:

Autobiography of Anna Louisa Niemann Niewoehner

Biography of Gerhard Heinrich Wiesehahn

The Hermann and Anna (Niemann) Hebbeler Family

Last but not least, here's a short report of the Vogt Lürding of Schledehausen concerning the unrestrained situation in the parish about 1833: concerning pubs that don't have a licence.
Many thanks to Heinfried Sälter who send this report to me.