Be Sure to Visit my new 1900 Galveston Storm Website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootseb.com/~barnette 

GERMAN IMMIGRATION INTO TEXAS

 In the 1990 Federal census 2,951,726 or 17.5% of  Texans claimed German ancestry. By this count persons with German ancestry rank as the third largest ethnic group in Texas behind those of Hispanic heritage.

  German immigration into Texas began in the early 1830's. Most Germans came to Texas in the early years as individuals and in small family groups. They came, beckoned to Texas, in a chain migrational pattern. Earlier German settlers came to Texas, wrote letters back to their hometowns in Germany and others came to America to join them.

 Initially Germans and other Europeans who came to Texas lived in small clusters near one another. They lived predominately in the Austin and Washington County area of Central Texas. For the most part, most of these immigrants entered Texas through Galveston.

  In the 1840's commercial immigration companies began recruiting and bringing Germans to Texas in large groups. These families settled in the New Braunfels and Fredericksburg area of the Hill Country. The favored port of entry for Hill Country Germans was through the port of Indianola.

GERMAN RESOURCE CENTER

 Researchers of Germans who migrated anywhere in the world will wish to know of Diana Church's The German Migration Resource Center website  at http://www.germanmigration.com/defaul t.asp.

 This website encourages the worldwide exchange of information about Germans. It contains an extensive list of related links and books about German genealogy and migrational topics. It has nearly 6,000 queries with a search engine that will search the queries for surnames, places of origin or destination and ship names.

 UPCOMING SEMINARS

The Houston Genealogical Forum meets the first Saturday of each month from September to May. The February meeting will be held from 10am to 12 noon February 5 at the Bayland Park Community Center 6400 Bissonett near Hillcroft.

 Paula Parke will address the society at the February regular meeting  with an informative talk called Soul Searching: Church Records and  Denominational Newspapers.

  Charles Gardes and Mic Barnette will host an afternoon session from 12 noon to 3 pm. Their topic, Genealogy On The Internet, will be of interest to beginning and experienced genealogists.

 For more information call HGF's informational Genealine at  713-827-4440.

 The Dallas Genealogical Society will host the second lecture of their Fall and Winter Lecture Series on Saturday February 12. The lecture will be held at the Lovers Lane Methodist Church, 9200 Inwood Road in Dallas. The featured speaker will be Dallas Librarian Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck who will speak on Tracking Your Ancestors in the Midwest: Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

 For more information contact the DGS voice mail at 214-670-7932 or  visit their website at http://dallasgenealogy.org .

GENEALOGICAL CLASS

 Mic Barnette will teach an introductory genealogy class, Roots of Genealogy-How To Research Your Family Tree,  from 7p.m. to 10p.m., Wednesday February 2. Classes will be held at Leisure Learning's campus at 2990 Richmond Avenue.

 The following week the class will tour Clayton Library and conduct hands-on research the following week. For more information and to register, contact Leisure Learning at 713-529-4414.

NEWS FROM THE BOOK SHELF

 In 1960 Annie Romberg compiled A HISTORY OF THE ROMBERG FAMILY 1650-1900 for her nieces and nephews. In 1997 some of her family members reprinted her history and included an addenda bringing genealogical data on descendants of the family up to date through the fourth generation from Johanes Christlieb Nathanael Romberg the immigrant head of the family.

 This attractive and interesting hard cover book is available for $20, postpaid, from Arnold Romberg at 259 North Main Street La Grange, TX 78945. It contains 106 pages including an index, several photographs and a listing of historical documents located in several Texas university libraries and archives.

 The book recants the ancestry and life experiences of Johanes Christlieb Nathanael Romberg who came to Texas in 1847 from town of Boitzenburg in the grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in present day Germany.  Sailing from Hamburg Johanes brought his wife, Frederike Amalie Elise Bauch, and their six children through the Port of Galveston, Texas. They settled near Germans and other European immigrants at Cat Springs in Austin County, Texas.