Translation of August Storm's birth certificate

"Hi Katherine,

of course I remember! I'm happy to help, this one's fairly short. Your assumption is correct, there's isn't much information beyond that though.

Nr. 3 Sterley, 2nd of February, 1891

In front of the signing registrar presented herself the midwife Mrs. Elisabeth Müthling, née Frank, resident of Sterley and of [blank] religion, and bore witness/testified that one Louise Storm, née Rodau, of lutheran religion, wife of the cobbler Johann Joachim August Storm, of lutheran religion, residing at her husband's apartment in Hollenbeck on the twentyninth of January of the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety one, at six o'clock in the afternoon , was delivered of a child of male gender, who was given the name August Carl Heinrich. Frau Müthling declares that she was present at the baptism of Mrs. Storm. [unclear wether it refers to the baptism of Mrs. Storm or to her child's baptism]

Read, authorized and signed Elisabeth Müthling

The registrar

C. d'Ottilie

The town they resided in is spelled Hollenbek nowadays, it's another small town in the same administrative region as Sterley.

(thank you to online person named 'shamefullout'  for the translation)

August Storm's birth certificate

My daughter Katherine managed to track down - what we believe is August Storm's birth certificate. It is difficult to read for me because it is in the 'old German' script but I'll post more when we find out more. Here it is:

Hollenbek

According to this - August Storm was born in HollenbeK
(thanks Kathereine O for pointing it out more clearly):

http://www.weltkriegsopfer.de/Friedhof-Denkmal-DENKMAL-Hollenbek_Friedhofdetails_0_10637.html

here's a google translation of the link above:

A very kind stranger took photos for us of August Storm's grave!

Here is a 'Google translate' from the German

"Katherine Oestmann,
as indicated in my last e-mail, we were a few days ago in France and made ​​our way back to the search for the grave of your ancestors August Storm.
As you can see, we also found it in Plaine de Walsch and made ​​some meaningful photos for you. A small part of the French necropolis is German cemetery where few burials of fallen German soldiers took place. In the background of the photos you can see a memorial stone / cube, on which most soldiers are noted only by name, so a mass grave. I hope that I could help to clarify your outstanding issues with the pictures.
I remain Yours sincerely in Australia
Yours sincerely, Hans-J. Simon"


The German:

"Liebe Frau Katherine Oestmann,
wie in meiner letzten E-Mail angedeutet, waren wir vor wenigen Tagen in Frankreich und haben uns auf den Rückweg auf die Suche nach dem Grab Ihres Vorfahren August Storm gemacht.
Wie Sie sehen, haben wir es in Plaine de Walsch auch gefunden und auch einige aussagekräftige Fotos für Sie gemacht. Ein kleiner Teil der französischen Nekropole ist deutscher Friedhof, wo nur wenige Bestattungen gefallener deutscher Soldaten stattgefunden hat. Im Hintergrund eines der Fotos sehen Sie einen Gedenkstein / Kubus, auf welchem die meisten Soldaten nur per Namen vermerkt sind, also ein Massengrab. Ich hoffe, dass ich mit den Bildern zur Klärung Ihrer offenen Fragen beitragen konnte.
Ich verbleibe mit freundlichen Grüßen nach Australien
Ihr Hans-J. Simon"



The photos:

Thank you
Hans-J. Simon - a stranger with a kind heart for taking these photos!

(Tim Oestmann)

Hollenbeck or Hollenbäch or Hollenbek

Part of the problem with finding more about our ancestor August Storm (and therefore his parents, brothers or whoever is possibly related to us) is that any records with his place of birth is actually unclear.

So far we have his place of birth as being Hollenbeck or Hollenbäch or Hollenbek -which are not the same place.

My personal hunch is on Hollenbek (as in with an EK ending).

As in here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollenbek

Katherine Oestmann found a couple more records which I have stuck together in one block here:

You'll find the original conversation here on a Reddit site:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Genealogy/comments/31aue7/my_great_great_grandfather_served_and_died_in_wwi/

I'd like to thanks both "GermanGenealogist" and "maryfamilyresearch" for their replies to us.

We have more following up to do and I'll post more if we find any more.

I can oply read a few German words and Katherine a few more so it is not an easy task but hopefully one day soon we can get the 'locked door; open to who our 'Storm' ancestors are because at this stage it stops at my great grandfather August Storm and I don' know anything else. Though I am still grateful for what we have found so far. (Tim Oestmann: tim.oestmann@gmail.com)

Where August Storm lived (possibly)

According to the http://www.weltkriegsopfer.de/Krieg-Opfer-August-Karl-Heinrich-Storm_Soldaten_0_302219.html page - the last address of Mr Storm before he went off to war and was killed was:

 "Hamburg -Wilhelmsburg Street Cl. 5 a channel" - this would have been around the beginning of 1914
or literally: "Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg  Straße     Kl. Kanal 5 a"  Here is a screenshot of the location in 2015:

I'm posting this here in the hope that the more information out there - will heighten the chance of connecting/ finding out more who my Storm relatives are. Read the rest of the blog below if you want to find out more.

I can be emailed at: tim.oestmann@gmail.com

letter from August Storm recently translated

A very kind person on the internet was able to decipher one of the written letters from August to Dora (the original is in Andra E's possession, we worked from a scan). We get a glimpse into our direct ancestors personality a bit more. I'm very grateful for this recent update and want to personally thank Katherine O for searching out the translator. I have also privately passed on my gratitude to the translator. The tone of the letter is informative and even a little playful which makes it even unfortunate that August Storm would be dead in a little over a month after writing this:

Rastatt, 19.7. 14.

Dearly beloved! Have received your letter. Thank you very much, I am in good health. I hope the same can be said of you and Rudi. My dear(treasure)! When doing gymnastics I now only have pain in my wrist, nothing too bad, but I can still feel it. Will probably go away eventually, since I don't even notice it when on duty. Dorchen (diminutive of Dora), I messed up my Schützenschnur (badge for good marksmanship), on mother's birthday, of all days. Couldn't help thinking of you all while shooting so I missed two shots. Doesn't matter though, I'm handsome enough without the badge, aren't I? 'Honey' (little mouse), tomorrow we will go for (shooting exercises with the whole company?), on the same march I wrote you about last time. We'll already leave at three in the morning though, because it won't be too hot yet. We haven't had a drop of rain since I wrote to you last week. The people here are all busy reaping the grain, the rye is already more than ripe. How is the crop coming along over there? The new potatoes here are as big as a fist, the fruit are also starting to ripen. My beloved treasure! There are magnificent natural beauties here in the black forest. It is a truly imposing sight to behold the rocks from down below but life-threateningly dangerous if you have to navigate through them on patrol or as reinforcements. ??? negotiable passes, I'm usually either on patrol or cover them from the flanks and have to climb through the canyons in that rough terrain because according to the captain I have good sense of direction. I'll have to close now, otherwise I won't get enough sleep. More about the conditions here next time. Hopefully these words will find you and our little ones in good health. My dearest wishes and eternal love, August. Also greet our parents and siblings.

(The handwriting is strangely different here, maybe a hastely written post scriptum? It's a bit unclear, the meaning is just my guess)

Don't forget me (I) won't forget you either.

'Slogan': only 415 days, then I'll be with you all forever

(I) think I'll be with you again for 14 days in a short while. Another 150 days or 21 weeks.

Please write again soon

August

Family Tree from Wilken Oestmann 1751 to us Oestmanns in Australia

The Oestmann family we derive from in Australia follow this line (from what seems most definite):

Wilken Oestmann

His son was Hans Oestmann

 

Hans also had a son named 'Hans' named here as Hans Christian Oestmann

 Hans Christian had a son named Carsten Hermann Oestmann

Carsten had a son named Hermann Oestmann

Hermann had three children Minna Dora and Otto. Dora Oestmann, though female, is the ancestor of the Oestmann's in Australia.

Dora Oestmann was partnered to an "August Storm" and they had a child Rudi. Mr Storm died in the first world war. Rudi, his son, decided to take on his mothers name 'Oestmann'. So, the name 'Oestmann' continued with all the decendents who travelled to Australia in the 1958.

See more specifics of the Oestmanns in Australia here:
http://oestmannstorm.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/oestmanns-from-germany-to-australia.html

Volksbund Letter

The very kind people at Volksbund (http://www.volksbund.de) recently sent me a letter confirming that August Storm is buried at Plaine de Walsch.

They included a map of the cemetery
and my brother in law, Toby, immediately found it on the net


So thanks to the help of a number of family, friends and kind strangers - we now know where he is buried after spending a lifetime of knowing nothing. Thank you to all who helped! We can finally put this chapter to rest.

If possible we would like to still find our "Storm" relatives because we are blood relations and we still don't know who they are, where they are - or indeed, if any still exist! Looking forward to the next chapter...

- Tim Oestmann

Just so there are no misunderstandings...

I first put this blog together as a tool to find our ancestors. Being descendants in Australia and not being handed down much 'ancestor' knowledge (for reasons unknown to us), myself, my family and cousin(s) are trying to track down our German ancestors.

You'll find references to wars and the thinking of that time. I don't subscribe or endorse any of that.
The only purpose here is to try and discover and make connections with our ancestry. (Tim)

August Storm's grave details

This site www.weltkriegsopfer.de had the what details they had at hand of Storm's burial:

http://www.weltkriegsopfer.de/Kriegsopfer-August-Storm_Soldaten_0_302219.html

They very kindly updated the page after we contacted them with the Hamburg Wilhelmsburg details. We are very thankful for the help that people have generously given us in this search.

Here is a screenshot of the site and page:

August Storm's grave and then some more...

My brother in law, Toby, started to find more:

"quick research shows that he was killed on 24 Aug 1914 (not 20th) and is buried in Plaine-de-Walsch (Lorraine, France) at the French/German Military Cemetery. There are 277 graves there, and he is shwon as being in plot no.25. He was listed (rank/job) as a “Fusilier"

and then he found the cemetery on Google street view, of all things - here's a snapshot:

August Storm's grave and then...

Apparently the information was found in http://www.volksbund.de/
I had tried there but not being able to speak German and using Google translate, I got lost. So, we appreciate the kindness of strangers ("Ken S") who took the time to post it for us.

He also posted further information:

"The cemetery is Plaine-de-Walsch. According to the regimental history on August 19 his company advanced toward a village called Sitifort which is about 3 km to the SE of Plaine-de-Walsch and were fired upon by the French. The regimental history states that among the killed were a Lt. Thelen and Feldwebel (ie. a Sergeant) Marienfeld. According to Volksbund there was a Lt. Leonard Thelen who died August 20 and a Vizefeldwebel Marienfeld who died August 21. Both are said to be in unmarked graves, possibly in Plaine-de-Walsch. That shows that in general there appear to have been discrepancies in the dating for casualties at this time and location, also that the burial for members of the regiment killed during this time would (likely) have been Plaine-de-Walsch.

In terms of August Storm's birthplace, there is an online record of the village's war memorial as well as a list of names (Namensregister). Since he does not appear on the list, he likely was resident elsewhere. Fusilier-Regiment Nr. 40 was associated with (but not garrisoned in) a territory called Hohenzollern in southern Germany (around the city of Sigmaringen). After the war, the territory compiled an extensive honor roll listing most from the territory who served in the war, c. 14,000 names. If he was resident there, he will likely be listed; unfortunately, there is no index, and the men are listed by town/village which makes searching a little difficult if you don't know what community they're from. Also I have a book about the garrison of Rastatt where the regiment was located in peacetime. It also has an honor roll."