"In the beginning, I absolutely didn't know who of the family had immigrated because no one of today's living family members in Germany could tell about it. There was just one very small piece of information as my mother remembered that her grandmother, Emma Hoops (born Tietje, daughter of Heinrich Tietje of Bendingbostel), told that her grandparents immigrated a very long time ago. My mother, who grew up with her grandparents, Emma and Hinrich Hoops in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, received very big Care packages from a cousin in Ohio after the Second World War when she was a child. They sent wonderful things like pens, cloth, silk stockings, chocolate, coats and other things.
I am happy to tell that there is a big photo book which was made by my great uncle, Arthur Hoops, for his mother's 80th birthday. I found very old photos of her family, her parents in Bendingbostel, her youth and her children. There are also photos from a visit of the immigrated brother, Herman Tietje and his wife in 1929.
But there was no direct information about the other immigrated part of the family because it happened in a time too long ago. I only knew that there must have been a great number of persons, maybe brothers and sisters or other relatives of my great-great grandfather, Heinrich, who immigrated.
Why did the family immigrate?
In the beginning of the 19th century, there was overpopulation in Germany. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, restrictions for immigration were abolished, and so there was suddenly an interest because people were free to leave.
The development of steam navigation shortened the journey from more than a month down to 13- 19 days. In 1870, a passage to America in steerage cost 120 mark/ 1000 Euro today ($1362.00 U.S.), but with time the passage became available at more favorable prices. There were many advertising campaigns, often organized by shipping companies who traveled in the country to recruit passengers.
Also sometimes men wanted to avoid the draft, or they had family who had already immigrated and they wanted to follow them. People wanted free or cheap land, free living, national security, economical independence, and a more advance level of industrialization
In view of our family Tietje, I think that they followed their son Herman and other relatives who had already gone to Ohio. They trusted in the experiences their relatives had in the New World and hoped for a better life. They had so many children and the living conditions, especially in the area of Verdenermoor must have been very bad, so their children could hope for a better future in the new country of Ohio.
I heard from living persons in Verdenermor that Henry's family left a very poor estate behind. Many years later, after the farm was pulled down, there were still standing some old, knobbed plum trees next to the street, reminding us of the Tietjes, and an old oven which had a roof covered with straw. This oven later had to be pulled down, too, because it was endangered of fire. The successor, Kruse, built a new, solid baking house (backhaus)."
To be continued...
(This post originally appeared in 2011 on my now deleted blog, A Face to the Sun.)
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