I had made arrangements to visit the city archives, as I read that both church and city records were there. My friend in Oldenburg convinced me to try to find the right church and see if I could look at their records directly. I looked at the churches in the old part of town using Google maps, checked which had been around long enough, and picked the Reformed Church as the most similar to what my relatives attended when they were in Iowa. I wrote the pastor on Saturday, who immediately responded that the church and graveyard would be open (I thought I might find a headstone for one of my ancestors, but these are the great-greats-greats who didn't emigrate eventually, and they are buried elsewhere), but that the office was closed that day. He copied the person in charge of the office (translating German titles is a challenge, so I won't try), to ask if he could accommodate me. I never heard back from him.
I got to town early, due to limitations of train schedules, and went to the church to just wander around till the archive was open. The person who was showing people around took me to the office, where apparently a family with three kids lives, who were having lunch. The husband, who I suspect was the person who was cced on the email, did nothing, but the wife took me into the office and we found the correct records (she had to ask her husband where they were) and she helped me find and understand what the records said. I copied the relevant ones to my phone. I was able to go back as far as great-great-great-grandfather, but he (and his wife) were born in a different town, so I would need another trip to investigate further back. But my guess is that there is more to be found. The main thing I learned from this was that my grandfather was born a year earlier than Ancestry thinks he was, so he was just over a year old when they emigrated, not 6 weeks (which is why I thought there must be a story there -- who would take a 6 week old baby on a ship, probably in steerage, unless there was something urgent?)
Off to the city archives, where the archivist, who never answered my earlier emails or letter, was extremely nice and helpful. Among the things I learned
- I have copies (phone images) of my grandfather's birth certificate and his parents' marriage certificate. Unfortunately, the state didn't register births and marriages at the time my great-great-grandparents were married or when their kids were born
- I found the same church records and more. I need to work out a few more details, but I believe I have found two step brothers of my great-grandfather. They were born to a "widow", but their fathers acknowledged parenthood. This same widow (she seems to have gotten around) had a child (my great-grandfather) by my great-great-grandfather, and they seem to have gotten married after that (they attested to the church when my great-grandfather was baptized that they were married -- using an antiquated term that might mean something closer to "were sexual partners", so I'm guessing they were not married in a church at that time, since other records mention the church people were married in). See below for more information about this.
- I also was shown city directories that showed where my great-great-grandfather and great-grandfather were living in 1888 and 1890. (the women are pretty invisible, except in church records). They were all living together in '88, but by '90 my grandfather (and presumably wife and 2 or 3 children) had moved to a house about two streets away. (I was able to walk those streets, but the old houses were no longer there --- I suspect they weren't that nice.) In the great-great-grandfather's house were two other adult men (well, one in 88 and both in 90) who had the same first/middle names as the possible stepbrothers, but had taken my family's last name. I'm guessing that means my great-great-grandfather raised them as his own.
- One of these possible step-brothers was one of the witnesses at my great-grandparents' marriage. Both in the part written by the city clerk and where he signed it, he uses my great-grandfather's last name.
- I also learned that my great-grandfather was a worker in a paper factory and his father was a sail maker. Since great-grandpa became a farmer in Iowa, that surprised me.
- I didn't find anything out about their leaving; they didn't get passports and they don't seem to have registered their departure (which was and is the law in Germany). We looked in a lot of places for this information. (Increases my belief that they left perhaps because great-grandpa was in trouble with the law :-)
- There was no evidence that there was an economic upheaval at the time they emigrated, and there was no persecution of their religious sect at that time, so most likely they came to the US for the "streets that were paved with silver and gold". I was given a locally produced pamphlet about people who emigrated to the US from Leer and what is (in general) known about them. It's in German, so I will be reading it slowly.
All in all, a lot learned in about 4 hours. Perhaps I will be able to come back and visit the nearby towns, if I find they also have this kind of information available. Not this trip though.
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