This web site provides a downloadable GEDCOM version of the "Families in Lindhorst" records compiled by Kurt Hitzeman. [Kurt and I are 9th cousins, descended from our 8th Great Grandparents, Johann Hasemann (~1638) and Catherine Elisabeth Tielking (1634) who are in the Probsthagen family database.]

The database creation began with Kurt's 2008 version of "Families in Lindhorst", which does not exist on the internet. An earlier -- and now obsolete -- 2004 version of it can be seen on Karen Rowe's Karen's Gen web site at http://www.karensgen.com/buch/churches/lindhorst.php. Kurt has done extensive additional work since the version on Karen's web site, with signficiant changes.

My on-going process of using Kurt's list in creating the database includes a very detailed proof-reading of Kurt's list. As I have discovered problems, Kurt has made further changes to his list as he has checked these conflicts in the original records. The process has also led to some changes in my Families in Probsthagen database, since Lindhorst and Probsthagen are adjoining parishes and have a fair amount of overlap. In fact, when I have completed the Lindhorst database, my plan is to merge the Probsthagen and Lindhorst databases into a combined database, so that the family connections are explicit and clear.

I began the process of converting Kurt's list into a lineage-linked family database (using Legacy Family Tree software) in 2008, after I completed the Probsthagen family database. The Lindhorst database is very much an incomplete work in progress. The version posted right now is only a fraction of what is in Kurt's list. (See below for the current status of the progress on the creation of the database.) So there is a great deal more work for me to do. This project will take many years.

This web page is an interim web page. I am looking for the right place for it to be included in an on-going web site. I had hoped that Karen Rowe would include it in her astounding Karen's Gen website, but she has told me that she too is looking for someone to inherit her web site since she is no longer able to maintain it. So my search continues.

I have tried to be as faithful as possible to Kurt Hitzeman’s list. I began the work with the 2008 list, creating the database from scratch.

An important difference between the database and the list is that the list includes family numbers with spaces in them (e.g. "Blk 20"). In the database, I have converted those into full 6-digit numbers (thus the list's "Blk 20" appears in the database as "Blk020").

There are two types of entries in Kurt's list that did not have family numbers, so that I have fabricated family numbers that are not in Kurt's list.

1. Xx families - There were families in the list that were explicit but to which Kurt did not assign a family number (since they were isolated singletons - the only family for a surname). I have assigned these Xx numbers. For example, family XxB001 was assigned to the unnumbered Backhuss family. The number is constructed by adding the initial of the surname after the Xx (thus XxB in the example) and then assiging a sequential number for all families of that initial (thus XxB001 is followed by XxB002, which is the family of Friderich Bahe)

2. Xy families - There were marriages or relationships that were impicit families in the text but which were not explicitly included in the Lindhorst records. For example, a wife who came from some external place might have her father shown in the Lindhorst marriage record, but there is nothing else about the wife's family of origin in the Lindhorst records. So I assigned an Xy family number to these cases. For example, XyB006 is the family number assigned to handle the parents of the Blk020 husband.

My goal is to do one family each day. That is, I want to input one family from Kurt's list into the database every day. I began with all the Hitzeman families and then started working through the families in the alphabetical order that they appear on Kurt's list. Since most families are also connected to other families, doing one family actually involves a lot more than simply entering the lines for that family into the database. It also means tieing the family into its connected families and assuring that I do not enter a person into the database as two separate records. This process extends beyond Kurt's Lindhorst list, since I am also checking to see if there is a connection to one of the families in the Probsthagen list. Thus one family can be quite a lot of work, which is why I am being realistic and just aiming to do one family per day, even though that means it will take perhaps 4,000 to 8,000 days to complete the database. (I do not know how many families there are. See below for the most recent estimate of progress.)

What Kurt has done is a phenomenal effort, as anyone who has ever worked with hand-written German records in the altschrift (old script) will know. The work I am doing is a massive effort of thousands of hours. But I am sure that the size of my effort it is dwarfed by the magnitude of the work that Kurt did. We all owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for undertaking such a massive but significant project. It is now one of the true wonders of the world of historical research.

My creation of the database involves the database and two additional files.

1. Kurt's List - The first file is my working version of Kurt's list, which is in a very large Microsoft Word document of about 385 pages. I began by setting the font color for the entire list to red. Then as I process a family, I set the processed information to black. Since most families are linked to other families, the processing of one family almost always means that I have to include information from several other families. By setting the font color of the processed information to black, I know when I reach a connected family whether I have processed any information from that family or not. There are also some entries in blue or in bold black, which are things that I have contacted Kurt about. In some cases, I have also used double-strike through text where I have eliminated it (usually it has been replaced with other text).
2. My Text File - In order to keep track of which Xx and Xy family numbers I have fabricated, I have a text file in which I record every such assignment. The text file also contains my growing cross-reference of which Lindhorst families are also in the Probsthagen database.

1. It is very important to keep in mind that there was no such thing as the standard spelling of names in most of the years covered by these records. Thus someone whose name is spelled Margrete Hardekopfs in one record might be shown as Margretha Harkop in another record. I have tried to enter all alternate names. Some are even more complicated. For example, Molner and Wolter both descend from the same ancestor (in the Probsthagen database).

2. The thing that I have been most uncertain about is birthplaces. I have tended to put the family residence (right after the family number in Kurt’s list) as the birthplace, and I have probably erred in some cases where he put specific birth locations for the individual children. The rule is that everything should be checked against Kurt’s list and the original records.

3. In some cases, I have made conclusions. For example, I concluded that the unspecified death date of a mother was after the birth date (or sometimes after the day before the birth date) of the birth/baptismal date of her last-listed child. Once again, the rule is that everything should be checked against Kurt’s list. Kurt has many calculated birth years, based on age at death and date of death.

4. There are many different spellings of the same places. For example, the variants of "bei Capelle", "bey Capelle" and more in Luedersfeld. I have consolidated these into, so that the variants that appear in Kurt's list do not appear in the database. (This is different than how I handled the same issue in the Probsthagen database.)

5. Luedersfeld is one town, and even in the old records there are references simply to Luedersfeld. But the town is strung out along a long road and was also identified in three parts. So the hof at a specific number might appear one time as Luedersfeld and at another as either Ober Luedersfeld, "bei Capelle", or Niedern Luedersfeld with the same number. I have consolidated these into a single location, adding a note to the location's master record that it also had the other way(s) of referring to it.

6. Do look at the NOTES information if there is any. It gives background information that clarifies decisions that were made about individuals and families.

7. Recognize typical variants of the same names.
   • Johan / Johann -- But Johan and Hans were not interchangable.
   • Herman / Herm / Harm / Harmen
   • Cord / Cordt / Conrad
   • Gerdt / Gerke / Gerck

The -- still incomplete -- database is in a GEDCOM file. You must first download the GEDCOM file to your computer and then use your genealogical software to import the file. If you do not have genealogical software, the Standard Version of the Legacy Family Tree product is an excellent tool, which is freely downloadable at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com.

A very important part of the database is the family number that Kurt assigned or which I have fabricated where Kurt had no assigned numbers. The family number (which is NOT the same as the MRIN) is entered in the "User ID" field of the family/marriage record (which has a unique MRIN assigned by the database software). The complete information on the family is entered as a Note in the marriage record. If you use software that does not support user ID on marriage records, then you will not be able to see Kurt's assigned family numbers in your software.

Some import problems have been reported, and so far all of these have been due to control options that can be set on your genealogical software. Here are the problems reported so far:

1. Import generated double dates for dates prior to the calendar change
   The GEDCOM file does NOT use double dates. Check your genealogical software's customizable preferences to turn off double-dating of dates prior to the calendar change.
2. Import did not import CAL (calculated) dates
   The GEDCOM file contains many calculated dates, such as "Cal 1659". For example, a marriage or death record may contain the age of a person, so that the person's birth year can be calculated. Use of "Cal" makes it clear that this date did not appear in the original record and also that it is not merely an approximation. Some genealogical software offers an import control option to import all dates as they appear in the GEDCOM file; use that option if it exists in your software. If the option does not exist, sometimes there is an option to handle dates or other information that the software can not handle by placing the information into a note or an event record for that person.
   You can quickly check to see if the import retained the CAL dates. Ludeke Hidsemann (RIN #15) should have birthdate of "Cal 1625".

There are two auxiliary files to help with use of the database.

1. Kurt's List - The first file is my working version of Kurt's list, which is in a very large Microsoft Word document of about 385 pages. I began by setting the font color for the entire list to red. Then as I process a family, I set the processed information to black. Since most families are linked to other families, the processing of one family almost always means that I have to include information from several other families. By setting the font color of the processed information to black, I know when I reach a connected family whether I have processed any information from that family or not. There are also some entries in blue or in bold black, which are things that I have contacted Kurt about. In some cases, I have also used double-strike through text where I have eliminated it (usually it has been replaced with other text).
2. My Text File - In order to keep track of which Xx and Xy family numbers I have fabricated, I have a text file in which I record every such assignment. The text file also contains my growing cross-reference of which Lindhorst families are also in the Probsthagen database.

Until I have finished the database, I will not have an "Index of MRINs and family IDs" as I do have for the Probsthagen database.
The family IDs that Kurt Hitzeman created or that I fabricated (see the section above on "Creation of the Database") were stored in the user ID field within Legacy Family Tree's screen of the marriage record. All GEDCOM-based databases rely on a unique identifier to keep track of each family; this identifier is called the MRIN (Marriage Record Identifier Number) and is NOT the same as Kurt's family ID number. All genealogical software will display the MRINs, but most genealogical software does not provide an easy way to view and go to Marriage User IDs (which I call MUIDs). So I have created an index of MRINs and MUIDs, in order to find a family from the "Families in Probsthagen" list in the Probsthagen database by family ID number.

Now that you have read all of the above and know what this is all about, here are the links to the GEDCOM file and the auxiliary files:

• GEDCOM file - March 22, 2009 Version (medium-size file on order of 2 MB): SAVE it to your PC and import it with your genealogical software.
  (If you click OPEN, you will see what the GEDCOM file looks like, but it is a big file that will take a long time to open, and it is not particularly interesting.)
  • The March 22, 2009 version of the database contained 2,201 individuals grouped into 872 familes. This includes all families up to and including the Bock families and the first family on page 51 out of 353 (thus about 14%) of my working version of Kurt's list. Legacy calculates that there are now 128 separate trees in the database; that comes out to an average of 6.8 families per tree.
  • The January 14, 2009 version of the database contained 1,602 individuals grouped into 644 familes. This includes all families up to the first family on page 35 out of 358 (thus about 10%) of my working version of Kurt's list. [The reason that the number of pages in Kurt's has decreased from the prior version is that I am tightening up the formatting and eliminating a lot of blank space that works well for a book format but is wasted space for my working file.]
  • The December 20, 2008 version of the database contained 1,159 individuals grouped into 474 familes. This includes all families up to page 24 out of 386 (thus about 6%) of my working version of Kurt's list.
• Current State of My Working Version of Kurt Hitzeman's List (medium-size file on order of 2 MB): OPEN or SAVE the Microsoft Word file.
• My Text File of Fabricated Family Numbers and Lindhorst-Probsthagen Cross References (small file on order of 100 KB or less): OPEN or SAVE the text file.

There are some excellent web sites on the family history of the area around Lindhorst.

• Karensgen: Karen Rowe's Genealogical Web Site
  This web site is a jaw-dropper! You will be astonished at how much information there is there. She not only includes all of the German locations and their records but also the places and records to which these families came in the United States. In particular, check out:
  • Karen Rowe's web page on Lindhorst which includes the 2004 version of Kurt Hitzeman's "Families in Lindhorst"
  • Karen Rowe's web page on Probsthagen (next church town east of Lindhorst)
• Alexandra Blume's Schaumburg-Lippe Web Site
  This web site is in German, since Alexandra is German and lives at Auhagen, one of the towns that you will see in the "Families in Probsthagen" records. Her page Orte im Schaumburger Land lists all of the Schaumburg towns for which she has information, which includes Lindhorst and Probsthagen and the other towns of the area.
• Families in Probsthagen GEDCOM database: My earlier database of the Probsthagen-area families, created from Kurt Hitzeman's "Families in Probsthagen" list
• Families in Beckedorf list and GEDCOM database: My effort to create the list and database