After viewing the January 2, 1839 passenger list of the ship George Washington (Bremen to New Orleans), I am now even more convinced that the area around Wiedenbrück and Wadersloh (Westfalen) was home to our HOLTERMANN and LODENKAMPER ancestors as had once been suggested by a German researcher. The problem was, and still is, that the available church records do not show a match, per the IGI. Although excited to have found this passenger list, I'm still lacking enough clues to start ordering films blindly.
The key detail from the passenger list is that Bernhard HOLTERMANN, age 25, was heading to St. Louis from Wiedenbrück. As I've mentioned before, I've suspected a connection between Bernhard and our Wilhelm Ludwig HOLTERMANN. That Wiedenbrück, rather than something more vague such as "Germany" or "Prussia," was specifically listed is great, but where is the corresponding IGI entry? Were those records not fully indexed or were the HOLTERMANNs in fact from a nearby village? I tend to believe the nearby village angle at the moment.
The family of Ferdinand HOLTERMANN was also on the George Washington in 1839. Their origin was listed as Wadersloh, just south of Wiedenbrück. There is nothing to suggest Ferdinand was related to Wilhelm or Bernhard, but Wilhelm's second son was named Franz Ferdinand and it wouldn't hurt to keep Ferdinand in mind for the future.
Finally, Peter LODENKAMPER and his family, listed as natives of Wiedenbrück heading to Ohio, were on the George Washington as well. There really isn't anything to connect this family to ours in St. Louis, but this is the first LODENKAMPER on a passenger list I've found that mentioned a town name. And my gut feeling has been that Wilhelm HOLTERMANN and Dorothea LODENKAMPER were probably from the same area before immigrating.
[genealogy, Holtermann, Lodenkamper]
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