About us
The "Osnabrück - Hochstift" project is for people with ancestors that lived in the historical territory "Hochstift Osnabrück" or Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück, as well as people currently living in the geographic region of Osnabrück, Lower-Saxony, Germany. This includes the city of Osnabrück but also the many cities and municipalities in "Landkreis Osnabrück".
Ideally we will be able to help group members to identify the town, municipality, hamlet or even farm where their ancestors originated within Hochstift Osnabrück.
In addition to the city of Osnabrück, this covers the following towns within Kreis Osnabrück:
*Samtgemeinde Artland with Badbergen, Menslage, Nortrup, Quakenbrück
*Samtgemeinde Bersenbrück with Alfhausen, Ankum, Bersenbrück, Eggermühlen, Gehrde, Kettenkamp, Rieste
*Samtgemeinde Fürstenau with Berge, Bippen, Fürstenau
*Samtgemeinde Neuenkirchen with Merzen, Neuenkirchen, Voltlage
and the municipalities: Bad Essen, Bad Iburg, Bad Laer, Bad Rothenfelde, Belm, Bissendorf, Bohmte, Bramsche, Dissen, Georgsmarienhütte, Glandorf, Hagenam Teutoburger Wald, Hasbergen, Hilter, Melle, Ostercappeln, Wallenhorst.
Please note that the initial administrator of the group project has the most knowledge about Wallenhorst, Hagen, Belm and some districts of Osnabrück. If other project members would like to become the contact person for any of the other municipalities, please let us know.
With Y-DNA results, we hope to identify new surnames for many men who have been tested. In this area of Germany frequently men changed their surnames when marrying the heir or owner of a family farm. Many men will find a different surname than that used by their families in recent generations.
We are also very interested in the mtDNA lineage of the city and Kreis Osnabrück, and hope to have many mtDNA results of participants to compare.
Additionally, we want to encourage descendants of this region who have their Family Finder results to join the project.
Many of these communities were somewhat isolated populations, marrying within their own community and local church. We believe many descendants will find that they share several ancestors in their lineage.