The Coming Together

How the Modern-Day Family Foertmeyer Began

Research by Manfred Raker of the Förthof, Minden, Germany


First of all, I must thank Manfred Raker for his truly invaluable research into my family roots in the area of Germany approximately 40 miles west of Hanover. What you will find below, in black type, is what we know about our Seinecke family ancestors. In sienna type, is the new information that Manfred has just recently uncovered in the Warmsen records.

Our records of the Family Seinecke goes back to the birth of Johann Joachim Seinecke, born in 1760 in Germany. Johann was my four times great grandfather through the Foertmeyer side of the family. Johann married Dorothee Elisabeth Prüsern. Dorothee was born about 1760 as well.

To this couple were born two children:

i. JOHANN HEINRICH "WILHELM" SEINEKE was born on 25 Mar 1785. He died on 13 Dec 1858 in Neustädter, Hannover, Germany. He married Anna Dorothee "Doris" Lahmeyer, daughter of Unknown Lahmeyer and Marie Magdalene Lehmkuhl, in 1816. She was born on 11 Nov 1780 in Germany. She died on 14 Jul 1856 in Hannover, Niedersachsen, Deutschland.

ii. ANNA CATHARINE DOROTHEE SEINECKE was born on 27 Nov 1788 in Brelingen, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany. She died on 21 Apr 1868 in Negenborn, Holzminden, Lower Saxony, Germany. She married (1) JOHANN GEORGES about 1800. He died before 1805. She married (2) JOHANN DIETERICH HEINRICH MENTE, son of Hans Cord Mente and Ilse Dorothea Busse, on 11 Nov 1805 in Brelingen, Germany. He was born on 02 Nov 1786 in Negenborn, Hannover, Germany. He died on 19 Feb 1855 in Brelingen, Germany. Anna was my three times great grandmother.

Strangely enough, both Johann Georges and Johann Dietrich Heinrich Mente are my three times great grandfathers. How? Well, Johann Georges daughter, Ilsa Dorothea "Doris" Georges married Dietrich Friedrich Wilhelm Förtmeier (my two times great grandparents). To them were born eleven children, the last of which was Louis Charles Förtmeier, my great grandfather. Now... Louis Charles married Marie Sophia Mente, daughter of Heinrich Wilhelm Mente, son of Johann Dietrich Heinrich Mente. Confused? Well, it's no wonder. Simplified: Anna Seinecke had two husbands. A grandchild from each marriage married one another. Those two then, were my great grandparents. See This Page for more information about Seinecke/Mente "loop".

What follows now is the very interesting information on the "Coming Together" of my thrice great grandfarents Förtmeier:


In 1805 a total of 44 children went to the school in Großenvörde, which is described as a miserable little house. The school room was only rented. So, there was neither a house nor a garden for the teacher Cord Heinrich Peper.

In the year 1806 the conditions were changed. The community established a teacher's flat and the new teacher Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Seinecke also received a garden and some land. Unlike his colleagues, the teacher Seinecke was neither a sexton nor a cantor. He therefore had less income. This was somewhat compensated by the "Reihetisch", whereby the teacher ate lunch each day with one of a number of local farmers.

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Seinecke had come from Negenborn, near Celle, to Großenvörde in 1805. He was twenty-one and a teacher. Another teacher came to Großenvörde in 1807. He was Heinrich Ludwig Bohnhorst, born in Münchehagen/Loccum and he was a former neighbor of Diedrich Wilhelm Förtmeier.

In 1817 Heinrich Ludwig Bohnhorst retired to Hanover and it is likely that he "lured" Dietrich Förtmeier to his teaching position in Essern. This then is where Dietrich met (or was introduced to) his colleague's niece, Ilsa Dorothea Georges. They were married in 1825 and thus began the Family Förtmeier as we know it today. In 1826 their first child, Dorothee Louise, was born. In Essern, four more children would follow. In 1836, when a new school was built in Bohnhorst, the family and the grandmother, Catharina Mell-Förtmeier, moved to Bohnhorst. Six more children followed at Bohnhorst.


The following maps should help you understand where all these people lived...

This is Germany and inside the red box is the area we came from. Click on this map to enlarge. The town names from whence our ancestors came, as well as the Förthof, are shown there.

Bohnhorst: Where the Förtmeiers emigrated from to the USA and where seven of the Förtmeier children were born
Lavelsloh: Their parish church was here
Essern: The first four Förtmeier children born here
Hanover: Fifth child, Carl Wilhelm born here
Loccum: Birthplace of our thrice great grandfather, husband of Doris Georges, Dietrich Friedrich Wilhem Foertmeyer
Negenborn: Birthplace of Wilhelm Heinrich Mente, our twice great grandfather, husband of Wilhelmena Fricke, and father of Marie Mente who married Louis Charles Foertmeyer, our great grandparents
Schnega: Where Heinrich Mente moved and became a school teacher and from where his children left for America
Neckargemünd: (first map) Home of our Schwartz ancestors