Over the years I have tried to find records in Germany for George Hamm in particular, but really any other German ancestors that I have, including the Isserstedt and Sachs families. Some states in Germany have more easily accessible records than others. Although, to be honest I have had very little luck with any of my ancestors’ places of origin. Looks like I need to hire a German researcher.

One way that I have tried to expand on the Hamm family was to make a database of all the persons of interest found the baptismal entry of George Hamm, and his siblings, in an effort to suss out relatives of the Hamm and Knobloch families. This is what I came up with:

Of course now I have to figure out how these folks are related, keeping in mind that sometimes close friends of the family are made Godparents.

So I started researching the surnames found in the database. I haven’t made much progress so far, but I did run into one interesting document using the Bing search engine. [I use !Google, !Bing and Duck Duck Go as my search engines, that way I cover more bases, you never know what one search will emphasize over another.]

Großherzogtum Hessen/Regierungsblatt 1849/505
9) a. Adam Krebs, b. Johannes Eller, c. Johann Dilg, alle drei Taglöhner, d. Peter Eimermann, Wingertsmann, sämmtlich aus Schwabsburg, wegen Meineids durch Urtheil vom 28. April 1849 ein Jeder in eine Correctionshausstrafe von 2 Jahren.

TRANSLATION:
List of criminal judgments of the courts of the province of Rheinhessen which have become legally binding and are to be published in accordance with Article 20 of the Criminal code. The following were condemned:
Grand Duchy of Hesse / Government Gazette
…9) a. Adam Krebs, b. Johannes Eller, c. Johann Dilg, all three day laborers, d. Peter Eimermann, Wingertsmann [this word didn’t translate, it’s an occupation], all from Schwabsburg, because of perjury by judgment of April 28, 1849 everyone in a Corrections house/facility for two years.

http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/Gro%C3%9Fherzogtum_Hessen/Regierungsblatt_1849/505

This record is from the German GenWiki site where it appears that they are putting up all kinds of out of copyright books, church registers, directories etc.

It appears that these gentleman all perjured themselves in court and paid the price. Eller, Dilg, and Eimermann are all names I have seen in relation to the Hamm family. With some of these names appearing in the baptismal records. I have no clue at this time what the case involved, but I hope their perjury was worth the price.

As this case happened in 1849 all the men involved were probably of George Hamm’s father’s generation, especially since two of them were soon to be godparents to some of Jakob and Elizabeth Hamm’s children, George’s parents.

I am not surprised that the Hamm’s are cozy with convicts, criminal behavior appears to streak through the Hamm family too.

Hopefully, in the near future I will be able to go through those Schwabsburg church records again in Salt Lake City to see if I can find more Hamm and Knobloch family.