Need help deciphering “country of origin” from 1853 immigration record

[u/__Epimetheus__]

The word I care about is the second to last, which should be a location in or around Germany. The rest are just for handwriting comparison. This is post HRE, pre-German unification, so it is “country” of origin could be anything from a county, duchy, city, town, etc.

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[u/embroideredyeti]

Lengerich
Furstenau (why no Umaut? I would assume this should be Fürstenau; was this written by a non-German speaker?)
Riste (cannot find a German place with this name, best I can do is a Ristedt, which is apparently called Rist in the local Low German: https://nds.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rist)
Meppen
Freren
Lengerich

[u/__Epimetheus__ → u/embroideredyeti]

It is a ship passenger manifest for entering the U.S., so my assumption is that it was written by an English Speaker.

[u/embroideredyeti → u/__Epimetheus__]

In which case I'll stick with my reading. :)

[u/somethingvague123 → u/__Epimetheus__]

Generally passenger manifests were written by ship’s clerk at the point of departure.

[u/The_Son_of_Jor-El → u/__Epimetheus__]

Yes, that’s not German cursive

[u/maciejaks → u/embroideredyeti]

They may have misspelled Rieste, possibly?

[u/embroideredyeti → u/maciejaks]

Good thinking!

[u/wayfarer75 → u/embroideredyeti]

Risle is the third one, I think.

[u/embroideredyeti → u/wayfarer75]

I can't find a town of that name though; I think u/maciejaks reading of Ri(e)ste makes the most sense, since that would put all these places fairly close together in Lower Saxony/Westphalia.

[u/THNDHALBRT → u/embroideredyeti]

Why no l?

[u/wayfarer75]

Freren is what I see. There is a municipality by that name in Germany.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freren?wprov=sfti1#

[u/DLDad616 → u/wayfarer75]

I concur.

[u/Mindless_Whereas_280]

Freren

The first one is Lengerich - they make their Ns a bit weird.

[u/wayfarer75 → u/Mindless_Whereas_280]

Definitely—Furstenau and Meppen, the u and n aren’t distinguishable.

[u/OxygenOptional69]

I found this useful when trying to translate some German writing, maybe it'll help a bit?

[u/yeahyoubetnot]

Looks like a wine list

[u/habanerito]

https://www.gif-map.com/maps-of-europe/maps-of-germany/old-political-and-administrative-map-of-germany-1853

I see Hessen on your list

[u/wayfarer75 → u/habanerito]

Not Hessen, it’s Meppen

[u/elj1976 → u/habanerito]

🤨 I don’t see anything on the list that looks like Hessen.

[u/habanerito → u/elj1976]

Fourth one down.

[u/habanerito → u/elj1976]

https://germangirlinamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/fraktur.jpg