Local heritage book of Rütenbrock

• Update 01-07-2026 Church marriages in Meppen on Matricula 1800-1925 checked for brides and grooms from the parishes of Wesuwe and Rütenbrock. This yielded many welcome additions for local heritage books of Wesuwe and Rütenbrock.
• Update 18-03-2026 Added more than thousand obits found at https://www.wgff-tz.de/ when searching for the place of Rütenbrock, Altharen, Altenberge, Wesuwe, Fehndorf, Hebelermeer and Schöninghsdorf in any field.
• Update 23-11-2025 Broken links to church books at Matricula repaired
• Update 11-10-2025 Descendants are now included too, so you can more easily see the connection between yourself and the local heritage book. Direct ancestors had already been added. You can recognize the core group by the Rütenbrock town sign.
  
• Update 18-03-2025: 5 extra years of baptisms (1901-1905), marriages (1921-1925) and funerals (1921-1925) in Rütenbrock and Altenberge added. Thanks to Herman Kimmann!
  Finally it is clear to me that Altharener Moor is Erika and not Fehndorf, as I thought for a long time based on an old map?! If you zoom in on the old map at Fehndorf https://mapire.eu/de/karte/europa_1850/embed/, you read Altharener Moor. However, a look at Wikipedia shows that Erika used to be called Altharener Moor in the old days, please check https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erika_(Haren) Altharener Moor is often mentioned in the church records of Altenberge, marriages and deaths 1921-1925, which is why I count Erika, like Altenberge, as part of the local heritage book on Rütenbrock AND Wesuwe. Fehndorf belonged to Altharen until 1912, therefore counted as OFB Wesuwe. People who died in Fehndorf 1921-1925 were mostly buried in Rutenbrock, sometimes in Hebelermeer or Wesuwe. Therefore I count Fehndorf as part of the local heritage books on R&uum;tenbrock as well as Wesuwe.
  Unfortunately, due to the release of 5 extra years of church books on Matricula, all links to previous years on Matricula have also been changed. About 26,000 links in my publication(s) to the source on Matricula no longer work, correction will follow, but it takes time. A general link to Matricula has therefore been added to births, church marriages and deaths in the diocese of Osnabrück as an emergency measure against the broken links. https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/deutschland/osnabrueck
• Update 27-02-2024: New source churchyard Rütenbrock https://nl.geneanet.org/kerkhof/collection/198333-friedhof-rutenbrock
• Update 25-07-2022: checked 3699 deaths/funerals 1799-1921 at Matricula, thanks to Herman Kimmann!
• Update 25-07-2022: checked 5201 births/baptisms 1799-1900 at Matricula
• Update 25-06-2020: checked 1709 marriages 1799-1918 at Matricula
• Update 23-06-2019: places of birth check, places of death check, inconsistency check, regional

Altenberge belonged to the parish of Wesuwe until 1847, until 1915 to Rütenbrock and has been an independent parish since then. That is why Altenberge is considered both part of OFB Wesuwe and OFB Rütenbrock.
Catholics in Roswinkel, De Maten, Munsterscheveld, Zandberg and Horsten in the Netherlands went to church in Rütenbrock, untill there was a better option nearby. So they were baptized, buried or got married in Rütenbrock.

The local Heritage Book Rütenbrock contains the following selection from my genealogy database:

(All people born, lived, died in Rütenbrock, Lindloh, Schwartenberg, Altenberge, Erika, Fehndorf
OR baptized, married, buried in Rütenbrock, Altenberge, Fehndorf)
AND parents, partner(s), children, children in law
PLUS their direct ancestors
living EXCLUDED

Data visualization: Bar chart and more statistics at genealogieonline.nl

Bar chart with number of births/baptisms, marriages, deaths per 5 years 14-11-2021. Click the chart to switch to genealogieonline.nl to see additional chart info and more stats, such as a Google Map with the distribution of genealogical events, the top 10 of family names etc.

Main source is my father's research
Broer Berens (1916-2013): Ortsfamilienbuch Rütenbrock

My father did research on ownership in the village/parish of Rütenbrock and neighbouring townships Hanentange, Altenberge, Schwartenberg, Alten Schloot and Lindloh. You can see the historical development on land ownership. Per lot you'll see the owners in the years 1788, 1798, 1831, 1910, 1938, 1963 and 1980. The lots have numbers 1-90b. In Lindloh people who didn't own the land are numbered 1-67, research has been done until 1900. The research includes the genealogy of landowners and inhabitants. You'll find several drop down menus, respectively 90 Rütenbrock lots sorted on lotnumber, surname, male surname, female surname and 67 Lindloh Inhabitants not owning any land sorted on male surname respectively female surname. Sources in this research project were civic and church archives.

Including Heinz Menke's maps of plots/Plaatzen in Lindloh, Schwartenberg and Rütenbrock.

	Rütenbrock right	Rütenbrock
Schwartenberg left	Schwartenberg right	Schwartenberg
Lindloh left	Lindloh right	Lindloh

Kreis Meppen 1950

Topotijdreis

I checked a lot of my fathers research data in the Wesuwe Church records, wiewaswie.nl, alledrenten.nl or allegroningers.nl, this OFB is as accurate as possible, though errors may remain. Please contact me with any corrections or additions.

Living were removed from the database, 6906 of the individuals are related to eachother according to Progen.

Though born in Barger-Compascuum, the Netherlands, my roots are in Germany. Most of my ancestors were Catholic German farmers from the Emsland. That's why I'm interested in the history of Rütenbrock, among other German villages like Hebelermeer and Wesuwe.

You'll find more stuff on regional history and genealogy in the
Collectie Broer Berens

Enjoy, greetings from the Netherlands, Pauline Berens

01-03-2020: The Rütenbrock church under construction. So many ancestors were baptized, married, or buried here.