Lohmeyer Families around the World

Religious strife and feudal oppression, combined with a string of poor harvests, caused a wave of emigration from Germany, starting in the 1840's.  Many families, sometimes entire villages, embarked for America, others headed to Africa or the new world of Australia.

1920 census data at www.ancestry.comIn the Unites States of America, the first LOHMEIER appears in the 1800 Federal Census (Philip Lohmeier in Northampton County, Pennsylvania). Census data over the years shows that the LOHMEYER name is closely associated with the migration of German farming families along the Great Lakes and inland to Kansas. By 1920, the majority of Lohmeyer families in the USA (63%) have settled in the states of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York and Maryland. I have also prepared an up to date map of where the American Lohmeyer families live today.

In Australia today, the LOHMEYER spelling is dominant, with only a few LOHMAIER families and one LOWE-MEIER (although this may well be a conjoining of Lowe and Meier, rather than a true variant spelling of Lohmeier). There are no LOHMEIER families in Australia (2010 telephone book search).  The great majority of LOHMEYERs are resident in South Australia and most of that clan can trace their roots back to Julius Lohmeyer who arrived in Australia from Minden, Germany in 1879. I have compiled his family tree and transcribed his fascinating autobiography where you can read more about his family and his extraordinary life.

Football World Cup Nations  For a bit of fun, I have also plotted the distribution of the Lohmeyer/Lohmeier surnames in many of the countries participating in the 2010 Football World Cup.