Jan Schuermanns Ancestry

Hello dear visitor, my name is Jan Schürmann and I am pleased that you have found your way here to find out something about the Schürmann family from the grange in Ellerbeck.

When I was born on this farm in 1950, there were already no more historical documents on the farm and its inhabitants, since all documents on the family history were burned in a major fire in 1926. Letters, photos, documents and written memories were consumed by the flames. So only the stories of the older family members remained, and most of them only knew it from hearsay. Knowing absolutely nothing about the generations that lived and worked on the farm before today, that awakened my spirit of research.

The grandparents knew from stories told by the elders that there must have been two outstanding ancestors in the line of ancestors. They are said to have worked as missionaries on distant continents, but where was not known. The youthful courage of being carefree and the fantasies of foreign worlds and peoples haunting my head gave me the courage to want to find out more about these primeval ancestors. At the time, I didn't know how many "Grand" and "Great" there would be before the ancestors.

Due to family difficulties, the farm had to be given up at the beginning of the 1960s and maybe that was also the reason for me to deal more with the history of my ancestors. In any case, the farm is now called "Ellernhof" and is used as a residential home and riding therapy center for the "Osnabrück Curative Education Aid". Therefore, there is no longer any connection to the Schürmann family from this side.

But the genealogical research had to wait first. After school came training and then a job. But as it is in life: "The unexpected often happens!"
One fine day in 1987 Edwin (named Ted) Schurmann, an Australian relative, came with his wife to Bissendorf to visit and get to know the home of his great-grandfather, the pastor and missionary Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann (1815 - 1893). The "family history book" was quickly opened and the life of the Schürmanns from Ellerbeck in the 19th century was documented with old photos. Even after the Australians left, contact with the distant continent and the relatives living there was maintained. The life story of Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann has meanwhile been well covered by various publications.

But there had been talk of two missionaries. Who was the other and what was his name? Here, too, relatives from "Down Under" could help: it was Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann's older brother, Johann Adam Schürmann, who led a short but very eventful life from 1809 to 1852. With this information it was possible to continue working.

The first port of call was London, since Johann Adam Schürmann had come to the London Missionary Society from Berlin. From here he was sent as a missionary to Benares (today Varanasi) in India. So I went to India to look for my great-grandfather's relatives there. In fact, I found the tomb of the missionary in Benares in the local cemetery.

I had also read about relatives in the USA during my research on the Internet. When looking through and evaluating letters and mission reports, a fairly precise picture of the life of Johann Adam Schürmann, or Shurman or Sherman, as he called himself in the USA at the time, emerged. He probably made an effort to change his name to the local language in order to be able to talk to the residents "at eye level" and thus do better justice to his missionary task.

As a result of this search and research, which has been going on for more than 20 years, a booklet has now been published which bears the title "In the footsteps of the pastor and missionary Johann Adam Schürmann in India". The 121-page work is provided with numerous illustrations and can be purchased for 10 € in the village shop in Schledehausen and in Bissendorf or from me.

I have yet to see to what extent the details collected there will be incorporated into this website. In the meantime, I wish all visitors to this site a few exciting and entertaining moments on the journey through the life of the Schürmanns from Schledehausen in the Osnabrücker Land.

Take care and thanks for visiting the site.

Jan Schürmann

If you have anything else to contribute about the lives of the Schürmann family or the whereabouts of the individual people that has not yet been included here, please send me an e-mail

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