Population Coverage in Europe, USA and England

We have traced few people named Brecht who came to live in England. More went to live in the USA. Today the name Brecht is not common in England, Belgium and Holland.

Europe

Family legend has it that our ancestors came to England from the Low Countries (i.e. Belgium or Holland). A cousin is looking into this and he has found out the following details of population distribution:

Belgium (1997)
Brecht (see Note 1)65
Albrecht (see Note 2) 1534

Holland (1997)
Brecht 15 (see Note 3) Van Brecht 79

Notes:
1. In the Antwerp area (1997) the population was:
Brecht Nil
Van Brecht 52
2. With variants, e.g. Albrecht
3. Including a House of Breda

Migration from UK

Some descendants of Heinrich and George Frederick Brecht migrated to South Africa and Australia.

USA

Migration to USA from Europe

In 2005 my cousin obtained the following statistics from Ancestry.com from their U.S. Immigration Collection:

Ports of Departure..........................Number of Migrants

Bremen, Germany................................49
Bremen, Germany & Southampton, England........31
Antwerp, Begium...................................31
Le Havre, France..................................31
Rotterdam, Netherlands............................28
Hamburg, Germany & Le Havre, France...........13
Total.........................................183

Rootsweb Message Board

Some details of emigration to USA have been provided by the coordinator of a Rootsweb message board:

Roots of Brechts and Brights in USA

England

Indicators used

I have used the following indicators to conduct an analysis:

1. Analysis of Births 1837-1999

There were the following births:

• 1837-1899 37 (of which 34 were in London & Middlesex (21) and Essex (13))
  

• 1900-1939 53 (of which 50 were in London & Middlesex (16), Essex (29) and Kent(5))
  

• 1940-1999 52 (of which 31 in Essex (13), Kent (11) and Sussex (7))
  

2. Censuses

In the 1881, there were 13 people named Brecht of which 12 lived in London & Middlesex.

By the 1901 Census the numbers had grown to 29 with 12 in London & Middlesex and 14 in Essex.

3. Telephone Directories

In 1977-1984 there were 16 telephone listings with 11 in Essex and Sussex.

The total had fallen to 12 in 1997-2000 with 6 in Essex and Sussex.

4. Electoral Roll

There were 55 people on the Electoral Roll with 11 in Essex, 9 in Kent and 6 in Sussex.

Caution when Interpreting the Findings

Care has to be taken in interpreting the statistics as in the early 1900s some of the family changed their name to Brett to avoid anti-German sentiments, though some retained the legal name of Brecht.

Also it can be said that generally not all families publish their telephone numbers.

The Family up to 1940

The findings may be explained as follows:

• There have been few people called Brecht in the UK (the IGI has just 9 entries).

• We assume that Heinrich Brecht moved from Germany to London circa 1800.

• After Heinrich Brecht married Mary Somes in Islington in 1808 they moved to Spitalfields (1812-1824) and Bethnal Green (1836/7). They had a large family of mainly girls who married and changed their names.

• Heinrich took the anglicised equivalent of Henry and as Henry Brecht (Widower) married Harriet Piper in 1837 and died in 1838. After Henry Brecht died his widow remarried and continued to live in Bethnal Green (1841).

• Henry's son George Frederick Brecht married Mary Ann Walland in 1856 and lived in Mile End where they had a large family of mainly boys. Their children married in the years 1883-1907 and the family began to disperse mainly around London and the Home Counties. During the years 1898-1940 shops were established by Brechts in Poplar and Plaistow.

The Family Today

As shown in 1. and 4. above the dispersal of the family from its London & Middlesex (Mile End & Poplar)/Essex (Plaistow) base accelerated after 1940:

Births 1940-1999

In 1940-1999 there were births in:

South of London

Sussex

North of London

Cambridgeshire
Hertfordshire
Norfolk

West of London

Surrey
West Middlesex
Berkshire
Oxford

Telephone Directories

Listings in the last 25-30 years have been mainly in Essex/Sussex.

Colin Bower
28 February 2007

Link to:

Brecht Family - Main Index