Daniel Oetjen posted the following on my Facebook page December, 2015[1]:

I decided to write some lines about the early history of the Cordes family in Scheeßel for you, because I did some research on it lately.

Early History

We have very little knowledge about how the life in Scheeßel during the 16th century was. But there is a record about the first Ölrich Cordes, who probably founded the farm called Üllerks in Scheeßel. He was also an innkeeper, who had a license to serve liquor to people. In 1599 Ölrich Cordes had to pay a fine of ½ Taler at the district court in Scheeßel, because he served beer at his inn. Only one inn in Scheeßel had a license to serve beer, which was the Scheeßeler Amtskrug.

His grandson Ölrich Cordes II (~1633-1719), married Anna Hastedt in 1655. And, he married Engel Meÿer on October 25th 1671, probably because his first wife had died. It’s very likely that the farm was called Üllerks because at least two, maybe three of the early owners had the first name Ölrich. The name of the farm is still Üllerks, nobody wrote this name down and after the centuries passed by, nobody knew where the name came from anymore, until we discovered the old records lately.

The son of Ölrich Cordes II, Meinke Cordes (1680-1726), was a shoemaker in Scheeßel. He inherited the farm, but since it was a small farm he had to earn some extra money as a craftsman, like his ancestor had to earn extra money as an innkeeper.

Jacob Cordes (1712-1786), the son of Meinke Cordes, married Gertrud Kracke in 1741. When the oldest son of the family, Meinke II (1742-1808), got married in 1775 all younger siblings were supposed to marry and leave the farm. The second son Johann Conrad Cordes (1747) married the heiress of a farm in Helvesiek in 1776, a village nearby. He became an ancestor of US Cordes families. The youngest daughter Catharina Cordes (1760-1819) married Dierck Meÿer in 1777 at the age of 17. She was my ancestor.

Houses

The following are pictures of the Üllerks farmhouse that were taken around 1900.

The old farmhouse was moved to a different space in 1912 and is used as a museum for rural culture in Scheeßel today. The following picture shows how it looks as a museum today.

Research

My research was easy, because all my ancestors are from the area between Hamburg and Bremen, they never migrated. I also have Cordes, Gerken and Meÿer ancestors from Scheeßel through my paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather. And some Luedemann women married Oetjen men, so I have Luedemann ancestors too.

Wiki

I have created a wiki about the history of the Scheeßel parish, where I collect old photos and stories from the area. I hope it’s a way to share old photos with everyone. Most of the stuff is from my hometown, Lauenbrück, but I hope to get some material from other villages soon too. I also plan to translate some articles. My Scheeßel wiki is at http://www.scheessel-wiki.de/[2][3]

Notes

1. This chapter as presented is an edited composite of several communications.
2. A list of all Scheeßel Wiki pages is at http://www.scheessel-wiki.de/index.php?title=Spezial:Alle_Seiten
3. A list of all Scheeßel Wikiphotos is at http://www.scheessel-wiki.de/index.php?title=Spezial:Dateien
4. See also: Heimatmuseum Scheeßel at https://www.tourow.de/aktivitaeten/kultur-und-kunst/museen-heimathaeuser-detailseite/poi/heimatmuseum-und-meyerhofgelaende-scheessel.html