Germany and German Ancestry

Comment

Comment by Catherine Davis on January 18, 2010 at 9:54am

Another thought, which you've probably already had. We were in Germany a couple of years ago and I noticed that the Germans pronounce their V's somewhat like we pronounce F. Considering that the early censuses were oral reports to a census taker, have you looked for Fogels or Fogles? On ancestry.com, I found a civil war pension record for a "Clemens Fogel, alias Clemens Vogel." There are also tax records on ancestry for a Clemens Fogel in Missouri in the 1860s.

Comment by Lynn Palermo on January 17, 2010 at 8:32pm

Thanks for your insights. My family came from Rust, Baden. They arrived in Oct 1833 in the Port of New York. George and Franzica Vogel came with their children, Agatha age 14, (K)Clemence age 13, (K)Crescence 2months and Gabriel age 12 ( although we believed Gabriel is poorly transcribed). Anyway, they have an older daughter Agnes who also arrives different ship with husband Anton Bauman, they settle in New York have first two children there. In early 1840's I can put Agnes and Gabriel in Waterloo, Ontario for their remaining life. A very heavily German settlement, from which my father is eventually born. Past the initial ship document showing the remaining members of the family I cannot place them at all. I realize George may miss the census but Francisza was considerably younger, and I find it funny that the youngest children show up no where. Although I have a couple of records for an Agatha Vogel, I cannot place if she belongs to this family, records are for Minnesota not New York.
You are right, George was a farmer, the chances of him being able to afford to return are slim but I find it funny that 4-5 family members cannot be accounted for. I am actually a descendant of Gabriel but I am determined to find out what happened to his father Johann George Vogel.

Comment by Catherine Davis on January 17, 2010 at 7:46pm

Lynn, if you know the town where your family came from in Germany, you might be able to check that town's records for marriages or deaths that might have occurred after an ancestor returned. However, unless your ancestors were somewhat affluent, it is doubtful that many of them could have returned to Germany very soon after arriving in North America. If you have ships records for their arrivals here, double-check in what cabin class they came. If it was steerage, they came to this country with minimal finances, and would have had to accumulate the necessary funds on this side of the Atlantic to travel back to Germany. They may have died here before the next census, but, especially if there were several people involved, I think it is more likely that they anglicized or otherwise changed their surname, especially if they arrived somewhere around WWI when anti-German feelings were strong in North America (or--if you are using ancestry.com to find them, their surnames may have been transcribed incorrectly in the indexing procedure). If your family, as you have found them, all settled in a certain area, it might be worth going through the census page-by-page looking for those who look like your family members but whose names might have been changed or badly transcribed. Or look in the area of settlement for obituaries, etc. However, if your family was widely spread, these ideas are probably non-starters.
Did your family settle in Canada near the US border around 1850? I have family who settled in the thumb of Michigan around that time and I have found that the border was rather porous at that time, with the family crossing and recrossing Lake Huron seemingly at will. I can't find them in either the 1850 US census or the 1851 Canadian census, so suspect that they were in Canada in 1850 and back in the US in 1851, and missed both censuses.
Another possibility, which I learned about in a seminar I attended in October: some of the midwestern US states actively recruited Germans to move to their state and even paid their passage. The states hired agents to carry out the recruiting in Germany and many of them kept very detailed accounts of their recruits lives here, and those records may be found in the individual state archives. I don't know if Canada did this same kind of thing, but if the majority of your family settled there, you might want to try and research this idea in the area you know.

Comment by brian house on January 17, 2010 at 7:19pm

I am looking for more information on Gildehaus, House and Johnson family from Germany.

Comment by Lynn Palermo on January 17, 2010 at 5:57pm

I am beginning to speculate that some of my German ancestors immigrated to New York, some of them I can document their migration to Canada and eventually their deaths. However, some members in the same immediate family never show up anywhere passed their arrival in New York. They do not show up in any US or Canadian Census. Anybody know how I could find if they returned to Germany.

Comment by M. Denise Golding on January 17, 2010 at 7:17am

Michael, I am thrilled to see my surnames with numbers alongside them, but I have no idea of what that means, or where I can go to learn more. Help, please.

Comment by Sherri S on January 16, 2010 at 8:26pm

My goal this year is to connect my two German great grandparents back to relatives in Germany. They arrived in America in 1888; my grandfather was born in Germany before they immigrated. This branch of the family will be the most challenging because I know so little to start. Hopefully I will glean some good research tips from this group. My German relations are Sophie Buchbinder and Herman Schulz. My grandfather Frederick William was born May 1885. They have listed Rhineland as a birth place but I recently found a docuement with a burg?; I believe they may have lived in.

Comment by Gene Fett on January 16, 2010 at 7:27pm

My great-great-grandfather, Christian Schreiber, immigrated from Germany to America with his family in 1843. There is some belief that they settled in Pennsylvania for a sort time. They eventually migrated to Wisconsin in the later 1840's as I have found a record of a land purchase in the Jackson area in 1848. I am researching any temporary stop in Pennsylvania.

Comment by M. Denise Golding on January 16, 2010 at 4:54am

Hi, I am having 'fun' tracing my German ancestry. Although I am the third generation born in Australia, all my paternal line originates from Germany (as far as I have traced it so far, anyway). The surnames of interest are: Will/Wille from Zahrensdorf, Mecklenberg-Schwerin, Dreier/Dreyer from Vellahn, Mecklenberg-Schwerin, Qualmann from Neumecklenburg, Brandenburg, Prussia, Karger/Kaerger from Radnitz, Germany, Busch from Neumecklenburg, Brandenburg, Prussia, Schmidt and Bannoh from ?? Sophia Maria Margaretha Bannoh married Johann Friedrich Qualmann prior to coming to Australia, so they may be from the same area. I have actually traced the parish records for Zahrensdorf (Zarnsdorf), so I know they are correct, and I have found some Dreier names at Vellahn, but the others are all heresay from others' research (with no sources quoted) - oh, except for Daniel Busch who was naturalised and stated his birth place as Harkensee. Would love to link up with anyone who might be interested.

Comment by Bernhard Kauntz on January 15, 2010 at 5:48pm

Looking for Kauntz/Kaunitz/Kauntze. Interested can look here, I have more than 700 living and deceased Kauntz from all over the world.
www.werbeka.com/kauntz/kauntz.htm

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