Connecting the Dots: Indiana, Texas, and Germany

In researching the origins of my Holzgrafe ancestors, I came to a Fredrich Holzgrafe and what I assume is his brother, Henry August Holzgrafe both of whom were married in 1850 in Evansville, Indiana. Their marriage records are the oldest known records of my ancestors and may lead to unlocking their past. For a long time now, I have been puzzled by the immigration record of Conrad Holzgrefe and his family to Comal Co. Texas. On the same indexed record we find a John (22) and Henry (20) Holzgrefe who arrived in 1846 aboard the Gerhard Hermann - the same ship on which Conrad arrived. I was elated to find that the home town of Conrad was recorded as Eldagsen, Germany and quickly did loads of research on the Holzgrefe family in Eldagsen. I even found some Kohlmeyers in Eldagsen as well (Sarah Kohlmeyer marries Henry Louis Holzgrafe who is the son of Fredrich). In the 1850 census we don't find any John or Henry with Conrad in Texas or anywhere else for that matter. That would make sense because they would be up in Indiana by then! Henry August, who lived to see the year 1900, reported on that census that he immigrated to the US in 1845, the same year the Gerhard Hermann left port in Bremen, Germany. All these clues lead me to believe that the John and Henry on the Gerhard Hermann were indeed the (Johann) Fredrich and Henry August I've been researching in Evansville, Indiana. They must have left Texas for Indiana sometime between 1846 and 1850.

This theory was perfectly plausible until I stumbled upon this website. According to Chris Kneupper, an expert in the mass German immigration to Texas and author of the Holzgrefe family tree on this website, Johann Heinrich Ludwig Holzgrefe (b. 1830 in Eldagsen) was the son of Konrad Holzgrefe and died in 1852 in Comal Co., Texas. This was a problem. No Johann or Henry was supposed to exist in Texas after 1850. Because of this...my theory may have been flawed. I quickly wrote and e-mail to Mr. Kneupper and requested more information on the matter. He replied quickly stating that the source, as recorded on his webpage, was a church record from a church in New Braunfels, Comal Co. The record was a book listing the families of the German immigrants and included some information on each family. Johann Heinrich Ludwig Holzgrefe was listed in the family of Konrad Holzgrefe as was his death year of 1852.

The LDS archived and microfilmed original church records of the only church in Eldagsen, Germany only go back to 1853, long after Konrad and his family left Germany. I have sent an e-mail to the current Pastor of the church and received a quick reply with detailed information about some of the Holzgrefes of Eldagsen including a Henrich Holzgrefe after whom a street was named in the early 1900s. He also mentioned several church books written in old German script which contain records back to the dawn of time practically. I am very interested in what those books may reveal about all of this. Alas, the pastor is unable to dedicate hours upon hours searching, deciphering, and then translating the ancient records. For now, I have nowhere else to search. And so, as I try to connect the dots...it seems that they are all rather disconnected...for the time being.