15th Cousins? I have a few.

I recently posted a question on Facebook inviting people to make a guess.

"If two people share the same parents, they are siblings. If they share the same grandparents, they are 1st cousins. If they share the same great-grandparents, they are 2nd cousins. If we assume that everyone has 2 children, how many 15th cousins could I have?"

Unfortunately, no one offered a guess, but you could imagine there would be guesses ranging from 1,000 to 100,000. The correct answer is that I would have 32,768 15th cousins. To give you some prospective, there are about 34,000 people living in Butte, Montana.

Butte, Montana: Pop. =33,854 (2013)

Now, this is also in addition to the 16,384 14th cousins, 8,192 13th cousins, 4,096 12th cousins, 2,048 11th cousins, 1,024 10th cousins, 512 9th cousins, 256 8th cousins, 128 7th cousins, 64 6th cousins, 32 5th cousins, 16 4th cousins, 8 3rd cousins, 4 2nd cousins, 2 first cousins, 1 sibling and a partridge in a pear tree! If we add these all up (including myself) there would be a total of 65,536 living descendants of my 14th great-grandfather who was born around 1500 AD in Schweicheln, Germany. That's about the same as the population of Missoula, Montana. 

Missoula, Montana: Pop.=69,122 (2013)

Now, that would only be for my generation when in reality we would need to include my living nieces/nephew's generation, my parent's generation, my grandparent's generation, and even some of my great-grandparent's generation. This number of living descendants very well could be upwards of 100,000 which is about the population of the state of Montana. 

Montana, USA: Pop.=1,015,165 (2013)

Now, that's assuming that everyone had exactly 2 children who survived to adulthood and had 2 children of their own. In reality many descendants did not live to adulthood, marry, or have children. Many others had up to 12 children! To allow for comparison, if we assume that everyone had exactly 5 children, my 14th great-grandfather would have 30,517,578,125 descendants! That's a little over 4 times the current world population! 

Earth (x4): Pop.=7,276,626,200 (4:14 PM)
Pop. x 4 =29,106,504,800

Perhaps 2 is a better estimate of the average descendants per person on our family tree. 3 would give 14,348,907 (about the size of Illinois) and 4 would give 1,073,741,824 (about the size of India). 

So, why is any of this important? Because with numbers like these, there's bound to be other cousins out there who have done research on their little branch of the family which I could never have hoped to find out myself. I haven't yet determined how much of the family tree I will cover in my book. I've contemplated writing several volumes; one for every major branch since 1700 on my side of the family and have a similar chapter in each about the "ancient" Holzgrafe family from 1500-1700. 

Did you marry your 8th cousin?

In a recent post I explained that there is a Holtgraefe family from Joellenbeck and Enger which might be a branch off of the Schweicheln Holtzgraefe tree which is known back to 1500 AD. Where that connection may be is still a mystery and might not be solved for some time as it may require a visit to Germany. Since that post was...posted, I have done a bit more research on this family. The furthest back I was able to get was to a Cord Holtgraeve who was born in Oldinghausen, Enger in 1627 AD.

I then lined him up next to the Schweicheln family tree to see where he could possibly fit in (see image below). He could be a nephew of Jasper Holtzgrafe (1603-1672), or a distant cousin, but he would be in the same generation as Heinrich Holzgraefe (1645-1708). Since he was born in Enger, he is most likely a second, third or even a fourth cousin of Heinrich.

Click to enlarge

Since I was unable to determine the exact relation right away, I turned to the descendants of Cord in both Oldinghausen and Joellenbeck and where ever else the family ended up. Several of his descendants came to America including the Holtzgrafes of Warrick, Indiana and their cousins who ended up in Minnesota. As far as I know, the Holtzgrafe name does not continue from this line in America. There are, however, many cousins by different surnames who came to America including the Harland, the Fehring, Hachmeister, Schmidt, and Merhoff families.

Then I stumbled upon the Wittland family, a very large branch of Cord's tree. While some of these Wittland descendants (the Fehring and Hachmeister families) moved to America, others stayed including Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Wittland (1859-1930) who in 1888 married his 8th cousin (at least), Johanne Wilhelmine Holzgraefe (1868-????) who was the daughter of Caspar Heinrich Holzgraefe (1836-????) and Catharine Marie Klussmann (1838-????). This is an estimate based on the scenario described above where Cord is a nephew of Jasper.

We can all agree that marrying a sibling or cousin is a big no-no, but when it comes down to it, we're all cousins. Geneticists have learned over the years that marrying a close relative can cause severe handicaps in children born to that marriage. I found it interesting that all states in the United States allow marriage of 2nd cousins and some will even allow the marriage of 1st cousins! Here is a list of states that actually allow 1st cousins to marry.

My wife and I found that we're related, but we're 10th cousins twice removed, so I think we're good. You too may have married your 8th cousin without even realizing it! Here's a neat little chart that I find helpful when determining how you're related to distant cousins.

Lloyd R. Holzgrafe: A Tribute

Lloyd R Holzgrafe (Holzgraf) was born 29 April 1931 to Harold Talmage Holzgrafe and Edna M Kuechel in Santa Ana, California. He passed away 13 years ago today (10 November 2001). This is a lovely tribute to his amazing career as a professional organist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2A8xxzwiZM).

My most favorite organ song ever as played by my second cousin twice removed, Lloyd Holzgrafe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd0bETda5uM).

 

Lloyd had no children, but his memory lives on through his Holzgrafe cousins and all those influenced by his music and spirit. Please comment if you have any memories of Lloyd which you'd like to share.

                         

Jöllenbeck-Enger

In my research, I frequently will search for records of Holzgraefes who are not yet part of my family tree hoping to one day connect them in and restore them to the family. Doing this has brought large groups of Holzgraefe cousins into the family, but there are still several groups for whom no connection has been found. These groups, like the group that immigrated from Germany to New Braunfels, TX, have been researched back to the 1700s in places outside of the Herford area. That being said, they are most likely very distantly related if at all. Still, there are some, like the group in Jöllenbeck, near Herford, who have not been connected in even though they live so close to Schweicheln. Schweicheln is where the Holzgraefes can be traced back to 1500 through a lineage of Colons or Colonists. These farmers were kinda like land lords except they didn't own the land. They did have inheritance rights to it though. Therefore, the eldest son of a Colon became the new Colon while the younger siblings became a part of the Heurlinge who were like the tenant farmers or surfs, paying rent to the Colon and working for the Colon and only given a small garden with which to subsist.

So, naturally there are more records for the Colon than for the Heurlinge. The Heurlinge siblings or cousins would often move to another farm where there was a vacancy and became a Colon or the women would marry a Colon of another farm. As far as I know this was not documented too well back in the day. So, the Holzgraefe family could have spread out from Schweicheln in many directions prior to 1700 without us knowing about it.

Jöllenbeck

Evidence linking the Jöllenbeck Holtzgraefe to the pre-1700s Schweicheln clan can be found in the spelling of the surname. Prior to 1700, we tend to see the name spelt with a "t": Holtzgraefe. This "t" was dropped in Schweicheln later on, but remains in the Jöllenbeck name to this day. The spelling, of course depended on the priest or recorder in the church where the records were created. Our Holzgraefe ancestors were more than likely illiterate and could not write. Therefore, the spelling was decided by the clergy. There was a separate parish in Jöllenbeck with separate clergy. Hence the spelling difference.

Warrick, Indiana, USA

While researching my ancestors in Indiana, I would often search for "Hol*gr*e" in Indiana records. The * indicates a wildcard in the search so that it encompasses many misspellings of the name. I came up with a plethora of records, but not all of them belonged to my ancestors. Specifically, there was a Holtzgraefe family living in Warrick and later Gibson counties, Indiana. I began piecing this family together, but it didn't look like they connected to my family...at least not in America and I couldn't seem to find how they got to Indiana.

That was almost three years ago. A couple weeks ago, I was doing a similar search on Findagrave.com and found another family in Warrick by a similar name. I began researching them and it became apparent that these were the grandparents of the family I had researched almost three years earlier! I quickly did more searches, but still couldn't find how they came over from Germany. Then I found German records on FamilySearch that were, without a doubt, for this family. The records came from a town called Schieldesche and before that, Jöllenbeck. I love how things come full circle sometimes.

So, I researched the Jöllenbeck Holtzgraefe family and pieced them together on Ancestry.com (see my "Holzgraefe Histories" tree). Then I pulled up this website which I had saved years ago which lists a ton of old records from Jöllenbeck online. This website was created by genealogists in the Jöllenbeck area and is very reliable. I was able to find that this Warrick Holtzgraefe family was related not only to the Jöllenbeck group, but also the Minnisota group! There was another small Holtzgraefe family that settled in Sibley, MN which, I found, also came from this same Jöllenbeck group.

Enger

The website was able to get me all the way back to about 1700 in Jöllenbeck, but I was not able to go any further than that. The Holtzgraefes in Jöllenbeck were Heurlinges and there aren't too many records for them (like tax records). So, I did more random searches for other Jöllenbeck Holtzgraefes not yet connected. I found possible candidates for siblings or first cousins of the furthest back Holtzgraefe ancestor. One of these was recorded as Heinrich Holtzgraefe Aus Dem Kirspiel Enger or Heinrich Holtzgraefe of the Enger parish. Enger is a town which is even closer to Herford and Schweicheln. Another potential sibling married a Luebcke at some point as recorded in the birth records of their children. I found a marriage record for a Holtzgraefe by the same name marrying a Luebcke in Herford in 1725. The record came from the Enger parish.

Piecing all of this together, it looks like the family I found in Warrick, Indiana and Sibley, Minnesota came from Jöllenbeck and the Jöllenbeck clan most likely came from Enger. The question still stands...Did the Enger Holtzgraefe family branch off from the Schweicheln family some time in the 1600s? Records back then do not include family of the individual on the record so it is nearly impossible at this point to connect the two families. Still, I am trying to reach out to my German contacts who are specialists in the area who may be able to find more information on the matter. Stay tuned!

Santa Ana Pioneers

In my research, I love coming across documents which detail the history of an area and how the Holzgrafe family influenced that history. Recently, I received a correspondence from the United Methodist Church in Santa Ana, California. This church used to be an Evangelical Lutheran church and it was Ferdinand Holzgrafe, second great-grandson of Caspar Holzgrafe, who helped get the church started in the late 1800's. The following are excerpts from a couple of histories which were compiled for the church at the celebration of its 90th and 100th anniversaries.

"The first Evangelicals who came to Southern California settled in Wilmington, near San Pedro, in about 1878. The 4th of May 1879 came Ferdinand and Henry Holzgraf . The two unmarried brothers were members of the Evangelical Church in Indiana. At that time Rev. F. W. Vogelein of San Francisco preached off and on in their homes and organized a class. Ferdinand Holzgraf came to Santa Ana on the 15th of November in 1879. At that time Santa Ana had a population of about 500. Mr. Holzgraf was the first Evangelical man in the whole vicinity and though the church wasn't officially organized until 1881, his arrival marks the birth of our church."

"The following Trustees were elected:
Peter Shield - President 3 years
Henry W. Rohrs - Treasurer 2 years
Ferdinand Holzgraf - Secretary 1 year"

Ferdinand married Peter's daughter and Ferdinand's daughter married a Rohrs.

"Trees were purchased and a lawn was planted. Mr. Ferdinand Holzgrafe was the first care-taker, who performed these services for $5.00 per year."

Also in my research I found that my second great-grandfather, Henry Louis Holzgraf, also moved to Wilmington, California with Ferdinand and was there as a witness at his wedding, but Henry went back to the Mid-west to study to become a pastor. I've always wondered what he did after his graduation in Naperville, Illinois in 1886 and before he got married in Gibson, Indiana in 1888. The other day I found his name in the Los Angeles Daily Herald on 16 March 1887:

"Daily real estate record...Monday, March 15, 1887...Henry Gobruegge to Henry L Holzgrafe - 10 acres in Ro. Santiago de Santa Ana: $3750."

Apparently he was planning on settling in Santa Ana with his brother, but I have found no more records to indicate what he was doing in Santa Ana. He remained in the Mid-west throughout his ministry and later picked up farming and followed his children to the Pacific Northwest where he retired. I need to investigate more into the land records of Santa Ana to find out what Henry did with those 10 Acres which, had he kept ownership of them, would have made him a very wealthy man today.

I think it is very neat to see how my ancestors influenced the development of this country. Every one is important and helps me to see that those still alive are just as important to the future's history.

Havana Holzgrafe History Mystery

Evansville Holzgrafe Family

When I began my research into the Holzgraefe family three years ago, I noticed several branches of the family which immigrated at various times and settled areas from Richmond, Virginia to Sydney, Australia. My ancestors settled in Evansville, Indiana and immigrated from Haddenhausen, Minden, Nordrhein-Westphalia, Germany. As I researched the heritage of my ancestors and that of those who married into the family, I learned that for two generations my ancestors married into families who also immigrated from the Haddenhausen area. This was the case for many immigrants who want to keep their close ties to their homeland and friends.

Havana Holzgrafe Family

I have often researched the Holzgrafe family who settled in Havana, Mason, Illinois. The patriarch of the family was John William Holzgrafe who was born in 1809 in "Hanover" as it recorded in a family Bible. He and his wife had many children especially sons who were all given the first name of George and known by their middle names. There was  lot of information on the family on Ancestry.com and in the history of Havana as they had a great impact on the agricultural and city life there. I really did hope there would come a time when I would be able to find where they came from and how they might be related to my Holzgraefe family. 

Uelzen Holzgrefe Family

Thumbing through old documents I received from my Mother from her days of Holzgrafe genealogical research, I found a letter written by the late Dr. Robert Earl Holzgrafe of Evansville, Indiana. I never had the chance of meeting Dr. Holzgrafe, but my mother was in correspondence with him in the '80s. Dr. Holzgrafe was the Holzgrafe History expert of his day and was on the front lines of the research frontier. He even made a trip to Germany with a genealogical friend to meet the Holzgrefe family of Uelzen, Germany. The letter told of his findings in Germany which were sorely disappointing. Little did he know, he was looking in the wrong city. The Holzgrefe family of Uelzen were kind to him and wished him luck in his research. They offered him what they could of their history in the town and even gave a family tree. He included a copy of this tree in his letter to my mother which I have studied time and again. Holzgrefe cousins marrying each other, one Holzgrefe born in Uelzen and died in Quakenbruck, another died in Ohio and was a Major in the Salvation Army. The tree was very interesting, but yielded no fruit. I found the one who came to Ohio. He died with no posterity. 

The Crossroads

The other day, my understanding from the research done on my branch of the family, my research into the Havana, Illinois Holzgrafe family, and the family tree from the Uelzen Holzgrefe family all came together at a crossroads. I decided to look at the families of the wives these George Holzgrefe boys were marrying. George Heinrich "Henry" Holzgrafe married Anna C Deverman. The Deverman family came to Illinois from the area around Quakenbruck, a small town in the providence of Hanover. Other Deverman family members in Illinois married into the Heye family which also came from the Quakenbruck area and can be found on the family tree of the Uelzen Holzgrefes. So, I though I cannot prove it, I believe the Holzgrefe family which originated in Uelzen, moved to Quakenbruck and then to Havana, Illinois is not the same family as my Holzgrafe ancestors. The tree in Uelzen goes back to 1766. It could still be possible that the two families are related, but it would be very far into the past.

Proof

Proof? I have none. Only coincidental and circumstantial evidence. It seems very likely that the Havana Holzgrafes came from Quakenbruck, but the records in Quakenbruck from 1775-1835 are not available to me at this time. I have contacted the church in Quakenbruck in hopes that they may be able to help me find records indicating that Holzgrefes did live there and that John William Holzgrafe was one of them.

Pitfall

The only pitfall in my theory, aside from its assuming nature, is that the name is spelled "Holzgrefe" on the tree from Quakenbruck and Uelzen and yet it is spelled "Holzgrafe" in the Havana, Illinois records. But perhaps the family was illiterate and didn't know how to spell their own name. After all, German accents are hard to understand. Perhaps Holzgrefe sounds a lot like Holzgrafe. 

And so this Havana Holzgrafe History Mystery continues...

Caroline Schnake-Baker-Holzgrafe

When my mother handed me all her notes from her years of pre-internet genealogy research back in 2011, I found mystery upon mystery which needed to be solved. Today, one of those mysteries finally came to a close.

The Mystery

Originally, I had two family trees, one for each of the Holzgrafe brothers from Germany living in Evansville, Indiana. Their relationsip as brothers was not proven, but only assumed. The older brother was called Henry August Holzgrafe and his wife was Carloine Baker. The younger brother was William Ferdinand and his wife was also Caroline Baker. One of William Ferdinand's sons was William Ferdinand.

The Investigation

The first thing that caught my attention was the name William Ferdinand. When I started, I tried finding both families in as many census records as possible. I could not find a William Ferdinand for the life of me! I could see the son William Ferdinand who went by Ferd later in life, but I couldn't see his father as a Ferdinand or Ferd. He was refered to a number of times as Fred though. Fred and Ferd look alike, but it's a different name. Eventually, I determined that his name was in fact Friedrich Wilhelm Holzgraefe.

I then turned to the next obvious mystery, Caroline Baker. This one stumped me for a while. How could both brothers be married to the same woman at the same time? It wasn't until I found both brothers on the same census page in 1860 that I realized, they were different women. Both Henry August and Friedrich Wilhelm had married women named Caroline. But which was the Baker?

I found a copy of the marriage record of Henry Holzgrafe to Caroline Baker in the notes my mother provided me. So, who was this other Caroline, the wife of Friedrich Wilhelm? After a ton of research on the matter, I found her maiden name to be Kahle, a family from the same town in Germany as Henry August and Friedrich Wilhelm.

But then something else didn't seem right. Baker? Really? That's not a very German name and all the records I found indicate that Caroline Baker-Holzgrafe was born in Germany. Additionally, I couldn't find any evidence of a Baker family to which Caroline might have belonged in Evansville. So, I looked at the marriage records of their children and found some more interesting information. Some of them listed Caroline's name as Caroline S. and others Caroline Schnake and others  just Caroline. Schnake? Well, at least it's more German. In fact, when Henry August and Friedrich Wilhelm first arrive in Evansville, they start up a brick laying company with a Schnute. This might have been a misspelling of the name Schnake. After a little more research in Evansville and in Germany, I was convinced that Caroline Schnake married Henry August Holzgrafe, but where did Baker come from?

I put the matter to rest for a long time. My parents were kind enough to go on a trip for me to Evansville last summer and they brought me some useful information for my research. They tried helping with this mystery, but they were only able to bring back the marriage record of a Peter Baker to a Caroline Schnake, but they were married on the same day as Caroline Baker and Henry August, so it couldn't have been the same Caroline. In fact, I had stumbled upon this record before and had considered it, but ruled it out because of the date conflicts.

Well, today I thumbed through some old documents I have and found these two marriage records and looked at them carefully. They are both signed by the reverend A. Saupert of the Trinity Lutheran Chruch in Evansville, Indiana. The dates that are the most obvious are 9 september 1850, but then I read carefully. "Be it further remembered, that on this 9th day of September 1850, the following certificate was filled in my office..." This was only the date for when this document was filled out. I looked at the marriage of Peter Baker to Caroline Schnake and just after that statement it reads, "This certifices that I joined in marriage as husband and wife Peter Baker and Caroline Schnake on the 5th day of June 1850." Looking at the marriage record for Henry Holzgrafe and Caroline "Baker" it says the same thing, but with the date of the 5th day of September 1850. BAM!

The Solution

In summary, it was found that Marie Caroline Louise Schnake (birth name in Germany) immigrated to Evansville, Indiana with her family around 1845 where she met and married a man by the name of Peter Baker on 5 June 1850. Then, for whatever reason, the marriage didn't work out or Peter died, but Caroline felt to remarry to Henry August Holzgraefe. They were married on 5 September 1850, but when they went to get the marriage license, they were required to provide proof of her previous marriage which she must not have had. Therefore, on 9 September 1850, what must have been a very frustrating day, Caroline had A. Saupert fill out a certificate saying that he married her and Peter Baker back in June and then she had A. Saupert sign another certificate the same day stating that he had married her to Henry August Holzgrafe a few days earlier. Game. Set. Match!

I guess the only mystery left would be to learn more about this Peter Baker. Who was he, where did he come from, and what happened to him? Other then that, the Caroline Schnake-Baker-Holzgrafe mystery is officially closed!

1800-1850: From Schweicheln to Evansville

A study of the history of the German States during the first half of the 19th century hardly leaves one to question why the Holzgraefe family would leave their Fatherland for a strange yet promising New World. It was a time of turmoil and uncertainty as the Holy Roman Empire, a collection of some 300 Germanic states, began its transformation into one single German nation state. The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire seemed unavoidable by the 18th century. The Emperor was little more than the title itself. Each of the states had its own form of government which was very much independent of the Imperial agenda. Like a classroom of unsupervised children, wars and feuds between and within each of the states was common. This disorder couldn't have come at a worse time for the empire, for Napoleon Bonaparte had risen swiftly to power in revolutionary France and was on the move all across Europe defeating army after army.

On 9 September 1796, Albert Henrich Holzgraefe was born to Ernst Henrich Holzgraefe and Anne Sophie Heidemeier in the ancient farming community of Schweicheln, Herford, then an independent city within Brandenburg-Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire. The Imperial Abbey of Herford was secularized in 1802 and Herford was then annexed by the County of Ravensburg in 1803. In 1805, when Albert was only nine years old, his father died and according to the feudal laws of the time, Albert, as the second son, would not inherit the portion of the family farm which was his father's to give. Albert must have struggled with what he would do as he grew up working on the farm of his elder brother.

In 1806, Napoleon had successfully shut down the Holy Roman Empire for good and formed the Confederation of the Rhein in its  place with French nobelmen at the head of each German state.  Prussia, a large and powerful German state excluded from the Confederation of the Rhein contended for power in the Rheinland and joined the Fourth Coalition to stop the spread of Napoleon and the French Revolution. However, Prussia was dreadfully defeated by Napoleon's army and was forced to become a French ally. Additionally, Herford and a large portion of Northern Germany were ceded by Prussia to the Confederation of the Rhein in 1807 as the client state of the Kingdom of Westphalia.

By 1812, Napoleon had gained control over most of the continent, but his ambition for power proved to be his folly and he was forced out of Russia with what was left of the Grande Armée. Soon came his downfall and exile to the Isle of Elba. In 1815, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the Congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Westphalia became the providence of Westphalia within the Kingdom of Prussia, a part of the new German Confederation. 

One benefit from the Napoleonic Wars was the writing of a new constitution in Westphalia which made all male citizens of equal rights and liberating the serfs. What this meant for the Holzgraefe family, I still have yet to discover. In 1818, at the age of 21, Albert Henrich Holzgraefe left Schweicheln and his ancestral home and married Anne Marie Sophie Kassebaum on the 27th of May presumably in the Lutheran church of Bergkirchen, Minden, Westphalia about 12 miles to the north. They made their home on the north side of the Weihen hills in a small farming community called Haddenhausen. They were blessed with six children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Their children and their dates of birth are as follows:

Anne Catherine Margarethe Ilsabein *29 April 1819
Justine Wilhelmine Caroline *19 September 1821
Johann Friedrich *17 January 1824
Friedrich Wilhelm Conrad *18 October 1826, t 9 July 1827
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm *15 July 1828
Sophie Christine Karoline *23 September 1831, t December 1831

In March of 1840, Albert's wife died at the age of 44 and soon Albert's health wained as well. The Confederation of Germany experienced a period of ill health as well during this period as talks of revolution spread throughout the nation. For what reason he left, it is not known, but in the year 1845, at the young age of 19, Johann Friedrich illegally emigrated to America. How he managed that is still not known. The following year, after the death of his father, Albert, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm likewise emigrated illegally to America. In this time, German citizens were expected to request permission to emigrate. Failing to do so was illegal. 

Both brothers made it safely to Evansville, Indiana which they made their home. Johann Friedrich went by Henry August once in America and Johann Friedrich Wilhelm simply went by Friedrich. The sisters left behind must have had a difficult life all alone in such an unstable country. In June 1845 Justine Wilhelmine Caroline gave birth to an illegitimate son named Karl Friedrich. The father, Karl Dietrich Hartman doesn't seem to stick around and Justine Wilhelmine Caroline found herself raising a child with her sister. On 10 January 1847, Anne Catherine Margarethe Ilsabein married a man from Hille named Christian Friedrich Fegel. And in August of that year they were blessed with a daughter named Emilie Ottilie Fegel, however the new mother died shortly thereafter due to complications in childbirth. On 9 January 1848, a year after he married one Holzgraefe, Christian Fegel found himself marrying another. Justine Wilhelmine Caroline and Christian would raise their children together. 

In May of 1848, perhaps to escape  the revolution in Germany, Christian and Justine Wilhelmine Caroline boarded the ship called Franconia in the port of Bremerhaven and emigrated to America with their little children in toe. Sadly, little Emilie Ottilie died on the voyage across the sea. Christian, Justine and Karl arrived in the port of New Orleans on the 29th of May 1848 and made their way to join the Holzgraefe brothers in Evansville, Indiana. In America, the three Holzgraefes thrived and their descendants can now be found all over the country. 

New and Exciting Discoveries Part III: The "Royal" Holzgraefe Lineage

The "Royal" Holzgraefe Lineage

According to what must have been more than just a tradition, the farmstead administrator's eldest son became the new administrator or Colon. This was his heritage. His younger brothers then became Heurlings, a sort of tenant farmer, able to live with his family in a small cottage with a small, poor piece of land with which to sustain the life of the family. The heurlings were required also to work on the Colon's land whenever requested. It was still the work of a farmer, but it was clearly better to be a Colon. This right was inherited and with it came the name, Holzgraefe. If there were no male heirs, which happened once at the death of Johann Berend Holtzgrafe in 1704, the heritage went to the oldest daughter and she became a Colona and her husband became the new Colon and took upon him the surname, Holzgraefe. Thus the "Royal" line went from father to son:

Johann Berend H. (1665-1704), Caspar Henrich Düßdickers (1701-1732), Caspar Heinrich H. (1732-1780), Johann Caspar Heinrich H. (1757-1825), Johann Andreas H. (1784-1823), Caspar Heinrich H. (1806-????), Caspar Heinrich H. (1832-????), Caspar Heinrich H. (16 July 1860-????), etc. 

This is all the information I had a few weeks ago, but since then we have discovered that the royal line continues today. In a book detailing the history of Schweicheln-Bermeck there is a photograph of a man indicating that he was "Kolon Caspar Heinrich Holzgraefe" and lived from 1861-1929 in Nr. 6 Schweicheln. 

In attempting to connect this man in with the tree, I discovered this "royal" line and assumed this was the last Caspar Heinrich H. on my list above. I needed proof though. After a few weeks of e-mailing with contacts in Germany, I was lead to this site which has several photographs of headstones in the old Schweicheln cemetery. The first headstone was for a Caspar Heinrich Holzgraefe who was born on 16 July 1860 and died 5 March 1929! These dates match him both to this "royal" line AND the man in the photograph. I found him! I assume the other headstones are for his son and daughter-in-law. 

More research on Nr. 6 Schweicheln revealed that the current address is 169 Schweichelner Street and that there are still Holzgraefes living there today who are descendants of the man in this photograph. A letter has been sent and we await a reply as we make contact with our distant cousins in Germany for the first time since we left for America nearly 175 years ago

Update 8/3/2014:

The other headstone in the Schweicheln cemetery is for Heinrich Holzgraefe who was born a Reckefuss. He was a younger son on a farm in the Vlotho area and moved onto the Holzgraefe farm because Caspar Heinrich Holzgraefe had no children. After Heinrich inherited the farm, the laws changed and now the youngest son inherits the farm. So the hunt for the "Royal" Holzgraefe (oldest son of the oldest son...etc.) continues. 

Update 1/15/2015
E-mail contact has been made with the current occupants of 169 Schweichelner Street. Heinrich Reckfuss was adopted by Caspar Heinrich Holzgraefe and thus took on the name and continued the royal lineage. The Holzgraefe family lives on!

New and Exciting Discoveries Part II: Fegel

Fegel

Research with a much closer relative shed more light on the Fegel Family. Last time, I thought that Christian Fegel married his widow's younger sister after his wife passed away and little Emilie was raised by her aunt/step-mother. This is all true, but as I looked closely at the actual films, I discovered something terrifying. 

It all started because I wondered about what happened to the Fegel family. Due to some excellent Ancestry.com researching by a close-ish cousin of mine, we discovered that the Fegel family immigrated to America on 29 May 1848 through the port of New Orleans and ended up in Evansville, Indiana! The Franconia ship's list records the Fegel family as: Christian (26), Wilhelmine (25), Emilie Ottilie (9months), and Carl Friedrich (3). It also mentions that Emilie died on the voyage. My question was, who is this Carl Friedrich? Going back to the birth records available online in Germany, I couldn't find any Carl Friedrich Fegel. Then I went to the films to look at the marriages of the Holzgraefe girls to Christian Fegel and the birth of Emilie. Each of the three records indicated that Christian's first wife passed away in September 1847 shortly after Emilie's birth. I then decided to look back at the birth records for Carl in the same church book film as Emilie. There I found a Carl Friedrich (no last name). His mother was the younger sister, Justine Wilhelmine Caroline H. The father is difficult to read as it has some explanation along with it in sloppy German handwriting:

The father's name is listed as Karl Dietrich Hartmann. Judging by the fact that the child's birth was illegitimate and that Mr. Hartmann did not stay with the family, I assume something terrible took place which must have been very embarrassing for the Holzgraefe family. Christian and the older sister were married and had Emilie and then the older sister died. When that happened Christian married her younger sister taking little Emilie under his wing as well. Emilie was raised by her proper mother and a step father, Christian Fegel.

The embarrassment must have been too much for the family which added to their decision to travel to a strange new land following after her two younger brothers who probably left around 1845. They left in 1849 and made their way to Evansville. After loosing Emilie on the voyage, the two of them began again. A new life in America. They lived for a long time at 116 Lafayette Ave. about 15 blocks from her brothers, Henry August and Johann Friedrich Holzgraefe. The Fegel family is burried in the Oak Hill Cemetery. Their descendants lived in Evansville for a long time before suddenly moving to Rome, Georgia where many of them still reside. 

New and Exciting Discoveries Part I: Cruse

As the number of collaborators on this project grow, so too does our knowledge of the history of our ancestors and their descendants. Recently, there have been three new and exciting discoveries on different branches of the tree: Cruse, Fegel, and the "Royal" Holzgraefe Lineage.

Cruse

After several months of emailing with a contact in Germany, I have learned more about the ancient history of the Cruse family in Bermbeck Nr. 3. The following are two short papers written by Mr. Heinz Hoepner of the Herford Genealogical society.

And here is my best translation of the second document using Google Translate: 

"The Kruse’s estate in Bermbeck

When the Meyerhof (Amtshof) arose after 800 AD in Schweicheln, there arose also the individual Kötterstellen (cottage sites) near it in the immediate neighborhood as also in Bermbeck on the "Bermbecker Bach". They were all a gift from the Emperor Louis the Pious and became the property of Herford Ladies monastery, which later became the Imperial Abbey of Herford. Over the centuries, the Abbey made independent farms ​​out of these Kötterstellen, which were then separated from the Meyerhof to be mortgaged.

By 1333 there was already a Cruse estate in Bermbeck, because in the Heberegister of the Imperial Abbey of Herford a Henricus Cruse appeared in Bermbeck for the first time. By the end of the 14th century, the Cruse estate had been divided and from then on appeared in the documents as an upper and a lower Cruse estate. While the Upper Cruse estate became Bermbeck No. 2, another division came about. In 1446, the Lower Cruse estate was divided again into two Hofstatten. Johann "Goltgreve" (Holzgrafe) of Schweicheln got the smaller Hofstatte. From 1636-1637, the families of the two lower Cruse estates became extinct due to the plague. About 10 years later, these estates were reassigned by the Imperial Abby of Herford. In 1647 Alhard Holtzgrafe (1626-1702) of Schweicheln received a portion and in 1649 Tonnies uff der Breden (1626-1696) received the other.

Between said Alhard Holtzgrafe (now Alherd Cruse), and his neighbor (now Tonnies Unter dem Brinke), it quickly came to litigations. Several documents report about it. Alhard Cruse tried various ways to regain part of the Lower cruse estate which had been separated off in 1546. This separated part consisted of a "House and a cottage, equipped with various Landereien ". However, at the time of this request by Alhard Cruse, his successor and son Casper Henrich Cruse died (1647-1702). In 1721 Tonnies’ estate was still known as Unter dem Brinke in the documents of the Enger Jurisdiction. It wasn’t until 1731 that the abbess Johanne Charlotte, later known as Markgräfin of Brandenburg-Schwedt (1729-1750) brought the separated estates back together after being separated 185 years. For this reason it can now be assumed that the joining of the estates did not cause the dying out of Unter dem Brinke

In Bermbeck No. 3, Erbwöhner Johann Albert Cruse (21.10.1708-11.12.1785) died on 12.11.1785, without leaving a male heir. He handed over the farm to the son of his only surviving daughter Catharine Margarethe Nagel born Cruse (25.5.1734-24.8.1802), Otto Heinrich Nagel (16.2.1755-17.7. 1817)."

For more exciting information about this line and how it connects to the Holzgraefe tree, click here.

der Kaiser and the Holzgraefe "Monarchy"

The research continues! Thanks to our German contacts, we are receiving many sources to solidify once and for all what once were mere theories. Still, there are many of our Holzgraefe ancestors who have not been connected to our ever-growing family tree. One example is Anne Cathrine Ilsabein Holzgraefen who married Johann Henrich Kaiser on 15 June 1788. Together they had many children and some of their descendants can be found on this website I found while browsing: http://www.hps.com/~tpg/gbook/public/293.html (line 1054). 

I tried finding more information on Anne Cathrine Ilsabein Holzgraefen in Family Search and Ancestry.com, but didn't find much. I checked the marriage record microfilm and it didn't have much, but it did have a few clues. 

Her father was listed as Johann Henrich Holzgraefe and her age as 22. This means her birth year was about 1766 which would put her in the same generation as Johann Casper Henrich Holzgraefe (*1757), Otto Heinrich Holzgraefe (*1760), and Ernst Heinrich Holzgreafe (*1764). The uncle of these three men was Johann Henrich Holzgraefe (1730-????). I have no direct link yet, but I believe that this may be Anne Cathrine Ilsabein Holzgraefen's father. 

Here's a little more the theory. Caspar Henrich Düßdickers (1701-1732) married Anne Margarethe Ilsabein Holzgraefe (1704-????) and took on the name "Holzgraefe" as he took over roll as Colon (administrative farmer) of the Holzgraefe farm. This was a common occurrence back in the 1700s. Caspar Holzgraefe and Anne Margarethe Ilsabein had two sons: Johann Henrich (*1730) and Caspar Henrich (*1732). Holding to tradition, Johann Henrich would have became the new Colon as the oldest son. The marriage record of Anne Cathrine Ilsabein Holzgraefen to Johann Henrich Kaiser indicates that her father was indeed a Colon and that she, as the only heir, was the Colona. Johann Henrich Kaiser had a farm of his own and so Anne Cathrine Ilsabein Holzgraefen followed him and left the Holzgraefe farm leaving no heir. The roll as Colon then fell on the next in line which was Caspar Henrich's eldest son, Johann Casper Henrich Holzgraefe (1757-1825).

This explains why the Colon title remained with Caspar's line as opposed to his elder brother's. It's a lot like a mini Monarchy within the Holzgraefe family. Once again though, this is only a theory. Nothing has been proven, but if any of you researchers out there ever find out the truth, please let me know. Thank you!

Hermann the Cheruscan

For the later half my childhood, I grew up in a suburb near St. Louis, Missouri. I remember one day in the summer when my mom told us kids that we were going to go to a place called Hermann, Missouri. I'm not sure why we were going, but my older brother wasn't excited at all and complained and complained about going to "Hermann German-ville". Come to think of it, I don't think we ever went. Perhaps his complaining payed off.

Well, now that I'm older and wiser, and actually care about German history, I realize the importance of this small historic town in the middle of the United States and the role it plays as a prime example of German settlement and heritage. The town was established in 1837 by the German Settlement Society of Pennsylvania. The society had a utopian mindset in erecting the town where German culture, language, and traditions could flourish and a new colony could be established. The town is named after Hermann the Cheruscan, a Germanic tribal leader who defeated the Romans in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in the year 9 AD. In 2009, the town erected a bronze statue to honor the 2000th anniversary of the battle. The statue represents strength and unity in defending freedom.

Hermann the Cheruscan is considered Germany's liberator and his successes have been used as a model for freedom from oppression ever since his great victory over the Romans. His story is one that has been told, and retold for generations. What actually happened those many years ago may never be known, but what we do know we draw from Roman records. The Germanic people did not have a written language at the time. In fact, the Germanic people weren't even one single people. They were many Germanic speaking tribes scattered across Northern Germany from the edge of the Roman Empire and beyond. The boarder between the Roman Empire and the land of the Germanic tribes was along the Rhein river. Few Roman generals ever crossed the border. The Germanic people were nearly impossible to conquer the Roman way. There was no singular castle to siege, no singular leader to capture. There was no unity among the tribes. If Roman wiped out one tribe, the other tribes wouldn't flinch or be affected.

Rome's relationship with the Germanic tribes ranged greatly around the time of Christ's birth. With some tribes, Rome opened up trade which helped maintain the borders. With other tribes, Rome would enslave the people, tax them heavily and take many captives. The later relationship was experienced by a tribe known to the Romans as the Cherusci. In 12 BC, a Roman military campaign wiped out the Cherusci and other tribes' defenses subjecting them to Roman rule and taxation.

One of the tactics used by the Romans to control the Germanic tribes was to take the sons of the tribe leaders as punishment. Arminius was the son of the Cheruscan chief, Segimerus. He was taken captive by the Romans and raised in Rome where he received a military education, became a Roman citizen, and was made a Roman military commander. Whether Arminius planned on taking his revenge all along or thought of the idea after seeing the treatment of his people, we may never know.

In secret, Arminius organized many Germanic tribes into a rebellion which must have been a feat in itself as the tribes were not prone to unite with their neighboring tribesmen. Suspicions and rumors ran high about Arminius being at the head of the rebellion, but Varus, a high-ranking military official appointed by Emperor Augustus himself, did put his trust in Arminius.

In 9AD, Arminius set up an ambush for his own Roman forces which then drew Varus and three legions into the Teutoburg Forest. Romans were deathly afraid of the forests. They were completely foreign to the city-dwellers and nearly impossible to traverse with wagons and horses and military equipment. The legions were not prepared for what came next. The cavalry flanking Varus' men turned on Varus and Arminius' tribesmen ambushed the legions from all sides. The battle went on for a few days and in the end, Varus fell on his own sword and the three legions were completely defeated resulting in one of the worst military defeats in Roman history. The standards for the three legions were destroyed and their numbers were never used again in the Roman military.

Here is an excellent documentary which gives more details surrounding the great story of Arminius or Hermann the Cheruscan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpOAcaIDuNo .

It wasn't till the Reformation that Arminius was given the Germanic version of the name, Hermann, meaning soldier or warrior. He was rechristened by Martin Luther with this name according to some theories. Ever since then Hermann has been a very popular German name as it signified the man who had united Germany and freed its people.

The Cherusci appear to have lived along the Werre river right where our Holzgräfe ancestors are from. As of right now, our ancestors are known to come from as far back as 1200 AD in Schweicheln. Before that, we don't know where they lived or who they were. Perhaps they were a part of the ancient Cherusci tribe or another tribe which fought alongside Hermann the Cheruscan in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.

As you research your German ancestry, you will now know why so many of your ancestors were named Hermann. Perhaps I'll go visit the town of Hermann next time I visit Missouri to learn more about the impact this war hero has left on German society.

Just a Theory, But a Pretty Good One

A while ago, I met a man online named Dr. Holzgraefe who lives in Germany. I asked him if he could help in my research efforts and he sent me a copy of his family tree back to the mid-1700s. I was thrilled, but...I was unable to find a connection between his tree and mine. Every once in a while I'll pull out his tree, study it, do some research online, get depressed and put it back in the filing cabinet. For some reason, I keep going back to it though. Perhaps it is because these Holzgraefes lived in the same area as my ancestors or maybe because one of them marries a woman with the maiden name of Lueking which is the name of one of the Hofs or farms near the Holzgrafe farm in Schweicheln.

Even today, I'm pretty doubtful that there will ever a connection be found. Why? because Dr. Holzgraefe is not a Holzgrafe at all. His 2nd great-grandfather was born a Harting and his father before him was born a Hoener. It is evident that these men did not change their name because they married a woman on a different farm. It seems they moved into the new farm and then changed their name without becoming related to the former residents at all. So, Franz Heinrich Hoener (*18 Jan 1767) became a Harting when he took over the Harting farm. His son, Johann Heinrich Harting (*20 April 1798) likewise became a Holzgraefe after he had married Anne Marie Ilsabein Kastrup. So...my question is, why did he take on the Holzgraefe name? Was it because he took over the farm? What happened to the Holzgrafe family that was there before?

Then it hit me. I looked at the dates and places for the births of Johann Heinrich Harting or Holzgrafe and his children and their children and found a plausible explanation: Hermann Heinrich Holzgrafe lived on the Holzgrafe farm, got married in 1853, and immigrated to Quincy, Illinois in 1854 thus leaving the farm. Assuming there were no other heirs to the property, others were probably called on to fill the place of those who left to seek a better life. Johann Heinrich Harting lived a few miles from the Holzgrafe farm, but he and his family must have moved to the Holzgrafe farm and subsequently took on the Holzgraefe name. Then Johann's son, Herman Heinrich Holzgraefe (*26 November 1848) could marry one of the new neighbors, Anne Marie Ilsabein Lueking. Assuming this is the case, I would say that Dr. Holzgraefe is not directly related to me, at least not through the Holzgrafe family name. Still, it is an interesting story.

Cruse

I am currently reading through a few articles online which outline the history of Schweicheln where my
Holzgräfe ancestors are from. They're all written in German which is difficult to translate using Google Translate. Understanding the ancient history of my ancestors has lead to a new discovery!

Cruse

Thanks to the research of local historians like Heinz Höpner, I was given a few clues as to the connections between my line and the family lines of others in the area. Through a family tree provided by Mr. Höpner, I was given the following connection: 

According to Mr. Höpner, Alhard Holtzgrafe took over the Cruse farm and name. His children all bore the name Cruse. I have done further research and found that much of the Cruse family was already in the FamilyTree on FamilySearch. At least one of Alhard's descendants, Carl Heinrich Haubrock, also immigrated to America. So there are more cousins which made their way to America. Very, very distant cousins. This new discovery is reflected in the Family Tree tab at the top of this page. To view the tree, you will have to create a free SkyDrive account. Then you will be able to download the updated family tree to your computer for your own research. Feel free to contact me by e-mail or as a comment on this post if you see any errors or if you have any questions or additional information.