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.
That Dr. Holzgraefe proably was my fathers cousin Eckehard ...
ReplyDeleteI was born on that farm in Oldinghausen (now a suburb of Enger), and the story I was told that Mr. Harting had married into the family and took his wifes name. Mrs. Luecking had married into the Holzgraefe family earlier, but her husband died shortly after, and Mr. Harting was her 2nd husband. I also heard of two Holzgraefe sisters who've emigrated to the USA, but not of any male members of the family ...
One thing I can say for sure: the farm house has an inscription saying that it was built by Johann Heinrich Holzgraefe (born Harting) and his wife Anna Maria Ilsabein Holzgraefe (a born Kastrup from Upper Joellenbeck - a vilage about 5-7km to the south-west, now part of the town Bielefeld) hat built the house and had it errected in July 1853 already ... as a farm house that size was probably not built within half a year back then the dates don't really seem to match up?