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.