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!
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Friday, July 25, 2014
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.
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.
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