The Spiraling Chains: Kowalski - Bellan Family Trees
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Surname Saturday: Watercutter, Waterkotte, and Sanders?

9/12/2014

2 Comments

 
Mary Watercutter Knob (1878-1965) was the maternal grandmother of my husband's paternal grandfather, Walter Schroeder. Mary was the granddaughter of Ferdinand Waterkotte, born 26 December 1809 is Ostbevern, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.  He arrived in America on 27 Oct 1834, and made his way from the Port of New York to McLean Twp, Shelby County in Western Ohio, where he raised a family and farmed the land until his death in 1876.

I have been fortunate in researching the German roots of Watercutter family members, because they are listed in an online collection of family/local history records known as 'ortsfamilienbuches' (OFB). When I visited the Family History Library in Salt Lake City this past spring, I used the information from the online source to dig up microfilms of the original church baptism, marriage, death records for many of the family members, going as far back as the early 1700s. On the images below, click to see the baptism records for Ferdinand Waterkotte (1809), his father, Bernard Heinrich Waterkotte (1775), and his grandfather, Bernard Herman Waterkotte (1734). (On the bottom two records, the parents' names are listed in the first column, the godparents (sponsors) are in the second column, and the child's name is in the third column.)
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Ferdinand Waterkotte Baptism Record (Page 1)
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Ferdinand Waterkotte Baptism Record (Page 2)
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Baptism Record of Bernard Heinrich Waterkotte (1775, Ostbevern, Germany)
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Baptism Record of Bernard Herman Waterkotte (1734, Ostbevern, Germany)
Going back through the paternal line, you can see that the spelling of the surname is consistent, until you see Bernard Herman's record at the bottom. His father is listed as Herman Sanders, which wasn't a huge surprise to me, because I had seen it on the online OFB.  My question was WHY? (Notice that the male sponsor is Bernard Waterkotte, so there must be some connection to a Waterkotte family here.)

I asked my question in the German Genealogy Facebook group to see if anyone more experienced than me had any insight into why the family name may have changed. I posted a photo of Bernard Herman's younger brother's baptism record, where the father is listed as Herman Sanders g. Waterkotte. One knowledgeable gentleman in the group told me that the 'g' stood for gennant, which means 'called.' He also explained that some people had two surnames; one acquired from the father in the traditional sense and another Hausname. The Hausname may have been acquired if a family had inherited from, bought or lived on some land of another family by that name OR perhaps if his mother married another man after his father died.  INDEED, using the online OFB records, I found that Bernard Herman's mother, Margaretha Lange, did remarry in 1741. However, the man she married was named Jobst Heinrich Dalhoff.  Margaretha had children with Mr. Dalhoff and those children's surnames were STILL Waterkotte. This makes me conjecture that the Waterkotte surname came from the land or house they were living on/in.  So, the descendants of both Herman Sanders and Jobst Heinrich Dalhoff took the surname of Waterkotte and carried it forward in subsequent generations. In fact, by clicking on some of the other names on this list, you'll see that quite a few people with the surname Waterkotte did not have a father with that name. (A Kötter, by the way, is a 'cottager' who probably had a small amount of land for gardening/farming and maybe a few livestock.)

Today, Waterkotte is not a common name in Germany, and its occurrence is still concentrated in Nordrhein-Westfalen, shown in the dark blue:
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Approximate Present-Day Distribution of Waterkotte Surname in Germany (Source: worldnames.publicprofiler.org)
When Ferdinand immigrated to the U.S, he, whether intentionally or unintentionally, changed his name almost right away, at least on non-church documents.  His 1837 county marriage record lists his surname as 'Waterkater.' He is listed as Watercutter on his 1834 ship manifest and his 1844 Declaration of Intention also says Watercutter. And since Ferdinand settled in and raised a family in Ohio, it is not surprising that the U.S. occurrence of the surname Watercutter is still highest here, and particularly in the same county in which Ferdinand started farming his land 180 years ago. For fun, click this link, and then click on the small megaphone in the bottom left corner of the German box to hear how Waterkotte is pronounced in German. Then, I think you will understand how it became Watercutter.
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Approximate Present-Day Distribution of Watercutter Surname in Ohio (Source: worldnames.publicprofiler.org)
Just for fun, I typed in 'Waterkotte' and looked at that name's U.S. distribution. I found a relatively high concentration in Adams County in Western Illinois.  And just by using Google, I have found a Waterkotte Harley-Davidson dealership in Mt. Vernon, IL, a St. Louis attorney by the name of Waterkotte, and a University of North Carolina professor named Waterkotte who got his Bachelor's degree at Illinois State University. It's likely that these people are somehow related to each other. With the surname being so unique even in Germany, it really makes me want to trace the ancestors of these Waterkotte individuals to see if I could find an Old Country connection between them and my husband's Waterkotte ancestors. (And that connection may not be blood - it could be due to land ownership and/or tenancy, as I discussed above.)
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Approximate Modern-Day Distribution of the Surname Waterkotte in Illinois (Source: worldnames.publicprofiler.org)
Baptism Record of Ferdinand Waterkotte: FHL microfilm 801427, Kirchenbuch: Katholische Kirche Ostbevern, Taufen 1803-1840

Baptism Record of Bernard Heinrich Waterkotte: FHL microfilm 801427, Kirchenbuch: Katholische Kirche Ostbevern, Taufen 1753-1805

Baptism Record of Bernard Herman Waterkotte: FHL microfilm 801427, Kirchenbuch: Katholische Kirche Ostbevern, Taufen 1718-1752

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder


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Tombstone Tuesday: Johann Michael Drees

6/23/2014

1 Comment

 
On my recent trip to the Family History Library, I looked up a few birth, marriage, and death records for the Drees Family.  Frances Drees Grilliot was my husband's great-grandmother on his Dad's side of the family.  Her grandfather, Johann Michael Drees, was born in 1812 in Garrel, Cloppenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany, and immigrated to America in 1833.  

Johann Michael, a blacksmith by trade, was one of the first settlers of Minster, Ohio, and actually served as the town's first mayor.  Because he was quite an influential person at the time, a short biography was published in the book, History of Western Ohio and Auglaize County by C.W. Williamson (1905).  This biography is great, because, among other information, it states Johann Michael's hometown, tells me when and how he came to live in Ohio, and says who he traveled with. (His hometown is also listed on his gravestone, which is shown below.)

Using their online catalog, I discovered that the Family History Library does have Catholic Kirchenbuch records for Cloppenburg going back into the 1600s, so I was excited to look through them. Here is Johann Michael Drees' baptism record below.  His father's name is also Johann Michael, which I already knew, because the biography I mentioned above referred to him as 'Jr.'  He was baptized 19 May 1812 (second record from the bottom).  His mother's name was Maria Catherine Högemann.
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Baptism Record for Johann Michael Drees (b. 1812)
Johann Michael died 18 Feb 1878 and is buried in St. Augustine's Cemetery in Minster. Interestingly, his gravestone (below) states that he was born 19 Jun instead of 19 May.  Now, I am pretty certain that that baptism record says '19 May.'  April is clearly right before May, but then if you look at the top of the next page, it says 'July.'  So, either there weren't any baptisms in June, there was some mistake by the priest or scribe who entered the records, or Johann Michael (or his descendants) was (were) just mistaken about his birth month.
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Gravestone Photo Source:  FindaGrave.com; photographed by A. Chronicler.

Baptism Record Source: FHL Film 909936, Kirchenbuch, 1613-1875, Katholische Kirche Cloppenburg

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Tombstone Tuesday: Johann Christopher and Maria Angela Bernhold

5/12/2014

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These are the tombstones of Johann Christopher Bernhold and his wife, Maria Angela Mehring, who are buried in St. Augustine Cemetery in Minster, Ohio.  They are my husband's 4x great-grandparents through his paternal grandfather's (Schroeder) line.  
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Gravestone of Johann Christopher Bernhold
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Gravestone of Maria Angela Bernhold
Johann Christopher (who usually went by just Christopher) and Maria Angela were from Hunteberg, Niedersachsen, Germany; according to immigration information found at AidaOnline, more specifically the district of Welplage.  In 1846, they immigrated to the U.S. with their four children, Karl ("Charles"), Ernst Friederich Heinrich ('Fritz", "Frank", "Fred"), Anna Maria Sophia Engel, and Herman Heinrich.  Two daughters, Anna Maria Elizabeth and Margaretha Engel, passed away in Hunteberg in the 1840s, prior to the family's emigration. (The location of Hunteburg is shown below:)
The Bernhold family settled in the German immigrant community around Minster, Ohio, where they ran an average-sized family farm.  By the 1870 Census, Christopher and Angela were living with their son, Herman, and his wife.  Maria Angela passes away in 1874, but Christopher is listed in the 1880 Census, still living with Herman.  That census form is difficult to read, but it states that Christopher, at about the age of 80, still "works some on farm."

Photo source: FindAGrave.com; photographed by Crashlan.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
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Wedding Wednesday: Gottfried Wimmers and Maria Eva Müller

6/25/2013

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Yesterday, just after dinner, I received an email from the LDS Family History Library's photoduplication services.  On May 29, I sent an email request for an electronic copy of Gottfried Wimmers and Maria Eva Müller's marriage record.  (Gottfried and Maria Eva are two of my husband's 3x great-grandparents on his Mom's (Tumbusch) side of the family.)  I had found the record in their online index, so I provided them with the film number and reference number.  I had heard of other researchers waiting for months for their requests to be fulfilled, so I was surprised to get the record less than a month after I requested it. (I believe most of these requests are handled by volunteers, and the service is provided free-of-charge, so I understand the longer turn around times.)  Click on each image to view a larger copy.
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Wimmers-Müller Marriage Record, Page1
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Wimmers-Müller Marriage Record, Page 2
Of course, like most original genealogical documents, these papers contain MUCH more information than simply what is listed on the searchable index page.  The name of the town where the marriage occurred IS listed on the index, but the document itself states more specifically what governmental department the town is located within. So, if the name of the village is common throughout Germany, you are better able to pinpoint exactly where THIS town is located.  Also, the spelling of the bride's surname and her hometown on the original is slightly different than the spellings on the index.  Her surname is listed as 'Müller' on the original and 'Mueller' on the index, which I understand is a common way to substitute the u with umlaut, but it still could be an important clue when searching for other records.  I now also have names, ages, and places of residence of witnesses to the wedding, which can be huge clues to figuring out other family members and close friends.

Gottfried and Maria Eva were married on January 31, 1833 in Garzweiler, Germany.  The village of Garzweiler no longer exists; instead a huge lignite open-pit surface mine is in the location where the village once stood.  The couple immigrated to the U.S. with their children in about 1852 and settled in Mercer County in western Ohio.

For more information about FamilySearch's photoduplication services, including a link to their new online request form, go to: https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Photoduplication_Services
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Surname Saturday: Tumbusch

1/19/2013

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Theodor Tumbusch, one of my husband's gg-grandfathers on his mom's side, immigrated to America from Germany in 1861.  His ship manifest is below.  He was about 27 years old and his last residence is listed as Koesfeld (proper spelling is Coesfeld). Listed beneath him in the manifest is Anna Rasing, who was either already his wife, or who would soon become his wife upon arrival in America (I still need to figure that out.)  They arrived in Baltimore and eventually made their way to western Ohio, where they settled on a farm in Mercer County.  Unfortunately, Theodor died rather young in 1870; Anna lived until 1918.
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Theodor Tumbusch and Anna Rasing Ship Manifest
I've done some research on the surname 'Tumbusch,' and it's difficult to determine what the name means or indicates.  'Busch' in German simply means 'bush' in English and 'tum' might refer to several meanings.  The English word 'tumble' has roots in German - the German verb 'taumeln' means to fall, drop, or stagger, and the verb 'tummeln' means 'to romp.'  The German noun 'tumben' means 'tomb.'  The German noun 'tumult' has essentially the same meaning as the same English world and the noun 'tumultant' refers to a rioter.  So, maybe my husband had an ancestor who fell in bushes or who was buried in bushes or who caused some sort of commotion or uproar in bushes.  Your guess is as good as mine.

Theodor Tumbush had three sons, Henry, Bernard, and Herman, all of whom lived into adulthood and had sons of their own to carry on the family name.  It appears that most of Henry's children chose to change the spelling of the name to 'Tumbush' - their birth records indicate the original spelling, while military, marriage, residential, and death records are most often without the 'c.'  As far as I can tell from the records, the children and grandchildren of Bernard and Herman kept the original spelling. 

If you're not one of my in-laws and have never heard the name 'Tumbusch' before, you're not alone.  It's not a common name.  The Worldnames Public Profiler maps surnames for 26 countries around the world using recent telephone directories and voter registries.  It is not scientific or completely comprehensive, but it still gives you a good idea of relative popularity of a name in different places.  In the U.S, the frequency per million (FPM) for the name Tumbusch is only 0.41 (The Tumbush spelling is 0.25).  By comparison, my surname, Kowalski, which is basically the Polish equivalent of Smith, has a FPM of 81.56.  And
Tumbusch is actually MORE common in the U.S. than in Germany, where the FPM is only 0.09.
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Relative frequency of surname Tumbusch - World
Zooming into Europe:  It is a little difficult to see, but the only area in which 'Tumbusch' is found is the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which is where Theodor's hometown of Coesfeld is located.
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Relative frequency of surname Tumbusch - Europe
Breaking down the United States: Tumbusch on the left and Tumbush on the right.  Not surprisingly, both spellings are relatively common in Ohio compared with other states.
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Tumbusch
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Tumbush
And, finally, Ohio by county, Tumbusch on the left and Tumbush on the right.  That county in western Ohio in the darkest shade of blue is Mercer County, where Theodor and Anna orginally settled.  Notice the small concentration of Tumbush near Cleveland.  One of my husband's great uncles moved to the Cleveland area to work on the railroads in the early 20th century and I am willing to bet that some of his descendants still live in the area.
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Tumbusch
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Tumbush
Based on the rarity of the name, it is probable that many people with the surname Tumbusch or Tumbush in the United States today are descendants of Theodor Tumbusch.  And if there are any Tumbusch's out there who AREN'T of his lineage, it would be interesting to try to trace back their ancestors to Germany to try to find the common ancestor. That may have to be one of my longer-term goals for the future.  In the meantime, I'm adding Coesfeld, Germany to my list of must-visit places whenever my husband and I get a chance to take our genealogy trip to Germany.

Tumbus(c)h family documents can be viewed and downloaded at this website: http://schroeder-tumbush.weebly.com/tumbush.html
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Surname Saturday: Schroeder (Western Ohio)

10/27/2012

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When I married my husband, I was somewhat looking forward to taking his last name.  I had grown up with a Polish surname, and it was actually one of the easier Polish names to spell and pronounce.  However, I found that once I left my very ethnic hometown where such names were common, I was continually asked to repeat my name and spell it out S-L-O-W-L-Y (and then they'd still get it wrong!).  So, I thought to myself, 'Schroeder' - fairly common and straightforward, right?  Well, not so much, really.  I soon learned that there are many ways to spell what sounds like schro-der or schro-ter, and that it may actually be pronounced schra-der or schra-ter depending on each family's tradition of saying it.  

The name Schroeder (and all of is mix-and-match variants like S(c)hra(t)der and S(c)hro(e)ter) is a common and old family name with origins in medieval Northern Germany.  It comes from the Middle Low German word(s) schroden/schraden which means "to cut," and it was a surname  first given to tailors (people who cut cloth for a living), occasionally shoemakers (people who cut leather for a living), and also to draymen who would drive around large carts and deliver bulk quantities of beer and wine.  Now we're talking!

I have been able to trace my husband's Schroeder family back to Frank Schroeder, who came to America probably sometime around 1850.  I don't know the exact year because I haven't found his immigration ship manifest yet.  In the
1860 Census, his place of birth is listed as Oldenburg, Germany, which is in the northern part of the country.
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Surname information source:  http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?view=3&surname=schroeder
©2012, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
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Lauterecken, Germany

8/16/2012

1 Comment

 
PictureEngraving by Matthaus Merian, early 1600s. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Thanks to the awesomely awesome genealogy website maintained by the Mormon Church (FamilySearch.org), I  recently dug up a bunch of info about one branch of Tony's family tree (on his mom's side) for which I previously had very little documentation.  The family's  surname is Antoni and they came from Lauterecken, Germany.  So far, I've been able to go as far back as Henry and Christina (Schott) Antoni, who were Tony's  (are you ready for this?) great-great-great-great-great grandparents.  I found their marriage record from 1777 and the birth/baptism records for most (if not all) of their children.

Whenever I discover a new person/family in my research, especially when I'm looking at the European ancestors, I always do a Google search of where they lived.  Even though Germany has undergone a lot of political and leadership changes over the past three  hundred years or so, the names of individual towns seem to have stayed fairly consistent down through the generations, which makes finding ancestral records and villages fairly easy.  Anyway, I started looking at some of these photos of Lauterecken on Panoramio and fell in love (Photo1    Photo2    Photo3).  This town is going on my list of places to visit when I someday go back to Germany.

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Lauterecken is in western Germany, not far from the French border and is in the German state of Rhineland - Palatinate (often called Rhineland-Pfalz).
Now, I know that there are a lot of picturesque, quaint little towns all over Germany, each with their own distinctions.  And I'm sure that there are other towns that have better travel ratings, lodgings, food, "charm," and so on.  But tell me how cool would it be to go with my husband and children with the knowledge that we are walking some of the SAME streets that their ancestors walked hundreds of years ago?  I don't know about you, but that kind of stuff gives me goosebumps :)
 
 ©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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