Visit with Aunt Millie

Had a wonderful time yesterday visiting Aunt Millie. Mary, Mom, and I went up for the day and sat and talked for a good while.

It was a wonderful visit and I got to ask a few questions, scan a few pictures, and bring home an amazing family treasure.

First the pictures which were given to Aunt Millie by Great Great Aunt Lucille (Veronica's sister)

George Bax, Fritz Bax, Mac Bax, Louis Gerling

 I found it funny that Great Grandpa Louis has his coat up as if to hide his face.  We all know Grandma was a fan of putting her hand in front of hers. I guess it was a family trait. LOL

Veronica Bax Gerling

Veronica Bax Gerling

Top: L-Marie Bax? I dont believe this is Veronica's sister. Veronica Bax Gerling
Bottom: Francis Gerling? Edward Gerling

Same woman and little boy from above with the addition of a man
Veronica Bax Gerling, Ed Gerling on Right

Bottom row: Veronica Bax Gerling, George Bax, Regina Gerling, Fritz Bax
Second row: Mac Bax and Mame Gerling
In the back: Louis Gerling

Unknown - but look at the car!

We talked some about the Bax's and where they went.  It was mentioned that Mac and Fred may have been in the WPA, but that they and Pete and Lambert made their way to North Dakota to work.  I found Mac's findagrave memorial and contacted Dennis Olson, who had posted a picture of him.

This is what he said when I asked if he was related in some way to Mack Bax: Sorry, I'm not related to Mack nor do I have any more pictures. My wife and I went through the Litchville Museum pictures and copied and I put them on Find-A-Grave. I can copy and paste the information of Mack and Rose from the Litchville history book published in 2000. Mack and Rose lived on the homestead of my great aunt and uncle when I first knew them. He was on the threshing crew that my father was on. I believe Pete Bax was on the same crew. I have been adding obituaries where ever I can of people from my home neighborhood. If you want you could send me your e-mail and I'll copy from the book.

I am waiting for information from the history book he mentioned. 

Aunt Millie went on to say that while Mac and Fred stayed up North, Lambert and Pete came back with Pete staying in Missouri and Lambert moving on to Texas. When they came to visit after being there, they had an accent that none of the rest of them had (probably the influence of living among the locals ;) )

I am going to start doing more research on Grandma Veronica's siblings and see what I can find.  

About Frederick Lampe (b. 12/31/1839 Lastrup, Germany, d. 8/22/1914) who was discussed in a previous post. He was Peter's father-in-law and Veronica's maternal Grandfather.  At the end of his life he was blind but Veronica described him as red headed teacher. He lived with Peter and Mary (his daughter) and would help Veronica with her schoolwork.  One night she came home with long division and didn't know how to do it. He worked through it with her, but when she got to school she couldn't say how she got the answers that she did.

For Veronica, German was spoken in the school and church until about the 8th grade when there was a switch into English, which may have been due to the anti-German sentiment brought on by WWI.  She remembered that every Christmas mass had been spoken in German before then, but that year it was said in English.. or at least broken English.

She and Peter (I think?) would often speak in German, whereas Grandpa Louis Gerling didn't ever really speak it.

Finally, I got the most amazing gift from Aunt Millie, besides getting to spend time with her of course! ;) But I'm going to write about that in my Week 8 of #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. 

Lampes! My German Brick Wall!

Hello Family and people who stumbled upon this :)  Today... I will be discussing the Lampes and the mystery of where exactly they came from.

As always I will start off with how they are related

• Frederick Lampe m. Anna Evers
• Peter Bax m. Mary Eva Lampe
• Louis Gerling m. Veronica Bax

This is what I know:  (Questions at the end :) )

Frederick Lampe ( I have also seen/heard his name as Fritz and Ferdinand, and middle name as Anton) was born around 1845 (Although someone on findagrave.com has his birthdate as September 20, 1835 d. July 22, 1914)  in Oldenburg, Germany.  He married first Bernadine Goodman.  He married second Anna Evers (Daughter of Theodore George Evers and Anna Hansjurgens) on Feb. 24, 1876 St. Thomas, Cole County, Missouri.

This is the information I found online at: http://www.millercountymuseum.org/bios/bio_l.html

Ferdinand Lampe (aka Fred) was born in Oldenburg, Germany c/1842 and his wife, Mary Annie Evers was born at Westphalia, Osage County, MO c/1852. She was a daughter of Theodore Evers, born c/1800, a native of Westphalen, Germany. The Lampe family came to America in 1871.

Fred and Mary married about 1872, probably at Westphalia's St. Joseph Church. By 1880, they were living in Miller County in Jim Henry Township near Old St. Elizabeth on the Osage River. I believe they came to Miller County in the early 1870s because during that time era two German immigrants, named Lampe and Goodmann/Gudemann, operated an old mill northeast of Iberia, today known as Brays Mill. The two immigrants were John Gudemann and Fred Lampe, brothers-in-law. John Gudemann was married to Fred's sister, Anna Elizabeth (Lampe).

 Information my Grandmother (Norma) told me was that he went blind and that he helped her mother (Veronica Bax) learn how to read. 

Frederick Lampe and Bernadine Goodman had the following children:

1.  Laura Mary Lampe b. March 7, 1872 Westphalia, Missouri d. October 8, 1934 m. Johan Bernard Haake.
2. Iowa Lampe b. around 1873 

Berandine Goodman passed away at least before 1876 when he married Anna Evers.

Frederick Lampe and Anna Evers had the following children:

1.  Theodore Lampe b. Dec 6, 1876 St. Elizabeth, Miller, Missouri d. April 5, 1943 Jefferson City, Cole, Missouri married Mary Theresia Dickneite May 20, 1903.
2. Fritz Lampe b. July 1, 1882 Missouri m. Mary Bax
3. Maria Martha Lampe b. 1883 Missouri, d. September 1884 Missouri
4. Mary Eva Lampe b. October 21, 1884 St. Elizabeth, Miller, Missouri. d. April 22, 1955. Married Peter Thomas Bax September 5, 1902.
5. Anna Marie Lampe b. 1887 Missouri, d. July 5, 1888 Missouri.

Other Family members of Frederick Lampe:

• A Sister:   Anna Elizabeth Lampe born March 3, 1843 in Germany. She died January 30, 1919 in Miller County, Missouri. She also went by Elizabeth, Lisie, and Annetta. From what I could find she married John Gudemann sometime around 1875 and had the following children:

1. John J. Gudemann b. April 14, 1875 - December 27, 1949
2. Elizabeth Anna Gudemann  b. November 12, 1875 - January 21, 1952
3. Antonette Francis Gudemann b. October 15, 1879 - Feb 13, 1942
4. Henry Gudemann b. Feb 1881 - 1963

Records for Frederick Lampe:

• Naturalization Record: Be it Remembered, That on the 14th Day of October, 1870, Frederick Lampe, a native of the Kingdom of Prussia, comes into Court and makes oath on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, that it is bona fide his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and to renounce and abjure forever all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign Prince, Potentate, State and Sovereignty whatever, and particularly allegience and fidelity to the King of Prussia, of whom he has heretofore been a subject.  (Signed Fritz Lampe) 
• Marriage Certificate: This is to certify that Mr. Frederick Lampe and Anna Evers were with their mutual consent joined in the holy bonds of matrimony solemnized by me in the presence of the following credible witnesses: Mark (Hank?) Evers, and Anna Bax.
  St. Thomas the 24th day of February, 1876.
  Filed June 26, 1876.  Reverend R. Kemper 
  
• 1880 Census: Listed as head of house, age 38, born in Oldenburg, as were both his parents. He was a farmer. Living with him is his wife Annie, children Laura and Theodore, and father-in-law Theodore Avers.  He could read and write.
• 1910 Census: Listed as father of head of house, Theodore, age 70, born in Germany.  He was married once before, Anna Evers.  He and Anna were married fo 34 years in 1910.  He immigrated to the United States in 1870 and was a naturalized citzen. He was blind.  Fritz, his son, is living as a neighbor with his wife Mary.

I am unable to locate him in the 1900 census. 

• Something I noted: "Anton" seems to be a significant name for this family.  Frederick's middle name was possibly "Anton", his sister also went by Annetta and named one of her children Antonette.  Laura Mary Lampe (Frederick and Bernadine's daughter) had a son named Anton Haake. 

So basically here are my questions:

1.  Does anyone know who Frederick Lampe's parents were?
2. Or where in Germany he came from besides "oldenburg"?
3. Does anyone have any stories/information/anything to add? :) Would love to hear it! or read it as the case may be.
4. Was there anything in this post that you didnt know about?
5. What branch of the Gerling family would you like to see a post about next?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Hollenbeck breakthrough

First of all - How are the Hollenbecks related?

The most recent Hollenbeck in my tree is  Sophia Hollenbeck who married Herman Joseph Gerling. So for a line of descendant

•  Johann Heinrich Hollenbeck (prev. info had as Herman Heinrich) m. Maria Catherina Wolking
• Herman Heinrich Hollenbeck m. Margaretta Adelaide Lammers
• Sophia Hollenbeck m. Herman Joseph Gerling
• Louis Gerling m. Veronica Bax (and these are probably the names you my family are most familiar with :) )

So for years, I kind of have been toying with this particular branch of my family.  I've looked at it, glanced around ancestry, didn't find anything and gave up for a little while.  It wasn't that I wasn't interested in this particular family name, but I was always searching more in depth on another name and once I'd hit a brick wall would come back and toy with this one. Should I have put more focus on it? Maybe.  But I tend to bounce around depending on how much frustration I feel like I can handle :)

This is the information that I had to work on, supplied from the following site: Descendants of Herman Hollenbeck.  For those who don't want to click on the link, basically:

Herman Heinrich Hollenbeck b. about 1790 in Cologne, Oldenburg, Germany d. Before 1860 Osage County, Missouri married Maria Catherina Wolking b. 1799 Oldenburg, Germany d. January 1864 Crawford Twp, Osage, Missouri.

Something about their being born in Cologne didn't quite seem to fit for me, and I was also having difficulty finding when they immigrated to the states.  According to their son Herman Heinrich Hollenbeck in the 1900 census he immigrated in 1851 and for the longest time I was looking for immigration records after that date.

To my surprise he came up in the 1850 census living in Cole, Missouri - which means, the family immigrated before 1851.

With this new piece of information I went hunting again, but this time I tried searching with his sister's name Catherina - and sure enough! there they were!

 

On May 26, 1842 on the J N Adami, the Hollenbeck family consisting of Johann Heinrich, Catherina (his wife), and children Herman and Catherina arrived in New Orleans, Lousiana.  Their native town was Hunteburg and they were from Holdorf.  Their final destination was listed as St. Louis. What sort of luggage did they bring? 2 chests and 2 bags.   I have copy and paste on this document to make it more easily read.  Our ancestor did not  travel in the cabin, instead they were in steerage. 

Imagine, starting a whole new life in a new country with only 2 chests and 2 bags holding your belongings.  I pack a suitcase for a week (Yes I overpack)!

To keep this blog post short, I will stop here :) But expect more on this family, because I was able to order the Holdorf/Hunteburg microfilm from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT.  I was able to find records of Johann and Catherina's children (2 of which I didn't know about) and a couple trails to follow.

If you have any information on the Hollenbeck's you want to share :) please feel free to comment!!