Genealogy Wise
Germany and German Ancestry
This group was created for anyone interested in researching German Ancestry.
Friedrich Wilhelm Beckman
I'm trying to find out who this ancestor's parents were. He was born in Germany in 1841 but have no idea where. He arrived in the U.S. in 1848. I have a lot of data/documentation regarding his life in this country but none of this indicates who his parents were or where he was born.
Marilyn Potter Oppenborn Steber
I guess you've already looked for Naturalization or Intention to become a citizen records and found nothing for his parents.
1850 Census should find them listed first, and then names of other children might give a clue. Did the parents settle in Wisconsin? If not, where? There are many German Historical Societies there and Pennsylvania.
Did the parents go to the gold rush?
My great-great was in the 1848 Rebellion aka Bonn Rebellion Students Rebellion and Karl Schurz Rebellion and came to "Amerika" because of his particpation in that. Many men fled Germany at that time.
I'm guessing they were Lutherans. Church records in the city where they settled may have some information, too.
Good luck.
Dec 19, 2015
Marianne Szabo
Where did they settle? Ohio has a large German population, as well as Texas, and Michigan. Do you have baptism records? I found my great-grandparents village of origin in the baptism records of their children. They were Roman Catholic and in Latin on the record it says "ex loco", which means "from the place" and then gives the village name. I agree about FamSrch - they have German marriage, and baptism records going back hundreds of years. Try putting his name in with his birth year and see what pops up. FamSrch will show all name variants, but you still may have to play around a bit. I found 5 birth/baptism records for his name or something similar (2 were RC and 3 were Evangelische or Protestant). Also, remember that in Germany, particularly if they were Roman Catholic a child had a "church" name (usually the first name), and then a middle name, which was actually the name he/she were called by. When he got to the U.S. his family might have dropped one of the names. When my greatgrandfather, Johan Gerhard Booms, arrived in the U.S. he went by Johan Gerhard, then Gerhard, then just John, and finally John Henry on his death certificate (which is actually a mistake. He dropped the Gerhard pretty quickly because I think it was hard to pronounce.
Dec 19, 2015
Wayne H. Vallowe
Ms. Beckman,
I know you said you looked on Family Search but is this the information you found? What I have here is based on his mothers name. Stettin is the city, it is now known as Szczecin, Poland. I hope this is what you are looking for.
Pomeranian Genealogy
Stadtkreis Stettin
Kreis History
Dec 21, 2015