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What Germanic surnames are you researching (Please list Surname - area and time frame)

Hi,
My German family surname is Bonstein The oldest Bonstein Ancestor of mine recorded in my file is Cuntz Bonnstein and his wife Gela. They were married before 1630 and lived in the town of Ropperhousen, in the Principality of Hesse-Kassel (a principality in northern Hesse) in what was know as the Holy Roman Empire.

Copied verbatim from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire

The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (German: Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation listen ▶ (help·info), Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium Nationis Germanicae, see names and designations of the empire) was a political conglomeration of lands in Central Europe in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Emerging from the eastern part of the Frankish realm after its division in the Treaty of Verdun (843), it lasted almost a millennium until its dissolution in 1806. By the 18th century, it still consisted of the larger part of modern Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Belgium, and Luxembourg, as well as large parts of modern Poland and small parts of the Netherlands. Previously, it had included all of the Netherlands and Switzerland, and parts of modern France and Italy (see: Maps below). In the 18th century, when the Empire was already in decline, Voltaire ridiculed its nomenclature by saying that the Holy Roman Empire was "neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire".

It was never a nation state. Despite the German ethnicity of most of its rulers and subjects, from the very beginning many ethnicities constituted the Holy Roman Empire. Many of its most important noble families and appointed officials came from outside the German-speaking communities. At the height of the empire it contained most of the territory of today's Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czech Republic and Slovenia, as well as eastern France, northern Italy and western Poland. Its languages thus comprised not only German and its many dialects and derivatives, but many Slavic languages and the languages which became modern French, Dutch and Italian. Furthermore, its division into territories ruled by numerous secular and ecclesiastical princes, prelates, counts, imperial knights, and free cities made it, in the early modern period at least, far less cohesive than the emerging modern states around it.
However, during most of its time it was more than a mere confederation. The concept of the Reich not only included the government of a specific territory, but had strong Christian religious connotations (hence the holy prefix). Until 1508, German Kings were not considered Emperors of the Reich until the Pope had formally crowned them as such.
The Reich can thus best be described as a cross between a state and a religious confederation
For more information see:
http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bonsteinandgilpin/...


My family moves forward to 1776 and the American Revolutionary War. Laurentius (Lorenz) Bonstein (Johann Paulus (Paul)5, Christian4, Henning3, Cuntz2, First name unknown1) was born February 5, 1716 in Grossropperhausen, Cassel, Germany and his wife Hedwig Lingemann have to give up two son to the standing Army of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel.

Paulus Bonnstein and his younger brother my ancestor Johann Jacob (I) Bonstein.

Jacob stayed here and Paulus went home to Hesse-Kassell and family after the war.

If your interested we can exchange information

Thank you for reading
Nelda

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Replies to This Discussion

I am in the UK . While researching my former husbands name Bielstein, we discovered ancestors who were travelling musicians.

 

I'm researching Charles Pabst b. 1842 Saxony, Germany. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1862. His father's name was Fredrick Pabst and he was also born in Saxony.
Hi Heather,
Your research might be very hard. First, Saxony is now a Free State in Eastern Germany. But in 1842 it was not part of Germany .. because Germany did not exhist. It was the Holy Roman Empire.

I have found two URL you might go to and read the first explains Saxony:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxony#Foundation_of_the_second_Saxon_...

The second is the Current government of the Free State of Saxony, Germany.
http://www.sachsen.de/en/bf/index.html

It has a contact link and you might try asking if there is any one who could help you. It will be hard to locate one particular family in an entire area as large as a state, but nothing ventured is nothing gained and possibly a great loss...

You can also try the rootsweb.com area mailing lists for Saxony, Germany. http://www.rootsweb.com

So good luck hunting

Nelda
Thank you, Nelda. I will check these out.
Hi Heather! Is there any chance that your Pabst could be the same name as my Pabch?
Hi Leeann. I am not sure. I have seen Pabst variations as Papst, Paubst, Paupst, Pope, and. Paupe, but not with a ch on the end, but you just never know. What information do you have on the Pauch surname?
The latest immigrants in my family are those from Germany.

Frederick August Kippenberg was born in 1844 in Haverlah, Hannover, and he arrived in the States in 1865. I am still trying to locate his naturalization records, but haven't had much luck with the search. According to family legend, Fred was the son of a well-known minister. On his death certificate, his parent's names were given as Frederick Kippenberg and Emelie Steinstell, but the information was given by a son-in-law. A German researcher-relative said she had found a record of a marriage between Frederick Kippenberg and Emelie Steyerdahl in the right place and time and mentioned a possible sister named Julia.

Anne Marie Francisco Solf was born in 1849 in Goslar, Hannover. She married Frederick in St Louis, Missouri, in 1870. She was a Catholic and Frederick converted to Catholicism before the marriage. All the information I have on her parents is from her death certificate which gives her father's name as William Solf, born in Germany. Anne had a brother, Ernst/Ernest, who arrived in the States before she did. There is also the possibility that she had a second brother, Frederick who also immigrated to America. All of them settled near St Louis.

Since both Kippenberg and Solf are not common names, it would seem easy to find information on these lines, but I have been able to find only a few mentions of either one. I would like to find out who their parents were and any siblings they might have had. They both came from the same area in Hannover--Haverlah is less than 50 miles from Goslar; they were born about the same time; they arrived in the States about the same time and place, but I can find no connections before their arriving in St Louis.
Nancy,
My first suggestion, is to contact the local Catholic church to the area they married in. You are looking for the Diocese of that area and the historian. The record of conversation and thier marriage records may hold some light on her family, and possibly his.

The other thing you need to do is contact Haverlah and Goslar city halls for each town asking for information on how to contact the local historian. They love to help give information on local families. The Catholic church records are kept in a local area... can't remember the name but the local historian can help. THe different spelling is probably correct.

Now on naturalization records, the actual naturalization could have taken place as late as ten years after arrival. So don't limit yourself...in time frames


Good Hunting

Nelda
My Schneider ancestors left Remagen, Germany for St. Louis, Missouri in 1892. Some names were passed down to me from the family, and I have seen an index to the Catholic family book from Remagen, Germany on the Internet. I have been in contact with someone who has a copy of the book and he has given me some information, and soon I will be sending away for my own copy of the book. Karl Josef Schneider was supposedly born in 1855 but it looks like he may have actually been born around 1848. His parents were Johann Wilhelm Schneider (born around 1826) and Sibylle Lindlohr (born around 1823). Sibylle was from Erpel, which is very close to Remagen. Johann Wilhelm Schneider's father, Nikolaus Schneider (born in 1779), was from Düngenheim. His wife Anna Franziska Fassbender (born in 1799) was from Remagen.

Karl Josef Schneider married Christine Nagel, who was also from Remagen. Supposedly she was born in 1851, but she may also have been born around 1848. Her father was Johann Nagel, who was originally from Hermülheim. He died in 1891. I was told that his wife's name was Anna Marie Aupin, but the index on the Web said that her name was Anna Maria Klein. The person I have been in contact with who has a copy of the book said there is a note which says her birth name was Anna Maria Aussen. She was born around 1818.

Once I have the book I should be able to figure out more. However, I will still need to research the other towns that my ancestors came from (Erpel, Hermülheim, Düngenheim). I was told that Johann Wilhelm Schneider and Sibylle Lindlohr are listed as only having a daughter who died when she was 10 months old. I had been told that Karl Josef Schneider's parents were Wilhelm Schneider and Sibylle Lindlahr, so they appear to be the right people, especially since they are the right age to have been his parents, and they are in the right places (I had been told that my family was from Erpel and Remagen). It would appear that the records for the rest of the family may be in Erpel and not in Remagen.

That's just one branch of my German ancestors. The other branch came from Baden (not necessarily the town, maybe just the state). They were from the Black Forest area. John Gersbacher was born on 2 September 1843. Census records, death certificates, and the cemetery record I found online said that his name was John, but my grandmother had said that his name was Joseph. One of his sons was Joseph John Gersbacher, so he may have been John Joseph or Joseph John (or in Germany, probably Johann Josef or Josef Johann). He came to St. Louis, Missouri in the early 1880s, and his wife and children joined him about a year later. John's death certificate said that his father's name was Fred Gersbacher, but Fred doesn't sound like a very German name. He had a son named Fridolin and in a letter my grandmother wrote where she mentions our family's history, she refers to John's son Fridolin as Fred, so John's father was probably named Fridolin too. John's wife was Kunigunda Dreier, who was born around 1847 and died in St. Louis on 6 January 1893.
Hi my German ancestor that I cannot find where he came from is Conrad Beckler born c. 1777 he married in Youghal Cork county ireland c.1802. Sadly I have no other info for him. Any help appreciated. Declan
I am researching Valentine Carrick and wife Lizbeth?. He and his wife are listed on the 1850 census as being from Baden. He was probably born about 1813 and Lizbeth about 1806. They came to Maryland before 1839.
I am researching
Albrecht from Westfalia 1800 to 1900
Richter from Sohland 1800 to 1900
Kichler/Kuechler/Kuchler from Sohland 1800 to 1900
Brodt from Alsace 1800 to 1900

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