Rathkamp Family

Category: Uncategorized

  • The Swedes Come Out of the Weeds

    The Swedes Come Out of the Weeds

    In October, 2009 I wrote THIS POST about my Great Grandmother, Olive (Hassel) Rathkamp, my dad’s grandmother.

    Olive died in 1926, 16 years before my dad was born.  Until last week she and her Swedish ancestors continued to be a complete mystery.  I’ve accumulated some anecdotal evidence, but nothing concrete.  Here’s what I suspected:

    • Her father was Charles Hassel
    • She lived in Michigan
    • I suspected she was born in Sweden
    • I suspected her mother died when she was young.

    That’s it.  Just tiny clues. Nothing a genealogist would hang his hat on.

    I have literally had three different people listed as possibly being her mother.  The death record shown above seemed to indicate her mother was Anna (Erickson) Hassel who apparently died in childbirth on December 17, 1892 a date which coincides with the birth of Olive’s sister Ella.

    Anna would have been 8 years younger than Charles and would have only been 16 when she had Olive.  Not out of the realm of possibilities.

    I knew I’d have much better luck finding Olive’s mom if I could find a birth record from Sweden.  This was no easy task.  The only thing I had to go on was Charles’ obit from 1937.  This obit states that he was from Nora, Westmanlan (Vastmanland), Sweden.  If this was true it would have helped.  But this turned out to be factually incorrect.

    It’s amazing how facts are distorted through the lens of time.  Soon tiring of finding the needle in the haystack, I decided to try my old trick of working sideways.

    Iron Mountain, Michigan was an iron mining town and went through a boom during the late 1800’s.  Similar to what’s happening now in North Dakota and the tar sands in Canada, workers were recruited to Iron Mountain from other areas of the world.  Even today, looking through the Iron Mountain phone book, you’ll notice two distinct ethnic groups:  Swedes and Italians.  It’s not a coincidence that skilled miners could be found in both Sweden and Italy.  These young men, searching for opportunity, ended up working together in the iron mines of Iron Mountain.

    Knowing this, I started searching emigration information for some of the known Swedes that had settled in Iron Mountain.

    One town that seemed to show up on more than one occasion was the town of Grythyttan, Örebro, Sweden.  Plugging this town into Google Maps, I soon discovered Grythyttan was only some 20 miles away from….Nora, Örebro, Sweden.  Grythyttan is a small town.  A small town, along with an uncommon Swedish surname would surely make my life easier.  And it did.

    Ancesty.com has done a nice job of integrating the Swedish Genline database.  I quickly was able to find this gem:    From there, I was off to the races.  I now knew my Swedish ancestors were from Grythyttan and soon I was able to find Olive’s birth record.  It seems her first name wasn’t Olive.  No surprise.  Olive was her middle name and her first name was Ingeborg.  Now that sounds Swedish.

    So who is Olive’s mom?  Charles married Josephine Bergquist on January 7, 1892, three weeks after Anna’s death.  But it turns out Anna wasn’t Olive’s mom either.  For years, I’ve had a copy of a ship’s manifest showing a Sofie and Olive Hassel coming into the U.S. in March of 1888.  But because I stuck to the possibility that Olive’s mom was Anna, I dismissed this record.

    It turns out that on May 17, 1884 (two years before Olive was born), Charles married Sophia Sax in Grythyttan.

    The ship’s manifest was correct.  Sophia was Olive’s mother.  Since then, I’ve found another record.  This record shows Sofia and Olive made the trip with Charles’ brother Andrew.  It shows they were from Grythyttan.  And it shows there destination was…Iron Mountain, Michigan.

    So here’s my best guess…Charles and Sophia marry in 1884, Olive was born in 1886.  Charles emigrates without his wife and young daughter, to Iron Mountain, then his brother Andrew, Sophia, and Olive are sent for.  Sometime between their arrival and 1890/91, Sophia dies and Charles, finding himself unable to work in the mine and care for Olive, marries Anna.  Anna dies in 1892, Charles again finds himself in a bind and marries Josephine.

    The thought of losing two wives in the span of a couple of years gives me pause. These people endured true hardship.

    My great aunt, Grace Larson often took me up to her cabin between Merrill and Tomahawk, Wisconsin.  In 1974 during one of our trips “up north”, Grace and I drove up to Iron Mountain.  I was 10.  In Iron Mountain, we toured the Chapin Mine.  While writing this post, I recalled this tour and vaguely remembered these pictures being tucked away in a photo album Grace put together for me.

    Grace’s sister was Alice “Pat” Rathkamp, my grandmother.  Pat was married to Bill Rathkamp, my grandfather.  Bill’s mother was Olive, my Great Grandmother.  Olive’s father was Charles, my Great Great Grandfather.

    Charles and his brother worked in this mine.

    Did Grace know about the connection to this place, or was it a coincidence?

     

     

  • Willy & Olive, What’s Your Story?

    My last post about Esther Rathkamp got me thinking about all the discrepancies and mysteries surrounding her parents William & Olive Rathkamp, my great grandparents.  Genealogists are used to dealing with inconsistencies, usually attributed to misspellings of surnames.  But Willy & Olive are off the charts.

    How and why did Olive move from Iron Mountain, Michigan/ Florence, Wisconsin to Milwaukee?  At some point, her sister Albina also moved to Milwaukee, marrying Albert Klatt.

    Where and when did they get married? Willy’s first wife, Sophie, died in early 1906.  Willy & Olives first daughter, Esther was born March 12, 1908, this leaves a window of about 18 months for them to get married, provided they were married before conception.  I’ve searched online records from Wisconsin and Michigan, and visited the Milwaukee County Courthouse and have found nothing.

    My grandfather’s birth certificate. William Rathkamp, my grandfather, was born in 1909.  His last name is shown as “Redcamp”.  There are all kinds of cases where surnames are incorrectly documented (phonetically), usually because the person verbally giving the last name is a recent immigrant.  Neither Willy or Olive was a recent immigrant and it’s doubtful either had an accent.  Willy was born in Milwaukee in 1878 and Olive more than likely was born in Sweden around 1886, and moved to Michigan when she was a baby.  Even if they did speak with an accent, you’d think the person filling out the birth certificate would ask for the correct spelling of the last name.  1909 is well before WWI when many Germans anglicized their last names.  In 1973, my grandfather had this “mistake” corrected.

    William Rathkamp birth registration
    William Rathkamp Birth Registration

    Olive’s last name is also misspelled as “Hessell” instead of Hassell and her birthplace was erroneously shown as America.

    1910 US Census. Olive states her place of birth is Michigan, and that the birthplace of her parents is Norway.  I believe her place of birth is Sweden, and I’m 99.999% sure her parents were also born in Sweden.

    1930 US Census. William states that his parents were born in Hamburg, Germany.  They were actually born south of Bremen, in what was then Hanover.

    William’s WWI Registration Card states that he is paralyzed on his left side.

    William Rathkamp WW1 Draft Registration
    William Rathkamp WW1 Draft Registration

    Olive died in 1926 at the age of 40, leaving 3 kids, including 10 year old Ann to her husband to care for.  Family lore has it that she was a member of the Church of Christ, Scientist who eschewed medical care which ultimately led to her death at a young age.  How and why would she have gravitated to such a radical religion?

    William died in 1930 at the age of 53, leaving 3 kids, including a 14 year old Ann orphans.  William’s death will be the topic for a future post.

    No pictures. Of of my 8 great grandparents, William and Olive are the only ones for whom I have no pictures.

  • Oma Emma

    Oma Emma

    It’s not an over-exaggeration to say that if ever there was an angel on this earth, it was my Grandma Emma. Emma Nathalia (Walz) Niesl was born to Fredrich and Sophia (Bischke) Walz on May 2, 1913. Both Fred and Sophie, along with their respective families, came to America, settling on the harsh plains of South Dakota, from the Steppes of southern Russia in the very early 1900’s. While they were from Russia, both families were of German descent, their families having been recruited from Germany to Russia in the early 19th Century to settle land newly conquered by Catherine the Great, herself of German descent.

    Emma and her husband George “Dodge” Niesl had 4 children, 17 grandchildren, and countless great/ great great grandchildren. She had a way of making every one of us feel like we were her only grandchild. She sang, whistled, told jokes, showed us magic tricks, cooked, told stories, made clothes, and showed to each of us a love that made us feel very special.

    Never, and I mean never, would you hear her criticize or pass judgement on anybody.  It wasn’t in her.  She led and influenced by example.

    Some years ago, as Emma was in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s, my aunt Sandie (Niesl) Patten interviewed Emma.  I recently had these videos digitally copied and have put them on Youtube in 10 minute segments.  You can see Sandie nudging her along at times, trying to keep her on topic.

    But in these videos, you can also see how special my Grandma Emma was.  It’s my hope that even though she is no longer with us, my kids and my family can learn from her.  She made the world a much better place.

  • Ripon Historical Society

    Pickard House (Ripon Historical Society)
    Pickard House (Ripon Historical Society)

    Since moving to Ripon a few months ago, I’ve been looking for opportunities to volunteer my time.  Sometimes opportunity can show up in the most unlikely of places.  During the annual Dickens of a Christmas early in December, my family and I visited the Ripon Historical Society where I met its president, Bill Woolley.  I asked Bill if there was a chance the society was looking for volunteers and he put me in touch with his wife Jean.

    Yesterday I met with Jean and am excited to say that I’ll be transcribing the obituaries from the Ripon Commonwealth Press and the Oshkosh Northwestern into the Ripon Library online database, administered through the Winnefox Library System.

    It may not exactly be providing life-changing assistance to those in need, but I’m sure somewhere down the line there will be genealogists who will appreciate my efforts.

  • Chasing Chickens in Oeftinghausen

    Chasing Chickens in Oeftinghausen

    I’ve been ridiculously delinquent in writing about our last two days in Germany, but sometimes life throws a couple curve balls and you just have to react.  Actually, I can handle the curve balls, it’s those inside pitches that tend to sting a little.

    I can’t speak for Korey, but I think Friday was the day I was most looking forward to- our trip to the Rathkamp ancestral home in Oeftinghausen.  Thursday night we drove to Sulingen where we stayed with Marion Rathkamp (my 4th cousin) and her husband Stefan.  Besides being awed by Marion & Stefan’s house, we felt an immediate bond with them and stayed up fairly late just laughing and talking about “stuff”.  After a couple beers Stefan became fluent in English and I was thinking I probably could have taught a German class.  Truthfully, by this point in our trip I certainly wasn’t fluent, but I really enjoyed just getting in there and doing my best to speak the language.

    Friday morning Korey and I decided that we’d like to spend a little time together so we took in the sights of downtown Sulingen, a very charming town of almost 13,000 just south of Oeftinghausen.  We felt like we were on the set of “Willy Wonka” at the Fischer Fine Sweets factory and laughed when a little later we tried to eat 100% pure dark chocolate.  We put our sword to good use on Schmiede Strasse.

    Finally we drove with Marion to her parents’ house in Oeftinghausen.  Not only were we greeted by Walter and Mariechen Rathkamp, but also by two of Walter’s cousins, Heinrich Rathkamp and Adolf Schupp, Adolf’s wife Antje, and the Mayor of Ehrenberg.  The Mayor presented us with some aerial photographs of Oeftinghausen and some local organic cheese.  We visited for a while, had coffee and desserts, and walked across the street to see the Schmiede (blacksmith shop) my ancestors worked in along with their home.  Marion recalled many of her childhood memories and told me her grandmother lived in the large home until fairly recently.

    It was a bit of a surreal experience made even more surreal after Antje Schupp, sensing my introspection, asked me, “are you imagining your great great great grandfather as a boy laughing and chasing those chickens around the house?”

    We said our goodbyes to Heinrich, Adolf & Antje and then drove to the cemetery and visited the church in Schmalfoerden where my Rathkamp ancestors were baptized and married.  The inside of the church was closed, as it was being restored, but behind the church I found a couple decaying pieces of the tile roof lying on the ground which I took for souvenirs.  There was a memorial on the grounds of the church honoring those from Schmalfoerden who had given their lives during WWI and WWII.  We noted about 4 or 5 Rathkamps listed.

    We then went for dinner just down the road where Korey and I both decided on Jaeger Schnitzel.  Dinner was excellent and we got to hear some great stories from Walter.  The most memorable to me was his story about the days following the collapse of the German army in WWII.  Apparently the German troops who were stationed in Schmalfoerden, hearing about the surrender, simply left their posts along with whatever provisions they may have had.  Walter and his friends decided to find out if there was anything of value left behind, thinking maybe they would find a loaf of bread or some cigarettes.  It turns out the Allies had been watching them from a distance and thinking Walter’s crew was possibly recovering weapons, began firing at them.  Walter told us that day they made record time back to the relative safety of Oeftinghausen.

    For the third time during our trip, I learned a valuable life lesson:  I came to Germany excited to see great architecture, historically significant places, and to discover my ancestral roots.  What I hadn’t planned on was making a connection with people I am proud to call family.  Friday wouldn’t be the last time we experienced this, and Saturday was maybe even more of a surprise.

  • Mugs

    Mugs

    My cousin Matt died this morning.

    Matt Patten

    His life was full of struggle and pain, but he fought to make the best of it.  Matt was born about six months before me.  I feel fortunate to have been Matt’s friend during our childhood.  We were very close, having lived in the same house for a while and having gone to the same schools most of our lives.

    Over the years we grew apart but this morning when I heard the news, a flood of memories came back to me.  So this evening I decided to take a ride down to our old neighborhood.  I first drove past Sherman Park Lutheran where we roller skated, then Washington Park where we practiced football in the fall and ice skated in the winter.  Then I drove past our old house on 37th and Lloyd and sat there thinking about more memories.  Memories of us hiding from our Grandpa Dodge under his work bench.  I thought about Matt, Robert Bergner and I hitting each other over the heads like Barbarians with 4 foot long icicles.  I turned the corner and looked down the alley remembering how we used to climb up on the cinder box trying to push each other off.  I remembered all the games of football and kick the can we played in the alley.

    I drove past the “corner store” where we could buy a fist full of candy for a dime.  Later on Matt could by a pack of cigarettes with a forged note from his “mom”.  Across the street at Bethany Lutheran Church, we once found an open door, ran up into the balcony and tried playing Black Sabbath’s Iron Man on the organ.  After that we went into the storage room on the side of the alter and wolfed down a package of communion wafers…not because we were hungry, but because they were there.

    I drove past the house with the huge chestnut tree and thought about the hundreds of times we walked by, picked up chestnuts and whipped them at each other.  If we were lucky, the prickers on the outside of the chestnut would hit bare skin inflicting “severe pain”.  My last stop was Bethany Lutheran School.  Matt went to Bethany for all of grade school, and I into 6th grade.  It’s hard to imagine now, but Matt was a tremendous athlete in grade school.  He set the standard for all of us.

    These are the memories of Matt I choose to hold on to.  While we may have drifted apart, Mathew Ryan Patten was the brother I always wished I had.

  • A Day With Herr Britannica

    A Day With Herr Britannica

    I met Friedhelm Wessels via email about three years ago while I was trying to locate my Rathkamp ancestors.  I’m glad I did.  At that time, I knew my ancestors came to Milwaukee in 1868 and I had a very rough idea of the location they may have been from in Germany, but that was it.  I was at a dead end.

    Friedhelm has not only helped me find my ancestors, but has also given me a real understanding of the world they lived in.  Korey and I were very lucky to be able to stay with Friedhelm for two nights and tap into his vast knowledge during our day with him.  Later in the week, we would meet some other people who knew Herr Wessels and everybody seemed to have the same great respect for him.  Thank you Friedhelm for all your help and friendship.

    Our morning started out in the church at Bassum.  Coming from Wisconsin where “old” is maybe 150 years, it’s hard to imagine this church’s origins began over 1150 years ago.  There are about 50 of my ancestors (that I know of) who were baptized or married in this church.

    Stiftskirche Bassum
    This photo was taken in Bassum in 2010. This is where my Hulseman ancestors were baptized and married.

    Friedhelm told us that during one of Napoleon’s conquests, he used the adjacent Abbey as temporary housing for his officers.  Napoleon also tore the pews out of the church and used the church as stables for his horses.  My third great grandfather, Dietrich Heinrich Hülsemann was baptized in this church in 1808, during the time of Napoleon’s reign.  That kind of thing can really get your imagination going.

    Baptismal Font, Stiftskirche Bassum

    Later in the day, we visited the church in Neukirchen where my great great grandparents were married in 1861.  The church was locked, but that didn’t stop Friedhelm.  He asked some locals where the caretaker lived and we drove over there to get the keys.  This church was much smaller and simpler, but still very old.  Most of the artwork was probably done in the 1500’s, but one panel in particular was definitely of Saxon origin.  Before leaving the church, we climbed up into the steeple…where we got to see first hand what happens when you have bats in your belfry.

  • Niedersachsen Social Studies

    Wednesday afternoon we ventured over to the Museumdorf Cloppenburg to continue our history lesson.  The museum simulates a 16th to 19th century Niedersachsen village.  The buildings on display have been dismantled from various locations around Niedersachsen and have been meticulously restored and rebuilt on-site.  I think both Korey and I got more out of this museum than the Deutsche Auswander Haus, probably because it showed us a better perspective relative to the living conditions our ancestors experienced.

    There is a Bäckerei on site, and it was here that we got a taste of Schwarzbrot, the bread of our ancestors.  It was explained to us that white bread has a shelf life of 2-3 days, but that Schwarzbrot could stay on the shelf for 10-14 days.  This bread is extremely coarse and we saw murals of bakers mixing the dough with their feet, in a fashion similar to mashing grapes.

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    In the feudal system my ancestors lived in, each village had a few classes of citizens and their houses reflected their status within the system.  While the size and quality of the house may have varied, the general design and layout was almost always the same. In the back of the house was the “Diele”, stalls for the horses and cows.  Yes, they were in the house.  This large room often included a very small room with a bed which provided living quarters for the “Heurling” or what we would call the “hired hand”.

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    The next room was a large room with a stone hearth and a stone floor where the cooking took place over the fire.  Because the fire was almost always burning, meat or sausage was often hung well above the hearth where it would be smoked and cured.

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    Finally in the back of the house would be the living quarters which often included a more formal dining area.  No space was wasted and the kids slept in bunks recessed into the walls.  Behind the house were meticulously cared for flower and vegetable gardens.

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    That evening we had dinner at the Sander residence and then drove with Friedhelm to his house in Gross Ringmar where we stayed for two nights.  Korey was tired and fell asleep early, but Friedhelm and I stayed up until 2:00am talking about genealogy and history.  Friedhelm is a walking encyclopedia and an incredible genealogist.  By this time I was starting to feel a little more comfortable with my German and learned a lot from him, as I suspected I would.  What I hadn’t really anticipated was that during our short time together, we became good friends.  Thank you Ernst-Dieter and Friedhelm for your hospitality and for your friendship.

    I don’t know what Ernst-Dieter and Friedhelm were looking at, but obviously the dumb American missed it!  Oh, by the way…Ernst-Dieter…if you see this, I think you have one piece of wood that’s just a little out of place.

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  • Chased by Druids

    We started Wednesday by visiting the Kleinenkneter Steine and the Pestruper Burial Grounds at Wildeshausen.  The burial grounds are situated on a heath moor and are visible as far as the eye can see.  The Kleinenkneter Steine is basically one of Germany’s versions of Stonehenge, on a smaller scale.  As I understand, these burials took place 5,000 years ago.  Korey had the guts to wiggle into the cave and took some pictures.  As he came out of the cave, the skies opened up and it began to pour.  We felt like we were being chased by Druids as we ran back to the car.

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  • Korey Liebt Schnitzel Sehr!!!

    Notice how the fruit remains in its pristine, untouched state.  That’s my boy!

    Before

    After

  • Germany, Day Three

    On our third day in Germany, we visited the Deutsches Auswander Haus (German Emigration Museum) in Bremerhaven, then traveled to Bremen to see the old part of the city.  I wish we would have had more time in Bremen because it’s a very cool city with a very unique history.  My camera’s battery was dead, so I had to use my phone to take these photos.

    On the way to Bremerhaven, we got to experience the Autobahn.  It’s every bit as cool as we had heard.  Ernst-Dieter was our tour guide that day and he was able to get his company issued VW van up to about 140 MPH.  Even at that speed, there were other cars zipping right past us.

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  • Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland!

    What a great trip.  A perfect week with the only exception being the debacle in the Hotlanta airport.  Das Flughof ist ein Klosterfock!

    We met some incredible people, ate some awesome food, drank some delicious beer, and saw some really remarkable things.  It’ll take me a while to organize my thoughts and pictures, but I’ll start throwing some things up this week.  Special thanks to Ernst-Dieter Sander and his family, Friedhelm Wessels, Stefan Hildebrandt, Marion Rathkamp, the Timmerman Family and Anje Rathkamp for their hospitality.

    In the meantime, enjoy these photos of the two new-aged Saxons taking over Niedersachsen.

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  • Eatin’ Good in the Neighborhood

    This happened today, 3 blocks from our hotel and across the street from the “Kebap Salon” we ate at.

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  • Deutschland, Tag Zwei

    Today has been a fun day.  We slept in pretty late and then took the tour bus through Hamburg.  Getting on a bus is a story in itself, but I’ll spare the details.  Let it be said that our mono-linguistic paralysis puts us at a slight disadvantage.

    Here are the pictures:

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  • Liza

    [singlepic id=51 w=320 h=240 float=left]Over the last 2 years or so I have devoted this website to relaying stories of my ancestors and preserving these stories for my kids.  But the fondest memories I have are those my kids themselves have provided over the years.  26 years ago tomorrow, my journey as a father began with the blessing of my daughter Elizabeth Nathalia Rathkamp.  Betsie was the first girl to join our branch of the Rathkamp family in 68 years, my grandfather’s sister Anne having been born in 1916.

    Even in the darkest depths of Alzheimer’s, my “Granny Pat” was thrilled with Betsie’s birth and couldn’t believe the curse of the Rathkamp hooligans had ended.[singlepic id=50 w=320 h=240 float=right]

    I have watched with pride as Betsie has grown to be a very remarkable woman.  Even though it would please my ego to take credit for the way she has turned out, the truth is that she is what makes Betsie the way she is.  She is sensitive, yet incredibly strong.  She is open-minded, but is also very firm in her beliefs.  She is mature for her age, but doesn’t take herself too seriously and is rarely seen without her infectious smile.  She is very goal and career oriented, and her clients are as loyal to her as she is to them.

    This past year, she took a major step in her life by buying her own home.  She had been looking at condos in the ‘burbs and had even been close to closing on one.  But in the end, she found a house that suited her personality to a tee in the city.  Recently, she has been volunteering her time with Madacc in Milwaukee.  She has much of herself to give, and these animals will all want to go home with her.

    Betsie, I’m so proud of you.  Have a very Happy Birthday.

    Love,

    Dad

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  • Kissin’ Kuzzins?

    [singlepic id=46 w=320 h=240 float=left]I’ve been spending time working on my set of 3rd great grandparents, stemming from my paternal grandmother, Alice (Waege) Rathkamp.  Lately I’ve been on a bit of a roll, discovering some of their home towns in what was then Pomerania and now is part of Poland.  Originally, this post was going to be about the really interesting fact that not only did each of these four families live within a 20 mile radius of each other in Dodge and Fond du Lac Counties of Wisconsin, but also that is seems they may have originated from within a 20 mile radius in Kreis Naugard, Pomerania.  To make this discovery, some of the information I used was known, some of it was “guessed” by using the database on Kartenmeister.  This website allows you to enter surnames of ancestors from Pommern, with the results showing the former German name and the current Polish name for the village of origin.  I then plugged the Polish name for each village into Google Maps to discover the close proximity of the villages possibly inhabited my Wege, Justmann, Leitzke, Brockhaus, Gehrke, Wesenberg, and Viergutz ancestors.

    [singlepic id=47 w=320 h=240 float=right]However, I was missing the surname of my 3rd great grandmother, Louise, married to Johann G. Leitzke.  So I then went to the beta FamilySearch database where I made a somewhat shocking discovery.  There is marriage information for Louise Leitzke, a daughter of Johann and Louise.  It turns out Louise’s maiden name is also Wege.  Her birthdate is December 1823, making it entirely possible that she is Friedrich Wege’s sister.  If that’s true, it means my 2nd great grandparents, William Wege and Wilhelmine Leitzke were 1st cousins.  I need to find the parents of Friedrich and Louise to confirm this.

    Just goes to show you should keep your friends close and your relatives even closer.

  • Working Sideways

    [singlepic id=45 w=320 h=240 float=left]Last night was a good night for genealogy in the Rathkamp house.  My third great grandparents, August and Henriette (Viergutz) Wesenberg were the first of my ancestors to emigrate to America.  They arrived in New York on August 10, 1846.  I’ve never put a lot of time into this branch of my family, so last night I thought I’d dive in.  Sometimes when you hit a brick wall, it helps to research sideways, and this worked for me last night.  I suspected the Wesenbergs came from Pomerania, and this was verified as their port of departure was shown to be Stettin, now a city of 406,000 in Poland.

    [singlepic id=44 w=320 h=240 float=right]When you’re researching your ancestors, you often have a tendency to look at a document fixated only on your ancestors names.  I’ve learned over time that there are often clues surrounding those names.  The name Zastrow kept popping up next to or near the Wesenberg name.  Charles Zastrow and his family are listed on the passenger list just above the Wesenbergs.  The 1860 US Census showed the Zastrows, again just above the Wesenbergs.  I then searched the US Bureau of Land Management’s website and found the documents showing that Carl Zastrow and August Wesenberg both purchased land in Herman, Dodge County, Wisconsin Territory on February 2, 1848.  August bought 40 acres and Carl, 200.  These documents show the exact locations of each of these plots, so I used that information and plugged it into the virtual plat map on Dodge County’s website.

    [singlepic id=43 w=320 h=240 float=left]I knew I had something here, so I searched Ancestry.com for Carl Zastrow and found a tree showing his birthplace as Pflugarde, Pommerania.  I then searched Google for Zastrow and Pflugard and found the real gem I was after:  A page on Google Books showing a list of Old Lutherans who had fled Pommern seeking religious freedom.  Sure enough, August and Henriette are shown just below Carl.  Their name here is spelled Wasenberg, but also shown is their home town:  Wismar, now Wyszomierz, Poland.  Wismar is only a mile or two from Pflugarde.

    Here’s another interesting thing about this last list.  Many of the names on this list are familiar names.  I’ve worked with with or have known people having the last names of Gennrich, Roehl, Eggert, Hammel, Goetsch and Pankow.


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  • What’s in a name?

    Val’s always poking fun of some of the names of my German ancestors. She’s pretty sure there’s a Friedrich Heinrich Johann Jakob Jingleheimerschmidt in my tree somewhere. I thought I’d share some of the gems I’ve uncovered from her side:

    • [singlepic id=31 w=320 h=240 float=right]Minerva Belle Tobey
    • Charity Mack
    • Mindwell Mack (there were actually a few Mindwells)
    • Mercy Mack
    • Resolved Mack
    • Jerusha Spicer
    • Keziah Latham Spicer
    • Experience Geer
    • Patience Button (may or may not have been passed to subsequent generations)
    • Jemima Parke
    • Zilpha Meech

  • Bill & Pat’s Excellent Adventure

    [singlepic id=19 w=320 h=240 float=left]Here’s another picture from the archives.  I’m guessing this picture was taken sometime in the ’50s.  From left, my grandmother, Alice “Pat” (Waege) Rathkamp, unknown friend, and my grandfather, Bill Rathkamp.  The tavern most likely was somewhere on the north or west side of Milwaukee.

    Seeing a picture of my grandfather in a bar is akin to seeing a taxi in New York.  But seeing “Granny Pat” sitting on a bar stool is a little strange.  Must have been a special occasion.

    My grandmother reminds me of Lucille Ball in this picture.

  • Mr. Rath, Meet Ms. Kamp…the origins of the Rathkamp Surname

    My blogging software has a feature that shows me search strings people use to find my website.  Some of the search terms are pretty entertaining.  Like last week when somebody somehow found me by searching “pic of an old German family having a fight”.   Other times, I can see Google doing its job by pointing to my site as people are searching for specific information related to some of my more “obscure” distant ancestors.

    One common search string has to do with the origins of my last name, Rathkamp.  I too have always wondered about the meaning of my surname, but didn’t actually find out until about a year ago.  I always had hopes that maybe Rathkamp meant “noble Viking warrior”  or “wise Saxon tribal chief”.    It turns out the origin of the Rathkamp name is a little less dramatic.  So for the 373 Rathkamps living in the U.S., I’m here to enlighten you.

    I’m not fluent in German, but I’ll do my best to describe some different naming conventions and will try to correlate these to names to my own family tree.  Some German surnames were derived from jobs or professions such as Schneider (tailor), Bauer (farmer), or Zimmerman (carpenter).  Others were derived from a physical trait of the original bearer such as Tonne (big belly), Rothaar (red hair).  Other names were patronymic, meaning they were passed from a father to a son such as Leitzke or Niesl.  In both of these cases the “ke” and “l” at the end of each forms the diminutive of Leitz or Nies (a derivitive of Dionysus).  There are also examples such as Wadenstorfer or Neuberg which both probably refer to a home town.

    In the cases of Waege and Rathkamp, each of these refer to physical characteristics of the land my ancestors either owned or lived on.  Waege or Wege refers to a “way” or a “walk” or “path”.

    Rathkamp is formed by two different words:  rath and kamp.  Neither word is very easy to find in a German to English translator, so I’m guessing they’re both old German.   Kamp is derived from the Latin word Campus.  Traditionally, it referred to the strip of land around the walls of a city or castle.  Over time I think it morphed into meaning any type of field.  The closest comparison I can make in English for Rath is to “root or pull out”, in this case specifically trees or bushes.

    So the moment you’ve been waiting for… Rathkamp refers to a field that originally was populated by trees or bushes.

    So much for Vikings or Saxon kings.

  • He Left the Horse Out in the Yard

    [singlepic id=16 w=320 h=240 float=right]Hearing about the current shortage of the H1N1 flu vaccine, I’m reminded of the fact that this is not by any stretch the first nor the most severe flu epidemic in our country’s history.  My great grandfather, Fredrich Walz was one of the many victims of the Spanish Influenza in 1918.  In an earlier post, I mentioned how the Walz family came to America in 1905 from Russia.  They settled in Freeman, SD where Fredrich was a horse breeder.

    As I was preparing for this post I went to the website of the Freeman Courier where the headline ironically reads, “Fighting the Flu”.  My grandmother, Emma (Walz) Niesl was only 5 years old when her father died.  I have a filmed interview of her conducted by my aunt Sandie (Niesl) Patten.  In this interview, my grandmother talks about her memories of her father’s untimely death.  Tragically, her mother Sophia (Bischke) Walz also passed away at an early age.  My grandmother lost both parents by the age of 13, but was taken in by family members in Milwaukee.

  • The Ida Brockhaus Time Machine

    I have a lot of family history pictures that originally belonged to my great aunt Grace (Waege) Larson.  Just the other day I realized that out of all these pictures, the pictures I have of my Great Grandmother Ida (Brockhaus) Waege are the only pictures I own that do a really nice job of spanning an ancestor’s entire lifetime.

    [nggallery id=6]

  • Neighbors

    It’s amazing what you find when [singlepic id=1 w=320 h=240 float=right] really look closely at a census sheet. The genealogy software I use is Family Tree Maker which is owned and developed by Ancestry.com.   One of the nice things about this software is the “shaking leaf” it shows on a family member when it thinks it has information you’d be interested in.  My grandfather, George Niesl had one of these shaking leafs tonight and even though I was pretty confident there was nothing new that I’d find, I clicked on the link anyway.   FTM then took me to its search window where there was a link to view the 1920 census.  Again, I was pretty sure I already had this record, but I clicked on it again.

    It took 2 seconds to notice that my great grand aunt, Johanna (Rathkamp) Wetenkamp and her daughter Dorothy lived next door to my grandfather and his family on 20th and Vliet in Milwaukee.  How many times had I looked at this record before?

    Note also my grandfather is listed as “daughter”.  Guess George wasn’t a masculine enough name.

    The interactive map below shows what 20th and Vliet looks like today.


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  • When the Levee Breaks

    My friend Herr Wessels from Bassum, Germany has been a great source of information over the last couple months.  He’s also taken the time to teach me a lot about the region, naming practices, and has given me a glimpse into the society my ancestors lived.[singlepic id=4 w=320 h=240 float=left]

    Originally, his thought was that my GG Grandfather, Friedrich Rathkamp was born in Neubruchhausen, but after some more digging, he really hit a home run.  It turns out Friedrich’s birth name was Hinrich Friedrich Rathkamp, who was born in the very small town of Oeftinghausen, about 25 miles south of Bremen.  Herr Wessels has sent me pages of the local history book which show my ancestors have lived in this town since before 1600.

    It’s pretty amazing to have this flood of information all at once, especially since I was stuck at their emigration for years.  All of a sudden I know exactly where they came from, and I also have a slew of other ancestors to process.

    I took German for a couple years in high school.  It’s pretty obvious I should have paid more attention, because I have to read through his emails and documents a few times before I get a good feel for what they say.  There are a lot of documents he’s forwarded, and I’m always afraid I’ll miss an important detail.

    Showing that the human element of genealogy always trumps names and dates, Herr Wessels actually met Walter Rathkamp in Oeftinghausen.  From what I can tell, Walter is my third cousin.  The picture below is taken from Walter’s front yard, and shows the Rathkamp farm and blacksmith shop.

  • Having a Hard Time Getting into These Genes

    For Christmas two years ago, my wife bought me a test kit from the Genographic Project, sponsored by National Geographic.  The purpose of the project is to track the migratory history of humans through the study of genetic data.  After I received the kit, I quickly (and nervously) followed the instructions, scraping the insides of my cheeks, placing the specimen into the supplied test tube, being careful not to get any foreign matter into the specimen.  The last thing I wanted was to get the test results back and learn that I had descended from a long line of Golden Retrievers.

    At least once a day I’d log on to the Genographic website which tracked the progress of my test.  Looking back on it, I honestly don’t know what type of results I was expecting.  I knew that all of my known ancestors were Germanic, but I also knew that mankind has a very transient history.  When the results were finally posted, I was shocked to learn that my deep ancestors originated in Siberia 15,000 to 20,000 years ago.  This genectic mutation also contains the people who migrated over Beringia, the land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska.  These people eventually became the native peoples of North and South America.

    m242

    Gasp.

    I think I sat reading and re-reading this information for a half hour.  How could this be?  What about my blue eyes and the blond hair I had as a kid?  No matter what scenario I used, I couldn’t make this information work.  I don’t think I completely dismissed the information, but the possibility of a “bad” test result seemed pretty real at that point.  Maybe I did get some dog hair into the sample.

    Recently, I found Dr. David Faux’s website which I think states a very solid case for the possible genetic link between the Viking era Norse and the Central Asians which could include such groups as the Scythians, the Huns, and the Mongols.  At 42 pages, there’s a lot of information supporting his theory.

    Obviously I’m not a geneticist, a linguist, an archaeologist, or even a historian, but Dr. Faux’s theory at least helps me connect some dots.  If true, the story of the migration of my ancestors becomes absolutely fascinating.

  • Rathkamp Wappen

    rathkamp-wappen

    This is WAY cool!  Today I was sending emails back and forth to my friend Ernst-Dieter in Bassum.  Ernst-Dieter sent this picture of the house built by Johann Heinrich Rathkamp in Neubruchhausen in 1822.

    I’m still not sure what my connection is to Johann Heinrich.  It’s possible he’s my GGG Grandfather, but I have to wait until Ernst-Dieter has a chance to view the church records.

    Either way, this picture is significant for a couple reasons.  The first is the brick work on the house.  The Rathkamps of Neubruchhausen were known as Master Masons and then later as architects.  I’m no mason, but the craftsmanship does look very impressive.

    The second, and more obvious, is the Rathkamp Wappen or family crest.

    The shield is divided into three sections.  The upper left shows what appears to be a pick axe and possibly a shovel laid over a pyramid shape.  The lower left, a wagon wheel.  On the right is a tree, possibly behind a brick wall.

    It’s going to take a little bit of digging before I can figure out what it all means.  I have some ideas, but it’s too early to tell for sure.  This also brings up the question as to the significance of the crest itself.  How long was it in the family?  Was it passed on from generation to generation?  What is the significance of the helmet?

    For every stone turned over, 100 more questions present themselves.