Rathkamp Family

Tag: Bassum

  • 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.

  • Neubruchhausen…not

    I just received an email from my friend Ernst-Dieter from Bassum.  He just checked the Sudwalde church records and was unable to find Friedrich Rathkamp, b 1834.  He searched a year before and a year after this date and still came up dry.

    Herr Wessels recently sent me some lists of Rathkamps from Diepholz which mentions a Fr Rathkamp in Albringhausen in 1855.  This is a possibility, especially since this is where his wife Dorothee was from.

    I’m disappointed, but hopeful of finding something.  I KNOW he’s in the area.

  • The “Holy Grail”…at least for now

    I would think that every genealogist, especially the hobbyist with emotional ties to the subject, has a “Holy Grail”- that one person or family who eludes and consumes them.  It’s only fitting then that my first post touches this subject.

    A little history first…

    I first became interested in genealogy at about 12 or 13 years old.  I also remember being fascinated with the “Old Milwaukee” display at the Milwaukee Public Museum, an exhibit still on display.  An uncle of mine, George Niesl, is a genealogy buff who has and continues to inspire me.  My first solo excursion included a bus ride from the Milwaukee suburbs to the Central Library on Wisconsin Avenue.

    There, I started reading through the old Milwaukee City Directory, starting with my “Grandpa Bill” Rathkamp, working my way back in time.  For a variety of reasons, the Rathkamps have not passed family history down from one generation to the next.  Reading these names for the first time, establishing a line from my grandfather to his father, then finally to my great-great grandfather, Friedrich, gave me a huge thrill.  Even reading the advertisements in the directories made the experience a little like being in a time machine.

    For whatever reason though, I never wrote down any of the information I read, and soon my genealogy went on hold.  My quest resumed a couple years ago.  This time I started documenting my findings.

    Here’s where we start getting into my “Holy Grail”.  There were 4 or 5 different Rathkamp families who emigrated to the US. My family arrived in Milwaukee in 1868. Other Rathkamps settled in New York, Cincinnati, Texas and Iowa. Until last week, I could never trace the origin in Germany of my Rathkamp family.  Over time, thanks to thousands of different internet searches, I started to develop an idea of the general area they could have come from.

    In all of the documents that I read, Friedrich Rathkamp only listed as his place of origin as “Hanover”.  Initially, I thought he was from the city of Hanover.  Noting though that a lot of the other Rathkamps who came to the United States came from what is now the county of Diepholz, I began to wonder.  There was also another family tree flying around the internet stating that Friedrich’s wife, Dorothea Hulsemann came from Albringhausen, a small village in near Bassum.

    Three weeks ago on a hunch, I sent an email to the Lutheran Church in Bassum asking them if there was a chance they may have any records for either Friedrich or Dorothea.  For two weeks I didn’t hear anything and thought…oh well.  Then the day after Christmas, I received and emailstiftskircheinnenum19001 with the following:

    “Ich habe Dorothee Hülsemann gefunden.

    Dorothee Hülsemann

    geboren am 31.5.1838 in Albringhausen,
    getauft am 7.6.1838. Taufpatin in der Stiffts-Kirche zu Bassum war die Schwester des Vaters, Beke Dorothee Hülsemann.”

    Bingo!!!

    Additionally, the sender told me my great great grandfather was from a neighboring community, Neubruchhausen, and gave me contact information for that church as well.

    The mystery has been solved, and now I’m on to others.  As it turns out, my contact from the church in Neubruchhausen also has Rathkamps in HIS family tree.  That most likely makes us distant cousins. It’s going to be interesting to see much much information will be gleaned from my new friends (and possibly relatives) from these churches in Germany.