I didn't realize it at first, until I pulled up the pedigree on Ancestry, that these two immigrants are the same generation as my Joseph Ware and Laura Grant Swope Tapp. For some strange reason, I always thought of these first Wenkels as being much older, in a time much farther away. Perception is an interesting thing, and the genealogist and family historian must always be on guard for mistakes caused by perception. This is why one must have proofs for the cool stories. Sometimes I can't find the proof, and I will acknowledge that when I know. Sometimes the family legend is a great story and simply must be included, but it must also have a cautionary label attached.
OK! Enough Lecture, already! Here is the mini pedigree generated by Ancestry's Lifestory.
The map also belongs to Ancestry.com.
1876 -- According to the 1910 Census of Gibson Township, Bay County, Michigan, August Wenkel I immigrated in 1876 when he was 15 years old. I don't have any record other than the census of that first arrival. Sometimes, information was obtained from the neighbors, so we always have to take census information with a grain of salt. We know he married in Germany, and we later find him arriving with wife and daughter ten years later. Often, immigrants would make several journeys from the old country to the new, seeking economic opportunities or to avoid religious persecution. A great website for this type if historical information is
found by clicking HERE.
Dive deeper by clicking
Understanding your Ancestors, or here at Rootsweb's information on
German Immigration.
1885 -- According to FamilySearch's
German Marriages, "August Friederich Andreas Wenkel, married to Sophie Dorothee Luise Rohrsen 3 January 1885 Linden Stkr Linden, Hannover, Preussen, Germany" They were both about 24 years old. I would love to hear the story about how they met and married. If anybody has that story, please get a hold of me so I can add to our collective narrative!
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1885 January marriage record Rohrsen WenkelAncestry.com. Elbe-Weser Triangle, Germany,
Lutheran Baptisms,
Marriages, and Burials, 1574-1945 [database on-line].
Provo, UT, USA:
Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. |
This is the marriage record I found for August and Sophia Rohrsen Wenkel, Line 2. All these years I thought Sophia was called Rohr (with the obligatory rolled "Rrrrrr"). I noticed some researchers had her name as Rohrsen but never knew where that came from. Now I know, and have changed her name in my records. I will have to have someone read and translate this record.
This is the translation I got from Ancestry.com:
- August Friederich Andreas Wenkel, männlich (Male)
- Married 3 Jan 1885, Hannover, Hannover, Preußen (Germany)
- Spouse -- Sophie Dorothee Luise Rohrsen
- Place -- Linden
- Film Number -- 185208; Custodian Evangelisches Kirchenbuchamt, Hannover
- Citation information -- Ancestry.com. Elbe-Weser Triangle, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms,
Marriages, and Burials, 1574-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:
Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. This collection consists of Lutheran church records for the years 1574 -
1921 from the Elbe-Weser Triangle in Lower Saxony, Germany
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21 Feb 1885 birth record August Wenkel Jr
Ancestry.com. Elbe-Weser Triangle, Germany,
Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials,
1574-1945 [database on-line].
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. |
1885 -- Line 71. This is the German birth record for the first child, August Friederich Wenkel, born 21 February 1885. He was born about 7 weeks after his parents' marriage. I THINK it says February. I have a hard time with this style of handwriting, combined with the German language.
The translation I got from Ancestry.com:
- August Freiderich Wenkel, männlich
(Male), born to August Friederich Andreas Wenkel and Sophie Dorothee Luise Rossen, in Hannover.
- Page 211; Custodian Evangelisches Kirchenbuchamt Hannover
- Film Number 185195
- Citation -- Ancestry.com. Elbe-Weser Triangle, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms,
Marriages, and Burials, 1574-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:
Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. This collection consists of Lutheran church records for the years 1574 -
1921 from the Elbe-Weser Triangle in Lower Saxony, Germany.
The information I have is that he died 14 April 1885 while still in Germany.
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1886 birth record Karoline Wenkel
Ancestry.com. Elbe-Weser Triangle, Germany,
Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials,
1574-1945 [database on-line].
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016 |
1886 -- Line 64. Their daughter Karoline Friederike Sophie Wenkel was born April 1886 in Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany. In this German record, I think there are other names including Wenkel in the fifth column. I have GOT to figure out how to read this stuff!
Translation again from Ancestry.com:
- Karoline Friederike Sophia Wenkel, männlich
(Male) {?}, born to August Friederich Andreas and Sophie Dorothea Luise Rohrsien, 14th April? 1886 in Limmer.
- page 186, Line 64; Custodian Evangelisches Kirchenbuchamt Hannover.
- Film Number 185240
- Citation -- Ancestry.com. Elbe-Weser Triangle, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms,
Marriages, and Burials, 1574-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:
Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Original data: Mikrofilm Sammlung. Familysearch.org; Originale: Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv, Standort Stade, Deutschland. Description; This collection consists of Lutheran church records for the years 1574 -
1921 from the Elbe-Weser Triangle in Lower Saxony, Germany.
I suppose we should deviate from the planned program to delve into German pronunciations. It will make understanding some of my conjectures easier. I will (hopefully) add a table to the end to help. In the German tongue, "W" is pronounced as a 'V' sound, so the last name would sound like "Vaynkel." The daughter's first name looks a lot like our Caroline, but it was pronounced "Kahr-oh-LEEN-ah." Thus, her name on the immigration manifest is listed as Lina, and in America she was known as Lena. The "ie" in Friederike is pronounced "FREE-der-eek-uh." (Roll the "Rs" if you can to make it sound authentic). August is properly pronounced as "OWW-goost" (where the "goost" sounds like the 'oo' in the word "goose").
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| 1887 Immigration Manifest Part 1 |
1887 -- August Wenkel age 26, a Farmer. On the next page is his 22 year old wife Sofie and 10 month old Lina. They departed from Bremen Germany, and arrives in Baltimore Maryland on the ship Donau.
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| 1887 Immigration Manifest Part 2 |
I have yet to find the proper photograph of the passenger ship Donau. There were several ships by that name, one most infamously transported Jews up the river to Auschwitz concentration camp. I did find a history of the correct ship
S/S Donau, Norddeutscher Lloyd.
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1887 Passenger Ship Donau
http://fdpiech.tripod.com/ships/ssdonau.htm |
Well, it looks like I found a photo of the ship.
How did they get to Standish Michigan from Baltimore? By the time August and Sofie immigrated, most had family already in place, brothers or uncles. Was this the case here? Did they take a boat or train? They had to have known where they were going.
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D.A. Bullock & Co. The
county of Bay, Michigan:
maps, history, illustrations and statistics.
Bay City, Mich.: D.A. Bullock & Co, 1896. Map.
Retrieved from the Library
of Congress,
<https://www.loc.gov/item/2007626769/>. |
1896 -- The left map is of townships of Bay County. Gibson is the top-most township. The right map is detail of Gibson Township. Zoom into section 1 in the upper right. In the lower right part of Section 1 is 80 acres owned by August Wenkel. This corresponds to the Grant description issued 1904. In the section below, section 12 is two pieces of land owned by Peppel. This may be the same Peppel who married his oldest daughter, Karoline, aka Lena.
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1900 Gibson Census part 1
August Wenkel Family |
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1900 Gibson Michigan Census Part 2
August Wenkel family |
1900 -- By 1900, the family had already grown by leaps and bounds, according to the Michigan Census. The family was listed as "Wenkett" and live in Gibson, Bay County, Michigan. They report arrival in 1887, that they married in 1886 in Germany, and have been married 14 years. In that time, they had 9 living children, aged from 13 to 4 months old. My grandfather August was just a year old.
Interestingly, this is the second child of theirs named August. The first one died as an infant. Nine children later, they were brave enough to name another boy after his father. Of course, seven of those nine were girls.
I notice that Lena is not included here. She was 14 years old, so was probably not yet married. She may have been a domestic listed in another household. That is a search for another time.
Sophie lists 11 children born, with 11 still living. Sometimes I wonder why and how information was given to the census-takers. August is still a farmer, and he has become a naturalized citizen.
1904 -- August was granted (or bought) a homestead of 80 acres. One day I will translate the officialese to pinpoint his farm. It reads: "East half of the South East quarter of Section One in Township Eighteen North of Range Three East of Michigan Meridian in Michigan containing eighty acres."
Ok. I can't just let it go without trying to research it out. This is why my blogs take so darn long!
So. If we start at the North/South meridian and count three to the right. That is the column we will focus on. Then, we find the 18th little block north, and we get the township just west of Standish Michigan! No wonder these people had so many legal events happen in Standish. (I tried to put an arrow on the spot, but you would not believe what that did to the entire blog page!)
All that to get to the township part. If I had a map that went with a closer view,
this explanation would help.
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1907 passenger manifest from Germany
Line 1615, August Winkel age 46 |
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| 1907 passenger manifest |
1907 -- Line 22. August Wenkel seems to have made another trip to Germany and back. I think. This one I'm not really sure about. The first name is the same, August, but really, how many Augusts do you think there were? I counted about every 20th male was August. Wenkel is sometimes misspelled with an "i" as well as with an "a." The age is right to within a year. This August is also married, if I read it right. But without another family member, I cannot be ABSOLUTELY certain this is the same man. Not really. Now, the jury is still out because I can't decipher all the columns, the last should tell where he is going.
The other manifest is the American side, I think. Same information.
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1907 Geo. A. Ogle & Co.
Standard
atlas of Stark County, Illinois<https://www.loc.gov/item/2010589983/>. |
1907 -- A few scenes from a Stark County Illinois town. The Wenkel family saw stores similar to this
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| 1907 Geo. A. Ogle & Co. Standard atlas of Stark County, Illinois<https://www.loc.gov/item/2010589983/>. |
1914 -- Son William Carl Wenkel dies of Diphtheria, a common childhood disease. Children often succumbed to the disease before we had vaccinations. A couple things to notice: The last name is spelled "Winkel" with an "i," Willie was only 11 years old, and he was sick for about a week (unable to tell if he was in the hospital or died at home). The informant was August Wenkel (with an "e"), and that may be his own signature. The boy is buried at Woodmere cemetery, Standish Michigan.
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| 1929 Passenger Manifest of the SS New York |
1929 -- Line 5. Yet again, August Wenkel, age 67, is back from Germany. Again, the spelling is right, the age is right, and his US address (Standish Michigan) is correct. However, it says that he naturalized in 1928, the year before this trip. According to the 1900 census, August was already naturalized by then. I suppose he could have STARTED the naturalization process and misunderstood the question. I am unable to find his naturalization papers, so I have no proof. So, I include this document for your perusal and with a "caution" label attached.
Also find the photo of the SS New York that August traveled back on.
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| SS New York |
I presume that he'd traveled back to visit with family, to tell how great America was. German families tended to have more money to invest in their American families so they could buy land and farm equipment as needed.
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Gravestone for three Wenkels
Woodmere cemetery, Standish MI
photo by Eloise J. Irish on Findagrave.com |
1951 -- August Friederich Andreas Wenkel died age 90. The only record I can find of that is his gravestone that he shares with his wife Sophia and his son Willie.
Plan of Action
- Find a translator for the German records
- Don't confuse the Wenkel Family with the Wankel Rotary Engine.
- Include the census records to cover the gap I left in here.
