Did you know that over seven million German-speakers have emigrated to the United States since the 1800s? According to census and immigration records, the largest waves occurred in the 1850s and 1880s. Today, Americans of German ancestry represent the largest self-reporting ancestry group of over 40 million individuals totaling approximately 12% of the population. These impressive numbers include descendants whose Germanic ancestors arrived with a much earlier wave in the early 1700s drawn to William Penn’s colony, and German soldiers who fought for King George during our fight for independence and stayed in the fledgling nation.
Our June speaker, Greg Beckman, told us about his ten-year search to discover the origins of his family in Germany. Encouraged by his uncle, his first step was to organize his goals into specific sections that would help to guide him in the right direction. His quest was threefold: locate the Beckman family town of origin, research church records, and locate current relatives in Germany. Greg began by focusing on his family history in America by using census records, pension applications, obituaries, and U.S. newspapers – both English and German – before shifting his search overseas.
Once Greg began focusing on German documents, he discovered that his family name was spelled differently. The Die Union newspaper listed German passengers with the correct spelling of the Bechmann family name, and this led Greg to the Weimarer Zeitung and the Bechmann family’s notice of intention to emigrate to America which also listed their German town of origin. This information led to a treasure-trove of information, including birth, baptismal, marriage, and death records of his ancestors back to the 1500s.
Greg succeeded in filling in the blanks on his family tree by systematically working his way backward one document at a time and comparing and documenting his findings along the way. He recommended using a timeline to ensure that no documents or locations would be overlooked, and to eliminate false leads. He also emphasized the importance of evidence as proof of your research. Greg recommended using the Archion (www.archion.de) website and engaging the help of a German genealogist for help with overseas research and translations.
Much like our speaker, my husband and I have continued to delve into the origins of our German ancestors. We both have ancestors on our paternal branches who arrived in the 1700s to Pennsylvania to escape religious persecution. I have a German ancestor who arrived in New York in the mid-1700s who married into my English maternal line. Owen’s mother descended from Josef Klingenbiel, a Hessen soldier who surrendered at Trenton and whose descendants became pacifists. I recently traced my paternal Weis line back to our origins in Steinbach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany using church records. Anton Weiss, my second great-grandfather, emigrated in 1858 at the age of eighteen and joined the Union Army in 1864 during the Civil War.
If you are one of the millions of Americans with Germanic ancestry, let us know about your search for your ancestral origins.