​My great-grandparents on my Maternal side, their wedding photo, 1903 in Lake Geneva, WI. My great-grandma came to America with her 3 sisters from Frankfurt, Germany in 1901. The sisters came through Ellis Island.

Ship Keppler Voyage April 15, 1865

• The passenger list of Rethamel family from Port of Hamburg, April 15, 1865.
• The ship Keppler (Kepler) arrived in Quebec, Canada on approximately May 25 (calculated based on about 40 days at sea) from Hamburg, Germany, with merchandise and a number of passengers. (Still looking for details on voyage) The Kepler (spelled with one P in German) was a 3 masted, square-rigged ship, built under special survey by Martin Samuelson Hull, for Robert Miles Sloman, and launched in January 1863 [certificate of registry, Hull, 26 February 1863]. 666 tons/300 Commerzlasten; 165.4 x 28.7 x 18.5 feet (length x beam x depth of hold); iron construction, 2 bulkheads.
• Master/Captain: N J Jurgens, 1863-1865
• Voyages:
  • 1863- Quebec/London
  • 1863/1864 – New York
  • 1864 – Quebec/London
  • 1864/65 – New York
  • 1865 – Quebec/London (Rethamel family time)
  • 1865 – New York / Philadelphia
  • On December 4, 1865, she sailed from Philadelphia for Bremen, Germany, but was never seen again (source)
•  British made ship

Hamburg Passenger Lists (1850-1934)

The following is found:

Passenger List 1
Keppler sailing from Hamburg to Quebec in April 15, 1865. On p. 2 of this passenger list we can find the following family:
A. Retthammel, 66 years old (Christian)
Contantia Retthammel, 60 years old
August Retthammel, 27 years old
Friederike Retthammel, 22 years old
Amalie Retthammel, 23 years old

The calculated years of birth fit very well to the data for August F. (1837, here 1838) and Christian (1799). And the year of immigration is 1865, just as listed for August F. Rettammel in the 1900 and 1910 census, I found.

Passenger List 2
Passenger lists of the harbor of Hamburg are preserved from 1851 forward. A search of Ancestry.com shows microfilm handwritten name index and the pages of the 1850s and 1860s passenger lists for Vol. 005 (9 Jan 1864 to 23 Dec 1865) of the index for “direct emigrants” we find the Rethammel family under “R”, page 13 of 28 pages.

The following was provided from this record:

(Ship) No. 14 Keppler to Quebec, Master Jurgens, April 15, 1865, Rethamel, Aug, wife, 3 children, p. 119. In vol. 019 of the passenger lists for direct emigrants (7 Jan 1865 to 23 Dec 1865) we can find the first page of the 1865 passenger list of the sail ship Keppler on p. 119 [image 57 or 592]

Here we can find the following information:
No. 22 AUGUST RETHAMEL, worker, 66 years
No. 23 CONSTANTIA RETHAMEL, wife, 60 years
No. 24 AUGUST RETHAMEL, worker, 27 years
No. 25 FRIEDERIKE RETHAMEL, wife, 23 years
No. 26 AMALIE RETHAMEL, unmarried, 22 years
the last place or origin or place of birth is listed:

• Gross Boschpol, Prussia
• There were 13 other passengers from the same village on the same ship [Hofmann, Neetzel and Wolf] – so that there was a total of 18 passengers from the same village on the ship.
• Location of Gross Boschpol, Prussia
  This village was located in Pommern, Kreis Lauenburg, about 453 kilometers northeast of Berlin – near the Baltic Sea and near the city of Dansk/Danzig.

Since 1945, the bigger part of Pommern has belonged to Poland and the great majority of the German inhabitants in that area had to leave in 1945. Today the name of Gross Boschpol is “Bozepole Wlk.” The population of Gross Boschpol in 1865 is still being researched, but in 1933 there were 361 inhabitants.

Most of the parish register records in Pommern were destroyed in 1945, so the records are limited. There were Lutheran inhabitants and Catholics in Gross Boschpol based on numbers from, 1904 I think that about 20-25 % of the Gross Boschpol inhabitants were Catholic. Near Gross Boschpol there were some villages with almost 100% Lutherans (like Damerkow or Goddenow) and villages with a Catholic majority (like Chmelenz, Paraschin or Felstow). This region was the border region between the Lutheran strongholds in the west and the Catholic strongholds just east of Gross Boschpol.

The Lutheran inhabitants of Gross Boschpol attended the church in Zinzelitz (Dziecieliec today) while the Catholic Church was in Rosalin (Rozlazino).

Since my Rettammel ancestors were Lutheran, the only Zinzelitz parish registers which have survived WWII are death/burial records of 1858-1874. These burial/death records were filmed in 1938, although the originals were destroyed. This film is accessible at the Berlin church archive and at the Leipzig State Archive, but via LDS films as well.  The civil registers of Gross Boschpol are preserved from their beginning (1876) on. The 1876-1906 civil registers are at the Gdansk State archive while the newer civil register records are still at the local authorities, probably in Leczyce.  This does not help much for August Rethammel Jr. and his parents after they left eleven years before, but maybe there were other Rethammel family members (like siblings of August Sr. or August Jr.) who stayed in Gross Buschpol and whom we might find in the 1858-1874 burial/death registers and the civil register records.

The LDS has only filmed the 1876-1883 Gross Buschpol civil register records.
At http://www.lauenburg-pommern.de/Landkarte/index.htm I found a German map of the Kreis (County) Lauenburg. Gross Buschpol is blue underlined in the east section of this map. The border which you see directly east of Gross Buschpol was the border between Prussia and Poland until 1772 and from 1919 to 1939.

At http://pom-wpru.kerntopf.com/evkirche/zinzelitz.htm
you can see a picture of the Zinzelitz church.

LDS Records for Church Parish

Author: Evangelische Kirche Zinzelitz (Kr. Lauenburg).

Title: Kirchenbuchduplikat, 1858-1874.

Publication information: Leipzig : Zentralstelle für Genealogie, 1983.

Format: auf 1 Mikrofilmrolle ; 35 mm.

Notes: Mikrofilme aufgenommen von Manuskripten in Berlin, 1938.

Contents:  Parish register transcripts of deaths for Zinzelitz, Pommern, Germany, also called Spechtshagen; now Dziecielec (Lebork), Gdansk, Poland. Left-side pages (l. S.) filmed separately from right-side pages (r. S.)

EUROPE FILM AREA

Tote     1858-1874 (r. S.) ——————————- 1335392

Tote     1858-1874 (l. S.)

Records found under:

1. Germany, Preußen, Pommern, Zinzelitz – Church records
2. Poland, Gdansk, Dzieciolec (Lebork) – Church records

Story- “One family’s experience leaving Germany and coming to America”

Germans in United States

In the mid-to-late 19^th century the confederation of German states played a significant role in the number of people who emigrated to the U.S. and the new state of Wisconsin. Why Wisconsin or even the Midwest in the U.S.? The topography, weather and opportunities in the area (the eastern U.S. had already been settled and claimed by earlier immigrants) at the time provided a source for starting new homes, new freedoms and especially land. In 1862 the U.S.Congress passed, and Lincoln signed, the Homestead Act that provided an applicant freehold title to up to 160 acres (1/4 section, 65 hectares) of undeveloped federal land outside the original 13 colonies. The Native American population in Wisconsin had been pushed off or forcefully removed from prime farm land before and after the Black Hawk War of 1832. By 1900, 34% (709,909) of Wisconsin’s 2 million residents were of German heritage.

A large part of the German migration in the 19^th century was from various little independent states that were not part of larger German state but a confederation of 100 small administrative units controlled in a feudal manner by a hierarchy of princes, grand dukes, dukes, margraves, abbots, electors, barons and counts. By 1815 these units became 30 states either voluntarily or through aggression of Prussia (largest state). Prussia was the location where the “Rethamel” family lived.

Rethamel Family Immigration to America

Year 1865 – US Chronolgy

• 248,120 immigrants arrive in the United States.
• April 9 General Robert E Lee surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia.
• April 14 President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
• April 15, 1865 the Rethamel (Rettammel) family leaves Hamburg, Germany for Quebec, Canada on the ship called the Keppler.

In the year 1865 the United States was in the final year of the Civil war. On or about April 15, 1865 a family called Rethamel from northeastern Prussia (Germany) in an area called Gross Boschpol, Lauenburg in the region of Pomerania was about to embark from the Hamburg port on a ship called the Keppler to Quebec, Canada and eventually to a new location in Chicago, Illinois in the United States, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Abraham Lincoln 16^th President of the U.S. was killed by an assassin’s bullet and the manhunt for his killer John Wilkes Booth was just beginning.

Hamburg Passenger Lists

Handwritten Index 1865, direct to Quebec on Keppler Ship

What Information is Included:

The format of the actual index pages changed over time. Each index entry may provide the following information:

• Passenger’s name
• Name of ship
• Departure date
• Destination port
• Page number on which individual is found on actual passenger list
• Name of ship’s captain

Wait there is more: next week, Part 2 -more about “One family’s experience leaving Germany and coming to America”

References

1. Daily Life in Immigrant America 1820 – 1870. Bergquist, James M., 2009
2. German Immigrants in America: An interactive History Adventure. Raum, Elizabeth., 2008.
3. Prussia: The Atlantic Bridge to Germany Volume III (Brandenburg, East Prussia, West Prussia, Pomerania, Posen). Charles M. Hall, Monda Genealoga Ligo. 1992.
4. Germans in Wisconsin. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, by Richard H. Zeitlin, March 1977. Third printing 1990.
5. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Germany. Kitchen, Martin, Cambridge University Press,1996.

List below is sourced from James M. Beidler, Genealogists 2013 book, German Genealogy Guide

German States	Birth or Death Register Collections-date started
Alsace and Lorraine	1792
Pfalz	1798
Rheinland	1798
Hessen	1798
Baden	1810
Westfalen	1808
Hannover	1808
Oldenburg	1811
Prussia	1874
Mecklenburg	1876
Sachsen	1876
Thuringen	1876
Bavaria	1876
Wurttemberg	1876

Sources	Include	Explanation	Locations
Church Records	Baptism	early as 1650	Regional Archives
	Marriage	Evangelical Lutheran in German
	Death	Catholics in Latin
	Funeral	Formal union of Reformed and Lutheran occurred in 1817
		Old Lutherans -continued Altlutheraner
		May find records for other religions a person was in (except Lutheran Reformed)
Civil Registration		Birth, death and marriage – required after 1876	Town civil registry
Passenger lists		Hamburg and Bremen	Ancestry.com
Emigration	Records	Records of recording intent to emigrate	State or Regional Archives
Wills		May be found as late as 1200	Local Courthouses
Land Records		Amtsgerichte (local courthouse)	Local Courthouses
Court Records		Amtsgerichte (local courthouse)
Census Records		Did not become national in scope until 1871	State or Regional Archives
Burgher rolls	citizen records	kept until 1850; contain name,occupation, fathers name, and hometown	City Archives and published
Police Records		Town office of registration	Town
City Directories		date from early 1800s; Ribe and Hennings printed book	Regional Archives
Tax Lists		began in 14 and 15th century
Guild Books	Apprentice	1500-1900; Name, parents,occupation, residence and employer
Military records		located where soldier was stationed	Regional Archives

Waiting to provide my case study for making a connection to the Old Country. Which happens to be Gross Boschpol in the former province and state of Pomerania (Pommern).

​I speak to this group tomorrow about my own search of ancestors in Germany.

http://www.gig-wi.com

As a working genealogist one has to be able to develop relationships / network with genealogy societies both nearby and at a distance. This blog article will talk about my experience in developing a working relationship with county and regional genealogical societies, including what I think about prior to making contact, how I make the contact, and what the results and long-term benefits are to my business.
First Experience with a Genealogical or Historic Society

Probably like most of you doing genealogy as a business today, my first experience working with or at a local genealogical society (sometimes referred to as a Historical Society) was when I started my own family research. My own interest in genealogy began many years back as a teenager spending summers in a small town in Juneau County, Wisconsin where my parents’ families both had roots dating back to the late 1800’s. 

As an adult my genealogical research began by visiting the county courthouse register of deeds for any vital records. As I made these early visits over 15 years ago I happened to work next to a person who was a local historiographer for Juneau County. At one point I was not sure of some information in an index and what it indicated for my relative’s record on file. The local researcher was extremely helpful and clarified what the index information indicated to help find the actual record on-site. As I spent a couple hours going through records, I was proactive in asking about what research she was doing and what tips she had for the local records. I learned that she was part of the county historical society which helped researchers and established genealogists collect records for family history.  At the time of this unexpected meeting and conversation I asked for the contact information of this historical society.  Sometime after this I contacted the local society by email and provided a synopsis of my surname research (research log) and asked what other information (records/data) the society might be able to locate. Within a day I received a response back from a representative of the county historic society who referred me to the person I had met at my first visit to the county register of deeds office!

In working further with this researcher I was able to learn that on my father’s maternal German side, my great-grandfather had a local record called a Declaration of Intent to become a citizen back in the early 1900’s. A person does a Declaration of Intent as the first step (first paper) in becoming a citizen, renounces allegiance to former homeland and declares intent to become U.S. citizen. The local county historiographer for the society was able to help locate a primary record of my great-grandfather; the record indicated the date of arrival to America and the port of entry location. It was so exciting to learn this information and to see a copy of the actual record. Plus it helped establish my family timeline of entry to America, when they might have arrived in the Wisconsin county, where I might find a passenger list for my great-grandfather, what town in Germany he left, and maybe family or neighbors he might have traveled with.

As a Genealogical Business Owner

Besides my first genealogical research experience with a local society as a consumer, what has my business experience learned in working with genealogical societies? 

I recommend that when you start a genealogical business to collect a list of your local, county and state-wide genealogy society contacts. To gather such information you can go to your local library or find them on the internet. The key is just to have easy access to a list that you as a business owner can quickly access when doing work for your clients. You can either keep a hard copy, an electronic document or spreadsheet. Whatever works for you is the key to having a system that helps you to be efficient and timely for your clients.

As a working genealogist I have learned that developing relationships or contacts with genealogical societies is important to a successful business and satisfied clients.  In my business I have traveled to local genealogy or historic societies and charged mileage for use of my own personal vehicle for travel.  For my business I have determined that a radius of about 100 miles from my home office is reasonable for clients. For clients that have records or needs outside of this mileage radius, I work with Area Research Centers in my State, and local genealogy society researchers who can look for records on site to help my client. [In a prior GenBiz Solutions article, I refer to this as a strategy for collaborating with other genealogists]. Prior to any extra expense for my client, I first provide a detailed written explanation by email about what other resources we may need to finish record collection. I don’t believe additional work should be done without full disclosure to the client that other expenses may incur to locate the records originally requested or that are newly found and will add to the family history search.

For example in the last year I had a client whose paternal family was located in a city that has an active historical society. Prior to going to this location I made sure to have my research log for this family current with findings. The main item for those starting a genealogy business is to think about your purpose and what you are looking for when you start field research for a client. I made contact with the local historic society through email and a follow-up telephone call to work out a date to visit and what records I was expecting to review during my scheduled visit. My experience has been that the local societies like to have time prior to a genealogist’s visit to prepare properly, so they can have the necessary index or books available along with someone there to help with questions. Remember that many of these local societies are managed by volunteers who like to help those doing family history searches. As a business owner it is prudent to leave the society a donation for their services. Remember you may use their services another time or another genealogist will, so acknowledging them is beneficial to all of us.

The result of my travel and time at the city (local) historical society was fruitful in the amount of information I found for the client’s family, including information about the business they owned over 100 yrs ago in the city. Due to the business and civic events this family was involved with I found a number of historic pictures that were not known by my client’s family. 

A most recent experience for a client looking for probate records led me to make contact with a local society that is some distance from my location. This society after reviewing my request and credentials sent (at no cost) the records to an Area Research Center near me, where I reviewed the probate records. This is an example of how a genealogist works with their local societies and regional genealogical centers to find and provide access to the records for business clients.

Working with fellow genealogists, volunteers, and librarians can be rewarding for its shared passion of family history, and making connections can aid in your professional development and in the marketing of your business. Plus we always learn something new and enhance our skills as professional genealogists.

Author: Bob Rettammel

Association of Professional Genealogists

Owner: Rettammel Genealogy Service, LLC

Website: rettammelhistory.com

FacebookB Page: http://www.facebook.com/rettammelgenealogyservice/

Here are pictures 1967-1969 of me and my Grandma Ernestine Louise Wendland who married August H. Rettammel, Sr in 1909 in Lyndon Station, Wi. My Mom and Uncle Art Rettammel are in last photo from 1969.

My Uncle Bill Rettammel is in center under “a” of sign, third row from top. Early 1950’s photo in Dane County, WI.