Instead of jumping right into the multi-generational tradition of service in
the US Navy among my husband's relatives (would have been too obvious?
No?)...I'll kick off the first of my "Maritime Monday" posts with a
nod at one of my several German immigrant ancestors. Ship travel?
Check!
On 18 Septemer 1868, my 3rd great-grandfather Anselmus Ostholthoff arrived in New York aboard the German steam ship "Smidt" after a trans-Atlantic journey from Andervenne, Germany. His traveling companions - wife Maria Anna (Toepke) Ostholthoff, their eldest son Johan Gerhard (2 years), and daughter Anna Maria (9 months).
The following snippet from their arrival documentation[1] indicates that Anselmus ("Selmus") was a farmer from Andervenne. His stated destination after New York: Virgina. This is curious to me, because I have record of Anselmus living in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1870[2]. At this point, Mr. Ostholthoff is no longer working as a farmer; he is an employee at the local lard factory. Perhaps he spent a little time living in Virginia prior to settling in Cincinnati? By 1870, his third child – Bernard Lina – is already six months old. Could he possibly have had relatives living in Virginia who made their journey from Germany even earlier? Something to investigate further.
On 18 Septemer 1868, my 3rd great-grandfather Anselmus Ostholthoff arrived in New York aboard the German steam ship "Smidt" after a trans-Atlantic journey from Andervenne, Germany. His traveling companions - wife Maria Anna (Toepke) Ostholthoff, their eldest son Johan Gerhard (2 years), and daughter Anna Maria (9 months).
The following snippet from their arrival documentation[1] indicates that Anselmus ("Selmus") was a farmer from Andervenne. His stated destination after New York: Virgina. This is curious to me, because I have record of Anselmus living in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1870[2]. At this point, Mr. Ostholthoff is no longer working as a farmer; he is an employee at the local lard factory. Perhaps he spent a little time living in Virginia prior to settling in Cincinnati? By 1870, his third child – Bernard Lina – is already six months old. Could he possibly have had relatives living in Virginia who made their journey from Germany even earlier? Something to investigate further.
As I browse through the many immigrant passenger
lists, arrival lists, and naturalization documents from my own family, I can’t
help but imagine what life would have been like aboard the ship. I am so grateful for their courage and
fortitude!
[1] Year: 1868; Arrival: New
York, United States; Microfilm Serial: M237; Microfilm
Roll: 301; Line: 11; List Number: 1002. Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger Lists,
1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations,
Inc., 2010, accessed January 2013.
[2] 1870
U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule),
Cincinnati, Ward 10, Hamilton, Ohio, Page 553B, Dwelling 867, Family 1962, Anselmus
Ostholthoff household, jpeg image, (Online:
The Generations Network, Inc., 2009) [Digital scan of original records
in the National Archives, Washington, DC], subscription database,
<http://www.ancestry.com/>, accessed January
2013.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete