Family members of immigrants Heinrich Baethge and his wife Conradine Pape (Baethge), who emigrated from Mascherode (near Brunswick) to Texas in 1854.

Individuals mentioned in the Baur-Eichner Family Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Benecke Family Collection.

Relatives of immigrant Christian W.T. Benedix.

Individuals mentioned in the Blumenberg Family Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Conz Family Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Crede Family Papers

Individuals mentioned in the Dietz Family Collection

The group of letters shared here is a small portion of the Dobberpuhl-Krueger Family Collection, a rich archive held by the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies documenting five generations of a family whose members first immigrated to Wisconsin from Pomerania in the 1840s. These letters were largely sent to Carl Christian Friedrich Dobberpuhl (1784–1848) and his wife Caroline Friederike Klug Dobberpuhl (1798–1875), who came to southeastern Wisconsin in 1843, settling near what is now the city of Cedarburg not far north of Milwaukee. The Dobberpuhls were part of a larger movement of Old Lutherans who emigrated from Pomerania in the face of the Kingdom of Prussia’s campaign to establish a single state church by merging together the Lutheran and Reformed denominations and forcing each to abandon aspects of their spiritual beliefs. Given the important role of religious liberty in shaping the Dobberpuhls’ decision to emigrate, it is not surprising that the correspondence they received from relatives in Germany—particularly Caroline Klug Dobberpuhl’s brother Gottlieb Klug—is rich with expressions of faith. For further information on the Dobberpuhl family, please see Mark Louden, “Introducing the Dobberpuhl-Krueger Family Collection,” Max Kade Institute Friends Newsletter, Fall 2019.

Individuals mentioned in the Dreyer Family Papers.

Individuals mentioned in the Emmel Family Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Engelmann Family Letters

The Engelmann-Hilgard family circle includes members of the Engelmann and Hilgard families who migrated to the United States beginning in the 1830s and their relatives who remained behind in the German states. The two families both originated from the Kurpfalz region. Three collections are associated with these families: the Engelmann Family Letters, the Hilgard Letters, and the Henry Villard Family Letters. The Hilgard family circle includes people who appear in three sets of correspondence: (1) between the Engelmann siblings to their sister Margarethe Hilgard, née Engelmann (2) between Henry Villard alias Heinrich Hilgard, who immigrated to the USA, and his relatives in Germany (3) between Theodor Hilgard and his mother Maria Dorothea Hilgard, née Engelmann

Individuals mentioned in the Eversmann Family Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Grupe Family Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Dorothea Handel Schuhmacher Family Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Marie Hansen Taylor Correspondence

Individuals mentioned in the Hess/Hassel Family Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Hinrichs Family Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Höfeln family letters.

Individuals mentioned in the Johann Bernard Husam Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Eugen Klee Papers (Historical Society of Pennsylvania) and the Eugen and Emma Klee Letters (Horner Library, Philadelphia)

Hugo Eugen Mehler was born in Langerfeld, in the Rhineland, in 1885; Martha Flechtker was born in Barmen in 1889. The couple were married in Germany, and Hugo immigrated to the United States in Philadelphia by himself in 1912. In 1913, Martha joined him there, and they lived in Philadelphia for the next several years and started a family there. The couple eventually moved to Churchville, a community in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Philadelphia, where they raised their eight children. This collection largely consists of postcards sent to the Mehlers by family and friends in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.

Individuals mentioned in the Meyer Brothers Collection

Individuals mentioned in the George Neubert Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Nuss Family Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Raster Family Letters.

Individuals mentioned in the Rustemeyer Papers

Individuals mentioned in the Schulz Family Letters

Relatives and friends of immigrant Isaac Schweitzer and his wife Isabella Guggenheimer.

Members of the family of Sophia Sosnowski.

These are members of the Weinhardt family. They lived in Germany and Indiana.

Individuals mentioned in the Wuellner Family Letters

Individuals mentioned in the Ziegenhagen Family Letters. Franz (or Frank) Ziegenhagen, born in 1825, married Regina Riemer in 1848 in Damnitz, Kreis Schlochau, West Prussia. They had five children who lived to adulthood: Franziska, Emma, Franz (Junior), Maria (or Mary), and Antonia. Franz's first wife died in 1869 and in 1871 he married Dorothea (Dora) Schmidt. Franz and Dora Ziegenhagen had seven children between 1871 and 1880, of whom four survived childhood. Franz (Senior) and his adult son, Franz (also known as Frank), immigrated to New York in July of 1880, via Hamburg. Later in the summer, Dora Ziegenhagen also immigrated with her four young children, her two adult stepdaughters, Antonia and Maria Ziegenhagen, and Maria’s young daughter Ida Ziegenhagen. Franz and Dora Ziegenhagen had another five children in the United States, of whom three survived to adulthood. Correspondents include Franz's daughter Franziska Ziegenhagen Mansolf, who remained in West Prussia, and Franziska's son, Franz (or Frank) Mansolf, who immigrated to the United States, briefly returned to West Prussia, and then immigrated to the United States again for good. Later correspondents include the daughters of Emma Ziegenhagen Wadzinski, Angelika Wadzinski Hoffman and Martha Wadzinski Heldt. Also part of the Ziegenhagen Family Circle are members of the Otto and Czekalla families, who were related to Dorothea Schmidt Ziegenhagen. Dora Ziegenhagen was the eldest of the three children of Eva Kilian and Joseph Schmidt; after Joseph Schmidt's death, Eva Kilian remarried to Lorenz Otto and had four more children with him. The Czekalla family are related to Dora Ziegenhagen through her sister Maria Schmidt, who married Lorenz Czekalla.

Individuals mentioned in the George A. Zimmermann Family Letters.