16 – Should be a Movie

I would love to watch any of my ancestors portrayed in a movie, though some lived in historically more interesting times. Here I talk about my Swiss ancestors' experience coming to America, which is a compelling story for me; researching a particular scene reveals the detail that brings the story to life. 

The log cabin the Affolter brothers built at the foot of Haystack Mountain is preserved in Longmont's Old Mill Park

Overview

They came from Canton Bern; the lines of Greubs, Affolters, Baumbergers, etc., can be traced back to the earliest church records in the 1600s. My great-great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Baumberger, born 1794 in Koppigen, was a child during Napoleon's conquest and 15-year reign in Bern. Her daughter Elizabeth Affolter had to endure the hardships during the time leading up to Switzerland's real birth as a nation with its constitution in 1848. Elizabeth Affolter's husband Rudolph Greub had mandatory service in the army, and a career as a druggist, meeting Elizabeth Affolter who sang opera.

In 1854 three generations of these ancestors left for America: Elizabeth Baumberger, age 60 (though she only admits to 50 in the arrival record) and widowed, daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law Rudolph Greub, granddaughters Mary Greub, 6, and Eliza Greub, 3. The trip consisted of a 600-mile trek to France's Atlantic coastal town of Le Havre; the sailboat journey to New Orleans, with the largest group of emigrants to land there on a single sailing ship; the steamboat trip up the Mississippi River to St. Louis, visiting Baumberger relatives in Illinois nearby, and then continuing on the Missouri River to St. Joseph on the edge of the frontier, likely joining Elizabeth Affolter Greub's brothers Jakob and Frederick who had come two years earlier. 

They spent ten years farming in Missouri during the time of the Missouri Compromise and the skirmishes leading up to and during the Civil War years. The Affolter brothers tried mining in Colorado in search of a better fortune, and then the Greub family joined them in 1864, traveling by covered wagon across the plains to the newly opened Colorado Territory. They homesteaded near Boulder, building a large farm; their daughter Eliza married Nicolas Bader at the age of 16, and 7 years later, when Nicolas died of appendicitis, married Clemens Knaus and added 10 more children to her family of 3 boys. Colorado became a state just after Eliza and Clemens had their first child.

Eliza Greub, age 16 in 1867

Digging Deeper

Consider just a scene about their ship landing in New Orleans, and procuring the next leg of the journey via steamboat up the Mississippi to New Orleans. The Times-Picayune, a twice-daily New Orleans newspaper now available online, contains a treasure of detail which would help with the setting. There were daily morning and evening editions of the four page paper, which served as the key conduit of information in this age before email, Internet, telephone, even telegraph. 

You can imagine people rushing to get the newspaper and pouring over its details, looking for the next opportunity, good to purchase, latest political news. The arrival of other newspapers is noted – a Boston paper from the morning of the 28th; New York and Philadelphia from morning of 29th; Baltimore and Washington, evening of that day, etc., and articles about their content appear on the front page. One article deals with a second-hand report of then-president Franklin Pierce's recent address to Congress, which had not yet been received here in full.  

The progress of the Greub's ship the Heidelberg can be tracked, from "sailed" (Dec 3) to "arriving" (morning edition Dec 5) and "arrived" (evening edition): "Ship arrivals: Heidelberg, Williams, fm. Havre 21st Oct, to master 3d district. 45 days sailing." 

Perusing the paper it is obvious how important the shipping industry was to the town, and how straightforward it would have been to book travel up the Mississippi: "Steamboat Departures" lists fourteen leaving that evening, including three for St. Louis, others for Mobile, Washington, Cincinnati, Louisville, New Carthage, Alexandria, Napoleon, Vicksburg, and Ocean Springs. 

Recent sales of commodities are noted: cotton, sugar, molasses, flour, bacon, and lard. There are a couple ads for small groups of slaves to be sold at auction (buried in ads for various other "merchandise"), and several ads for rewards for runaway slaves. Given the Greub's destination of Missouri, this part of America's past could be introduced here.

Just two years after the Greubs made their trip up the Mississippi to St. Louis, Samuel Clemens would meet Horace Bixby in New Orleans, the man who trained him to be a river pilot, and inspired Mark Twain's book "Life on the Mississippi," a book that would make another good source for this movie! 

Burlington pioneer cemetery in Longmont, Colorado, where Elizabeth Baumberger Affolter and five generations of her descendants are buried

Sources

“The Times-Picayune Archive.” December 5, 1854. Newspapers.Com. Accessed April 20, 2023. The afternoon edition has the content I refer to in the blog, but any edition of this paper makes for fascinating reading.

Suppiger, Joseph, Solomon Koepfli, and Kaspar Koepfli. 1987. Journey to New Switzerland : Travel Account of the Koepfli and Suppiger Family to St. Louis on the Mississippi and the Founding of New Switzerland in the State of Illinois. Translation by Raymond J. Spahn, Edited by John C. Abbott. Southern Illinois University Press. This book provides great detail on the trip from Switzerland to Le Havre, and a ship journey to New York, a couple decades before the Affolters and Greubs made their trip.

Spletstoser, Fredrick Marcel. n.d. “Back Door to the Land of Plenty: New Orleans as an Immigrant Port, 1820--1860. (Volumes I and II).” LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses, 468. Accessed October 5, 2021. This contains a lot of detail about New Orleans as an early immigrant port.

15 – Solitude

My Swedish great-grandfather Fredrick Ludwig Wederquist was born in 1851 to Sven Wederquist and Lovisa Dahlberg, the fourth of ten children. Due to my growing interest in genealogy, my wife, daughter Cristin, son Travis, and I found ourselves in Sweden in summer 2008 looking for ancestral farms and churches.  

My second cousin Linda had researched all our common Swedish ancestry, tracing most lines back to the 1600s, and had traveled to Sweden in 2004-5. Based on information and contacts she supplied, we were able to stay at a vacation rental on the same farm where Ludwig had been raised in Bälaryd Parish, Jönköping län, Sweden. The small home where Wederquists lived is still standing today, awaiting renovation as a summer cottage for its current owner.

Åkersberg Cottage on Karstorp Farm where Ludwig grew up

Linda had set me one task to do while roaming the ancestral area of the Wederquists: try to locate the grave of Ludwig's youngest sister Valmina Wederquist, probably in the Hult parish cemetery, less than 30 minutes south of where we were staying. Baptized Wahlmina Carolina, she was, by 4 years, the youngest of the ten children born to Sven Widerquist and Lovisa Dahlberg. Three older brothers had all died in September and October of 1857 of dysentry so Valmina added only a seventh child to the small cottage.

As other siblings emigrated to America, Valmina had become a nurse, moved to Stockholm while saving money, and then moved back to a home she purchased near her birth place in the country. She took in her parents who were destitute, leaving behind their home of 39 years. Her mother Lovisa died a year later at age 76, and her father Sven ten years later at age 86 (finally succumbing to tuberculosis). By then all 4 of her surviving brothers and one sister were living in America; one other sister Emelie remained behind in Stockholm.  

One of Linda's friends helped us find the cemetery, and prepared for a long and possibly fruitless search, we were pleasantly suprised to find Valmina almost immediately. The grave marker was modern, well-placed, facing the front of the church, inscribed to "Malvina Widerquist, Alphyddan, 1865-1945" – her name had been a bit transposed at death. 

Valmina Wederquist grave marker, 2010

Valmina died the last of this Wederquist line in Sweden; her sister Emelie had passed in Stockholm 6 years earlier. Her will listed no relatives: I doubt my grandmother even knew that she had an aunt still living in Sweden in 1945, and Valmina had probably not heard from anyone in America for years. Valmina left all her money to the church – no doubt why she was given such a nice spot for her grave. In 2010, 65 years after Valmina had died, we were likely the first relatives to visit her solitary grave.

Hult Parish church, Valmina's grave marked by flowers, right

Alphyydan Cottage, Valmina's last home in Hult

14 – Begins with a Vowel

Finding John Justen: a Genealogy Story

My grandmother Marie's mother was Louisa Justen: Louisa's parents were John Justen and Mary Gates, and their origin in Europe was a mystery to me. I started my search in early 2012. 

Louisa Justen Gerhard 1875-1913

The Marriage Record

My best clue was an 1866 marriage record that I had obtained from the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison: in flowing script it notes that Johann's parents were Mathias Justin and Maria Rust, and that John ("Johann") had been born in Petersdorf, Prussia; two other separately written certificates in different formats contained the exact same information.

And so I started to pursue church records in Petersdorf, Prussia. A search in Meyers Gazetteer for "Petersdorf" returned 40 matches. Ok, makes sense, popular name for a town in Prussia for that time; perhaps the most popular name. I spent some time trying to figure out the largest "Petersdorf"s, and then ordering microfilm from the Family History Center in Salt Lake City, to be viewed locally. I managed to find a few Justin's and Rust's, but not in the same place, and no Mathias Justin marrying a Maria Rust.

The Naturalization Records

I also obtained John Justen's naturalization papers: the declaration of intention from 31 Oct 1880 stated John Justen was born "about" 1842, and landed at the Port of New York "about" May 1844, and that he was born a subject of the "Emperor of Germany." The final papers, dated 24 August 1906, gave no immigration date, and just restated "Emperor of Germany" as his citizenship.

I searched for the death of a Mathias Justen in Wisconsin, and found one, in Milwaukee 1884, so I ordered the record hoping this would help, but the age was off by decades. I put the research on the shelf for a couple years, hoping new records would show up.

The Birth Record

Almost three years later, in early November of 2014,  I stumbled across a FamilySearch index record for the birth of a Johannes Justen b 25 May 1840 in Üdersdorf, Rheinland, Prussia, and noted the following in my research log: 

• Joannes Justen, b 25 May 1840. I have his birth as May 1842 from his naturalization petition, so not a perfect match. 
• Father’s name: Mathias Josephus Justen. Matches Mathias Justen from his marriage record.
• Mother’s name: Anna Maria Brost. Close sounding to Maria Rust, from his marriage record.
• Birthplace: Uedersdorf, Rheinland, Preußen, Germany. Uedersdorf is close to “Petersdorf”, so might be a possible match.
• Marriage record for 27 Feb 1840 also found. Mathias Justen, birthplace Mehren, parents: Petrus Josephus Justen and Catharina Franzen. Anna Maria Brost, birthplace Uedersdorf, parents: Joannes Brost and Maria Schueller.
• Ordered film 560649: Taufen 1814-1867 Heiraten 1871-1871 Tote 1814-1869.

I ordered up the Üdersdorf films which arrived a couple weeks later. I was able to map out the family.

The Ship Record

Searching for Brost now, in addition to Justen, I found a promising arrival record for the bark Manchester out of Antwerp arriving in New York 12 Jul 1843 with 150 passengers out of Germany. It included a Brost family that matched Anna Maria Brost's birth family pretty closely, with very close ages, and even Anna Maria and a baby Johann (who would have been 3 years and 1 month but is only listed as 11 months):

But where was Mathias Justen, and who was the Barbara? Was the "John" listed at 11 months really my John Justen with his mother Anna Maria above?

The Trip to Germany

So, my new theory was that Üdersdorf was my John Justen's birthplace, but how could I really be sure? My wife and I were planning a trip to France, Germany, and Poland the next year, in 2015, so I had a German travel planner (TGAC) set me up with contacts for a day visit to Üdersdorf and Mehren. We ended up meeting with a couple local genealogists who had authored "Familienbuchs," basically compilations of all the family records in the town from the 18th and 19th centuries, and even had tea with the mayor of Üdersdorf, and a newspaper article was published in a local paper about our visit. 

The mayor showed us the home, still existing, which the Brost family had sold to get the money to emigrate. I was still only 90% sure at this point that this was really my John Justen, so I was a little worried about all the fuss. But they sent me home with a copy of the Üdersdorf Familienbuch:

Cover of the Üdersdorf book

Familienbuch entry for Johann Justen's family

The Üdersdorf Familienbuch notes that the following Brost family members left for America in 1843: Johann Brost (55), his wife Anna Maria (60); and their children Matthias Brost (34) and wife Barbara (24); Anna Maria Brost Justen (30) and son Johann Justen (3);  Susanna Brost (23), Nikolaus Brost (20), and Antonia Brost (18). The people and names match the ship record exactly, and ages are close. Barbara turned out to be the wife of the oldest son.

Final Proof

After visiting Üdersdorf, reviewing the Familienbuch records, etc., I was finally able to convince myself that this really was my John Justen. The unreliable marriage record introduced evidence that needed stronger evidence to convince me that "Petersdorf" was really "Üdersdorf" and "Rust" was really "Brost," as did the naturalization papers which gave John's birth as "about" 1842, and his emigration to New York as "about" the month of May 1844.

• Looking at maps of surname location in Germany, the Justen surname is prominent mostly in the Rhineland, and Üdersdorf was within this swarm of "Justen" surnames. 
• I had found no Justen-Rust marriages in any Petersdorf, Prussia.
• The ship record was certainly that of the Brost family, and it was pretty certain that Johann Justen was on that ship with his mother.
• The death of Mathias Justen in 1841, prior to emigration, accounted for and matched the fact that I could find no records for a Mathias in Wisconsin.
• Coming over as an infant without a father, it is understandable how John might have gotten the birthplace on the 1866 marriage record 23 years later and his mother's maiden name wrong – and they weren't completely wrong, just some of the letters. There are no English words that begin with "ue," and the short German "o" in "Brost" would sound more like an English "u."
• The other Brost families settled in Wisconsin close to where we find Johann's wife's family. 

What finally got me 100% convinced, however, were the four dozen DNA matches my sister and I have with descendants of Anna Maria Brost's siblings. All were on the ship to America, and married here: Susanna, Nicolaus, and Antonia. And many of these descendants, our 4th and 5th cousins, have taken DNA tests which show they share significant DNA with me and my sister.

Conclusions

If the marriage record had correctly used "Ued" instead "Pet" to start the name of the town of my ancestor, it would have sped up my research by a few years and made this connection a lot easier to prove. Meyers Gazetteer only returns one result for "Üdersdorf"!

Even the current inhabitants of Üdersdorf don't know where that name came from - the town has been around since well before Peter the Great, perhaps dating back to Charlemagne. A document from 1287 referred to it as "Oistersdorf." Some theories claim it was named after some person named Otto, or that it was named after the river otters found in the area (English and German share the same name for the animal).

My wife and I spent a few more days in the Eifel area on a trip in 2018, starting in Trier, staying first on the Moselle, and then a few days in Daun.  We revisited Üdersdorf, this time on rented bikes, as well as the towns of other ancestors further back on this line. This area is not an international destination, but mainly popular with Germans; I highly recommend it if you are looking for somewhere more off the beaten path to vacation. 

Üdersdorf, Germany: the town where John Justen was born

Sources

Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Meyer, August. n.d. Geschichte Dreier Eifeldörfer. Daun, Germany: F. Werner. 439 pages.

Zimmerman, Thorsten. 2011. Familienbuch Üdersdorf, circa  1650-1900 Mit Trittscheid, Tettscheid Und Weiersbach. Köln: Westdeutsche Gesellschaft für Familienkunde e.V. 732 pages.

"Deutschland, Geburten und Taufen 1558-1898," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NZQ4-1Y5 : accessed 04 Nov 2014), Joannes Justen; citing Uedersdorf, Rheinland, Preußen, Germany; FHL microfilm 560649.