German-American Family Research

I think it’s about 2 ½ years ago that I got the first email from Gail Murphy of Dubuque, Iowa. She found my website in the web and for part of her ancestors came from Grambergen like mine did, too, she hoped to find someone who could help her to research her forefathers. This was the beginning of a new friendship which found it’s temporarily peak in Gail’s first visit in Germany this summer. Here’s a short summery about the facts that we found about our ancestors and relatives.


Anke and Gail

Gail’s great-grandmother Louisa Niemann was born in Grambergen in 1857. For I knew that Adam Waldmann, a brother of my ancestors, married to the Niemann family at the end of the 17th century, the first thing we did is searching for the connection. That was easy to do and so we found that Gail is a descendant of the said Adam Waldmann.

The parents of Louisa Niemann, Friedrich Niemann and Margarethe, nee Laumann, emigrated to America in 1872. The oldest sons had gone before, the younger siblings including Louisa went with their parents. They settled in Liberty Township, Grant County, Wisconsin. That was exactly the same area where Christoph Waldmann had been settled two years earlier. He’s the brother of my great-great-grandfather. They went to the same church, St. Pauls’s at Liberty Ridge and maybe met each other like they would have if they would have stayed here in Germany.

A family tree had been made for the Laumann family of Wulften in 1927. All the descendants of Margarethe and her siblings are listed in this pedigree. Although there are some mistakes and gaps, this family tree was very helpful and a source for some incredible connections.

The oldest sister of Margarethe, Dorothea Laumann, married Henrich Wilhelm Wefel of Krevinghausen. His brother Hermann Heinrich Wefel became the owner of the Probst farm in Darum in 1803 and so he also became the progenitor of the Probst family of which my grandfather came from (the Waldmanns are my grandmothers family).

Henrich Wilhelm and Dorothea Wefel had thirteen children. Some of them emigrated to the USA, too. The oldest son, Adam Wefel, was one of the emigrants and I have to admit that I should have known it: He was the neighbour of Christoph Waldmann in Stitzer, Liberty Township, Grant County, Wisconsin. My Waldmann relatives gave us a copy of an old map which shows the old farms in that area. I think, I didn’t had enough knowledge of genealogy at that time otherwise it would have been clear to me that the A. Wefel who was mentioned on that map must have been a member of one of the Wefel families of my hometown area.

Adam Wefel married the widow Marie Bergheger of Mönkehöfen in 1846 in the church of Arenshorst. Marie Bergheger’s maiden name was Niemann and she came from Grambergen - she was a sister of Friedrich Niemann and she had a son from her first marriage named Hermann Heinrich Bergheger. Hermann Heinrich B. emigrated with his mother, his stepfather and his three half-siblings and later he became the owner of the General Store in Stitzer.

When Adam Wefel married the widow Bergheger, he changed his name for he became the owner of the Bergheger farm in Mönkehöfen by this marriage. The farm building burn down one year after the marriage and Adam and Marie Bergheger build a new one. The front part of this house is still existing and their names are carved into the lintel above the front door. After emigrating to the USA, the family changed its name to Wefel.

The Laumann family tree shows that Hermann Heinrich Wefel, a brother of Adam, emigrated to the United States, too. He also settled in Grant County and in 1859 he married Maria Ann Probst. You don’t believe in pure chance anymore when doing family research for a couple of years. Beside this marriage, the name Probst occurs another two times in the Laumann pedigree: Daniel H. Probst married Anna Marie Maschmeyer in 1875. She was a granddaughter of Henrich Wilhelm and Dorothea Wefel. Clara Arina Probst married Adam Heinrich Niemann in 1871. Adam Heinrich Niemann was a brother of Louisa Niemann. Could this Probsts be related to the Probst family of Darum?

Of course! All three of them are children of Gerhard Heinrich “Henry” Probst who was born in Darum in 1806. He was a son of Hermann Heinrich Wefel named Probst. This really was a fluke.

Gerhard Heinrich Probst emigrated to America in 1834 – that was all we knew about him. Now I know that he first lived in Cincinnati then he settled in Indiana. About 1850 he moved to Wisconsin. He died in Lancaster, Grant County in 1861. So when Hermann Heinrich Wefel married Maria Ann Probst he married his first cousin ones removed and Daniel H. Probst married his second cousin. Which is funny is that 66 years before my grandparents married, there was another marriage between a descendant of the Waldmann family and a member of the Probst family. That was the marriage between Adam Heinrich Niemann and Clara Arina Probst.

Gails maiden name is Niewoehner. Her great-grandmother Louisa Niemann married Johann Friedrich Niewoehner who originally came from Mönkehöfen.


Friedrich and Louisa Niewoehner
and their oldest children

The Wefel family sponsored his trip to the United States and Friedrich Niewöhner worked on the Wefel farm during his first time in Wisconsin. Why? Well, his mother’s maiden name was Bergheger and Marie Wefel, widowed Bergheger, nee Niemann was not only the aunt of his wife. She was his aunt, too – just by marriage of course. And Hermann Heinrich Bergheger, the owner of the General Store in Stitzer, was his cousin.

Hermann Heinrich Bergheger went back to Germany in 1870 and married his former neigbour Maria Luise Pieper of Mönkehöfen. His brother-in-law Hermann Heinrich Pieper followed them in 1871 and he first settled in Stitzer for he wanted to be near his sister. Ten years later he moved to Hawkeye, Iowa.

His son Herman Frederick married Lena A. Waldman in 1904. She was a daughter of my great-great-granduncle Christoph Waldmann.

By the way, the maternal grandmother of Maria Luise and Hermann Heinrich Pieper was Catharina Maria Wefel, a sister of Henrich Wilhelm Wefel and Hermann Heinrich Wefel named Probst.

Herman Pieper bought the Probst farm from the widow Mary Probst. It was known in the Pieper family that there was a relationship between the Probst and the Pieper family but nobody knew the details. Well, now we know that Herman Pieper was a first cousin ones removed to Gerhard Henry Probst.

Coming back to the Niewöhner family. The Niewöhners origin is in Niederholsten. Friedrich Niewöhner’s father found his way to Mönkehöfen as a „Heuerling“ (tenant). He lived in a small farm house that belonged to the Pieper farm! It isn’t proved by now but Friedrich Niewöhners parental grandmother was named Catharina Maria Pieper. I bet that is the same Catharina Maria Pieper who was born in Mönkehöfen in 1797 and who was an aunt of Hermann Heinrich and Maria Luise Pieper!

Well, I’m still not at the end. There’s for example another Laumann sister called Marie Elisabeth. She was married to the Brörmann farm in Haltern. Her son Karl emigrated to America, too and there he married Catharina Elisabeth Hartmann in 1870 in the church of St. Paul’s at Liberty Ridge. Catharina Elisabeth was born in Haltern, too. She was a sister of Marie Elisabeth Hartmann who was the wife of Christoph Waldmann and the mother of Lena Waldmann Pieper.

Or another fact: Adam Heinrich Niemann remarried after the death of his wife Clara Arina, nee Probst. His second wife was Anna Maria Dorothea Wefel, daughter of Adam and Marie Wefel - Marie Wefel, widowed Bergheger, nee Niemann, his aunt.

Let’s make an end now. I’m sure if Gail and I go on like that, we’ll be able to add a lot of other little paragraphs to this essay - and I’ve to admit: I like it.

Remsede, October 2004

Anke Waldmann

A short autobiographie of Louisa Niemann Niewoehner can be found on the Grambergen web site.