Continuing on from my previous post, Herman Heinrich Diekamp (born 1752) married Catharina Margaretha Stiegemeiers on 9 Apr 1782 in Westerkappeln, Westfalen, Prussia. This couple is Tom’s 4xGreat grandparents. They had 8 children that I have found so far, including one son who died the same day he was born, and was not named in the record, in 1787. At least 2 of their children immigrated to this country, after they had married and had a few children of their own.

One is Steffen Heinrich, who married  Anna Elsabein Wallenbrock, and immigrated in 1833 with their 3 children. Another is Herman Henrich, who married Catharina Margaretha Woestenkuehler, and immigrated in 1833 also with their 2 children. They all settled in St. Charles county. I think there are probably other Diekamps who immigrated to St. Charles county also.

Anna Wallenbrock’s parents are Johan Henrich Wallenbrock and Catharina Margaretha Kopats. So Johan Wallenbrock and Catharina Kopats are also Tom’s 4xGreat grandparents.

Records going back farther than this do not always give enough information to make sure I’ve got the right people, so this may be as far back as I can get on these lines. It looks like these records have only recently been made available online, so if I come back to this research later, there may be more records available. So time to move on to other lines and come back here later. It was nice to fill in some blanks on George Farber’s wife’s ancestors though.

On to the Dwiggins line, George James Patrick Ferber’s mother, Vida Dwiggins. I had previously gotten quite a bit on Vida’s paternal line, but nothing on her maternal line. So I will be verifying the information I have, and hopefully filling out the tree on Vida’s mother’s side.

Well I’m still looking at George Farber and close ancestors. The George born in 1817 married Catherine Diekamp, and there are now records online pertaining to the Diekamp family members. It appears that Catherine immigrated in 1833 with her parents Steffen Diekamp (born 1785) and Anna Wallenbrock, and two siblings. It looks like Steffen Diekamp’s parents are Herman Henrich Diekamp (born 1752) and Catherina Margaretha Stiegemeiers.

The records on familysearch are a bit confusing though, for every baptism record there are four entries, two that also show the birth date and two that do not. So four records for each person, times however many people, makes for a lot of records to wade through, carefully checking to make sure which person the record is really for. So it goes kind of slow trying to keep track of all the people, and I can look at these records only so long before I need a break, or it would get way too confusing 🙂

Well, I certainly need to be posting more often, eh? Hey, at least I finally put new quotes in the sidebar.

Now that the temperatures are really heating up, it’s time to do indoor stuff instead of outdoor stuff. So I’m back to diligently working on the new family tree database. I haven’t found very much that is new, I’m mostly verifying previous data and sources, to make sure that what I have so far is correct. Also, I have taken the time to update these pages on this site to conform to the new information I have found.

The 23andMe results are in, and I’m 100.0% European. No surprise there! At least that tells me that my research is accurate. 58% is Northwestern European (French, German, British, Irish, etc) and the rest Eastern/Southern and “Broadly” European. Which means the Northwestern European is from my mom (British & German) and the rest from my dad (Hungarian). And 65% of other customers have more Neanderthal ancestry than me. Can’t get much more lily-white that I am, hah 🙂

Tom is only 99.8% European. Somewhere something else crept in there, lol. But he has more Neanderthal ancestry than 91% of other customers, so maybe that tells you something, I don’t know.

Time to get back to the research. After I get all the branches of the tree set, then I’m going to subscribe to some newspaper sites and see what kind of information and stories I can find that will help bring those branches to life!

….. to get your taxes done, and to get Civil War records for free at Fold3.

It seems Ancestry has added a bunch of wills from Missouri, and I found George Ferber’s family, that is, his parents and siblings. His father is, naturally, George Farber. Apparently one can never have enough George Farbers. His mother’s name is Margarethe, but of course her maiden name is not in the records. The George I’m talking about was born in 1817 and died in 1899, and his name changed from Farber to Ferber at some point during his lifetime, it seems.

From what I can make out in a record naming George junior administrator of his father’s estate, George senior died in January 1840, and at that time his name was Farber. It seems that in May 1846, George senior’s widow Margarethe wrote her will, but it is in German, and also very poor quality, so I can’t really read it except I can make out most of the names. The will went to probate in January 1858, so that would be when Margarethe died. So George and Margarethe’s children, still living as of May 1846, are:

• Margarethe, born about 1815, married to Jacob Peter
• George junior, born 1817
• Catharina, born about 1820, married to Adam Stephan
• Maria, born about 1825
• Barbara, born about 1827
• Johannes, born about 1828

I did a quick search for other records for them, but didn’t find much. I’m going to have to spend some time at this, because these names may not be exactly right. For example, I saw a record that looked like it was Catharina and Adam, but the last name was Stevens. I did find a record for John (Johannes) which said he was born in Germany, so it looks like the whole family immigrated together (in 1833 according to George junior’s citizenship papers). So the time fits, but George’s records say he was born in France, although sometimes the census says France and sometimes Germany; the borders did change and I’m not an expert on that for sure.

But now I know who those other Farber/Ferber people were, living in the household of George junior on some of the census records, his mother and his brother. There is also the will of George Ferber (1817-1899) and his wife Catherine (1822-1913). There may be other wills, but I haven’t looked for them yet.

Finding the administration record for George senior also answered another question. I thought I had found the 1840 census record for the family, but the numbers were not quite right. The 1840 census only lists the head of household name, and then just how many males and females in each age group. The name George Farber was right but there was no male of the right age for George senior. Now that I know George senior died in January 1840, and the census was in June 1840, and that George’s father is also named George, the George listed as head of household is George junior. That makes all the ages accurate.

But now I have to figure out if the birth records and marriage record for the family are available, and if so, are they French records or German records? Always more to find out 🙂

And by the way, hubby and I took the 23andMe test. We should get results in a couple months. I’m curious to see if the DNA results agree with my genealogical research!