I just recently got the citizenship papers for Wilhelm Bruns. He became a citizen on 29 Sep 1845, in St. Charles County (MO) Circuit Court. Ah good, I made that phrase a link. If you click on it, a new tab/window will open containing the PDF file of the scan I made of the citizenship papers.

Wilhelm Bruns’ full name is Johann Wilhelm Bruns, as far as I know. Many old records I have seen show the person’s name when they were born, like a birth record or baptism record, with a first name and a middle name. Then, for any other records in the remainder of the person’s life, they went by their middle name, and rarely used their first name again. I have especially seen this in French and German families. So sometimes it is hard to figure out if a record I find really belongs to the person I’m looking for or not. But when I refer to a person in my records, it is that person’s name at birth, as near as I can tell.

It is interesting to see that the citizenship first papers start out with “I, William Bruns” but the papers are signed “Wilhelm Bruns”. The so-called first papers is an official court declaration that the person intends to become a citizen. There were a few other things a person had to do to become a citizen, one of which was to wait three years after their first papers. So Johann Wilhelm Bruns filed his first papers in 1842, and became a citizen three years later, in 1845. Citizenship was granted to adult men, and when they became a citizen, anyone else in his family (like his wife) became a de facto citizen at the same time.

In Johann Wilhelm Bruns’ first papers, it states that he landed at New Orleans in December 1838, which is confirmed by the ship manifest I found where he and his wife Anna sailed on the brig Active from Bremen, with two boxes, one musket, and one bed. Their last dwelling place is listed as Menslage, and his occupation is farmer. However, the manifest is dated 05 Jan 1839, so the December 1838 date mentioned in his first papers is probably when he left Germany, arriving in New Orleans in January 1839.

Johann Wilhelm Bruns married Anna Diersing before they emigrated from Germany, and they had five children born in MO, including the firstborn Henry Herman, who in many records is listed as H H. I am not at all sure about the name, as some of the records say Henry Herman, and some say Herman Henry. His death certificate says Henry Herman, but his father’s citizenship papers say his son is named Herman Henry. Henry Bruns was born in 1840, and was County Treasurer of St. Charles county. He fought in the Civil War, in the 27th Regiment, Enrolled MO Militia.

Johann Wilhelm Bruns and Anna Diersing Bruns’ second child was John William Bruns, born in 1842, and he was a Justice of the Peace. He also fought in the Civil War, in the 2nd Regiment, MO Light Artillery. Both he and his brother were on the Union side, and I believe that the rest of their siblings were too young to have fought in the Civil War.

The next oldest son of Johann Wilhelm Bruns was Herman Dietrich Bruns, born in 1848. He was also a prominent citizen of St. Charles county, and has an entry in the 1895 biographical record book of the county, which says he was elected twice as Collector of the county (like a tax collector I think), and also that he owned an “agricultural implement house” with his brother H H for a few years. Another interesting fact about Herman Dietrich is that he was the enumerator for the 1880 census for at least part of St. Charles county.

Anna Diersing Bruns died in 1851 I believe, and Johann Wilhelm Bruns married Helen Berding or Boerding later that year, and had five more children with his second wife.