Introduction

Table of Contents

Pedigree Chart

During the 19th Century, my immigrant-ancestors came from various parts of Germany and settled in Wisconsin. Mostly it was my great-great-grandparents who came, sometimes with their parents. This immigration occured primarily between 1839 and 1855 (approximately). Germany actually was still many separate kingdoms, duchies, and so on. Times were turbulent. Some probably left Prussia for religious reasons, because of the persecution of the "Old Lutherans", who stuck to a strict Lutheran dogma when the state forced a merger of the Lutherans with the Calvinistic Reformed church. Others probably came just to find a better life, where they could own their own farms. The failed peasant revolt of 1848 may have also been encouraged emigration. Two of the immigrants were Lutherans living in largely Catholic Bavaria, so religion may have also been a factor for them, too.

My father's father's ancestors settled in Jackson township (Washington County), near the village of Kirchhain, north of Milwaukee. They came from the Prussian provinces of Pomerania and Silesia. Nearby, in the Freistadt area, which straddles Germantown (Washington Co.) and Mequon (Ozaukee Co.), my father's mother's ancestors bought farms and raised families. They all came from Pomerania.

Milwaukee became home to my mother's father's ancestors, who came from Pomerania and Bavaria. Finally, my mother's mother's ancestors came from Prussian Saxony, Brandenburg, and Posen, and settled in and around Watertown, west of Milwaukee. This included the Rev. Hermann A. Sterz, who was the only one of my great-grandparents to emigrate (the others were born in Wisconsin).

The following sections try to tell the stories of these families, and present the data I have collected.

Here are some of the conventions I have used:

1. Women are listed by their maiden names, unless the maiden name is not known. In that case "(w)" appears after the surname.
2. In general, each person is listed by first name, one middle initial, and surname. However, if a person used a middle name as his/her first name, then he/she is listed by first initial, middle name and surname. This will be reflected in the "Usually known as" name. When immigrants are known to have used anglicized versions of their Germanic names, that will also be noted here.
3. In some case, a numeric suffix is used to distinguish people whose names would otherwise appear identical.
4. If there is only one child listed for a person in the older generations, it often means that I do not have a complete list of his/her offspring.
5. Items (names, dates) followed by a question mark are particularly uncertain.

My thanks to all the cousins, aunts, uncles, etc., who have contributed to this ongoing project. The records and documents collected by my late Great-Uncle Hugo Wallschlaeger provided the starting point for my research on my mother's side.

My e-mail address: bartelt@mindspring.com

PostScript files (for easy printing):
whole genealogy (20 MB)
pedigree chart (37 kB)

or, PDF files for use with Adobe Acrobat Reader (available as a plug-in for browsers):
whole genealogy (1.6 MB)
pedigree chart (17 kb)

Table of Contents

Pedigree Chart