One of the most rewarding aspects of genealogy work is finding long lost (or previously unheard of) cousins. And even better is being on the receiving end of their generous sharing of family details you did not have. Recently a 4th cousin contacted me through a comment on this blog and has shared exciting information with me.
As I wrote in a previous post, I have been trying to figure out some details regarding my 3rd great grandfather Christian Mathias Wrocklage, whose given surname was Esch. I had earlier speculated that he might have been adoped as I could not understand why he had changed his name from Esch to Wrocklage. As it turns out, his wife's maiden name was Wrocklage and in order to keep the farm after her father died, it had to pass into someone's hands whose name was Wrocklage. Her older brother had already left the farm, married a woman and changed his name to hers so they could inherit her father's farm, so Christian changed his name to Wrocklage so that he, his wife and her younger siblings would not be kicked off the land. This was apparently the law in Germany - you had to keep property in the family name.
I have also learned that Christian had three wives. With his first wife, Anna Catharina Wrocklage, he had 4 children, one dying at birth. With his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Gerdeman, he had 7 children, 2 of whom died young. Then he married a third time and had another daughter. With his 3rd wife and youngest children he emigrated to America in about 1845, and settled near some of his older children who had already arrived. Unfortunately, he and his wife both died the following year.
Theodore Wrocklage, Christian's oldest son, was a founder of the city of Delphos, Ohio, along with a Catholic priest, Fr. John Otto Bredeick and his brother, Ferdinand Bredeick, and Bernard Esch, whom I assume to be related to Theodore (perhaps a cousin) as he has the same last name as Christian, before he legally changed it to Wrocklage.
Now I am going to start searching for the Esch family in Germany and see if I can learn who Bernard is.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI am Corrien Froklage from the Netherlands.
www.froklage.net you see the pedegree of Wrocklage, Frocklage,Froklage. click on on the main menu: The origin of the name F(V)(W)ro((c)(k))lage
History of the Wrocklagefarm in Vinten
The history of the Wrocklagefarm or "Wrocklagehof" is well documented. The reason is that this Wrocklagehof still exists and last but not least we thank mrs Wrocklage who lives here and studied the history of the "Wrocklagehof".click on the main menu: Vinte / Ohio. Read on page 1 the manuscript of the pedigree Vinte Ohio page 1- 57
Ms. Wrocklage has a lot of time invested in this manuscript.
She researched several years at various institutions such as church records, civil records, registers etc.
This research was done 30 years ago.
best wishes
Corrien Froklage
Hello Corrien, Thank you so much for your reply to my blog post. I am familiar with the Froklage website and have looked at it on a number of occasions. However, I can't read German. I will attempt to have it translated so I can learn more.
ReplyDeleteEllen Terich