In the 19th century, German emigrants constituted a very large group in the USA. Especially many settled in Iowa and Illinois and the Midwest. German immigrants are the second largest immigrant group to settle in Iowa. The most emigrants from Taben, Rodt (Roth) and Hamm (today: Taben-Rodt) also preferred these areas.
They were part of that wave of German emigrants who came to Iowa in the 19th century, they created much of the state’s built environment. German Iowans cleared land, built farms and towns and more.
German Emigrants from Taben-Rodt settled in IOWA, Illinois, Canada in the 19th century. The motives, the journey and the experiences in the new home in America (IOWA, Dubuque, Deyersville, Illinois…) are described in this book with many families.
My place of residence, the small village of Taben-Rodt, situated high above the western bank of the Saar River, close to the border with France and Luxembourg, showed a steady population growth over the past centuries. In the last third of the 20th century, the maximum value was reached with about 1,000 inhabitants (in Taben-Rodt and Hamm).
In the middle of the 19th century, however, poverty, lack of economic prospects and disproportionate population growth led to a drastic development for Taben-Rodt: In a period of only 50 years, more than 100 inhabitants (about 20% of the population at that time) left their place of residence (Taben, Rodt, Hamm) and sought a “new better life” in North America. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, the memory of these emigrated families is largely forgotten, only a few photos with the subtitle Photograph Dubuque suggest that these photos could have been taken by emigrants from the “New World”.
In this book “German Emigrants to Iowa and the Midwest” is described the history of the following families: Klein, Herber, Naumann/Nauman, Neises/Neuses, Faha, Gansemer, Dühr/Duehr, Felten, Loch, Kettenhofen/Kettenhoven, Weiter, Massem.
Content of German Emigrants to Iowa and the Midwest
Most emigrants settled or resided in Iowa, Dubuque County, Jefferson County, Peru County, Buena Vista, Osceola; Dubuque-city, Sherrill, Balltown, Dyersville, Okanogan, Camp Springs.
This book “German Emigrants to Iowa and the Midwest” attempts to provide as complete a listing as possible of all emigrants from Taben, Rodt and Hamm and to show their history. The ship passages, the first settling down in North America and the further developments as pioneers are researched on the basis of intensive and extensive research in historical documents (passenger lists, US and Canadian Census surveys, historical maps, etc.).
My contacts of many years, gained through genealogical research and personal visits, were very helpful. So my work found interest also in the US and some “descendants” of the emigrants sent me fragments of their family history, family trees and picture material.
Listing
A listing (list) of all emigrants/immigrants listed and written about in the book can be found hereListing. (Link)
A Listing auf the figure can be found here.
More information
Detailed information about the project can be found at this link; an extract from my book can be found at this link.
The bound, 364-page book (A4 format, 355 illustrations, 77 family trees, 533 sources) describes the history of the emigrated families.
Note: The book “German Emigrants to Iowa and the Midwest” is written entirely in English (Translated by Ben Weber, US), was completed in July 2024. This contains additional information compared to the German-language 2nd edition. You can already order this English edition.
Or order the book by the Author: Bernd Heinz,
Auf Birk 17,
54441 Taben-Rodt
Germany
Tel.: 0049 171 348 6071
Email: post@heinz-bernd.de
Authors-Sales price per copy: 45,- EURO (cash) (July 2024) plus packing and shipping costs (April 2024: Shipping to US or Canada. Packing and shipping costs = 18 Euro )
Interested readers from the USA and Canada can order the book at a reasonable price from the online bookstore LULU.
Please use the above link to the LULU site.
It was through contact with Ben Weber, who is very interested in genealogical research, that the idea of translating my book into English arose.
In 2024, Ben Weber translated this third edition of my book. A particular challenge was translating the many sources, textual references, and footnotes. In addition to the translation, he also checked the integrity of dates and family relationships. He did an excellent job. My sincere thanks for this successful translation. I was very pleased with this joint project, because it meant an English version of my book would now be available to readers.
Prefaces of the 1th, 2nd and english written 3rd Edition
Preface of the 1th Edition (translated from the german edition)
My place of residence, the small town of Taben-Rodt in Germany, located high above the western bank of the Saar, near the borders with France and Luxembourg, has shown steady population growth over the past centuries. In the last third of the 20th Century this peaked at around 1,000 inhabitants (in Taben-Rodt and Hamm).
In the middle of the 19th Century however, poverty, lack of economic prospects, and disproportionate population growth led to what Taben-Rodt saw as a drastic development: in a period of just 50 years, over 100 residents (approximately 20% of the population at the time) left their place of residence (in Taben-Rodt and Hamm) and were looking for a “new, better life” in North America. Today, at the beginning of the 21st Century, the memory of these emigrated families has been largely forgotten; only a few photos with the subtitle “Photograph Dubuque” suggest that these images came from emigrants to the “New World”.
This book attempts to create as complete a list as possible of all emigrants from Taben, Rodt, and Hamm, and to show their history. Ship voyages, settling in North America, and further developments were researched using archived historical documents (passenger lists, US census schedules, historical maps, etc.).
My long-standing contacts, gained through genealogical research and personal visits, were very helpful. My work also attracted interest in the USA and some descendants of the emigrants sent me fragments of their family history, family trees, and images.
I would particularly like to mention Revered Aloysius F. Schmitz (deceased). After an initial contact by letter in 1982, we repeatedly exchanged information about genealogy research, especially about the family tree of the Klein-Herber family. Through his visits to Taben-Rodt (1984, 1992) we were able to get to know him personally. I owe many of my documents and contacts to him. It was also he who made the first contact with his “cousin” Carol Pfeiler (Dubuque, Iowa, USA) in 1999.
At the invitation of Carol (a descendant of the Klein family) and Louis Pfeiler, my family and I took part in a Klein family reunion (for descendants of the Klein family) in Cuba City, Wisconsin on July 9, 2000. As a gift, we presented a 25-minute film about Taben-Rodt, which brought the over 100 attendees closer to the home of their ancestors through words and images and was met with great interest. The discussions held there subsequently led to several Klein-Herber descendants from various parts of the USA and Canada visiting the homeland of their ancestors, Taben-Rodt.
I would also particularly like to mention Joe Schallan (Phoenix, Arizona, USA), a descendant of the Naumann and Gansemer families, with whom I have been exchanging information about his Taben ancestors since 1996 and who also sent me numerous documents and photographs of his USA ancestors. Also Dottisue Gansemer (Prince Albert, Illinois, USA), Shirley Hamilton (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada), Lauretta Sucoe née Klein (deceased), Steve Fait (San Francisco, California, USA), Ed Felten, Bruce Klein (Lewiston, Minnesota, USA), Mary Manning Lovell, Frank Enyeart (Rolling Meadows, Illinois, USA), Robert Loch (Bettendorf/Balltown, Iowa, USA) and others who contributed to the successful completion of this book.
The Dyersville Area Historical Society also supported this work by sending copies of documents from its archives. For this, I would like to thank Mrs. Judy Weber, President of the Board. I would also like to thank the Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp for kindly providing me with photographs. My memberships to Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.com allowed me to access many documents from that time. The US census documents were particularly helpful in tracking places of residence and family development.
Taben-Rodt, May 2017
Bernd Heinz
Preface to the second edition 2022 (translated from the german edition)
The 1st edition of this book attracted a lot of interest, which was also aroused by the full-page coverage with the title “Aufbruch ins Abenteuer neue Welt” “Departure into the adventure new world” in the daily newspapers “Trierischer Volksfreund” (January 5, 2018) and “Saarbrücker Zeitung” (January 12, 2018).
In this 2nd edition are five previously undocumented emigrants, with a reference to Taben-Rodt. The research on the pioneer Peter Neuses (born 1832 in Hamm), who emigrated to Chicago before the year 1859 was inspired by Mark Neuse (Alexandria, Virginia, USA), one of his descendants. Through the support of Leo Christen (California, Kentucky, USA) I became aware of the emigrant Peter Neises (born 1842) and the emigrant brothers Johann (born 1829 in Serrig) and Peter (born 1853 in Serrig) Faha. From Joseph Faha (Maryland, New Jersey, USA) I received detailed information about Jacob Faha (born 1814 in Freudenburg), who emigrated already in 1841/42 and is also described in this 2nd edition.
Taben-Rodt, April 2022 Bernd Heinz
Preface to the third (english) edition 2024 – German Emigrants to Iowa and the Midwest
Since the Second Edition, I have made new contacts with the descendants of Taben emigrants and received new information and additional images from them which I have incorporated into this third edition. This includes information about the family of Peter Gansemer (born 1865) which I received from Jody Ann King (Springfield, Missouri).
From Steve Fait (San Francisco, California, USA) I received more photographs of Matt Gansemer.
Kathryn Gansemer (Holy Cross, Iowa) sent me photos of the families of Nikolaus Gansemer (born 1835) and his son Nikolaus Gansemer (born 1863).
I received detailed information about the Gansemer-Leineweber family from Ben Weber. He is married to Meghan Jane Leineweber (great-great-granddaughter of the emigrants Michael Leinenweber and Catharina Gansemer) and lives in the Washington D.C./Baltimore metropolitan area of the USA.
It was through contact with Ben Weber, who is very interested in genealogical research, that the idea of translating my book into English arose.
In 2024, Ben Weber translated this third edition of my book. A particular challenge was translating the many sources, textual references, and footnotes. In addition to the translation, he also checked the integrity of dates and family relationships. He did an excellent job. My sincere thanks for this successful translation. I was very pleased with this joint project, because it meant an English version of my book would now be available to readers.