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Emigration - who, when, where from?
From Frankenhausen to Kiel
The emigrants´ family in Kiel
From Kiel to the U.S.
Today
Emigrants to America and their origins (chart)
Ships from Hamburg to New York

Emigration to the U.S. - who, when, where from?
Emigration happened at first in the middle of the 19th century and then fourty years later between 1890 - 1895 and the actors came from different Teuthorn families.

The first to emigrate were in 1848 Dr. med. Johann Christian David (*1795), and his son Heinrich Ottomar Theodor (*1821), Ökonom/studied farmer, both from Frankenhausen. Daughter Pauline (*1833) followed in 1859.

The two youngest sons of Carl Friedrich Teuthorn, who then lived as a haulage contractor in Leipzig/Sachsen, were the next ones to start the journey. Friedrich Philipp Bernhard (1820-1868) emigrated 1850. He later had a bookshop in Boston. Julius Adolph Dankegott (1824-1880) followed him 1854 to Boston. This branch of the family ended with the 3rd generation when in 1872 lokomotive engineer Nathaniel Chester Teuthorn died in Quincy / Mass.

Two generations later - Atlantic voyage had changed from sailing ship to steamship - four children of Wilhelm Friedrich Otto Teuthorn emigrated from Kiel/Holstein to Chicago. What them relates to the Boston brothers and the Frankenhausen family is their common but very early ancestor Jacob Teuthorn, mayor in Frankenhausen, who had lived there 200 years earlier (see table: Emigrants to America / origins ).

Recently I found traces of Teuthorns also in the region of Maule in Chile. So obviously there was also emigration to South America. But I´m still missing more details.

From Frankenhausen to Kiel
As a descendant of the branch of Teuthorns which continued to live in Germany (-->Emil) I concentrate my description on those Teuthorns who had lived in Kiel for three generations, i.e. since 1836 when Wilhelm Günther Teuthorn, common forefather of American and German family, moved there. The exact reasons for emigration from his birth town Frankenhausen to Kiel / Dukedom of Holstein are not known. They may have consisted in the need of gaining an open field for his profession as a surgeon [1]. This is more likely than the today´s pattern of love and following marriage in Kiel.

The emigrants´family in Kiel
In July 1836 Wilhelm Günther Teuthorn became burger by the traditional procedure of swearing the burger´s oath and he entered the guild of barbers and surgeons. So he had become one of the masters who were priviliged to exercise their trade by the Guild Letter / Zunftbrief which duke Friedrich had signed in 1638. It restricted the number of masters to five. By this means a certain economical prosperity was garanteed.

His son Wilhelm Friedrich Otto Teuthorn apparently lived in poorer conditions. My grandfather Emil often mentioned his poor old parents, whom he felt obliged to support with dollars from America. Friedrich Otto worked as a barber. He had to nourish six children.

The oldest of them was Louisa/Luise who was followed by the sons Otto and William/Wilhelm, the daughters Minna and Petra and the youngest son Emil. A graphic may improve your imagination of complicated family relationship!

In the chapter of places (Orte) I give several descriptions of Kiel with emphasis on the 19th century, also an abstract in English. I recommend the (still not translated) part of town life / städtisches Leben in Kiel with illustrations of old houses of the historic Faulstraße, where the Teuthorn Family lived at that time.

From Kiel to the U.S.
Otto is said to have been the first who started the jouney. He is said to have emigrated "when Kaiser Wihelm II. came to power" [2]. But this historical event will not have been the reason for his emigration. He certainly was not a political refugee. Louisa, William, Petra and Emil followed til 1895. Minna stayed in Kiel.
When Emil emigrated in 1895 he lived together with Otto and William during his first year in Chicago. Afterwards he took an independent way. Otto stayed in Chicago and became ancestor of the actual und numerous Teuthorn families in the U.S.
Whether William did as well is not sure. His traces disappear.
The children sent dollars to support their old parents in Kiel. There exist photographs of all of them (except Petra) before they started to America, and when Emil, the 15 year old youngest brother, arrived the three brothers had temselves portrayed together in Chicago.

Otto (1868-1935)
is the ancestor whose "gene" further exist in the branch of family that until now continues living in the U.S. His son Kurt (1900-1974) is the link to them.
Otto arrived in Chicago in the beginning of the 1890's with no knowledge of English. He taught himself to read American papers and learned to speak basic English in order to assimilate more readily into his new homeland. He met German-born Auguste Janssen in a German club and the couple was married and had two sons, Ottie and Kurt. Ottie died young but Kurt went on to become a lawyer and candidate for Alderman.
Otto built a house on Janssen Street in North Chicago which remained in the family for 80 years. It was a gathering place for the family. And in the memories of the grandgrandchildren generation it remained as a place that provided many fun and exploration.

William (1870-1946)
immigrated 1891. From the passengers´ list of the steamship Scandia [3] which started 1891/10/10 from Hamburg to NY we know that he travelled on tween deck without relatives. Fannie Nugent had no further news from him and ignored where he had lived, whether had had family or not. In the meantime I found census data which I still have to make use of. His wife was Marie and he run a grocer's shop in Chicago.

Louisa (1866-1942)
arrived in NY May 26, 1892. She married Willy Prellberg and they had 3 sons. John and William were married but had no children. Emil, the youngest, had a son, but after Louisa´s death Fannie Nugent (who gave me this information) lost contact. Emil's son is Alan Prellberg. We recently managed to get email contact. So the given information soon will be completed. (William did have a daughter, Evelyn. Emil's sons are John and Alan! May 2006)

Petra (1875-1943)
came in the middle of September 1892. She was the beloved sister of Emil and always was sweetly remembered by her children Anna and Fannie (whom I visited 1970 and 1972 in New York and Tom´s River). Petra married John Hessel. Since her marriage she lived in Hoboken N.J.
Emil visited them in Hoboken 1904. He travelled on the German vessel Moltke - from Hamburg 24.8.1904 to NY 2.9.1904 - and from the ship manifest we know that he visited his brother in law in Hoboken. During that time he already lived in South West Africa. So he apparently took advantage of a visit to Germany arranging his journey back to Windhuk via NY.

Their daughter Anna (1899- >1981) was a teacher and never married. Fannie (1901- >1981) probably was a secretary (but I´m not quite sure). She didn´t have own children, married the widower Ernest Henne and raised and loved his chidren like her own. After his death she maried John Nugent. But she already was a widow again when I visited her. Anna & Fannie then were very healthy nice old ladies, in spite of their age always with a lot of activities. I understood, when they were younger they had almost regular contact to the family of Louisa.

Emil (1880-1959)
left Germany Sept 9th 1895 by steamship Palatia from Hamburg and arrived in NY Sept 22th 1895. He stayed only for 4 years, at first in Chicago and later in NY and then went on to his final destination, Windhuk - German Southwest Africa at that time, today´s Namibia. (see his biography)

Today
As we now have found the missing link from today´s American Teuthorns back to their roots in Kiel, Germany, it will be rather interesting how the German and American Teuthorns actually live within our global but small world.

©Peter Teuthorn, 2001 / 2004 / 2005

(Also see Emigrants to the U.S., a list of all known emigrants in chronological order)

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[1]Wilhelm Günther was not a Dr. med. - as I had supposed earlier - but a surgeon, which at that time was not an academic profession, but a skilled trade.
[2] Wilhelm II. became Prussian King and German Kaiser exactly on June 15th. 1888. 1890 was the year when Chancellor Bismarck resigned and Wilhelm II. took direct government influence.
[3] The information is as follows:
Wilh. Teuthorn, age 20, from the state of Holstein, living in Kiel, commercial/Kaufmann, travelling on tween deck without relatives, destination New York, passengers number 01.0009, passage number A1891.0353, beginning the journey 10.10.1891, ship´s name Scandia, steamship, company: HAPAG.