The Hammonia
|
Genealogy and Immigration History
of the Kobernuss Families
|
"As you look toward the future, always remember the treasures of our past. Every generation stands on the shoulders of the generation that came before. Jealously guard the values and principles of our heritage. They did not come easy."
-Ronald Reagan-
Vessel that
brought Carl & Sophie Kobernus to America in
1873
(To learn more about this vessel click here)
Click on image to see full size)
[Note: This is web version of a 175 page paper distributed to a few members of the Kobernus families of Oak Park, Illinois. The web version does not have many of the photos, graphics or copies of documents contained in the printed version. However, it is still quite long; about 30 pages. You can obtain a printed version by clicking here. Although the latter portion of this paper related to a specific family in Illinois, the first three chapters should be of interest to all persons who had ancestors in Mecklenburg. Questions or problems, contact us by e-mail.]
Table Of Contents
To navigate this paper click on any portion of the TOC
Chapter 2:The Challenges of Family Research
Chapter 4: Slicing and Dicing the Data
Appendix 1: The COBERNUS Family Coat Of Arms
Appendix 2: The Voyages Of Our Ancestors
Appendix 3: KOBERNUSS Families Emigration Records
Appendix 4: Still More Information On Names
Appendix 5: Significant Locations In Mecklenburg
Appendix 7: Kobernus Family Plot
Appendix 9: Luetgendorf Marriage And Birth Records
This is a draft volume of a larger study of the 25 or more KOBERNUSS and KUBBERNUSS families of Mecklenburg Germany that immigrated to the US between 1853 and 1888. This specific volume focuses on the Kobernuss family that immigrated in four increments to Tonawanda/Buffalo New York and Oak Park Illinois in 1869, 1870,1873 and 1881.
This has been a collaborative effort of many people; however, a word of caution is needed. In order to understand the times and places of our ancestors, we collected quite a bit of historical and background data on German and US politics, history, sociology and economics. Some of that information is presented without attribution. Thus, by not giving credit to the authors, in some cases we’re probably guilty of copy write infringement. However, since we don’t intend to profit from this effort, we’re going to take the chance that nobody really cares.
We’ve looked at many original records and have tried to faithfully document our sources; however, by necessity, some of the data in this paper is unverified or anecdotical. We encourage other family researchers to check our work. Particular attention should be paid to the references and sources cited in the footnotes as they often indicate our assessment of the quality of the information or that additional information is needed. Also, many of the early US records we've reviewed were of poor quality. Many source documents were in Old German script from the late 1600’s and early 1700's and often difficult to read.
Despite these disclaimers, we believe that this genealogy fairly represents the history of the Kobernuss families that emigrated from Mecklenburg and settled in Buffalo and Oak Park Illinois. We expect additional revisions to this work and encourage our correspondents to contact us to ensure corrections and additional data are included in the future versions.
Family history is very fragile. Every year, people who possess important information about our past disappear from the scene. Many people have helped in this project and we are very appreciative of their efforts. However, it’s likely that much more information is available. For example, it is very possible that the Kobernuss family bible in the possession of Alvina Lahmann when she died is sitting in a dark attic just waiting to be discovered. So far there are no known pictures of Marie, Carl or Sophie Kobernuss and their children. For this genealogy to take on a life of it’s own, we need additional documentation. We encourage family members to share any stories, photos and other documentation with so we can publish them in future versions of this work.
Genealogy Of
The Kobernuss Families
Of
Alt-Gaarz Mecklenburg
Synopsis
This genealogy outlines the research
done between 1996 and 2000 on the Kobernuss
families of Alt-Gaarz, Mecklenburg that immigrated
to the USA in 1869, 1870, 1873 and 1881. These
families settled in Buffalo/Tonawanda New York and
Oak Park Illinois. It provides historical and
background data that will be valuable to
researchers seeking to expand on and correct this
work.
Background
In January 1996 we began the search
for the origin of our ancestors. All we knew for
sure was that my father lived in Chicago and that
his grandparents probably came from Germany. We
investigated the extensive genealogy files
maintained by the Church of Latter Day Saints
(LDS/Mormon). At that time, there was only one
Kobernus mentioned in their file and the
information about him later turned out to be
incorrect. However, there were a number of
Kubbernuss families from Levin and Kuesserow,
Mecklenburg Germany in the LDS files.
We also researched US Census data for several northeastern and mid-western states and contacted many people in the U.S. and Germany with the name Kobernuss. We surveyed various genealogy news groups on the Internet, and visited numerous cemeteries, libraries, and genealogy archives in upstate New York, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois during the summers of 1996-8. We quickly learned that this family name is very rare worldwide.
A Short History And
Geography Lesson
Although we ran across mention of
people named Kobernus or Kobernuss in various
locations, there was no information regarding
their history or how they came to the United
States. There was a lot of information on German
immigration, but little information that helped
identify the birthplace of our great grandparents.
One correspondent wrote that she thought the
Kobernuss family came from Mecklenburg but had no
further information.
Subsequent research disclosed that all of the people we’ve researched with the Cobernuss, Kobernuss, Kobernusz or Kubbernuss names came either from Mecklenburg or Pomerania. A little background here on these two regions might be useful:
Mecklenburg: Located between Schleswig-Holstein and Pomerania, the Mecklenburg region was conquered by Henry the Lion in the latter half of the 12th century. In 1348 it was elevated to a duchy. The duchy was subdivided in 1621 into the duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz, both of which were elevated to grand duchies in 1815 and governed with identical flags. They joined the German Empire in 1871 and, after World War I, were made states of the new German Republic. In 1934 the two Duchies were united into the State of Mecklenburg. After World War II, Mecklenburg became part of the Soviet Zone known as East Germany or the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The state of Mecklenburg was dissolved in 1952, when East Germany was reorganized into districts. In 1990, with Germany’s unification, the State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) was created.
Pomerania: This was a Prussian province east of Mecklenburg that became a part of the German Empire in 1181. Divided by the Oder River, Pomerania was split into Vorpommern (West Pomerania), and Hinterpommern (East Pomerania). After the 30 years religious wars of 1618-1648, many Swedish families immigrated to the area and Sweden ruled this region for 167 years. Prussia regained control in 1818 following the Napoleonic wars. Vorpommern was a part of the German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany) until the reunification of Germany in 1990 when Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was created out of the former Mecklenburg and West Pomerania.
Most of the German families we’ve contacted, or know of, lived in East Germany during the cold war years (1945-1989), and are just now renewing their association with relatives that lived in West Germany. For example, we’ve learned of two recently reunited Kobernuss brothers who had not seen each other for over 40 years. Most of our German correspondents trace their origins to within 50 kilometers of Malchin, and there are a number of families still living in that general area. We have yet to find a German family that has done much research on their line, and genealogy research by US families is also very limited.
Early Likely Ancestors
There is some indication that a
merchant or lower level nobility family named
Cobernuss lived from about 1400 to 1700 in what is
now Malchin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Although this
family line apparently died out in the 1700s, we
found the names Cobernuss, Kobernuss &
Kubbernuss in German church records as early as
1600 and these names are in use in Germany today.
At this point, we can only conclude that because
of their rarity, it’s likely all persons with
these surnames have a common origin sometime in
antiquity. One possibility is that our ancestors
were people associated with the Cobernuss merchant
family as servants or tenants and assumed the name
of the owner of the estate where they worked or
the name of the farm.
We have obtained a copy of the coat of arms for the Cobernus family of Malchin family and it’s provided as a matter of historical interest only. There are more than 300,000 registered coats of arms for German names—some surnames have many coats of arms—each specific to one family. In Germany, a coat of arms is awarded to a specific family and never to a group of families with the same name. Unless an ancestor received a grant of arms (armorial bearings), use of a surname does not entitle a person to use a coat of arms.
Also, bearing a coat of arms does not mean that you are descended from a noble family. Over the last 400 years, there have been many coats of arms whose bearers are merchant or working families who lived in cities and/or villages rather than on large estates. For German coat of arms, there is a register, the so-called Wappenrolle, which shows all existing and registered coat of arms. It is still possible to create a coat of arms today. However, it has to meet certain heraldic features and must be registered. There is no indication that our ancestors’ station in life was anything more than as day laborers on large estates in Mecklenburg. See Appendix 1 for more on this subject.
Distribution of Families
In Germany
Almost all of the early families we’ve
studied lived near the borders of Mecklenburg and
West Pomerania, near the city of Malchin. The most
common names we’ve encountered are Kobernuss and Kubbernuss. For various reasons, we believe
Kubbernuss is a variation of Cobernuss/Kobernuss.
These names are often interchangable.and have
co-existed in the same area of Mecklenburg since
at least the early 1600’s. We’ve often seen
the same family recorded as Cobernuss, Kobernuss
and Kubbernuss in village church books.
We analyzed 111 known marriages in Mecklenburg between 1643 and 1800. Over this period the numbers of marriages were about equal in the two family names. The Kobernuss families were represented in about 70 percent of the earlier years, while marriages in the Kubbernuss families were greater in the later years. Of the 17 villages in this study, Kobernuss families existed in 13 villages in an arc east and south of Malchin, while Kubbernuss families were concentrated primarily in four adjacent villages about 15 miles north of that city. A study of migration trends after 1800 indicates much more overlap and distribution of the names in villages throughout the Malchin area and to the west. This data only includes Mecklenburg and does not reflect possible migration east to Pomerania, south to Brandenburg or to the western areas of Schleswig - Holstein and beyond.
Other bits of information continue to surface. For example, a Kobernuss family now living in Hamburg, recently discovered that their ancestors who lived along the Mecklenburg-Pomerania border used the name Kubbernuss in early church records. There also was an effort to encourage Germans to immigrate into Russia in the 17th century, so the family names may have spread to the east as well. Many Germans lived in Poland before the Russians drove them out after World War II. We have been in touch with a German family that has Kubernus ancestors in Schoenballen in 1896 and Rotwalde as early as 1800.These villages are in East Pomerania (Now Poland).
Possible Origins Of The
Names
We don’t know the origin of the
names we’re researching. Because of the early
Danish and Swedish influence in Mecklenburg and
Pomerania, it’s possible the Kobernuss name and
its variants are Scandinavian in origin. KOBENHAVEN
(COPENHAGEN) Denmark is not far from the area in
Mecklenburg where we’ve found the earliest
mention of these names, so maybe there is a
connection there.
The best-known work on German names is the Deutsch Namenslexikon (German Name Lexicon), by Hans Bahlow, which gives the origin and meaning of 15,000 names. Our review of this source indicates no entry for Cobernuss or Kobernuss but does indicate “Kober” may refer to a “pack basket” (basket to be carried on one’s back. In East Germany, the Slavic word “Kovar” refers to a blacksmith. Another reference, German-American Names, by George F. Jones also contains definitions for a large number of German names. This book also lists “Kober”, which it says means “basket, back-pack, fish-trap, huckster”. (Could this be some sort of merchant or seller of baskets?). The German word, “NUSS” means, “NUT” in English. Is it possible an early ancestor may have been a seller of nuts or something similar and carried them in a basket?
German surnames are easily recognized; most, if not all, end with the letters “er”, like Kammer, Mueller or Berger. The name Cober/Kober is fairly common in German records and might qualify under this rule. Is it possible that the suffix “nuss” might have another unknown meaning?
Other naming trivia we’ve noticed in early church records include attaching the suffix “en” to the names of females to denote gender. This was used mostly with females or with males e.g., with the father’s son or daughter. In addition, in German, the possessive or genitive case ends regularly on “en” or “s”. For example, the daughter of Johann Kobernuss would be known as Maria Kobernussen or the son of Johann Mueller would be recorded as Wilhelm Muellers.
Some years ago during a visit to Kobern, a small village on the Mosel River in
Western Germany, a local tavern owner told us the
village name meant “Lover”. However, this
village is in the heart of the wine country, quite
a distance from Malchin and we think the local
chamber of commerce probably wanted a name that
sounded more romantic than “Basket of Nuts or
Nut Seller”. As a result, we still don’t know
what the name means if anything. Maybe the source
of the name rests in another language?
Naming
Customs
Tracing families and individuals in
records can be frustrating unless we understand a
little about how names originated, how they change
over time, and how they are used. At first, a name
identified a specific person, and later a group of
persons (family name). This began with verbal
usage, and was later fixed through
Except for a few famous people, early records only mentioned nobility and church officials. Most common people did not have surnames, and when they did, they often changed depending on where they lived, whom they married or their profession.
First or “given names” always existed. When people lived in clans or small villages, everyone had just one name. That’s all they needed because everyone knew each other. As population increased, it became necessary to distinguish between people with the same given name. In 325 A.D. the Catholic Church outlawed the use of pagan names and names from pagan gods. So the use of biblical names became the norm. The church went further in 1545 as it made the use of saint’s names mandatory before Catholic baptism. As a result, there were only about twenty common names for boys and girls. Later in the next century the Reformation and Protestant religions rejected Catholic mandates and traditions. So their children were named after New Testament and Old Testament figures, rather than just saint’s names. People were also named after nobility or famous persons, and Frederick, and Charlotte and others were added. In addition, “Germanic” names such as Wilhelm or Heike were added and many names of Slavic origin found their way to Germany. Middle names were first introduced by German nobility in the fifteenth century, but did not become common until the seventeen hundreds.
It is difficult to trace a name back to its original spelling because when family names were being formed, there were not many official recorders that could write. Most names were entered according to the way they sounded. Because of the dialect of an area, the same name was written differently in different areas. Family names did not really begin until after the 1100s. They came about as towns and villages began to grow, as people began to move from the farms to the cities, as the craftsmen became more self-sufficient, and as the farmers and citizens became freer.
It is generally agreed that Western civilized countries developed names from one of four ways. (1) Location: these surnames came from the town, estates, or city where the person lived. Nobles took on the name of their estate, and passed it down to their sons. Most often, peasants took on the names of their village or a distinguishing geographical characteristic such a river. (2) Kinship: “son of” names: i.e., Jen-son/Jen-sen. (3) Occupational: names coming from the profession of a parent such as Mueller (Miller), and (4) “Pet” names: Special or unusual physical features of an individual, i.e., Red-man, Stout.
German names were derived mostly from occupations like Kaufman, meaning merchant or Schmidt meaning smith and Bauer meaning farmer. The second most common source for German names were from colors, such as Braun (brown), Grun (green), Rosen (rose), Roth (red), Schwarz (black) and Weiss (white). Nicknames were the second to last most common source of names followed by location names. It was also common for a man to take the name of a farm he purchased or acquired by marriage.
From the way in which a person’s name is spelled, you can sometimes tell the general area he was from. For example, the occupation of Smithy, Schmitz is from Rheinland and Schmediding was from the Westfalen area. For Butcher: the name Fleischer comes from the East German area and Knochenhauer comes from the Hannover area. For Baker: In South and Central Germany the name is Beck or Back. The “ing” added to an occupational name indicates he was from the Niedersachsen area. The ending “en” indicates that he was from the Rheinland area.
German people of noble origin were not required to have a surname. People of nobility were only known by their origin or their reign, such as from the house of Habsburg or from the house of Windsor. In the German language it is easy to recognize if a person is of noble origin. His/Her name will always have the word “von” as part of the name, like Maria von Habsburg Empress of Austria.) This word “von” should never be mistaken by the Dutch word Van that does not have the same meaning.
It was only during the reign of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia between 1740-86, that common people were first required to have a surname. Many German surnames have their roots in the Germanic Middle-Ages. The German Language
Latin was the language of the areas we’ve been researching until the middle of the 14th century. By 1600 the literary language was well established; however the German language did not become recognizable in its present form until about the middle of the 18th century.
We have come across a number of variations of the Cobernuss name in German and US records. Many of these variations (particularly those in early records) are clearly “sounds like” misspellings. However, there may be other reasons for the variants. For example, the German language has some unique aspects that researchers have to deal with. The most common examples are:
Umlauts: These additional vowels are called umlauts (Umlauate): ä Ä, ë Ë, ï Ï, öÖ, and ü Ü. When converting German words to English, the umlaut is omitted and the letter e is added, thus Schröder becomes Schroeder.
Eszet Or Scharfes-S: The German letter or Greek Beta “ß” is the equivalent of ss and is alphabetized as if it were ss. As a result, ß, ss and s are used interchangeably. In a headline or other printed form using all capital letters the ß is printed as SS. Thus, the word Haß retains the Ezett when the work is written in lower case; but when it is composed in all capital letters, it is shown as HASS. One other convention we’ve encountered when corresponding with German speakers is the use of sz instead of the ß or ss. As a result, Kobernuß becomes Kobernusz. The Kobernuß family that immigrated to the US from Cadow in 1872 now spells their name Kobernusz. This form makes it easy to identify all descendants of this immigrant family living in the US today. Native German speakers suggest that in written correspondence, the modern preferred form is Kobernuss.
The Choice Of “C” Or “K”: The choice of the first letter of the surname is probably based on a “sounds like” convention, a gradual change in the German language over time, or personal preference rather than some linguistic rule. The use of the letter “C” is more common in the very early records while the letter “K” predominates in the later records. There are only two current American family lines we know of that use Cobernus or Cubbernuss and, as far as we know, only one Germany family uses the name Cobernuss.
Problems With Spelling
Until the 20th century,
different standards of spelling were found in
various parts of Germany and Europe where German
was spoken. The most common surname variations we’ve
encountered in German church records are Kobernuss
and Kubbernuss. How a name was spelled was
unimportant. How it was pronounced was what
counted. Many people could pronounce their own
names, but they could not write or spell them.
They had to rely on the Pastor to document parish
events. Different pastors might spell family names
differently. For example, in one parish the family
name might be Kobernuss, but when the family moved
to another parish they might be recorded as Cobernuss. Despite this, we’ve often found
consistency in the spelling of names in German
parish registers within a village or parish. And
there was some recognition of traditional spelling
of family names by Pastors.
The Soundex System
Genealogists use the Soundex system
adopted for the US Census when researching family
names. This system assigns a letter-number
combination to certain letters of the alphabet. In
this way, names that sound alike are grouped
together even though their spelling may differ.
Almost all of the surname variations we’ve
encountered in our research conform to the same
Soundex code of C165 or K165. For example, the
variations Kobernus, Kobernuss, Kubbernuss,
Kubbernuhs and Koffarnuss have the same Soundex
code. Cobernus, Cobernuss, and CUBBERNUSS have the
Soundex code of C165. This works well when
researching records that use the Soundex system,
but most indexes still place these names in
different parts of the alphabet and a researcher
has to be alert to search for all possible
combinations.
Mecklenburg Church Records
Few people we’ve contacted knew much
about the history of their family beyond their own
or their parent’s generation. Civil registration (Zivilstandsregister or
Personenstandsregister)
records did not begin in Germany until about 1876.
This was after most of the immigrants we’ve
studied had left Mecklenburg and Pomerania.
As a result, we’ve had to rely mostly on Mecklenburg German church records (Kirchenbücher) in our research. These records are particularly important because the civil authorities did not begin registering births, marriages, and deaths until after 1876. Generally recorded at the time of the event, parish records contain births, baptisms, marriages, confirmations and deaths. The data recorded in these records varied over time. Later records usually have more information than early ones.
Few churches in Mecklenburg kept records prior to 1602. In that year, the Evangelical Lutheran Church issued a proclamation requiring every parish to maintain a church book. At first, the proclamation only required churches to keep baptisms, marriages, and confessions. Later, the proclamation was revised to include death registers. Finally, in 1815, all parishes were required to add confirmations. A uniform system of record keeping was introduced in Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1786 and in Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1810.
These records vary in quality from unreadable scribble and ink blots to works of art worthy of framing. These records normally document birth, confirmation, marriage and death events. Many records were destroyed during the Thirty Years War (1617-1648, the French invasions around 1690, and during the Second World War (1939-1945).
In the early 1700’s some churches began making copies of their church books because they were worried about this destruction. In 1786 Mecklenburg-Schwerin passed a law requiring the duplication of church books, but there was so much to be copied that this could not be done. In 1787 the law was amended to say that only the books after 1740 had to be copied. In 1874 the Evangelical Church Council of Mecklenburg-Schwerin requested that all duplicate copies of church books up to 1750 be handed over for safekeeping to the Confidential and Main Archives in Schwerin. In 1914 another proclamation required all church registers up to the year 1786 to be turned over to the Confidential and Main Archives.
Mecklenburg-Strelitz passed a law requiring duplicates of church records in 1803. This law required that the copies be turned in to the main archive in Neustrelitz. This law was reconfirmed in 1927. Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz were united on January 1, 1934. The holdings of the archives in Schwerin and Neustrelitz were all combined in the archives in Schwerin. A central office for parish registers was created on May 1, 1934, also in Schwerin, because those under the Nazi regime had to prove their ancestry. All parish registers were brought to this office if they had not already been deposited in one of the archives or were not still in use in a parish.
These parish registers, over 2,000 volumes, were carefully inventoried, taking note of gaps in the registers. During World War II, the Mecklenburg church records were moved for safe keeping to salt mines in Grasleben. After the war this area fell into the British occupation zone and the British authorities sent the records to a palace just outside the city of Goslar in the Harz Mountains for storage. Later the records were deposited in Ratzeburg, the only Mecklenburg city that ended up in West Germany. The church records of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz up until 1875 are now in Schwerin and are available at the church archives.
German church records now exist for almost all parishes in Mecklenburg. Microfilmed in 1951 by The Genealogical Society of Utah, an arm of the Mormon Church, the records are available at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition, copies of these microfilms are available at local Family History Centers all over the world. It is not necessary to know much more than a few key words of German and learning to read the old German script does not take long. In addition, records can be ordered directly from the Schwerin Archive in Germany. They are very responsive and the fees are reasonable.
The earliest records we’ve been able to decipher, start about 1630. In the larger cities there are often several parishes that need to be researched within a city or small area. In the rural areas, the reverse exits: one church had jurisdiction over several villages known as Fillialorte (daughter places). Over time, jurisdictions changed, records are lost and rediscovered, so researchers have to accept the facts as they find them, and what we know today may be changed by later corrections or discoveries. Types of church records we’ve looked at are:
Birth And Christening Records: Children were usually baptized within a few days of birth. Prior to the late 1700s, many pastors did not record the name of the parents or only recorded the father’s name. Later records show the date of birth and the date of christening, the child’s name, the names of the parents, and the names of the godparents. We have encountered a few cases where the birth date cited turns out to be actually the christening data. For example, Magdalena Maria Kobernuss was listed with a birth date of 19 April 1754 in Alt Gaarz, but in the 1819 Mecklenburg census she is listed as having been born 4 May 1754.
Illegitimate Births: Originally, when a child was born in Mecklenburg out of wedlock, he would receive the surname of the father if the father were known. In Mecklenburg-Schwerin after 1838, by law, an illegitimate child received the surname of the mother if the birth was not followed by the marriage of the parents. The name of the child was recorded as “angeblich” (alleged) in the church books, if relying on the mother’s word. Even if the parents eventually married, the child would still be listed with the mother’s surname in most cases because the pastor usually did not go back and change the birth record. In general, the name of the father was recorded up to the year 1860 after which the practice gradually came to a stop.
Marriage Records: The marriage usually took place in the home parish of the bride. The pastor recorded the names of bride and groom, whether each was single or widowed, and the date of the marriage. The earliest marriage records give little information about the parents of the couple. In most cases, until the beginning of the 1800s, marriage registers recorded only the names of the bride’s parents. In Mecklenburg-Strelitz the names of the groom’s parents began to be recorded after 1810. This practice was introduced in Mecklenburg-Schwerin sometime after 1820. The birth dates of the bride and groom began to be entered in marriage registers during the 1800s. Some marriage registers even give the birthplaces of the bride and groom.
Death Records: Deceased persons were usually buried within a few days of their death. The pastor recorded the name of the deceased, the death date and the burial date. Early death registers did not record the place of birth and age of the deceased, but later records usually did. Death records from the 1800s often give the cause of death and even the name of the spouse or other survivors.
The Mormon Church continues to film related records, and this is an excellent and growing resource.
US Church Records
Researching US church records is much
more challenging. There have been a few efforts to
film church records in the US, but this is a hit
and miss proposition. All of the major dominations
in the US have established archives for the
records they know about. But the quality and scope
of their collections vary. The Mormon Church has
filmed some records and we’ve found some records
in various libraries we’ve visited. However,
until recently, we’ve have not had much luck in
this area.
The biggest problem is that many US churches from the 1800’s no longer exist, it’s hard to determine where the records might reside if they exist at all. When a church closes or combines with another, the records are often transferred to another church or sent to the denomination archives; this makes locating the records very difficult. When churches that had adjoining cemeteries disappear or merge with others, the cemetery headstones are sometimes removed and the remains relocated. Many Cemeteries are very well organized, but others have to scramble to determine the plot where people are buried. When they can’t readily find the location of someone who is clearly buried there, they tell you there will be a charge for doing the research.
We did have a recent break-through in locating what we think is the church that Carl and Sophie Kobernus attended in Forest Park. We recently discovered an 1888 marriage license between Marie Cobernuss and Charles Smith in Cook county records. Further research indicates the bride is probably Marie Kobernus, daughter of Carl and Sophie Kobernuss. The groom, Charles Smith is probably Carl Schmidt. The couple was married in St. Peter’s Lutheran church on Dixon Street in Forest Park. This church is only about 10 blocks from the family home in Oak Park. We’re also doing some research on St. John’s, another church also about the same distance from the Kobernus residence. We’ll report more on these developments in the next revision to this genealogy.
US Civil Records
Early US records are incomplete and
often unreliable. Our research indicates that many
of the immigrants were illiterate, leading to
greater variations in spelling of family names. We’ve
seen naturalization documents and wills that
reflect only an “X his/her mark” where the
signature would be. On the other hand, we’ve
seen many documents from the same period that
indicates some people had some education and could
at least sign their own name.
The advent of computers and the Internet make creation and distribution of information much easier; however, the old adage of “Garbage in - Garbage out” has never been truer. For example, although the Mormon Church maintains the largest existing genealogy computer database file in the world, the quality of this data varies greatly because the LDS does not require submitters to provide sources with their data. Once an error is identified in the Mormon database it is very difficult, if not impossible, to get it corrected. Other databases available on the Internet seldom provide source documentation, so it is difficult to determine the quality of data. As a result, unless a source is cited, readers should treat the information as unverified.
In the US, the National Archives, and state and local governments hold many records. These entities have made great strides in making their records available to the public, and the advent of computerized library indexes, personal computers, the Internet, and large centralized databases makes research much easier. Despite this progress, researchers still encounter significant roadblocks. Although we try to do original research when ever possible, we often have to rely on the work of others.
States, counties, and towns take a different approach to maintaining and making vital statistics available to the public. Some jurisdictions allow you to browse to your hearts content in original records that go back to the early 1800s, while others are guarded by an old crone who is clearly determined to never reveal to anyone the contents of her vault. Vital records by city, state and county entities often don’t exist, are incomplete or obviously wrong. In addition, fires in various archives have destroyed valuable records over the years.
The unsung heroes in this story
are the people (many of them volunteers) who man
the public libraries, LDS Family History Centers
and Local Historical Societies. We always try to
visit one of each in every location we visit. Some
have extensive collections, while others are very
limited. Most have good equipment & facilities
(some are on the cutting edge of technology) but
all the people we dealt with were highly
professional, helpful and overworked. As you would
expect, the libraries located in state capitols
are the best equipped and manned, and have the
advantage of usually being collocated with the
state archives
Short History Of German
Immigration
Why was there such a great mass of
people wishing to quit their homeland? The answer
lies in European politics, economics and class
conflict. During the 1700s and 1800s a type of
Feudalism existed in Prussia and other parts of
Germany known as Inherited Serfdom. The landowners
controlled the economy and ruled their estates
with absolute authority. The peasants were
dependent entirely on the nobles who controlled
all aspect of their lives. Although Feudalism was
officially abolished in the 1820’s, it took many
more years for society to adjust to the new status
of the peasant. Also, the French occupation
created great hardship and destruction in
Mecklenburg. Of the more than 2000 men who were
conscripted from Mecklenburg to take part in
Napoleon’s campaign against Russia, less than
one hundred came home again. Thus, young men in
those days had three basic choices; fight for the
Nobility, starve on the farm, or go to
America.
By the time of the Revolutionary War there were an estimated 225,000 German-Americans residing in the American Colonies. This was almost nine percent of the total population of early America. Germans fought on both sides of the Revolution, including 30,000 Hessian mercenaries hired by the British. The Prussian Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was enlisted by George Washington to whip the American troops into shape. Many of the Hessians remained in the New World and several waves of German migration followed.
German overseas emigration falls into two phases in the nineteenth century. The period 1847-55 is generally accepted by historians as the beginning of the period when the first great German immigration to the United States began. This great exodus was touched off by the departure of political refugees, liberals, and intellectuals and by stories about a better life sent back by those who had emigrated previously. Crop failures, the increase in the price of food, famine, political instability, and the general decline in the standard of living of a predominantly rural population all contributed to the dramatic increase in immigration. A sample of the data for the period 1850-51 indicates that two thirds of the departures were male and that over 80 percent were either farmers or laborers. By the 1850s, peasant emancipation in the eastern and northeastern parts of Germany, Schleswig, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and East Prussia led to the gradual dispossession of former serfs from the great estates. People left for other reasons; one German family tells us that a family member “Hit a watchman and had to go to Amerika”.
Another surge took place between 1865 and 1895 when peasants and unemployed industrial workers, largely from Mecklenburg and Eastern Germany, were attracted by the demand for cheap labor during a period of rapid U.S. industrialization that followed the Civil War. Although the population of the German states doubled between 1840 and 1910, from 32.8 million to 64.9 million, emigration carried off approximately one third of this increase.
After the 1871 consolidation of the Germanic states by Bismarck, economic conditions in Germany began to improve. The era of massive overseas migration came to an end in the mid-1890s as German industry matured and absorbed surplus agricultural and industrial population. In total, about four million Germans came to the United States between 1850 and 1893. Most of the immigrants found the trip worthwhile, and few returned to Germany. According to the 1990 Census, German-Americans were the largest ethnic group in the US. Over 57 million, or one in four persons claim some form of Germanic ancestry—German, Austrian, or German Swiss somewhere on their family tree.
The most useful immigration records we’ve used in our research include passenger lists from the Ports of Hamburg and New York, German civil records and US naturalization documents. The typical immigrant in our records was a Tagelöhner (day laborer) in his mid thirties with a wife and several children. These peasants were agricultural workers that did not live on the farm. They were cheap labor paid with little hard currency and the rest with products from the farm. An even cheaper form of labor was the child of Tagelöhner known as Hofgaenger who entered the fields after their confirmation (usually 14 years). Like the Tagelöhner, they did not live on the Hof (farm) and walked to work each day (gaenger = a walking person). Like the Tagelöhner they earned little money and the rest as Deputat paid by products of nature (Naturalien).
Kobernus And Kubbernuss
Immigration
We have traced about twenty-five
German families from Mecklenburg and West
Pomerania that immigrated to the U.S. between 1853
and 1888. The earliest known immigrant in our
records is Frederick Cobernuss who arrived in New
York in 1853 with his wife and two daughters.
Although most German immigrants departed from
Bremen, it appears almost all of the early
immigrant families we’ve researched were born in
Mecklenburg & Pomerania, departed from the
port of Hamburg, sometimes with a stop at
Marseilles or La Have France, and arrived in the
Port of New York.
There was no “processing” of immigrants at US ports before 1855. From colonial times on there was unrestricted immigration and each state regulated its own port. New York City tried to exclude criminals, paupers, and diseased aliens, but the regulation of this policy, which was in the hands of the police, failed. So basically, people just arrived, got off the ship, and blended into the city, or moved on to another part of the country. The very idea of processing (and controlling) immigration came about as a reaction to the great influx of immigrants in the mid 1800s--Germans, Poles, and of course, Irish Catholics fleeing the Famine. In the 1850s, the anti-Catholic "Know Nothing" party put great pressure on the government to control the influx of foreigners, and so, Castle Gardens at the Battery on the tip of Manhattan was turned into an immigrant processing station.
See the appendix for a more comprehensive view of what it was like to arrive in New York and process through Castle Garden. Immigrants were not processed through Ellis Island in until 1892.
Where They Settled
Most early German immigrants looking
for farmland traveled inland from New York on the
Hudson River or the Erie Canal to Buffalo. After
the Civil War, the rail system to the Mid-West was
greatly expanded. Our records indicate the
immigrants settled mainly in Buffalo New York,
Chicago Illinois, Western Michigan and Milwaukee
Wisconsin. Several of these families moved more
than once, taking advantage of the competition
between the US and Canada to attract farmers to
their remote territories during the latter part of
the 1800’s.
The immigrants followed different migration patterns depending on when they arrived. The earliest immigrants probably had an easier time finding good land to farm, while it was more difficult for the later immigrants. For example, the Kobernus (now Cobernus) family from Bolz arrived on the Saxonia and settled in the Buffalo/Tonawanda NY area about 1863 and remained there for many years. The Kobernuss family that immigrated on the Westphalia in 1871-72, arrived from Kadow, Pomerania also settled in Chicago before they moved to Guttenburg, Iowa and later to Manly Iowa. In 1873, the Carl Kobernuss family arriving in Tonawanda/Buffalo aboard the Harmonnia probably found the best land already taken. They stayed for a couple of years with relatives then moved to Oak Park, a village near Chicago. Two sons of this family later moved to Estherville Iowa about 1893 and farmed there and near Rockford Iowa. The Kobernus family that immigrated on the India in 1882 from Ivanack first settled in Oak Park/Chicago and did not move to Indiana to homestead until about 1905.
It is not unreasonable to assume the earlier families acted as an advance cadre for later immigrants. As we learn more about where these families originated and lived, we may be able to further substantiate possible contacts they may have had between each other in the U.S. and Germany. We’re interested in collecting stories of these early families to include in our genealogy so the information can be shared and preserved for future generations.
Initial Efforts
None of the people we contacted in
Germany or the US could provide much help
regarding the home village of our ancestors Carl
and Sophie Kobernus who lived in Oak Park village
near Chicago from about 1875 to 1907.
Initially, we were unable to find any mention of our ancestors Carl and Sophie Kobernus in US immigration or German church records. Over a four-year period, we researched about twenty-five families that immigrated to the US between 1858 and 1888. We initially passed over any mention of Kubbernuss families in passenger records. However, when we went back over our notes we ran across mention of a Carl and Sophie Kubbernuss who departed from Grüssow, Mecklenburg and departed Hamburg in 1873 aboard the vessel Harmonnia. When we examined the parish church records for Grüssow, we found the same family listed as Carl and Sophie Kobernuss. The first names and years of birth of this family matched what we already knew about our ancestors. We also found the birth and christenings of three of their children in the parish records. This confirmed that Carl and Sophie Kobernuss were the same Carl and Sophie Kubbernuss that sailed on the Harmonnia in 1873.
The Breakthrough!
This was an exciting breakthrough. The
Grüssow pastor’s handwriting was very clear—providing
the full birth names (Kobernuss) of the parents
and children Marie, (b. 1869), Hermann (b. 1871),
and Henry (b. 1873). In addition, the pastor also
listed the names of the witnesses, godparents,
maiden name of the mother (Peters) and her date of
birth. This latter date is also on Sophie’s
headstone in Concordia Cemetery in Forest Park
Illinois a suburb of Chicago. As a result, we’re
now sure Carl and Sophie lived in Grüssow
Mecklenburg at least from about 1869 to 1873 just
prior to immigrating to Tonawanda near Buffalo.
Despite this progress, we still did not know the birthplace of Carl Kobernus and Sophie Peters and their eldest children Carl and Dorothea. We took another look at the Harmonnia’s passenger list for other clues. Listed with the Kobernuss family was a Heinrich Peters from Kirch Luetgendorf age 25 and an infant Whilemina age 8 months. Kirch Luetgendorf is a village about 10 miles northeast of Grüssow. Since Sophia and Heinrich were listed as traveling together on Harmonnia’s passenger list, we concluded that they were related in some way.
The Next Step
We still needed more information to find the
home village of Carl and Sophie. Although German
citizens were required to request permission to
emigrate from Germany, not all did. We wrote to
the Mecklenburg records archive in Schwerin,
Mecklenburg and asked if they had a copy of this
permit called an Auswanderungskonsensakten
(Permission to Emigrate). The documents we
received provided confirmation that that Carl and
Sophie previously lived in Alt-Gaarz, a village
within walking distance of Kirch Luetgendorf.
Henriette Peters, and her daughter Whilemina, was
also listed as traveling with Carl and Sophie “Kubbernuss”.
Not all villages possessed a chapel; as a result, most if not all ceremonies such as baptisms, marriages and confirmations were conducted in the nearest parish church. The Kirch Luetgendorf parish included the villages of Bluecherhof, Alt-Gaarz, Gaarz Krug, New Gaarz, Kirch Luetgendorf, Sapshagen, Neu Sapshagen, and Sopienhof. Our review of the parish book confirmed the information given in the Auswanderungskonsensakten that Alt-Gaarz is the village of Carl Kobernus’ birth. Further research disclosed that the Kobernuss family had lived for well over 100 years in this parish.
In addition, we confirmed that Henriette Peters was Sophie’s sister and was also born in Alt-Gaarz. We believe Henriette may have remained in Tonawanda or Buffalo when Carl and Sophie moved to Oak Park. Our guess is that a review of the Erie county marriage records for the period 1875-80 will disclose her marriage.
The Family Tree in
Luetgendorf
The earliest mention of the Kobernuss
family in Luetgendorf parish is the birth of
Magdalena Maria Kobernuss on April 19, 1754. Her
birth is entered on the second page of the church
book so it is likely the Kobernuss family had
lived in Alt-Gaarz for some time before that.
Although there is no indication of where the Kobernuss family lived before moving to Alt-Gaarz, a Maria Kobernuss born 4 May 1754 is listed in the 1819 Mecklenburg Census for Teterow, a town about 10 miles north of Alt-Gaarz. Since people often gave their baptism date rather than the actual birth date, we think these two people might be the same person. This clue will be explored in more detail in the future.
Four other people, probably siblings, are listed as having been born about the same time as Magdalena Maria. One of these is the great-grandfather of Carl Kobernus, Frederich Wilhelm Kobernuss, born about 1752.
Frederich Wilhelm Kobernuss and Catharine Sophia Blom were married in Luetgendorf parish on 23 Oct 1778. They had 7 children between 1779 and 1797. Frederich Wilhelm is mentioned as a godparent to several children born in this village prior to his death in 1812. Further research uncovered three more generations born, married and died in Alt-Gaarz before Carl Kobernus was born. There is frequent mention of the family and their descendants in the Luetgendorf church book until at least 1868.
Carl Kobernus, had two sisters and two brothers -- all christened in Kirch Luetgendorf parish between 1838 and 1847. A sister did not survive to adulthood and we have no record of what happened to the other brother. He may have died early or moved to another village. Carl’s wife Sophie Peters was also born in Alt-Gaarz, but some of her siblings, cousins, and parents were born in the adjacent parish of Kirch Grubenhagen.
Migration From Alt-Gaarz
The migration of the Kobernuss
families petty much matches what historians know
about the conditions in Mecklenburg in the mid and
late 1800s. Until the early 1820’s, tenant
farmers and day workers were, by custom and law,
bound to the land and had limited rights. Also
about this time, harsh economic conditions and a
growing social movement to eliminate the harsh
treatment of the peasant classes also freed them
from their ancient ties to the land. As a result,
movement of people seeking work in other parishes
in Germany and emigration to the US, South America
and Australia gradually increased throughout the
mid and late 1800’s. It was not unusual for
villages to lose a large portion of their
population in a short time. The “Auswanderungskonsensakten”
(Permission to emigrate) for Carl’s immediate
family contains other familiar names from his
village.
Probably the first to leave Alt-Gaarz was Carl’s first cousin Karl Theo. Johann Frederich Kobernuss. We found the birth record for Karl Kobernus in the Luetgendorf parish book; however, there is no mention of his marriage or birth of two children, William and Henry. Our guess is that he moved from Alt-Gaarz to another parish sometime before 1858 where he married and his children were born. The passenger record for the ship Palmerston in 1869 says Karl and his wife Friederike Rathmann and two children departed for Buffalo New York from the village of Gross Bäbelin. Since there is no record of the family in the Gross Bäbelin church book, we believe we will eventually find their records in another village in the Alt-Gaarz area. We’ll continue to look for these records, and we’ll review the Gross Bäbelin parish book again to ensure we did not overlook the family during our initial review.
Carl’s younger brother, Carl Christian Johann Frederich (Fred) Kobernuss and his wife Henriette Meyer were married in1866 in Luetgendorf. Their first child was born in Alt-Gaarz in 1863, and their second child in 1867. Fred and Henriette probably left Alt Gaarz sometime after this latter child died in November 1867. A third child was born in May 1870 in the village of Kogel just six months prior to their emigration from Germany. The family departed from Hamburg in November 1870 on the ship Cimbria and settled in Buffalo New York where they lived until their deaths in 1914. Fred is probably the relative family legend says Carl and Sophie stayed with in North Tonawanda/Buffalo when they arrived in the US in 1873
Carl and Sophie apparently were living in Alt-Gaarz with their son Carl Jr. when they were married in Kirch Luetgendorf in 1865. The next child, Dorothea was born in Alt-Gaarz in 1867. About 1868, the family left the parish where their families had resided for well over 100 years. They moved to the Waren/Grüssow area where they stayed for about 5 years. Waren is a few miles southeast of Kirch Luetgendorf and is where we believe Carl’s mother Dorothea Sophia Catharine Fischer was born. Daughter Marie (b.1869), and sons Hermann (b.1871) and Henry (b.1873) all were born and christened in the Grüssow church. It appears Carl’s father Heinrich and mother Marie Fisher also moved from Alt-Gaarz about the same time. A Heinrich Kobernuss of Waren is recorded as godfather at Hermann’s christening in 1871. This is probably Carl’s father Johann Daniel Heinrich Christian Kobernuss (1815-1875). Carl and Sophie departed from Grüssow in 1873 with their five children traveling on the ship Harmonnia to New York. and probably lived in Tonawanda or Buffalo until about 1875. They first settled in the Chicago suburb of Forest Park. Illinois. Later, Carl and Sophie built a home in Oak Park where they lived until their deaths in 1907.
Carl’s sister, Carolina Dorothea Friederike Elisabeth Kobernuss, married Johann Vollrath Elias Sanftleben in Luetgendorf in 1865. They had three or more children born in Alt-Gaarz between 1865 and 1877. The passenger list of the Bohemia in November 1881 indicates Marie Kubbernuss age 60 traveling with Frederick and Friederike Sanftleben and five children. The 1900 US census reflects a Frederick & “Ricka” (short for Friederike?) “Salfterm” living with a “Mare” Kobernuss at 641 Woodbine in Oak Park. This address is just a few feet from 647 Woodbine where Carl & Sophie and their descendants lived for some 60 years. Marie Kobernuss is listed as Mother in-law of Frederick. We think this data pretty much provides the most likely scenario of when Carl’s mother Marie and her daughter arrived in the US and where they lived. Marie lived with her daughter until her death in 1907.
The Buffalo Connection
We spent two summers in the Erie
county courthouse and found a lot of data on the
Buffalo Kobernuss families. This includes marriage
and naturalization data on Karl and Fred’s
families and it is possible we also found Carl and
Fred’s naturalization applications. A review of
the Buffalo directory from 1871 to 1910 indicates
Karl and Fred and their families remained in
Buffalo for many years after Carl Kobernus moved
to Oak Park. There is a lot of missing information
on the Buffalo families. For example, although we
visited Elmlawn and Resthaven cemeteries in
Buffalo, there are several more that should be
checked. We found some descendants of these
families but we don’t know were most of them are
buried.
Loose
Ends
There will always be some missing
data, but we think we now have a more complete
documentation of the history of the Kobernuss
families both in Germany and the US.
However, additional research is needed. Although we’ve found Kobernuss family immigrants that lived in other parts of the US, As far as we know, there were only five families named Kobernus(s) in the Chicago/Forest Park/Oak Park area prior to 1900. All immigrated from the same general area in Mecklenburg/West Pomerania, but there is no indication how/if they are related. These families are:
Any help in learning more about the following people and the family they were related to will be appreciated.
There are still many questions that need to be answered. Here are a few people we’d like to know more about.
Fischer, Marie: According to the Luetgendorf parish records, Carl’s mother was Dorothea Sophia Catharine Fischer born to Heinrich Fischer of Waren 10 March 1814. The birth and christening records indicates the same mother for son Carl and all of his siblings. We’ve always assumed that the Marie Kobernuss, who emigrated in 1882 with the Sanftleben family, lived at 641 Woodbine and is buried in Concordia cemetery with Carl and Sophie is Carl’s birth mother, but we have no real proof of this. Marie’s birth date 12 March 1814 and the words “Mother” are on her headstone. We found the birth record of a Maria Dorothea Johanna Fischer born 7 March (christened 11 March) 1814 to Heinrich Fisher and Friederike Gierke in the Waren church books.
Question: Are Dorothea Sophia Catharine Fischer of Alt-Gaarz and Maria Dorothea Johanna Fischer of Waren the same person? The dates of birth of the two people are very close and it is not uncommon for people to adopt different names over time.
Job, Loezia: At time of 1900 Census, 75-1146-21-71, a Loezia Job was living with Carl and Sophia Kobernus at 647 Woodbine, Chicago. Listed as Grandniece age 6. Born 16 June 1900. Not sure of exact relationship to Carl & Sophie.
Kobernus, Charlotte: born March 11, 1918. Died in Antioch, Lake, IL. January 06, 1999. Probably related to Gladys Nelson & Walter Phillips who lived in Antioch Lake, IL. (Walter was a descendant of August Kobernuss)
Kobernus, Edward Henry: Died Abt. 1941, Pontiac, MI. Pontiac Mich. Telephone Directory about 1940 lists Kobernus, Edw. H. & Helen, Serviceman PM Division (Pontiac Motors?) living at 67 Norton in Pontiac. Another Directory listing unknown date lists Kobernus, Helen, living at 107, Wall. Delayed birth certificate of Edward, signed by mother Sophie Mary Lahmann Kobernus indicates she was living at 436 N. Washington Ave., Royal Oak Michigan.
Kobernus, Evelyn: born September 14, 1909 in Illinois; died November 15, 1992 in Belvidere, Boone, IL. Probably related in unknown manner to Fred Kobernus and Francis Belle Wilde. (Frances W. Kobernus, 1151 Nettie St. # 1302, Belvidere, IL, 61008-4047.) Will of Bessie E. Kobernus dated July 16, 1968 left estate to Neal Randall and if he predeceases then to Evelyn B. Kobernus. Not sure how this relationship links up. Witnesses: Mary M. Pyatt, 8115 St Irving Pk. Rd, Chicago Ill, Charlotte L. Barnes, 928 So. Kenilworth Ave., Oak Park, Ill, Dorothy L. Wettstaedt, 2018 So. 19th Ave., Broadview, Illinois
Kobernus, Francis: died: August 16, 1935 in Oak Park, Cook, Illinois Note: Illinois Department of public health vital stats, page 6592, Cert. 0034912. No other information on this person.
Kobernus, Fred: born Abt. 1862; died October 08, 1900 in Cook, IL (Source: Vital Record - Cook County, Death, Cert.: 10055.) Subsequent research indicates he is buried in Eden Memorial Cemetery, wife Kitty died in 1918, and purchaser of plot was William Gallnow.
Kobernuss, Heinrich: Naturalization Record, Circuit Court of the County of Cook, State of Illinois, and Declaration of Intent Number 7509 dated 16 Oct. 1884. This could be Henry Kobernus, son of Carl Kobernus of Oak Park.
Johann Kobernuss: son of Carl Kobernus of Oak Park. John was probably born in Tonawanda/Buffalo soon after Carl and Sophie arrived in the US. Although we spent considerable time in Tonawanda and Buffalo looking for the birth record of John we have never found it. All the vital records in North Tonawanda were destroyed many years ago, and a search of the Erie county courthouse came up empty.
Kobernus, Lily: Infant born April 1899 died August 1899 in Cook, IL, (Source: Cook Co. Vital Record, ID 749). Unknown parents.
Kobernuss, Mary (Marie Christiane Johanne): daughter of Carl and Sophie Kobernus, first married Schmidt and probably is the mother of the infant buried in the family plot in Concordia Cemetery. Her birth date of 18 April 1869 is from Gruessow church records. No other mention of Mary has been found except her marriage to Charles Smith (Carl Schmidt?) in 1888 in St. Paul’s Church in Cook County. We’re looking for these church records. No record of her death has been found but Social security records list a person with the same first name and birth date who died in 1970. This is a very long shot:
Araujo, Mary: 546-74-3762 CA b.8 Apr. 1869-d. Aug 1970 CA Merced, California 95340. Another clue is from an on-line obit: Mary Araujo was mentioned in the obit of Matilda “Tillie” Fontes: Rochester Hills, MI, July 24, 1998, Wife of the late Caetano “Branquinho” Fontes. Mother of Melvin of Sacramento, CA, Wayne and John both of Rochester Hills, MI, Arnold of Diamond Bar, CA and the late Leonard Fontes, sister of the late Tony and John Vincent and the late Mary Araujo. Also survived by 16 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. A funeral Mass will be held on Monday at St. Mary Church, Onset at 1 p.m. visiting hours will be Sunday at the Stott, Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home, 2599 Cranberry Highway (Rt. 28) Wareham from 6-9 p.m. Source: "http://www.s-t.com/daily/07-98/07-25-98/zzzdddea.htm" .
Kobernuss, Minna: In the 1910 Census (074-1002- Visit 0286), a Minna Kobernuss, (probably widow of August Kobernuss, who immigrated on the Wieland in 1882) was living with Grandson Frank Voss age 26 at 3065 N. Hoya/Hoyne, Chicago, IL. The Census says she was a widow with three Children all living. Spoke no English, but wrote & spoke German. Possible relationship to the Carl Kobernus family of Oak Park because Elmer Kobernus grandson of Carl & Sophie Kobernus of Oak park said he had a cousin named Frank Voss but the exact relationship to the August Kobernuss family is not known. Property records for residence of Minna on No. Hoyne may give clue to relationships.
Kobernus, Minna: born Abt. 1864, died November 19, 1892 in Chicago, Cook, IL (Source: Vital Record ID 9881)
Kobernus, Minnie E.: Died March 03, 1918 in Oak Park, Cook, IL (Source: Cook County Bureau of Statistics microfiche, Vital Statistics page 6591, Cert. 0007487).
Kobernus, Robert Charles: died May 13, 1920 in Forest Park, Cook, IL (Source: Cook County Bureau of Statistics microfiche, page 6592, Cert. 0020534).
Kobernuss, Johann: born March 1842, died Jan. 10 1902 in Chicago, & Lina Kobernuss b. Aug 1847. Lina lived at 711 South Wood and 2502 W 12th Chicago from 1904-1910. (This could be Johann Kubbernuss and wife Lina who emigrated from Levin on the Holstatia in 1868). Also, a Johann Kobernuss applied for naturalization in the Cook County Circuit Court in 1879. Declaration of Intent Number 4207 dated 11 March 1879. Signed Certificate as Johann Kobernuss. Johann was a common name so this may not be the Husband of Lina. (Source: Naturalization index 1871-1925, Circuit Court Naturalization Record, p. 192, Book 10, p .334).
Kobernuss, John: born Abt 1813 probably in Germany. Died 23 August 1892 in Buffalo, Erie, NY. Buried in Buffalo Cemetery, and was living at 321 Sherman at the time of his death. He does not appear on our immigrant family list and does not appear to be related to any of the families we've researched.
Kobernus, Mary: b: January 03, 1912 in Cook County, Illinois. Source: Cook county birth records. This information is from page 10067 of Cook County records, Cook County Bureau of Vital Statistics.
Kobernus, Shirley: born: December 17, 1920, d: July 1979 in River Grove, Cook, Illinois No other information on this person.
Kobernus, John (William?): “John”, born 3 Jan. 1907. Cook County birth certificate, Department of Health Cert. 8418 says “John” was born on this date. Parents Alvina and John Kobernus already had a child named John born 1903.in Iowa. Apparently, the Clerk made an error or the parents later changed the baby’s name to William. This family returned from Iowa about the time this “John” was born. Baby delivered by midwife at 647 Woodbine Ave., Oak Park. Grandparents Carl & Sophie Kobernus were still living in the home. William Kobernus born 1907 died in Riverside California in 1982.
Peters, Henriette: Another loose end includes finding out what happened to Sophie’s sister Henriette and her daughter Whilemina who emigrated with them in 1873. Did she stay in Buffalo or move to Oak Park with her sister? We did not look for a marriage of Henriette Peters when we reviewed records in the Erie County courthouse, but that might be a future research project.
Other loose ends: the death dates and burial locations of Carl’s children, Dora (Dorothea) and several of the people listed above. Also we need to know more about the Voss, Sanftleben and Job families that are related to Carl and Sophie by marriage.
Summary & Conclusion
Four members of the Kobernuss family
that lived in Alt-Gaarz, Kirch Luetgendorf parish,
Mecklenburg Germany, immigrated to the US between
1869 and 1881. Two families remained in Buffalo,
two settled in Oak Park Illinois.
Genealogy research is an open-ended process. Unfortunately, much information has been lost over the decades. Our goal is to continue to search for the missing pieces and document what we know. We continue to discover new data and meet new cousins. We’ve provided historical and background data that might appear at first to be unnecessary. However, as far as we know, there has been no significant research on the Kobernuss families in Germany or the US and the more we know about their history and times the more accurate their story will be. Current and future generations will then have a baseline to use in expanding the database and identifying errors.
In addition, we’ve made many errors and chased many fruitless clues along the way and the information in this narrative might help others avoid some common pitfalls. This is only one chapter in a much larger story. There is a lot more to discover and we encourage everyone to make a contribution, however small, to the overall story.
We continue to meet new cousins through contacts generated by The Kobernuss Family Homepage at http://www.kobernus.com. We know there are probably errors and omissions in this genealogy. Additional data and corrections are always welcome.
George Kobernus(s)
Ph: 231-933-9321
E-Mail: gkobernus
Click to see full size
This "Wappen" is provided by the Cobernuss family of Stavenhagen Germany and is made available as a matter of historical interest only. We received a black and white copy of what they claim is the Cobernuss family crest. This has not been verified against the German Wappenrolle and it is unlikely the family has any research to verify they are descended from the Cobernuss family of Malchin. The coloring is our crude attempt to approximate what a heraldic artist would prepare. There are more than 300,000 registered coats of arms for German names - some surnames have many coats of arms - each specific to one family. Unless an ancestor received a grant of arms (armorial bearings), use of a surname does not entitle a person to use a coat of arms. In Germany, a coat of arms has always been given to a specific family and never to a group of various families with the same name.
According to this Wappen, "The Cobernuss family name is first mentioned in Mecklenburg around 1450 where the brothers Ernst and Hanns had a concession in the office of Malchin in 1458. This still belonged to the family in the year 1586. In 1559, mention is made of a Wilhelm von Cobernuss, on whose seal the coat of arms described below could also be recognized. All noble branches of the family disappeared shortly after 1700 and may only be found in common descendants today. "
Decoration: Blue and Silver
- Crest: On the helmet, a red star between two extended blue wings
- Shield: A blue lion in an "en garde" stance outlined in red on a silver background.
Transatlantic Travel –
The Early Days
The distinction between Explorer and
Immigrant became increasingly blurred as Europeans
began regular trips to the New World. Because
trade was the earliest driving force for
transatlantic travel, early sailing ships carried
passengers as secondary cargo. As a result, early
travelers experienced hazardous and very
uncomfortable conditions. Although most Germans
departed from Bremen, our ancestors used Hamburg
as the point of departure. Some transatlantic
ships stopped in Southampton, England and/or La
Havre France before making the crossing. Many
Germans sailed first to England and then took
English vessels to America because of the cheaper
fares offered by the Liverpool cotton merchants.
This was often a mistake, especially in the days
of sail, since not only were English regulations
on the shipment of emigrants much less stringent
than German regulations, but even these lax
regulations were seldom enforced. Consequently,
British vessels, which were larger than
contemporary German and American vessels, were
overcrowded and fertile breeding grounds for
disease. The problem of disease among emigrants
was particularly severe in 1847, when large
numbers of Germans migrating to the United States
were routed through Quebec, and in 1853, when the
mortality on ships arriving at New York from
Liverpool climbed to between 6 and 10 percent (by
comparison, there was very little sickness on
board ships arriving from Bremen and Hamburg
during this same period).
Advent Of The
Steamship
Some of the early sailing ships were very
small and did not accommodate many passengers.
However, the later steam ships were larger,
capable of carrying over 1,000 passengers in three
or more classes. Many immigrants who could
afford it did travel in style; however, our
ancestors were mostly former tenant farmers and
day laborers so it was common to book steerage,
the cheapest accommodations available.
The first steamship to cross the Atlantic was the SAVANNAH, 320 tons, 98.5 x 25.8 feet (length x breadth), built by Samuel Fickett and William Crockett, New York, and launched on 22 August 1818 as a 3-masted, square-rigged sailing ship; an engine (40 3/8 inch cylinder, 5 ft stoke), 2 copper boilers, and 2 side-paddle wheels were added in February 1819. She sailed from Tybee Light, off Savannah, under the command of Moses Rogers, on 22 May 1819, and dropped anchor at Liverpool on 20 June 1819, after a voyage of 29 days 4 hours. Of this period of 700 hours, the ship's log indicates that the paddles were in operation for a total of approximately 100 hours, spread over parts of 12 days. The latter part of the voyage was marked by a chase by the British revenue cutter KITE, which mistook the SAVANNAH for a ship on fire. The Savannah then proceeded to Helsingor (Elsinore), Stockholm, and St. Petersburg; thence, under sail alone, to Copenhagen, Arendal, and Savannah, which she reached on 30 November 1819.
The first regular steamship service across the North Atlantic was begun by the British & American Steam Navigation Company, and followed almost immediately by the Great Western Steam Ship Company, both in 1838 Both ventures were short-lived, as it was impossible at that time to maintain a steamship service across the North Atlantic without a government subsidy.
The first successful steamship service across the North Atlantic was instituted in 1840 by the British North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., popularly known from its earliest days (although not officially until 1878) as the Cunard Line, which in May 1839 had obtained the first British government mail subsidy of 55,000 pounds sterling per annum, the contract to run for 7 years.
The early steamships were unreliable--their boilers had a tendency to explode, and their machinery was too heavy for hulls designed for sailing vessels--and notoriously uncomfortable, and at first the slower, but more reliable and luxurious sailing vessels were able to hold their own. However, as the reliability of steamships improved, speed took precedence over comfort, as it does even today (witness the victory of the airplane over the ocean liner in the late 1960's and early 1970's), and by the late 1840's the steamships had wrested the cabin-class passenger and fine-cargo traffic from the sailing vessels, which were left with only the emigrant and bulk-cargo traffic.
The American Civil War only hastened the ascendance of steam over sail in the passenger trade. By 1870, of all the great sailing packet lines, only two--the Liverpool Black Ball Line and the London Red Swallaowtail Line--survived; however, they had long since ceased to carry passengers and went into liquidation in 1878 and 1880, respectively. Several German and Scandinavian shippers continued to send an occasional sailing vessel filled with emigrant passengers to North America until the mid-1870's, but by 1875 there was no regularly scheduled transport of passengers by sail. From the mid 1800's to World War I, a large number of steam ships were dedicated to the transatlantic passenger trade.
A review of the passenger records in the National Archives indicates these ships were in kept in constant motion almost all year, even during the rough winter months where Atlantic travel was uncomfortable and often hazardous. These ships carried sail, but usually were under steam power most of the time. Traveling at about 12 knots, the voyage took two weeks. Today, the same trip on the Queen Elizabeth II at about 39 knots, takes about 5 days. Of course, by air, the voyage from Heathrow England to JFK is about 6 hours.
Appendix 3: KOBERNUSS Families Emigration Records
"Palmerston" Hamburg-New York .Sept 1869 - 18.Sept.1869
Karl Theo. Johann Frederich (Gombert) Kobernuss (b. April 04, 1837)
+Fredericka Rathmann b: September 23, 1829)
= Ludwig Wilhelm Johann Kobernuss (b: May 15, 1858)
= Heinrich Johann Friedrich Kobernuss (b: May 29, 1864)Note: This is the family of Karl Theo. Johann Friedrich Kobernuss b. 4 April 1837 in Alt-Gaarz. Family departed from Gross Baebelin, Mecklenburg. Their "Auswanderrungsakten" (Permission to Emigrate) dated 26 Apr. 1869 is on file in the Schwerin Archive, in Mecklenburg. Applicant: Tagelöhner (workman, day laborer) Family lived in Buffalo NY and was listed in the City directory as early as 1871. At time of 1900 New York Census son H. J. F. (Henry) was living with wife Anna in Buffalo, NY. The other son Ludwig Wilhelm Johann Kobernuss married Anna Barbara Reeb in Erie County in 1880. Karl is first cousin to Frederick Kobernuss listed on the "Cimbria" in 1870 and Carl Kobernuss listed on the "Hammonia" voyage in 1873-- all born in Alt-Gaarz.
“Cimbria” Hamburg-New York 11.1870 – 14.11.1870
Carl Christian Johann Friederick (Fred) Kobernuss (b: February 13, 1843)
+ Johanna Ernestine Marie Sophia Henriette Meyer (b: June 13, 1844)
= Edward Henry Kobernuss (b: August 1863)
= Carl (Charles) Johann Fried. Kobernuss (b: May 24, 1870)Note: This family departed from Kogel. Fred(Fritz) moved from Alt-Gaarz about 1868 and resided there until the family moved to Buffalo in 1870. He lived there until his death in 1914. Descendants lived in Buffalo area at least until the 1930's. Three families emigrated from Kogel on this voyage. Fred was traveling with the Nehls and Teggen families from the same village. .
"Hammonia" Hamburg--New York 01.11.1873 - 14.11.1873
Carl Johann Wilhelm Theo. (Kubbernuss) Kobernuss (b: November 09, 1838)
+Johanna Friederike Henriette Sophia Peters (b: 10 Feb, 1842)
=Carl Johann Heinrich Kobernuss (b: 26 Sep, 1864)
=Dorothea Friederike Johanna Kobernuss (b. 02 Aug, 1867)
=Marie Christiane Johanne Kobernuss (b: 18 Apr, 1869)
=Hermann Heinrich Ludwig Kobernuss (b: 17 Apr, 1871)
=Heinrich Friedrich Carl Kobernuss (b: 24 May, 1873)
Henriette Friederike Ernestine Dorothea Peters b. 4 Nov, 1848
=Whilemina b. Abt 1873Note: Departed from Grüssow, Family lived in Tonawanda 1873-1875 and then Chicago for many years. First cousin to Carl Theo. Johann Fried. (Gombert) Kobernuss who emigrated in 1869 on the Palmerston. Older brother to Carl Christian Johann Frederick (Fred) Kobernuss who emigrated on the Cimbria in 1870. Traveling with Henriette Peters (sister of Sophie) of Luetgendorf and her infant daughter Wilhelmina. No subsequent record of Henriette or her daughter. All born in Alt-Gaarz.
“Bohemia” Hamburg & Havre – NY 30. 10. 1881
Johann Vollrath Elias Sanftleben (b: February 1840)
+Carolina Dorothea Frederick Elisabeth Kobernuss (b: 20 Mar, 1841)
= Sophia Carolina Friederike Sanftleben (b: 7 July, 1865)
= Louise Sophia Henriette Sanftleben (b: 30 Dec, 1868)
= Dorothea Sanftleben (b: Abt. 1874)
= Carl (Charles) Sanftleben (b. Abt. 1875)
= Johann Fried. Wilhelm Sanftleben (b: 06 Dec, 1876)Maria Dorothea Johanna Fischer-Kobernuss (b: 07 Mar,1814
Note: Maria was Traveling with daughter and son-in-law and their children. Marie was probably born in Waren and moved to Alt-Gaarz where she married into the Kobernuss family. There is indication Marie had moved back to Waren with her husband Heinrich when her sons and nephew moved to Gruessow, Kogel, and Gross Bäbelin sometime about 1868. Her sons and a nephew immigrated to Buffalo/Tonawanda in 1869, 1870 and 1873. She apparently was living in Waren with her husband in 1871 because Heinrich is mentioned as a godparent in Hermann’s birth record in Gruessow. After her husband died in 1875, she probably lived with her daughter Friederike and son-in-law in Friederich Sanftleben in Alt-Gaarz until 1881 when they departed for the US to join Carl and Sophie in Oak Park, IL. Marie apparently lived with the Sanftleben family near Carl and Sophie at 641 Woodbine until her death in 1907 the same year Carl and Sophie died in their home at 647 Woodbine. There is no other information on the Sanftleben family; however, the current owner of 647 Woodbine says she remembers the Sanftleben family.
Most people have no problem recognizing German city names such as Berlin, Berchtesgaden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich (München), Salzburg, Dresden or Zurich (Zürich). Geographic features such as das Matterhorn, der Rhein (Rhine), die Elbe, der Harz (mountains), or die Zugspitze, Germany’s tallest mountain, are equally as well known. Other regional or state names may be just as familiar: Schleswig-Holstein, the Rhineland (Rheinland), Saxony (Sachsen), and others.
But what do all those names actually mean? How did these places get their names? A closer look at German place names reveals that many of them are not German or even Germanic. River names are often a good example of this. The Rhine (der Rhein) and the Isar both got their names from the Celts or even the pre-Celtic, Indo-European people who once populated the European continent. Such names are often the only remaining evidence of the existence of those early European inhabitants. Der Isar (all German river names are either masculine, der, or feminine, die), the river that flows through Munich and is a tributary of the Danube (die Donau, Latin Danuvius), shares its pre-Celtic name with several distant European rivers: the Esera in Spain, the Isère in France, the Yser in Belgium, and the Jizera in the Czech Republic (der Iser in German). Der Rhein first received its Celtic name Renos, and then the Romans latinized it into Rhenus. Many other German rivers also were first “christened” by the Celts and later by the Romans: der Main (Mogonos, the Celtic river god), die Mosel (from the Celtic for “swamp”), die Tauber (Dubra, dub, “water”).
But rivers aren’t the only geographic features that derive their names from the Celts. Towns (Remagen, “water field,” and Worms, from the Celtic for “field”) and mountains (Taunus, dunum, “hill”) also owe their names to them as well.
Other German place names, particularly in eastern Germany, were originally Slavic. Leipzig was once called Lipsk, from the Slavic word lipa, “lime tree.” Albert the Bear founded Berlin in the 12th century (hence the city’s bear symbol) but the name comes from a Slavic word for “fishing village.” Lübeck in the north of Germany gets its name from a Slavic king, Luiby. Dresden on the Elbe River was once a Slav village known as Drezdzany, meaning, and “forest dwellers on the plain.”
Other factors affecting place names are history, wars, migration, and politics. Names change according to who is currently in power or who is culturally dominant. (Something that family history researchers need to be aware of!) Today’s Polish Gdansk was once called Danzig because it was predominantly German. The communist East Germans changed Chemnitz to Karl-Marx-Stadt. As soon as the Berlin Wall came down, it was Chemnitz again. Königsberg (“king’s mountain”), a Prussian and German city from 1255 to 1945 and home to the philosopher Immanuel Kant in the 18th century, is now located in Russia and known as Kaliningrad. German Breslau is now Wroclaw, Poland’s fourth largest city. The Czech “beer” cities known as Budweis and Pilsen in German are now Ceské Budejovice and Plzen respectively.
The Poles, then the Austrian Habsburgs, later by the Prussians, and finally the Germans, once ruled the region known as Silesia, Schlesien in German, or Shlask in Polish. It got its name from the Shlezanie, a Slavic people who once lived there. In 1945 Silesia was returned to Poland, and more than a quarter of the country’s population resides there now. The Habsburgs also once ruled over Bohemia (Böhmen), today a part of the Czech Republic. Hitler used the fact that many Sudeten-Germans were living in western Bohemia as a pretext to gain the Sudetenland in 1938. Today there is no longer any governmental entity known as Bohemia, but the name of the former kingdom is applied to the region.
Another German custom that creates problems for researchers involves marriages into farm families. Farmers in Mecklenburg did not always own land but retained the right to farm for the life of the leaseholder. The right to lease a particular plot of land was determined by the crown. Selection was done by lottery or fiat. Usually, the lease would extend for the life of the leaseholder and not to his heirs. When a farmer died, and his widow remarried, the new husband would take the name of the previous husband in order to retain the right to farm the lease.
Names for German Jews also require special mention. Jews were made to take their names by law in the early 1800s. Those who bribed German officials were given good names and names of beauty. Those who did not pay were given ugly names like Eselskopf meaning ass’s head, or Saumagen (hog’s paunch), Durst (thirst), or Bettelarm (destitute).
As we trace our families back to when their names were first used, we become aware of special problems created by the ancient naming practice called Patronymics. Patronymics are defined as: “a name derived from that of the father or a paternal ancestor usually by the addition of an affix.” Patronymics are found primarily in Scandinavia and in the Northwestern areas of Germany and we have found no instance in Mecklenburg records where this naming system was used. However, Sweden controlled Pomerania to the East for many years and there is a possibility that it was used there also. As a result, there is a possibility that a researcher will encounter the Patronymics naming system in Mecklenburg as well.
Schleswig-Holstein, a province bordering the western border of Mecklenburg provides an example of the Patronymics naming system. Through the centuries, the rule of this area fluctuated between Denmark and Germany. We don’t have an example from Mecklenburg, but the Danish one below from Schleswig-Holstein below describes how the patronymic system was used in Germany. The formation of names for sons and daughters was usually in the following manner:
|
Generation |
Father |
Daughter |
Son |
|
1st |
CarlSoren |
Maria Carls |
Erick Carlsen |
|
2nd |
Erick Carlsen |
Christina Ericks |
Nis Ericksen |
|
3rd |
Nis Ericksen |
Elizabeth Nis |
Jens Nissen |
|
4th |
Jens Nissen |
Bertha Jens |
Peter Jensen |
This example shows the problem with Patronymics; if complete records were available, you could verify that Bertha Jens and Peter Jensen were siblings and direct descendants of Carl Soren but it would not be readily apparent without extensive research.
Despite this, Patronymics was only abandoned by Royal decree and complied with reluctantly over many years. Decrees were issued to discontinue the patronymic naming system in 1771. Under this order, parents had to determine a permanent surname for their child at the time of the christening. Each child in the family could receive a different surname than that given to the other children. Ministers had to announce the name of the child at the time of the christening and see that it was recorded properly. Once the name was given, it was against the law to change it. This aspect of the law shows that there was little thought put into it when it was made, because when a woman married and took her husband’s name she was in violation of the law.
Since the decree allowed children born just prior to this decree received the patronymic form and had the right to give their children permanent surnames after they married. This extended the time period when new surnames were being given to as late as the 1820s. Children, who were given permanent surnames at christening, reverted back to the patronymic form when they were confirmed, married and raising their families. With parents and some children having patronymic surnames and others having permanent surnames, it makes it very difficult to put families together. Because the people were reverting back to the patronymic form, a second decree was issued in 1812, and a third decree was issued in 1822. Still, for many years after this the people went by the patronymic name and not their permanent surname.
To trace an ancestor who was
christened with a permanent surname but who went
by his patronymic name in life, you must first
determine the ancestor’s date of birth or at
least the year of birth. This may be possible by
using any type of record that would give the
individual’s age, such as confirmation,
marriage, death, census and military records. Once
the date or year of birth is known, then the
records for that time period can be checked to
find a child by that given name being born at that
time. If more than one child has the same name and
was born about the same time period, you will have
to follow the process of verification mentioned
earlier in order to determine the correct one.
Gross Baebelin: Village where Carl Theodore Johann Friederich (Gombert) Kobernuss and Friederike Rathmann emigrated from the port of Hamburg in Sept 1868 on the vessel Palmerston. With them were their sons Ludwig Wilhelm (William) Johann and Heinrich (Henry) Johann Frederich.
Gruessow: Village where Carl (Charles) Johann Wilhelm Theo. Kobernuss and Johanna Friederike Henriette Sophia (Sophie) Peters emigrated from the port of Hamburg in November 1873 on the vessel Hammonia. Traveling with them were their children Carl Johann Henriette, Dorothea (Dora) Friederike Johanna, Marie (Mary) Christiane Johanne KOBERNUSS, Hermann (Hermann) Heinrich Ludwig, and Heinrich (Henry) Friedrich Carl KOBERNUSS. Carl and Dorothea were born in Alt-Gaarz between 1864-67 and the others were bon in Gruessow between 1869-73.
Klocksin: Located in Kirch Grubenhagen parish. This village is very close to the birthplace of Johanna Friederike Henriette Sophia (Sophie) Peters wife of Carl Kobernus of Alt-Gaarz. Sophie's birth is recorded in the Alt-Gaarz parish register but her parents and extended family were born here.
Kogel: Village where Carl Christian Johann Fried. Kobernuss and Johanna Ernestine Marie Sophia Henriette Meyer emigrated from the port of Hamburg in November 1870 on the Vessel Cimbria. Traveling with them were their sons Edward Heinrich (Henry) and Carl (Charles) Johann Fried.
Kirch Luetgendorf: Location of parish church for the villages of Bluecherhof, Alt-Gaarz, Krug-Gaarz, Neu-Gaarz, Kirch Luetgendorf, Sapshagen, Neu-Sapshagen, Sophienhof. Members of the Kobernuss clan are documented as having lived in and around most of these villages.
Waren: Birthplace of
(Maria) Dororthea Sophia (Johanna) Catharine
Fischer (b. 10 March 1814). There is some question
regarding the birth name of Marie whose birth was
recorded as Maria Dorothea Johanna Fischer
in the Waren parish register but is listed as Dorothea
Catharine Sophia Fisher in the Alt-Gaarz
parish register. All records in Luetgendorf show
name as Dorothea Catharine Fisher.
Click Here to see list of descendants
We know this list is incomplete. Also, since these addresses are mainly from public domain sources there are errors. To make corrections and additions Contact: George Kobernus 6296 Red Fox Run, Traverse City MI 49686, Ph 231-933-9321, E-Mail: gkobernus
Concordia
Cemetery, Forest Park Illinois
Purchased July 1891
Click on this Link to see
full size
Marie Fischer
Kobernus 1814-1907
Carl Kobernuss 1838-1907
Sophie Peters Kobernus 1842-1907
Henry Kobernus 1873-1909
Infant Of M. Kobernus 1911
Immigration Portal For The Kobernuss Families
To accommodate the growing number of immigrants to the United States who used New York as their first port of call, an official immigration center was established at Castle Garden in 1855. Situated on landfill at the tip of the Battery, the former fortification, concert hall, and entertainment center housed the processing of immigrants until 1890.
Over the next 34 years, over 8 million people entered the United States through Castle Garden, In 1860, 105,123 immigrants disembarked there, of whom 47,330 were Irish, 37, 899 were German and 11,361 were English. The Garden closed on April 18, 1890. A temporary center was set up in the old Barge Office near the Customhouse on the southeast foot of Manhattan and used until January 1, 1892 when Ellis Island opened.
Check these pages for more on Castle Garden.
This link has extensive information of Castle Garden:
Use your browser to search Google or Yahoo for other mentions of Castle garden.
Appendix 9: Luetgendorf
Marriage And Birth Records
Copies of records deleted to conserve
server space. Contact the webmaster for copies
Early Records
The Kobernuss family lived in Kirch Luetgendorf parish from before 1754 There are indications that there were once records dating to at least 1695 for Kirch Luetgendorf, but they probably no longer exist. Births, marriages and deaths for the Kobernuss families are prominent in the church book for over 100 years until about 1867 when this family name disappears from the church book. By this time all surviving members of the family had probably moved south to other villages in the Waren area.
The Earliest Known Birth Record
The earliest known mention of the Kobernus family in Kirch Luetgendorf parish is the birth of Magdalena Maria Kobernuss on 19 May 1754. This record is on page two of the church book. It is likely Maria is closely related to Fried. Wilhelm Kobernus, ancestor of the Kobernus families that settled in Buffalo New York and Oak Park Illinois. At least three other people; Ida Maria (b. Abt 1754), Maria Juliana Henriette (b. Abt. 1756), and Wilhelmina Maria (b. Abt 1760) mentioned in the book are probably siblings or first cousins of Maria and Fried. Wilhelm.
Earliest Known Marriage Record
Fried. Wilhelm Kobernus and Catharine Sophia Blom (Blohm) were married on 23 October 1777 in Kirch Luetgendorf. This couple is the great grand parents of Carl Kobernus of Oak Park, Illinois. F.W. Kobernus was probably born about 1752 in Alt Gaarz but the earliest know birth record for this parish is 1754. We have written to the Luetgendorf parish archive to attempt to determine if earlier records still exit. It is also possible he was born in another parish.
Birth Records For The Family Of Carl Kobernus, Great Grandson Of FW Kobernuss And Catharine Blom
Carl Johann Wilhelm Theo. Kobernuss, Born: 9 Nov 1838 Kirch Luetgendorf (Hof Luetgendorf) Kries Waren, Mecklenburg, Died 9 November 1907, Oak Park Illinois. Godparents: Carl W. Boeckmann; Maria Hanna Knueppel (Drayer), Maria Henrica Dorothy Kobernus (Moeller); Carl W. Joachim A. Mueller
Note. The date of 9 November apparently was an important day in the Kobernus family. Carl Kobernus was born, married and died on 9 November of 1838, 1865 and 1907 respectively. Carl’s brother Frederick also was married on 9 November 1866. These dates have been rechecked.
Johanna Friederike Henriette Sophia Peters: Born: February 10, 184 in Luetgendorf. Died 24 June 1907 in Oak Park Illinois. Godparents: Johann Schroder, Fried. Peters, Henriette Peters, and Sophie Beham. Married 9 Nov 1865: Witnesses: Johann Daniel Heinrich Kobernuss of Alt-Gaarz (Carl's Father), Diederich Fried. Wilhelm Peters of Klocksin (Sophie's Father).
Marriage of Carl Kobernus and Sophie Peters, 9 November 1865 in Kirch Luetgendorf. Father of Groom, Johann Daniel Heinrich Kobernuss of Alt-Gaarz, Father of bride, Diederich Fried. Wilhelm Peters of Luetgendorf.
Child 1: Carl Johann Heinrich, 26 September 26, 1864, Kirch Luetgendorf. Godparents; Carl Krunitz, Hanna Daebel, Henriette Peters (Sophie’s sister). The record indicates that the mother was not married. The writing in the block where the fathers name normally would be indicates that the parents later married on 9 November 1865.
Child 2: Dorothea Friederike Johanna, b. August 02, 1867, Kirch Luetgendorf. Godparents, Doris Krueger born Maw, Johann Peters (Father of Sophia Peters), Friederike Sanftleben born Kobernus (Sister the father).
Child: 3: Marie Christiane Johanne, b.18 Apr; Chr. 9 May 1869. in Gruessow, Kries Roebel, Mecklenburg Godparents: 1) Christian Moeller [Tagelöhner] , 2) Johanna Jhde [Tgl.fr], 3) Marie Puls [Tgl. fr] (All from Grüssow)
Child: 4: Herman Heinrich Ludwig, b. 17 Apr; Chr. 7 May 1871 in Gruessow, Kries Roebel, Mecklenburg Godparents: 1) Heinrich Kobernuss [Schustergeselle; (Schuster = shoemaker, geselle = journeyman] from Waren, 2) Caroline Hackbusch, [Kuestertochter = daughter of the sacristan], 3) Louise Heiser [Tgl. fr] (The latter two from Grüssow). Note: The Hein. Kobernuss mentioned is probably the grandfather of Hermann.
Child: 5: Heinrich Frederick Carl, b. 24 May; Chr. 2 June 1873 in Gruessow, Kries Roebel, Mecklenburg. Godparents: 1) Carl Solzien [Knecht = farm servant], 2) Carl Sadenwasser, [Knecht], 3) Heinrich Teller [Knecht], 4) Bertha Voss [Dienstmächen= maid servant], 5) [Friederike Albrecht [Dienstmächen] (All from Grüssow)
Child 6: Johann (John) Heinrich Kobernuss. Born Abt 1874 in Tonawanda or Buffalo NY. birth records apparently lost.