NOTES

John Jacob Kreischer and Katherine Gilcher:
Their Story and Family in Syracuse
and Onondaga County, New York

Chapter 1: Passage to a New World (1883)



Passport Application of John Jacob Kreischer no. 11985 filed 19 September 1899 with the U. S. Dept. of State, Passport Applications 1795-1905, Dept of State; National Archives Microfilm no. M1372, roll 533.

Kreischer entry, passenger manifest of the S.S. Elbe, 9 June 1883, (lines 519-521); in Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York 1820-1897, National Archives Microfilm no. T237, roll 466.

Arrival notice of Herr Jacob Kreischer, Syracuse Union, Syracuse, New York, 14 Juni 1883, page 3, column 2.

Map of Bremen. Neue Seite 1. [Online]. Available http://www.bremen.com.tw/map.htm, 24 February 2004.

Handlin, Oscar. The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations that Made the American People. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951.

[Map of] The German Empire, 1871-1918. [Online]. Available http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/map.cfm?map_id=2196, 19 October 2007.

Meiger, Elisabeth. “Bremen: Emigration, History, and Genealogical Records.” German Genealogical Digest, Vol. 15, No. 3, Fall 1999.

Puffe, Karl S. “Bremen to America: The Emigrant Journal of Karl S. Puffe” with introduction by Forster Puffe. German Genealogical Digest, Vol. 15, No. 3, Fall 1999.

“Cultural Snapshots: The Ocean Voyage in the Eighteenth Century.” German Genealogical Digest, Vol. 15, No. 4, Winter 1999.

Bonsor, Noel Reginald Pixell. North Atlantic Seaway: An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New/ Vol. 2; 2nd ed. Jersey: Brookside Publications, 1978.

Smith, Eugene W. Passenger Ships of the World, Past and Present, 2nd ed. Boston, Massachusetts: George H. Dean Company, 1978.

“Elbe (2),” Immigrant Ship Information. [Online]. Available http://www.fortunecity.com/littleitaly/amalfi/13/shipdf.htm, 24 February 2004.

Cigarette postcard of Wilhelm Willigerod. [Online]. Available at the Cosmopolitan Postcard Club website, http://www.cosmoclub.net/ng/ngimages/pc363-ng.jpg, 19 October 2007.

Dougherty, Charles Algernon. “The Transatlantic Captains.” Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 73, No. 433, June 1886, pp. 375-391. Available online at Cornell University Library's Making of America, http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/, 19 October 2007.

Moody, William Revell. The Life of Dwight L. Moody. New York: Fleming B. Revell Company, 1900. Chapter 35, “In Peril on the Deep,” pp. 400-408. Available online digitized by Google, http://books.google.com/, 19 October 2007.

Pollock, John Charles. Moody: A Biological Portrait of the Pacesetter in Modern Mass Evangelism. New York: MacMillan, 1963.

Carl Gilcher, birth certificate no. 83 (1882 Ulmet, Kreis Kusel), Verbandsgemeindeverwaltung Altenglan (Landkreis Kusel), Altenglan, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, emailed to M. Stone by Friedrich F. Hüttenberger 20 January 2004. Also microfilm no. 0416163, Zivilstandsregister, Ulmet: Geburten 1882-1887, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Norddeutscher Lloyd advertisement for the Bremen-New York and Bremen-Southampton-New York routes, Syracuse Union, Syracuse, New York, 24 Mai 1883.

Johann Jacob Kreischer, birth certificate no. 122 (1849 Kirrweiler, Grumbach, Kreise St. Wendel), Verbandsgemeindeverwaltung Lauterecken (Landkreis Kusel), Lautrecken, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.
Jacob had an older sister, Katharina (born 1845), an older brother, Philipp (born 1847), four younger brothers (Wilhelm Peter, 1851; Johann Friedrich, 1854; Karl, 1855; and Friedrich, 1858), and the baby, Elisabeth (born 1860).

Kerchner, Charles F., Jr. “18th Century Pennsylvania German Naming Customs and Patterns.” [Online.] Available http://www.kerchner.com/germname.htm, 24 February 2004.

Passport Application of John Jacob Kreischer, ibid.

Letter from Friedhelm Kreischer to Michelle Stone 12 Juli 2001.

Interview with Friedhelm Kreischer by Friedrich F. Hüttenberger and Michelle Stone, Kirrweiler, 30 May 2003.

Interview with Horst Keller, his wife, and his sister, and Friedhelm Kreischer by Friedrich F. Hüttenberger and Michelle Stone, Kirrweiler, 30 May 2003.

Correspondence with Jean Claude Kreischer, 2007.
I owe my French cousin very special thanks for sharing with me information and photos from his own research and his visit to Kirrweiler.

Catharina Gilcher, birth certificate no. 5 (1856 Ulmet, Kreis Kusel), Verbandsgemeindeverwaltung Altenglan (Landkreis Kusel), Altenglan, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. Also microfilm no. 0416053, Zivilstandsregister, Ulmet: 1817-1906 (Rathsweiler: Geburten, Heiraten 1818-1875), Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Katharina Gilcher birth and christening registration (1856), Evangelische Kirche Ulmet, Abt. 43 Ulmet, KB 7 (sic; Book 33, entry no. 7?), as described in cover letter dated 9 August 2001 to M. Stone from Frau Böhler of the Evangelische Kirche der Pfalz Zentralarchiv, Speyer, Germany.
One of Catharina’s godparents named at her christening was “Maria Elisabetha daughter of Peter Gilcher from Rathsweiler”—her aunt living in her home, who would emigrate to the U.S. the following year.

Hüttenberger, Friedrich. The Rathsweiler Gilchers: Deeds and Documents; Family History from 1778-1931. Kaiserslautern, Rheinland-Pfalz: privately printed, 2003.
Without Herr Hüttenberger’s inestimable assistance and diligent and meticulous research, as summarized in his book and in his many family tree charts, this chapter of my ancestors’ story would have been brief indeed. Not only did he obtain all the German documentation of my Rathsweiler Gilchers back to their early roots so that this recovered story can now be told—but he also served as host, tour guide, and translator for my personal introduction on 30 May 2004 to the “Heimat” of my ancestors in the Pfälzer Bergland, and to my cousins living there today. His work in the archives of Altenglan and Speyer in pursuit of the Rathsweiler Gilcher story was inspired. To him, my fellow genealogist, Gilcher cousin, and friend, I offer my sincerest thanks.

Ahnen der Frau (Gilcher Catharina) (Family Tree Chart) drawn up by Frau Klein, Standesbeamte, Verbandsgemeindeverwaltung Altenglan, Altenglan, Germany, received by M. Stone December 2003.

Diploma/certificate of release/graduation from the Wertstagschule and Sonn- und Freiertagschule, Rathsweiler, Kries Kusel (in German) for Katharina Gilcher, 23 December 1872.
This document (found in the Kreischer family German-language Bible, along with unidentified photographs), contained Catharina’s full name, birthdate and place of birth (Rathsweiler), and so was the first clue I had in my ten-year journey to recover the identities and the “lost” story of my great-great-grandparents.

Note on Catharina Gilcher’s two emigrant aunts: U.S. and German sources show that Maria Elisabeth Gilcher (1832-1910), born in Rathsweiler, married Johann Renner (1838-1916), born in Leimen, near Heidelberg, who was a farmer and U.S. Civil War veteran; they had a son named George H. Renner, and ended up their days on their farm outside of Elkhorn in Walworth County, Wisconsin (they are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Tibbets, Walworth County, Wisconsin). Her sister, Luisa Gilcher (1827-1899), born in Rathsweiler, married Karl Emrich (1826-1908), a tailor. They had two children together, Louisa and Charles Jr., and lived and died in Racine, Wisconsin. They are buried at Mound Cemetery, Racine in Racine County.

Howitt, William. “German Experiences: Addressed to the English, both Stayers at Home and Goers Abroad” (1844), reprinted as part of Life in Germany: Selected Portions of Three Works on German Life in 1842, 1844 and 1901 by Origins, Janesville, Wisconsin, 2003 (pages 29-30).

Paterson, Jenny. “‘Planned Illegitimacy’ Among German Immigrants,” Ances-tree vol. 6, no. 2 (August 1993). Published by the Burwood-Drummoyne & Districts Family History Group, Burwood, New South Wales, Australia.

Carl Gilcher, birth certificate, ibid.

Karl Gilcher birth and christening registration (1882), Evangelische Kirche Ulmet, Abt. 43 Ulmet, Nr. KB 36 (sic; Book 36, entry no. 35?), as described in cover letter dated 9 August 2001 to M. Stone from Frau Böhler of the Evangelische Kirche der Pfalz Zentralarchiv, Speyer, Germany.

Kreischer entry, passenger manifest of the S.S. Elbe, ibid.

“Syracuse Timeline 1654 to 1945.” [Online] Available http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mstone/timeline.html, 5 March 2004.

Black, Mary. Old New York in Early Photographs: 196 Prints, 1853-1901 from the Collection of the New-York Historical Society. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1973.

Moreno, Barry. “Castle Garden: The Forgotten Gateway.” Ancestry Magazine, 1 March 2003, Vol. 21 No. 2. [Online] Available http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/ancmag/7233.asp, 24 February 2004.

Notice of the steampship Elbe’s arrival (“Arrived,” column 7) and “City and Suburban News” (column 5), New York Times, New York, 10 June 1883, page 5.

McCabe, James D., Jr. Lights and Shadows of New York Life, or: Sights and Sensations of the Great City. 1872 First Edition Facsimile. New York: Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1970.

Burns, Ric; Sanders, James; Ades, Lisa. New York: An Illustrated History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999.

Grafton, John. New York in the Nineteenth Century: 321 Engravings from Harper’s Weekly and Other Contemporary Sources. New York: Dover Publications, 1977.

Lazarus, Emma. “Give me your tired, your poor.” The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy/Bartleby.com/Great Books Online [Online] Available http://www.bartleby.com/59/6/givemeyourti.html, 24 February 2004.




BACK to Chapter 1

Home