The Arszman Family History Back to 1500 Vol.1: Back to 1500, Volume I

By Ernest Anthony Arszman and Larry Joseph Arszman

The authors take you back in time to Northern Germany where the Aßmann/Ahsmann/Aszman/Arsmann/Arszman ancestors originated; share HOW the name has changed; WHY the name changed; HOW and WHY dates appear as they do (explain the “double date” issue); and most importantly, HOW the family became what it is today and much more.

Begin your journey back in time to discover your ancestors!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 19, 2008
• ISBN: 9781664137912

Ernest Anthony Arszman

Ernest Anthony (Tony) Arszman, a 51 year resident of California and retired employee from a furniture manufacturing company, decided to look into his family history. His research took him across the United States meeting relatives, sometimes for the first time. His desire for accurate information caused him to spend hundreds of hours in libraries, churches and government records. His curiosity, determination and love for his heritage has led to a 14 year project that has resulted in this book. Larry Joseph Arszman, (Tony’s Nephew), lifetime resident of Ohio and retired Senior Manager from Procter & Gamble, became hooked on genealogy when his uncle shared his findings of the family history. Larry eagerly teamed up with his uncle to finish his project. Larry’s knowledge of computers and investigative skills enabled the project to develop and expand back to the 1500’s in Germany.

Book preview

Copyright © 2008 by Ernest A. & Larry J. Arszman.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/16/2020

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

577271

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Story of Franz Heinrich (GEB Grothaus) and Maria Elizabeth Ahsmann

Chapter 2: Children of Franz Heinrich (GEB Grothaus) and Maria Elizabeth Ahsmann

Chapter 3: Children of Georg Heinrich (GEB Ahsmann) and Maria Benne

Chapter 4a: Children of John Casper Arszmann and Catherine Lange

Chapter 5: Children of Joseph Heinrich Arszmann and Anna Marie Kemper

Chapter 6: Children of Johann Matthias Vinke and Katharine Maria Haßpecker

Chapter 7: Children of Henry John Arszmann and Elizabeth J. Bauer

Chapter 8: Children of John Henry Arszmann and Helena Maria Determann

Chapter 9: Children of Joseph Philip Arszman and Christina Grimme

Chapter 10: Children of Johann Vinke and Gertrud Wöstenkötter

Chapter 11: Children of David Vinke and Elisabeth Wöstenkötter

Chapter 12: Children of Edward J. Arszman and Stella Kasberg

Chapter 13: Children of Henry J. Arszman and Josephine Elizabeth Rosegarten

Chapter 14: Children of Albert J. Arszman and Anna Mary Vogt

Chapter 15: Children of Frederick Bernard Arszman and Helena Reiber

Chapter 16 (A): Children of Joseph Herman Arszman and Anna Barbara Thieman

Foreword

My uncle Ernest Anthony Tony Arszman has devoted thousands of hours since 1994 to research and compile our family history. This book is a tribute to his dedication and his persistent desire for the truth about our heritage. He first presented our family with his work in 2000. He painstakingly researched National Archives, boat records, records in Salt Lake City, and traveled the United States and visited family members to verify information and to obtain documents and photos for his book. His work inspired me to get involved and help him in any way possible to finish his project. My ability to utilize the Internet and to computerize his work has led us to meeting many wonderful relatives (distant and close) and friends. This has been a most rewarding experience for me.

In September 2004, my uncle and I had the opportunity to travel to Borgloh, Germany, where the Aßmann/Ahsmann/Aszman/Arsmann/Arszman ancestors originated and had the opportunity to step back in time so to speak. Through my Internet research, we found a professional German genealogist in Borgloh named Herr Heiner Stegmann, who was willing to meet with us and help us in our research. Herr Stegmann has documented all church records in the surrounding area and provided us with pages and pages of information and documentation that supported Tony’s initial findings. Plus, it gave us new and additional information that takes our bloodline back to AD 1575 to Wellingholzhausen, Germany, to the surname Wencke. (This is how we learned how and why surnames changed.)

Not only did we find confirmation of our ancestors, but we found and visited the original Ahsmann farm my great-great-great-grandfather Joseph Herman Ahsmann left to come to the United States. Finding this property was very exciting, but learning that the property was still owned by the direct descendants of Joseph Herman’s brother, George Heinrich (GEB Ahsmann) Vinke, was exhilarating.

Herr Stegmann informed the current owners, Hubert and Maria Vinke, that we were coming to Germany and would be visiting them. In addition to meeting them, we were invited to attend the christening of their granddaughter and attend a barbeque celebration on the property!

While we were visiting, we were shown some very old German documents concerning the property and how it was handed down over the years. The Vinkes were very generous, providing us copies of all of the documents we requested. Unfortunately, much of it was written in old German, with words that are no longer in use or, in some cases, not easily understood.

Fortunately, a colleague’s daughter-in-law, Susanne Corry, is German and was willing to help translate these old documents. She was able to translate the old German and make the documents understandable. Without her expertise and willingness to help, we would not have this valuable information.

This trip has instilled in me a deep love for Borgloh, Germany, my new family, and an appreciation for my heritage.

This book is organized by Generation. As our foundation, or first generation, we started with Franz Heinrich and Maria Elizabeth Ahsmann. We chose this as our starting point because Maria Elizabeth was the oldest generation to come to America, thus earning the title of the first generation of our American heritage. We focused on our direct bloodline, but we have made a concerted effort to document any and all relatives in Franz and Maria’s descendant bloodline. We have included an index in the back of the book to help you quickly locate your individual direct bloodline back to Franz and Maria. Each family member’s chapter contains an ancestor tree that goes back three generations. You can use this tree in conjunction with the index to quickly find your ancestors and their story.

We have also provided information on our bloodline from Franz Heinrich and Maria Ahsmann back to Wellingholzhausen, Germany, to the surname Wencke and the year 1575. This information is located in the appendix of this book.

While this book is focused specifically on the direct bloodline of my uncle, we have included specific information about all branches that we found to provide you with as complete a picture as possible of our ancestors.

In our attempt to present a thorough history with as much accurate data and precise dates as possible, we also had to balance protecting the privacy of living relatives. In that respect, if a relative is still alive, presumed to be alive, or had no available data at the time of this printing, we have only listed the year of birth and not the month and day. If the individual has passed and there is a public record of the information, we only listed the public information.

I invite you, the reader, researcher, family member to sit back and enjoy the fascinating world of genealogy as it specifically pertains to the Arszman (Aßmann, Aszmann, Ahsmann, Arszmann) family history.

—Larry J. Arszman

Our research has shown that our family (Aßmann, Aszmann, Ahsmann, Arszmann, Arszman) has resided mainly in Ohio, Indiana, and California, (we know there are other states, but these seem to hold the bulk of our family).

Preface

Reaping the Harvest of the Americanized Arszman Family Tree

When I began the search for our family roots in 1994, many of the family members did not even know of the existence of other family members. Why the family drifted apart in the second generation is not known. For whatever reason, collecting these historical facts has been an attempt to repair any damage, and all past differences should be forgotten.

Assembling the first two generations took five years to accomplish. First, I found boat records in New Orleans. From those records I was able to trace the Arszman/Ahsmann family to Germany. I employed a German man, Frank Von Hagel, to research our family for me. His information was relatively thorough, supplying not only statistics, but reference numbers and places to which he visited to gather his information. The official documents I have obtained show and explain exactly how and why the spelling of the name evolved from Aßmann to Ahsmann to Arszmann to Arszman.

I then traveled to Washington DC and Laguna Beach, California, to the National Archives and viewed countless microfilm tapes of census records dating back to 1850. I traveled from California to Washington to Florida to Massachusetts, visiting and contacting relatives and acquainting me with the Arszmans who had been unknown to me prior to that point. It took visiting and writing to many churches of the Dioceses of Cincinnati and Indianapolis to obtain much of the information contained in this book. In addition, I wrote, visited, viewed, and researched libraries, courthouses, cemeteries, mortuaries, morgues, and other historical locations to gather data, thus raking up the leaves and branches to reshape and assemble this Arszman Family Tree.

Our Arszman family tree is growing strong, and our unique name now spans the entire United States. It is truly an American name fashioned by our two German-born ancestors, Joseph Hermann, and his brother, John Caspar (Caspar Heinrich) Ahsmann. From this point, future descendants should be able to trace their roots back to their rightful ancestors. This research will carry them back to the original founders of our family tree.

I must thank all the family members who assisted me in this endeavor. Family members such as Marilyn (Arszman) Detmer, Edward and Mary (Goettemoeller) Arszman and their children, Magdalene and Edward Arszman, assisted me with their input. In addition, I thank my cousins, nephews, and relatives who have supported me in my efforts, especially my nephew, Larry, who traveled to Germany with me and helped me put this book together.

Enjoy your trip back in time!

—John Ernest Anthony (Tony) Arszman

Introduction

In searching for our German ancestors who came to the United States in the mid-1800s, the forty-nine volumes of ship passenger lists of German immigrants compiled by Ira Glassier and P. William Filby became a very valuable resource. In the introduction of the books, the authors identify why there was such a mass exodus of people wishing to leave their homeland in Europe for the unknown United States.

Germany emigration fell into two basic phases in the 1800s. Between 1815 and 1865, families of small farmers, artisans, and tradesman from the southwest and agricultural laborers from the northwest left Germany in search for cheap land, which was abundant in the United States. Preliminary analysis of data from the period 1850-51 indicates that two-thirds of the departures were male and that over 80 percent were either farmers or laborers. Between 1865 and 1895, peasants and unemployed industrial workers, largely from Eastern Germany, left the country for industrial employment, attracted by the demand for cheap labor during a period of very rapid growth during the industrialization in the United States following the Civil War. The era of massive overseas immigration came to an end in the mid 1890s as German industry matured and absorbed the surplus agricultural and industrial population.

About four million Germans came to the United States between 1850 and 1895. Emigration from Germany was spurred by a variety of factors. Reasons listed were crop failures, lack of industrial employment, overpopulation, social discontent, political repression and upheaval, lure of cheap land, and a chance to make a fresh start in a new country. The year 1850 was the time when immigration to the United States was swelling with the arrival of political refugees, liberals, and intellectuals. Moreover, the stories of a better life were sent back to Germany by those who had previously emigrated. Most of the immigrants, while they found the trip very difficult, believed the trip was worthwhile; and as a result, few returned to Germany.

The two main ports of embarkation were Bremen and Hamburg, Germany. For various reasons, the Bremen lists have been destroyed or otherwise made unavailable. However, since the lists had been reproduced in the United States ports where the emigrants arrived and were readily available, the lost Bremen lists did not present a very serious problem. According to the records, the vast majority of immigrants came through New York. Others sailed through New Orleans and Baltimore with even fewer arriving in Boston and Philadelphia. The brothers Joseph Hermann and Casper Heinrich Ahsmann (Arszmann) arrived in the port of New Orleans in the 1850s. On a subsequent second trip, Casper returned to Germany and brought his mother Maria Elisabeth back through the port of New York.

Our Tree Begins

We begin our story by digging into the root system of our family tree. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we find our family in the northern part of Germany known as The Kindom of Hanover. A principality just southwest of Hanover is known as Osnabrück. Just southeast of Osnabrück is rich farmland dotted with landowners who produced specialized crops. These hillside farms are located in such areas known as the hamlets, or communities, of Uphöfen, Wellendorf, Allendorf, Wellingholzhausen, and Borgloh.

In