Of Germans and Englishmen




Charlotte Schoppe, first 
generation American.  
 

My maternal 2nd Great Grandmother, Charlotte Schoeppe, was born in Lyon, New York, in 1861.  She was a "tailoress," and as you can see from the picture from 1909, was a sharp dresser.  I'm sure she made her own clothes.  Charlotte, I discovered, was the baby of the family, the youngest of five (5) children born to William Schoeppe and Emilie Woecker.  There were five (5) children, four girls and one boy.  Augusta (1847, Prussia), Maria (Feb. 1850, Prussia) & Matilda (1853, New York) and her older brother, George, (1859, New York)  I'm almost certain her first language was German, although I may never know, as I don't remember stories of Charlotte, from her granddaughter, Charlotte (my grandmother).  As you can see -- the generational repeating of names can be quite confusing.  The more I've studied the German immigrants from that time period, the more I found it was common to speak German in the home, until World War I.  With war, came a decision to identify as Americans or Germans.  Sadly for the generations from that time on, including me, was the loss of the native language and culture. 



(Left to Right) Charlotte and one of her sisters? 

Charlotte's mother, Emilie Woecker, was born about 1821 in Cottbus, Germany, near the border of Prussia.  Emilie's husband was William Schoeppe, born abt. 1819, also in Prussia.  I just found the city of Emilie's birth a few weeks ago, when I finally found her passenger record.  She arrived in the United States after she was already married, and I had been looking under her maiden name.  The
 ship was the Leontine and the date of arrival was 19 August 1850.  The passenger list includes the fact that she came from Berlin and she was a Tailoress.  With her were two young daughters, Augusta, age 3, and Marie, age 6 months.  While I first thought she traveled alone, I'm still following a clue of two other Schoeppe's, a couple, that may well be a brother-in-law and his wife.  I'm also still searching for William's passenger record, as I believe he came ahead to set up his tailor shop before he sent for his wife and children. 

My mom's paternal line is Wood, which is English from my research so far.  I didn't have much  information on this side of the family, only that I knew my grandfather and great-grandfather's names.  When I used to ask my grandfather questions as a little girl about where he came from, he used to say he was a, "Heinz 57," which meant he was a little bit of everything.  With my Nana's photo collection, I also have Wood pictures.  One old photograph with men with the youngest looking like John Wood, my mom's brother.  It is a picture of four (4) men that appear to be a generation portrait taken in Bay City, Michigan.  My assumption with the portrait was that the youngest man was my grandfather.  A little research showed I was wrong. 

Michigan has all of its death records before 1920 online, which is great for those of us that live so far away from the Bay state.  When I realized that my 4th great grandfather was a tailor in Bay City, Michigan, who died of old age in 1910,  I'll never forget how excited I got.  I realized that the picture I had was even older, in that the patriarch, William John Wood has to be the most senior in the picture.  Because the people in the picture weren't labeled, this was a great revelation.  After all, they all look like each other, so without the mark on the picture and the death record, I never would have identified the men.  Solving this puzzle, also lead to another conclusion about another photograph below.

Wood, Edwin, Carl, and Adah Louise Baker

The young man in this photo (taken around the same time), is my great-grandfather, Edwin Wood (based on the generational photo).  That means that the woman in this photo would be Adah Louise Baker, and the baby my grandfather's oldest brother, Carl.  This the only photo I have of Adah, as she died of a heart ailment in 1916, when my grandfather was just 9 years old. 

The one lesson that I've learned from Nana's old photo album, is that while I am grateful for her preservation of the photos, it would have been so helpful if she would have labeled the people in the pictures.  With that being said, without her efforts, my grandchildren would never see pictures of her and her family.  I've got many more faces to identify, so I'll keep at it, including the need to label my own photographs, so my granddaugher's children aren't left guessing about who is the photo.