Johann Christian Buchholz

 

Johann Christian Buchholz 17 Nov 1815 - 21 Sep 1897

I am lucky to have a compiled history of my grandmother's side of the family done way back before computers and the internet were thoughts. I don't know the exact date though the author, the granddaughter of the man above, has been dead since 1965. I thought it time to combine my (modern day) research with her old school research and flesh out the story of one of my immigrant ancestors.

Johann Christian Buchholz was born in Pankow, Germany on 17 Nov 1815. I don't know his parentage for sure though I have found one record listing a father named Johann Georg Buchholz. The problem is that it is a transcribed index and no way to affirm that the child Johann Christian Buchholz is my 4th great grandfather other than they have the same name. He was probably a farmer as listed in his immigration records and he and his wife Maria Elizabeth Buchholz immigrated to America on 28 April 1869 on the ship SS Westphalia along with their four children Fritz, Carl, Friedke and August along with older half sister Minna. Wife Maria has been married two times previously and had a child from both marriages, Minna Crouse and Joachim C Busse. Joachim had already immigrated to America some two years earlier and lived near Johann's sister Christina who had immigrated 13 years earlier in 1856. No doubt the boat was full of numerous other cousins too but I won't go down that rabbit hole with this story.



The SS Westphalia was launched on June 24th 1868 and had made six prior trips to America with immigrants before my ancestors boarded on her 7th voyage. She was a singe screw iron steamer with 3 decks built to haul around 740 passengers between first, second and third class and had a crew of 120 passengers. My ancestors stayed on "Zwischendeck" which translate as "tween deck" or steerage which is what third class passengers were called.  The ship my ancestors came over on was unknown to the granddaughter of Johann Christian Buchholz but thanks to search engines and massive efforts to digitize old records, it is now readily accessible.

Johann, Maria and kids landed in New York on 11 May 1869 and proceeded directly to Iowa where their relatives already resided along with a sizable German population. Johann (who soon went by John) was 53 upon their arrival and wife Maria was 55 so I'm not sure what they did upon their arrival. Records are scarce at that time and Maria had died nine years after their arrival in 1878 and by the early 1880's, John was listed as retired and living with youngest daughter Frederike. After that, the only record I have of my 4th great grandfather John Buchholz was his death on 21 September 1897 and burial in the Beaver Grove Cemetery in Butler County Iowa. The newspaper briefly stated, "the father of A.F. Buchholz died Tuesday evening." I presume that he is buried by wife Maria but have not been able to turn up her burial record or visit that cemetery.

A.F. Buchholz or Fritz as named on his immigration record or Albert F. as he called himself in America was 18 when he made that voyage across the ocean on the SS Westphalia with the rest of his family. He is my 3rd great grandfather and stirred up much debate among the family genealogists on his life in Germany before leaving. He also had one of the most memorable deaths in my family tree that I have written about before but will save for another post. Stay tuned.

Comments

  1. Ed, reading about the immigration of the 18th and 19th Century, it strikes me as remarkable how men and women of such a young age - an age where it often feels like (at least) so many are just barely able to make it in the modern world of ease that we have - literally picked up and moved halfway across the globe, barely speaking (or not speaking at all) the language of where they were going.

    He certainly looks like a serious fellow.

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    1. I have always assumed that Johann who was in his mid 50's upon immigrating has already lost his parents to death which made his journey into the new world a bit easier. But I have other ancestors who came at much earlier ages and I have records of parents left behind in the old world whom they never saw again. I can't imagine how dire of a life it must have been for that to have been a valid option.

      I've always assumed that a lot of my German ancestors came to avoid conscription into the German army which was a requirement at the time. Here in the U.S., they tended to be pacifists.

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  2. It would be interesting to be able to tour that ship. I'm sure first class passengers had it a lot worse than any cabin on a ship today! And wonder how long it took. With just one screw, it looks as if they might supplement wind power if it was favorable. Interesting history.

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    1. According to the records, it departed on April 28th and arrived May 11th which is about 14 days. Not too shabby.

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  3. I love finding the ships my ancestors came over on; seeing their names on the manifest gives me shivers. They led hard lives in those days, as evidenced by Johann's face. I'm always amazed by pictures of men and women from that era; they are in their 30s/40s but look much older. Careworn.

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    1. I always love finding out the stories of the voyages across the ocean too. There definitely is a reason why our life expectancies are increasing... at least until recently.

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  4. You are a great researcher! Amazing family history.

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  5. I can't imagine getting on a ship like that and setting off across the ocean. Then again, I can't imagine traveling across the US in a covered wagon, either. I guess I'm a bit of a wimp.

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    1. I think it would be fun to travel by wagon but not sure I’m up for an ocean voyage.

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  6. Some in our family are persuing family history. Some of it's easy to get and then you get stumped. the paternal side of my family were Germans who came from the Ukraine.

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    1. I have been stumped many times over the years but eventually overcame most of them.

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  7. Oh that's not fair Ed! Leaving your readers hanging like this as we wonder how Fritz died.

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    1. There is an axe involved! Should be up on Friday.

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  8. I trust that you are compiling your accounts in a way that will be accessible to your descendants. It’s quite a treasure, and a printing would next go amiss. How did you become interested in genealogy?

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    1. I'm working on compiling this information. What I write on here is all backed up on a harddrive and someday I hope to print it in bound form.

      I've blogged about how I became interested in the past but that was before I knew you. In short, the husband of my father's aunt was really interested in genealogy and gave my father a family tree glued to a piece of plywood. If fascinated me to know that one could track down your ancestors and learn things about their lives. Sometime about 20 years ago, I decided to give it a try and became totally addicted and have been pursuing it in some of my spare time every since.

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  9. Wow. Surprising that they made the journey over so late in life especially in that period when making it to your 50s was not so common. But based on what I read and seen on TV, it probably wasn't a bad idea to leave those areas no matter how old you were. Thanks for sharing, Ed.

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    1. Now that you mention it, he and his wife are probably my oldest immigrant ancestors but not by a wide margin. Most were in their 30's and 40's. But I've found one as young as 16. No matter what the age, I can't imagine telling everyone goodbye and hopping a ship to a strange land knowing you will never see home or family again.

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