The Family Kolberg/Colberg - Part Three

FROM BÜTOW, POMMERN TO BERRIEN COUNTY MICHIGAN

My research was moving along well.  I had received photos, documents and information from four of my grandmother's cousins and based on this information had learned that my Kolberg ancestors had been from Klein Tuchen in Bütow, Pommern.  Now I was ready to move on with the research.

I had decided that I didn't want to just trace my direct line back but wanted to expand my research to encompass as many descendants of the five Kolberg brothers who had immigrated to America as I could.  In the back of my mind was to also, one day, try to find information on the remaining two brothers who had remained in Germany.  That was a dream at this time.

To begin expanding my research, I checked out all the telephone books in Berrien County for names and addresses for everyone with the surname Kolberg.  Along with the family members I already knew, I amassed quite a list of names.  I then created a form letter, along with a self-created family history sheet, and began a mammoth letter writing project.  At the time I had an IBM Selectric typewriter and spent much time typing individually addressed letters to each of the names on my list.  In the letter I explained that I was the granddaughter of Ella Kolberg Kijak and that I was researching our mutual Kolberg family and would appreciate their completing the enclosed form.  My grandmother had been well known in the community and within the large Kolberg family and I knew that most of these people would have been familiar with her.  I was not disappointed.

Over the course of the next two years I had responses from probably 85% of the names that I had written.  Some went so far as to send me more addresses and my list on the Kolberg family grew.  As these forms came in I typed the data into my purchased family history sheets, placed the sheets in a huge binder divided by family groups and my information expanded.  Many family members also sent me photos to add to my research and I xeroxed these (not as good as today's scanning) and I returned the originals to their owners.

I wrote to the various states for copies of death and marriage certificates and made many trips back to St. Joseph to obtain data in the Berrien County records office as well as researching the 1900 Berrien County, Michigan US census records.

I visited the local cemeteries, took photos of the gravestones and joined the local Berrien County Genealogical Society.  I was moving along gathering a sizeable amount of information on my family.

I was pleased that many relatives also expressed an interest in knowing whether I would be preparing a book on the family.  I had given that some thought and didn't really know where to begin but after seeing the magnitude of responses I had to my letters, I decided to give it a shot.  How did I go about doing that?

This was 1979 and after much thought I decided to xerox all the family group sheets, add photos in the appropriate sequence, add in some basic family documents such as census records, marriage and death certificates and compile an index of all the names.

I decided to divide the book into seven sections with one section for each of the seven Kolberg brothers, begin the book with an Acknowledgment and Prelude and end with the Index. 

It was then time for the assembly line production.  I will say that the xeroxing of the mammoth amount of material took more hours, days and weeks than I had anticipated.  My employer at the time graciously allowed me to do the xeroxing (on my own time, of course) using the company Xerox machine as long as I supplied my own paper.  I decided to make 100 sets of this book as I had estimated that I had perhaps 70 cousins that had already requested such a book IF and WHEN I ever compiled one.  I thought that once these books were out to these cousins that more would be interested.  I was most definitely NOT disappointed.

Once I had all of the 100 sets prepared, it was time for the collating.  What a project!  Picture piles of paper that are 100 deep spread across counters, tables, furniture, appliances in the basement of my home and continual walking back and forth to collate what became a 401 page book.  I had to punch holes in these volumes and had purchased Acco hard stock covers with a clamp inside to use to hold the finished product.

BUT, wait!  Before this project could be completed the indexing needed to be done.  I now laugh when I think about this, what with the advent of computers and software programs which will index for a person automatically, but readers let me tell you that I indexed this mammoth book on 3 x 5 index cards, all spread across the basement floor.  Each name in the book was placed on an index card with the appropriate page number on it and then the cards were divided by the letters of the alphabet and 26 piles were made from which I had to alphabetize each pile by name.  This then became a 10 page index of double columns to end the book.

Following the completion of my book I sent letters out to all the Kolberg cousins whose addresses I had.  Not only did the expected 70 copies sell but more as well.  I did donate one copy to the "Berrien County Genealogical Society" and one to the "Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" who have a mission of microfilming all vital records in the world which are contained in a huge library in Salt Lake City and which is a mecca for genealogists.  I had maintained a copy for myself but all 100 copies were sold and I ended up selling my own copy and for years did not even have a copy to maintain for my records.  

Through the 25 plus years following the publication of my book I was able to expand my data, cross the ocean to Germany, take the family back four more generations, update data that I had received via word of mouth or from old letters with additional, and sometimes corrected, information based on records I received from the churches and archives in Germany and Poland (Pommern is now a part of Poland) and even expanded my knowledge of the two brothers, Friedrich-Wilhelm, Jr. and Johann Kolberg, who remained in Germany.

My information is now in my Family Tree Maker software program, backed up on two separate external hard drives and the search continues.  The cost for my book in 1980 was $15 per copy to cover the costs of the paper.  We could certainly not produce a quality family history book now for that price!

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August and Bertha (Kramp) Kolberg Family Photos:

Copyright 2010, Cheryl J. Schulte

 

The Family Kolberg/Colberg - Part Two

FINDING KLEIN TUCHEN

I now knew the birth place of my Kolberg ancestors and set off on a mission to locate these villages on maps.  I was really naive about Pommern and its significance and location in German history but I was determined to learn all I could about this area.  I had a few German maps but they were too modern and didn't even indicate where the area of Pommern had been.  I had a set of encyclopedias that were from the early 1900's that had belonged to my great-grandfather Schulte, but they were very basic and contained general maps of Germany without any detail.

I had only been back home in the Detroit suburbs a short time from my research trip to St. Joseph when I had a letter from cousin, Grace Kolberg Gaul, telling me that she had another cousin in the area who might be able to help me further.  She explained that while her father, Otto, and his brothers, August, Heinrich and Paul had come to the US in the 1880's, her other uncle, Ferdinand Kolberg, had actually not arrived until 1910, after he had married and his children had been born all while living in Pommern.  She thought that his one son, Walter, and his wife, Iva, would be perfect to visit with as Walter remembered living in Germany and would be happy to share further information with me.

Back to St. Joseph I went where I was invited to the home of Walter and Iva Kolberg.  Again, I found these cousins of my grandmother to be delightful and welcome hosts and Walter was a wealth of information on our Kolberg ancestors.  He confirmed the birth place of his father's family as indeed being Klein Tuchen, near Groß Tuchen in Bütow, Pommern as I had already been told.  He added that his father had moved from the family farm in Klein Tuchen and settled in the neighboring county of Rummelsburg, Pommern where he (Walter) and his siblings were born.  Walter could remember the journey to America, leaving Rummelsburg, traveling to Berlin first and visiting with Uncle Johann and his family and then traveling on to New York and from there to Stevensville, Michigan where the family of Heinrich Kolberg met the arriving family and took them to the Heinrich Kolberg farm until they were able to establish their own farm in the area.  He had a wealth of stories to share including memories of his grandmother, Henriette Amalie Kolberg.  As an interesting aside, he said that whenever his grandmother visited the Ferdinand Kolberg family, he (Walter) was her bed partner and he could remember walking to her funeral when she passed away in 1908 when he was only 8 1/2 years old.

Here is a photo of Iva and Walter Kolberg, ca 1970:

In addition to sharing photos and memories with me, Walter had maps of Pommern which indicated the locations of the counties (Kreis) of Bütow and Rummelsburg within Pommern as well as a map of Kreis Bütow itself with all of its villages:

As with cousins, Grace, Ruby and Edna Kolberg, I was aided tremendously by Walter and Iva Kolberg in getting a jump-start on my research and their assistance was greatly appreciated.  All four of these special cousins of my grandmother are now gone but their help was indispensable and their excitement over the fact that I was interested in tracing their family was just the impetus that I needed to continue.

Copyright 2010, Cheryl J. Schulte

The Family Kolberg/Colberg - Part One

HEIMAT BÜTOW 

Genealogical research has come a long way since I began my adventure in family history.  The advent of the home computer, Internet, websites dedicated to genealogical research have all aided in more and more people being able to learn about their ancestors and has sparked the hobby of tracing one's roots.  It was possible, though, to make great strides in research before these tools came into place and my research on my Kolberg family is proof of that.

Come along and join me on my journey from a tiny bit of basic information on my Kolberg family to my crossing the Atlantic Ocean and discovering the great rewards of years of research and dedication. While I did end up using the tools of the Internet, I did spend the first 25 years researching this family using good old fashioned elbow grease, patience and hard work.

When I first developed an interest in genealogy in the mid-1970's the family I was most interested in expanding my information on was my Kolberg family.  I had been extremely close to my maternal grandmother, Ella Kolberg Kijak, and I wanted to honor her memory by learning as much as I could about her family.  She had passed away in 1973, and while she had not discussed her family that much with me over the years, I decided to focus my new found love of genealogy on her line.

In Berrien County, Michigan, where my grandmother had been born and where her father, August Kolberg and four of his brothers had settled when they immigrated to America, there were many, many listings of Kolberg in the telephone books.  Over the next 30+ years, with intensive research, I would come to learn that each and every person in Berrien County with the name of Kolberg would tie into our family group.

A long research project was begun.  Genealogy research hints in magazines gave advice on where to start when attempting to trace one's roots and I followed these tips to the letter:

1.    Look for information in letters, notes, photos that are/were in the possession of one's immediate family.  To begin my research, I gathered the information that I did have from my grandmother which was minimal. My grandmother had a few photos of her father which she had previously given me, but there was no indication on these photos, nor on any of her notes, of where in Germany August or his brothers had originated.

I did have a letter written by my grandmother's mother, Bertha Kramp Kolberg, and I had Bertha's German prayer book but that was the extent of my keepsake items.  The only information contained in the prayer book was the notation that "grandmother Kolberg came over from Germany in 1882 and brought this book with her".  The handwriting in the book was my mothers and I knew that both August and Bertha Kolberg had passed away before 1925 when my mother was born as my mother had never known them.  This was very basic information and would not take me very far in progressing with my research.

2.    Talk to senior family members and question them as to their memories and inquire if they had photos, documents, information that would reveal more data on the family.  I decided to make a trip to St. Joseph, as I was living in the Detroit suburbs at the time, where I was hoping to seek out some of my grandmother's cousins who I hoped might have further information.  Her one cousin, Grace Kolberg Gaul, (daughter of Otto Kolberg) was someone I was particularly close to and I visited her at her home.  She suggested that we go to the home of cousins, Ruby Kolberg Berndt and Edna Kolberg, (sisters, who were the daughters of Paul Kolberg) and visit with them.  I had never met these two ladies but found them to be delightful and pleased to be able to sit and discuss their memories of their father and the Kolberg family.

With the help of Grace, Ruby and Edna I learned more than I could have hoped for.  They were willing to pull out their photo albums and I saw photos on the family that I could have only hoped to one day find including a family photo of my great-grandparents, August and Bertha, with their first two children.  This is the only photo that I have of my great-grandmother, Bertha.  

Photo of August and Bertha Kolberg with Amelia (standing) and Hedwig (sitting) follows:

After our visit I took a trip to the local photography studio to leave the photos to be reproduced (remember this was before computers and scanners) and then returned the originals back to these three cousins.  As well as photos, Ruby and Edna pulled out letters that their father had written and from these letters I learned even more exciting data.  The parents of my August Kolberg were Friedrich-Wilhelm Kolberg and his wife, Henriette Amalie Kautz, and they were the parents of 12 children (11 sons and 1 daughter) with 7 of these sons living to adulthood.  The names of all 7 sons were listed in Paul Kolberg's notes and showed sons Friedrich-Wilhelm, Jr., August, Heinrich, Johann, Otto, Paul and Ferdinand.  The notes also stated that August, Heinrich, Otto, Paul and Ferdinand had immigrated to the United States - to Berrien County, Michigan - between 1880 and 1910.

In addition, there was documentation that brother, Johann, had moved with his family to Berlin from the home village and that oldest brother, Friedrich-Wilhelm, Jr., had remained in the home village on the family farm.  The home village - dare I hope - yes, it was indeed listed in Paul Kolberg's notes and I now knew that my Kolberg family had been from the small village of Klein Tuchen, near Groß Tuchen in Bütow, Pommern, Germany.  

The highlight of the visit was to actually see, as well, a wonderful photo of Friedrich-Wilhelm, Sr. and Henriette Amalie Kolberg with their oldest son, Friedrich-Wilhelm, Jr. and his wife (whose name was not indicated):

It was also from these notes and recollection of Grace, Ruby and Edna Kolberg that I learned that the surname was alternately spelled "Colberg" and/or "Kolberg".  Over the years since then I have seen German records with either spelling with no rhyme or reason so for the purposes of this blog and this series I am going to standardize the spelling of the surname as "Kolberg" which is the spelling used in the United States.

Here are the three cousins who helped me immensely on my journey of researching our family.

Grace Kolberg Gaul, daughter of Otto Kolberg, ca 1979:

Ruby Kolberg Berndt, daughter of Paul Kolberg, ca 1980:

Edna Kolberg, daughter of Paul Kolberg, ca 1980:

I am forever grateful to these three wonderful ladies for all of their help in starting me on the road to my research on our mutual Kolberg family.

Copyright 2010, Cheryl J. Schulte