A BRIEF LOOK BACK

1733 – GERMANYTO 2013 - USA

The Hermann FA GrahmannFamily ReunionOctober 20, 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The following information is taken from “The

Grahmanns From Ankum,” published in 1999 and written by Brother James Nicholas Grahmann. Brother Nick did virtually all of the research, to develop the Grahmann family history both in the United States and in Germany, with some assistance from both American and German cousins. Most of the information comes from church records from St. Nikolaus Catholic Church in Ankum, or churches in surrounding villages.

THE GRAHMANN FAMILY:FROM ANKUM TO HALLETTSVILLE

FIRST GENERATION – GRAMANJohan Gramann

1733 - 1806

1700

1800

1776 – American

Revolution

1789 – French

Revolution1740’s -- War of

Austrian Succession

1759 -- M. Luzia Adelheid Bange

(1737 – 1789) (6 Children)1791 -- M. Anna Marie Schroeder (1 Child)

1718 – New

Orleans founded

by France

SECOND GENERATION – GRAMANNJohann Bernhard

Gramann 1771 - 1804

1750

1800

1803 – Louisiana Purchase

1836 – Texas Independenc

e

1795 -- M. Elisabeth Kölker (1769– 1726) (4 Children)

1850

1776 – American

Revolution

1789 – French

Revolution

THIRD GENERATION – GRAMANNHermann Heinrich

Gramann 1803 - 1870

1800

1850

US Civil War

1884 – Hermann FA Grahmann

(son) immigrates

to Texas

1829 -- M Anna Maria Gertrud Wellmann

(1803– 1867 (4 Children)

1900

1803 – Louisiana Purchase

1836 – Texas

Independence

FOURTH GENERATION – GRAHMANNHermann Friedrich Anton

Grahmann 1843- 1925

1800

1850

US Civil War

1884 – Hermann

FA Grahman

n immigrat

es to Texas

1775 - M Maria

Bernardina Hülefeld,185

5– 1885 (7 Children)

1900

World War 1

1836 – Texas

Independence

1950

World War 2

1886 -- M Maria Wilhelmina Hülefeld,1866– 1946 (13

Children)

THE HERMAN F.A. GRAHMANN FAMILY

HERMANN FA GRAHMANN FAMILY REUNIONAUGUST 6, 1923

FIFTH GENERATION AND BEYOND Herman FA Grahmann had 20 Children with his

two wives, over 136 grandchildren and countless great-grandchildren.Maria Bernardina Hülefeld1 Mary Ellizabeth (Sr. Aloysius) Grahmann2 Frank Grahmann3 Henry Grahmann4 August Grahmann5 Kathrina (Grahmann) Haas6 Theodore Grahmann7 Child died with Mother during childbirth

Maria Wilhelmina Hülefeld1 Mary (Grahmann) Haas2 Baby Girl died as infant3 Bernardina (Grahmann) Bludau4 Joseph Grahmann5 Hermann Grahmann6 Agnes (Sr. Alphonse) Grahmann7 Alois Grahmann8 Alfons Grahmann9 Nicholas Grahmann10 Julius Grahmann11 John Grahmann12 Baby Boy died as infant13 Carl Grahmann

FIRST GENERATION 1733 - 1806 Johan Hermann Gramann

was born in Ankum in 1733 and died there in 1806 at the age of 73.

His first wife was Luzia Adelheid Bange, who was born in Ankum in 1737. They married in Ankum in 1759 had six children. Luzia died in Ankum in 1789.

Johan married again in Ankum in 1791. His second wife was Anna Marie Schroeder. They had one child. Information about her birth and death is not legible in the church record.

× When Johan Gramann was born, there was no Texas, no United States. He may have heard about the American revolution and the French revolution in 1789, but it would have meant little to him.

× Life on the farm was essentially subsistence living and it is likely that Johan was a peasant who did not own his own land, and he probably could not read or write.

× It is interesting to note that the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament and the Brothers of the Christian Schools were founded in France in the 1700’s, and would have a profound impact on education in Europe and America; and Johan’s distant descendants would be members of both organizations

SECOND GENERATION Johann Bernhard

Gramann was born in Ankum in 1771 and died there in 1804 at the age of 33, two years before his father.

He married Elisabeth Kölker in Ankum in 1795, and they had 4 children. She was born in Ankum in 1769. She did not remarry and raised the children by herself. She died in Ankum in 1826.

During Johann Bernhard’s short life, work on the farm was still primarily manual labor with teams of oxen and some rudimentary plows.

The American revolution ended and the United States was established. The Louisiana purchase was made in 1803.

Germany was not a country but a collection of associated states, with Prussia being the largest.

Community life would have centered around St. Nikolaus church in Ankum, which had been in existence many centuries.

THIRD GENERATION Hermann Heinrich

Gramann was born in Ankum in 1803 and died in Rüssel in1870 at the age of 67.

He married Anna Maria Gertrud Wellmann in Ankum in 1829, and they had four children. She was born in Rüssel in1803 and died there in1867 at the age of 64.

Hermann Heinrich was also a farmer in Ankum. He may have been aware of the Texas revolution and was likely aware of the American civil war.

He would have seen profound changes in Germany as the various states became a country near the end of the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution was sweeping Europe and waves of immigrants began to leave Germany and much of Europe for America.

Hermann Heinrich did not live to see his son emigrate to America in 1884, but I am sure he knew it was a possibility, since many neighbors had left and wrote of the great life they found in America

FOURTH GENERATION Hermann Friedrich Anton

Grahmann was born in Ankum in 1843 and died in Hallettsville, Texas, in 1925 three days after he turned 82.

His first wife, Maria Bernardina Hülefeld, was born in Rüssel in 1855. They married in Ankum in 1875, and they had six children in Germany. They migrated to Texas in 1884. She died delivering her seventh child in Hallettsville in October 1885.

He married her younger sister, Maria Wilhelmina, who was born in Rüssel in 1866 and was 19 when they married in 1886. They had 13 children. She died in 1946 at the age of 79.

Hermann FA Grahmann emigrated to America in August 1884. He was influenced by his wife’s family who emigrated in 1882 and wrote letters about how easy it was to find and own land. The family took a steamboat from Bremerhaven Germany and landed in Galveston – October 2, 1884 (129 years ago).

From Galveston, they traveled by ferry to Pt. Lavaca and then by rented wagon to Lavaca county.

They were able to buy land next to the Hulefelds and immediately start building a house and barns. They bought cattle, mules, chickens and farm equipment to prepare for the 1885 planting season.

Hermann became an American citizen in 1891

He was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Hallettsville

FOURTH GENERATIONHERMANN F. A. GRAHMANN’S MISSING BROTHER

Bernhard Heinrich Grahmann: was born in Rüssel in 1833 and married his first wife, Maria Gertrud Krümberg in Ankum in 1865. They had one child. She was born in Tütingen in 1844 and died in Rüssel in November 1868.

Five months later he married his second wife, Maria Elisabeth Pohlmann in Ankum and they had 5 children. She was born in Besten in 1838 but no record of her death was found. He died in Brickwedde in October 1885, 14 months after his brother, Hermann Friedrich left for Texas.

Hermann Grahmann told family members that he had a brother who migrated to New York about the same time Hermann left for Texas; but records show that Bernhard never left Germany.

Hermann Grahmann’s older children born in Ankum may have known their Uncle Bernhard, but the oldest, Mary Elizabeth (Sr. Aloysius) was only 8 years old when they left for America.

Bernhard Heinrich’s son Herman Julius and daughter Maria Elizabeth Antoinette have descendants in Ankum and Frankfurt Germany.

FROM ANKUM TO HALLETTSVILLE

St. Nikolaus Church, Ankum Germany(First mentioned in documents in 1178)

Sacred Heart Church, Hallettsville, TX USA(Original Church built in 1882)

FIFTH AND SIXTH GENERATION IN GERMANYDESCENDANTS OF HERMAN FA GRAHMANN’S BROTHER