Jacob Staub Family

A few years ago I heard from Ken Leuthold with information on the Germania. The Jacob Staub family sailed from Le Havre, France to New York on that ship in 1868, the same year as the accident. Here's Ken's information about the Germania.


I was writing up a little information on Emma and looked up the ship she came over on, the Germania, to see whether it was a sailing ship or a steamer.  In the process I learned that it collided with and sank a dutch sailing ship off Dungeness in the English Channel in the early night of April 16, 1868.  I had not seen that comment in any of the write-ups of the Staub voyage; perhaps because the Germania received minor damage and just kept going at full speed (@11 knots).  There was a later admiralty lawsuit which found the dutch bark at fault for lack of lights; however, on appeal the court found both ships at fault for the collision and chastized the Germania for not stopping.  Most of this can be googled under Germania-1860 and Pauline Constance Eleonore (the bark's name).

On reflection; the likely reason nothing is mentioned is because they had not yet boarded.  The Germania had a Hamburg-New York route and though it initially had a Southampton stop that was later changed to Havre.  If that change was effective in 1868 (my records show the 1867 stop at Southampton and the 1869 stop at Havre), most of the Swiss would have boarded there and the Germania would have already cleared the English Channel and had its accident before they came on board.  It might, however, have been a subject of discussion among the passengers and added to the anxiety of a family with seven young children about to make their first sea voyage.  People of that day knew of the dangers of ship travel.  The Germania herself ran aground the next year (August 7, 1869) and sank off Cape Race Newfoundland, though there was no loss of life.

Thanks for the information, Ken!

Matthias Swenson Colrue 1830-1878

Could we solve the puzzle of Matthias Colrue's parents? Here is the summary of information discovered at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in October 2012. I asked the Scandinavian experts for translations of the church records, so it seems that we have at last found the correct parentage.


1830 2 Sep: birth of Mathias to bachelor Svend Johansen (the experts at the desk and I think this is an error, as EVERY other record, vaccination, confirmation, Mathias’ marriage, gives his name as Svend Hansen) and unmarried Berthe Christensdtr. Svend’s second child out of wedlock; Berthe’s first.

1832 29 Aug: birth of Berthe to bachelor Svend Hansen and unmarried Ragnild Bertelsdtr. Svend’s second child out of wedlock with this woman and his third in all.

1832 27 Sep: birth of Carl to widower Ole Jensen and unmarried Berthe Christensdtr. Child is labeled legitimate because couple is engaged. (Ole and Berthe appear together in the 1865 census with son Bernt.)

1833 2 Jan: marriage of widower Ole Jensen, 30 and unmarried Berthe Christensdtr, 26. Marriage had to wait for probate from Ole’s first wife to finish 21 Dec 1832

1837 6 Jul: marriage of bachelor Svend Hansen 38, and widow Marthe Christensdtr, 44. Her husband’s probate cleared 27 Jan 1837.

1804 28 Oct: christening of Berthe born to Christen Erichsen and Marit Olsdtr. This is the ONLY Bertha of the right age born between 1800-06 whose father was named Christen. She was confirmed in 1820; father’s name given as Christen.

1799 6 Sep: christening of Svend born to Hans Jensen and Ronnaug Jacobsdtr. Again, this is the ONLY Svend born during the right time period to a father named Hans.  (Svend’s age 39 at time of marriage.)

There was not time to find Hans & Ronnaug’s marriage; those records are not yet digitized. Same for Christen and Marit.

Marthe Christensdtr has to be Berthe’s sister. I found children born to Christen & Marit: Ole in 1790, Marte in 1792, Erland in 1795, Johann in 1797 and Berthe in 1804. Christen and Marit appear in the 1801 census with three children—Johann must have died before the census.

So----it appears that Svend fathered Mathias with Berthe and later married her sister!

The Huerlimann Puzzle

We had always wondered if there was a family connection with the Huerlimanns. Evidently a young man of that name visited Waupaca County from Switzerland and there were letters exchanged between the Smith family and the Huerlimann family.

There finally seems to be an answer to that puzzle. William Smith, John Henry Smith's brother, married Bertha Hotz in Wisconsin in 1872. Her mother's name was Elizabeth Huerlimann, which explains the "Huerlimann connection." The Hotz and Huerlimann families came from the same area of Switzerland as the Staub and Leuthold families.

The J. H. Bastian Family

The J. H. Bastian family and "Joe" Smith

We wondered about the family connection between the Bastians and the Smiths. The German church records show that brothers Johann Heinrich Schmidt and Johann Jost Schmidt from Langenaubach married sisters Catherina Elisabeth Schmitt and Anna Margretha Schmitt from Breitscheid.

One of Johann Jost Schmidt's daughters, Maria Johannetta, married Johann Heinrich Bastian from the nearby village of Steinbach, Nassau, Germany in May 1862. Their first three children were born in Germany between 1863 and 1866. Maria's mother had died in 1850 and her father joined the family in Waupaca sometime before 1870, when this picture would have been taken. Their fifth child was born in May 1869. The photo seems to show the Bastian family with "Grandfather Joe," as he was called in the newspaper article.

Maria Bastian and John Henry Smith, Jr. were cousins.

A Charlotte Hales Mystery

I was able to look at Charlotte's probate file this week and was surprised to note two bequests. Charlotte willed the 40-acre farm to her brother Robert. However, she left $10 each to "Edward Durrant, son of Martin Durrant, deceased" and "John Durrant, son of Thomas Durrant, deceased." Both men acknowledged receipt of the bequests. 

Edward Durrant was married to Susanna Smith who was Robert Hales' sister-in-law. John Durrant seems to have no connection to the Hales family.  The Thomas Durrant family arrived in Waupaca via Nova Scotia. The Martin Durrant family was living in Onandago County, New York in 1850, arriving in Waupaca County sometime before the 1860 census. Could it be that the three Durrant families in Waupaca County were all related in some way? 

Charlotte Hales Durrant Venner 1806 - 1891

Robert Hales had one sister, Charlotte, who encouraged him to join her in Wisconsin. According to the 1851 England census, Charlotte was born in Thurlton, Norfolk while Robert was born in Oulton, Suffolk. Both locations are near the county borders. In 1851 a John and Charlotte Durrant are living in Haddiscoe, Norfolk where the census taker noted that John had 70 acres of land and "employed one lad." Charlotte and John Durrant purchased 40 acres in the Town of Waupaca in 1854. John died in 1866 and Charlotte married Thomas Venner in 1869. They both passed away in the spring of 1891.


Many times further research changes the story. When I continued to check the English census records, I found the same John and Charlotte Durrant living in Haddiscoe every year through 1891, when John finally declared he was "retired." They cannot be the couple that immigrated to Wisconsin. 

John Hales 1784 - 1856

John Hales was living at the Oulton Workhouse at the time of the 1851 census, and his place of birth is given as Blundeston, Suffolk, England. (This village is also called Blundeston with Flixton.)  A baptismal record from Blundeston states that John, son of John Hales and Mary Goffin was born January 30 and baptized April 10, 1784.  Other children born to the same parents include Robert, born 1787; William, born 1789; and Ann, born 1794. John Hales and Mary Goffin were married 29 December, 1774.