Who baptized Christian Schochenmaier?

In July 2019, we discovered the oldest record on Schochenmaiers in the Russian Empire, thanks to which we found out that Christian Schochenmaier, father of Michael (1859-1937) and Jacob (1861-1923) Schochenmaier, the Founding Fathers of the American and Canadian Schochenmaiers,

•  was called Christian Franz Samuel
•  was born on the 1st September 1837 
•  was baptized on the 1st October 1844 
•  lived in New Danzig (South Russia)

Today, I'd like to share with you who had baptized Christian Schochenmaier when he was 7 years old. In the records, we may find the name of the Pastor. His name was Johann(es) Doll. This person is well known in the Southern Ukraine among Protestants.



Pastor Johann Doll (1797–1857) was assigned to the Lutheran Church in Nikolayev in 1830. Prior to that, he had served as Pastor in Glückstal by Odessa since 1824. Nikolayev is an administrative center of the region where New Danzig was situated. In 1852, they built the Lutheran "Kirche" which still exists in the today's Ukraine.

Doll, a divisional preacher, made a great contribution to the development of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of the region by his long spiritual efforts, and during the last fifteen years of his activity he managed to collect several thousand silver rubles for church needs.

Johann Doll gave twenty-seven years of his life to the service of God, he was the first Lutheran pastor in the town. He entered the history by creation of the church. In 1857, Pastor Johann Doll died and was buried with honor at the Nikolaev cemetery.

Just imagine, you may see the grave stone of the person who had baptized father of Michael and Jacob Schochenmaiers in 1844.

The first shelter of the Schochenmaiers in Russia (from the new findings)

In July 2019, we discovered the oldest record on Schochenmaiers in the Russian Empire, thanks to which we found out that Christian Schochenmaier, father of Michael (1859-1937) and Jacob (1861-1923) Schochenmaier, the Founding Fathers of the American and Canadian Schochenmaiers,

•  was called Christian Franz Samuel
•  was born on the 1st September 1837 
•  was baptized on the 1st October 1844 

Today, I'd like to share with you what I discovered about the place where Christian had been christened. In the church book, you may spot the name of that village: Neu Danzig. 

Well, what is that? I know what you think of. You have heard about Danzig, but what and where is New Danzig? If there is a New Danzig, then there should be an Old Danzig. And you are quite right. From Wiki: 

Alt Danzig was a German settlement in the southern Russian Empire, present day Ukraine. Its name comes from Danzig, Gdańsk in present-day Poland. Alt, meaning "old", distinguishes this community from Neu Danzig, another German settlement in this area of the Russian Empire.

Catherine II of Russia wanted to stabilize the border lands of the Russian Empire with an agricultural population. To do this she recruited the immigrants in the Danzig area of Prussia. In 1787 they founded Alt Danzig about 15 km to the southwest on land granted to them by Prince Potemkin. Several families from Munich arrived in 1841, followed by seven more from Rohrbach in 1842. 

Originally Alt Danzig was called "Danzig" but when a daughter colony was established by several Danzig villagers near Nikolajew (this German spelling should be read as Nikolayev in English), the older village was renamed Alt Danzig and the newer village, Neu Danzig.

That's pretty interesting to see the first connection to Rohrbach where the core of the Schochenmaiers will be built in the 1850s. And we see the curious link to Poland!!! It will be very important when we will discuss the birth place of August Schochenmaier. 

Today, Neu Danzig is called Vinogradivka (Ukraine). Here are some photos (clickable): 

In the next post, we will have a look at who had baptized Christian in 1844 in New Danzig. 

The Schochenmaiers Reunion in Saint-Petersburg

I'd like to share with all of you the news on a great meeting I had last week. During my trip to Russia, I've planed to visit the former capital of the Russian Empire and I met our remote relative Natasha Schochenmaier from Saint-Petersburg.

As you know, according to her origin, she is much more closer to the American-Canadian Schochenmaiers than to ours. Let me explain how we are related.


Natasha's great great grandfather was Christian Schochenmaier (1866-1934), brother of Michael (1859-1937) and Jacob (1861-1923) who had left for the New World in 1880s. It seems to be that he was only 20 years old when his brothers emigrated, he stayed with his farther and got his farm.

As well as other Russianb Schochenmaiers, his son Heinrich Schochenmaier (1905-1975), grandfather of Natasha, fled to the West from the Soviet Army but he got stuck in Poland and was deported to the Soviet North, settlement of Syktyvkar, where was very cold and snowy.  His son Harry Schochenmaier (1937-2018) as well as grandchildren Eugen (1963) and Natasha were born there.

It means that our branches of the Schochenmaiers hadn't seen each other since 1946 (because the ours had been deported either to the South of Ural or to Kazakhstan, so just opposite direction)!!! And now we met ! That was great! I am so thankful to Natasha for such a wonderful time we had together, Her son Nikita Schochenmaier (1995) joined us in order to find out more about our history and origin.

Oldest record on Schochenmaiers in the Russian Empire ever found!

My dear relatives, the remote and close ones, after almost two years of posting solely on the historical Schochenmaiers from Germany, today, as I promised, I will show you the oldest record from the Russian Empire where the Schochenmaiers are mentioned. It's a new period, it's related directly to us and it's much more improtant for our Amercian and Canadian Schochenmaiers! I will explain why)

Here is the document from year 1844:

Previously, we could track the Schochenmaiers in the Russian Empire from the beginning of the 1850s.

For example, we could find out that:

Ludwig Schochenmaier (1830-1856, wheelwright) and Katharina Kuprian (Kuprijahn) (1833-1856) married on the 20 Dec 1851 (record from the church book in Worms / Beresan Colony / Odessa) and gave birth to their first daughter Margaretha (September 1852). All of them died during the cholera epidemy in 1856.

His brother August Schochenmaier (1825-1855, smith) married Maria Margaretha Ochsner (1834-1917) on 31 May 1854 (record from the church book in Rohrbach / Beresan Colony / Odessa). He died in July 10 1855 because of cholera.

Their brother Gottlieb Schochenmaier (about 1833, tailor) married Katharina Huber (1836-1856) on the 12 Oct 1854 ( from the church book in Lustdorf (please do not read it in English, it's German name - pronounce like "Loostdorf" / Grossliebental Colony / Odessa).

And, it seems to be that we have found the baptismal record of their forth brother -
Christian Schochenmaier. As you can see, he was born in 1837 but baptized in 1844. He was a cartwright. I suggest they worked together with Ludwig. In this context, it proves the theory of origin of the Schochenmaiers presented in the Memory Book of the Canada by Clarence Schochenmaier.

Why could he be so interesting for the Amercian and Canadian Schochenmaiers? The answer is short: according to our family tree, he was father of Michael (1859-1937) and Jacob (1861-1923) Schochenmaier, who had left for the New World. We never knew when he had been born, but now we do.

Additionally to that, we can see the names of his parents!!! And what a great news - maybe now we have found the names of all four brothers, namely of August, Ludwig, Gottlieb and Christian, from who we all descend (technically from Gottlieb and Christian only, for August and Ludwig either had no children or gave birth to girls only).

In the next post, we discuss names of the parents, what else can we find thanks to this new record and where was the church book from.

First Schochenmaiers in the US detected!

As I promised, we finish the serie of posts about our ancestors deep from the past when they had lived in Germany. In the latest posts, I told you about children of Carl August Schochenmaier (1793-1847), the bricklayer master from Heilbronn. And today, I'd like to share with you my last discovery of the really first Schochenmaiers who had come over to the New World. Here is the register journal:

They are three chidlren of the above-mentioned Carl August Schochenmaier! Let me introduce:

Auguste Louise Schochenmaier (1823-???? after 1848)
Caroline Pauline Schochenmaier (1829-???? after 1849) and 
Carl Gustav Schochenmaier (1834-1851).

I know what you gonna tell me))) Stop! We've alraedy read about one of them! And you are right. I've alraedy written about Caroline Pauline Schochenmaier in my "Any Schochenmaiers prior to 1880s in the New World? Yes!" post but without any idea how Caroline was related to the "big" German family tree. Now I know it and I've found two of her relatives who came with Caroline together.

After I found all details, I think I got the general overview of the situation. Just imagine year 1847, the Schochenmaier's family went through three deaths: mum Luise Friderike Hofmann (1798–1847) died at 49 years because of "dentition fever", then only one week later (!) daughter of Maria Carolina Schochenmaier (1826-1890) - Pauline Friederike Luise Schochenmaier (1845–1847), and finally in two months father Carl August Schochenmaier (1793–1847) who passed away with 54 years because of "violent hemorrhage" (= internal bleeding). The last cause of death could be explained by his job with high risks of injuries. Maria Carolina is already married and is in good conditions but three children are just left on their own((( So, they defy their destiny, they take a ship to America to start a new life.

In the emigration archives, we find the following info:

Three persons under the names Louise and Carolina Schochemeyer  on 24th October 1847 take the ship (bark) General Green from the harbor of Antwerp in Belgium. They reached the coast of America on 31st December 1847.

Here is the scan:

By the way, the green question is pointing out that I am very interested in one more person, namely Louise Heinrich. This is due to the known fact that our ancestors had a closed relationship with the Heinrich family. I mean Friederike Wilhelmine Schochenmaier (1802-1844), sister of Carl August who married to Johann Friedrich Gottlieb Heinrich (1799-1837) and their second daughter was named Friederike Louise Heinrich (1827-????). As Friedreke is her mum's name, it's very possible that her main name could be Louise. Besides that, her age noticed on the passangers' list matches that of Louise. So, maybe they decided to undertake such a difficult voyage.

Well, two names but I wrote "three persons". I am sure that their brother Carl Gustav joined them later as he was 13 years in 1847 and it's very possible that somebody was looking after him. Let's go one by one:

1. Louise Schochenmeyer (1823) : there is no info after she reached the New World. Everything could happen, she married, or moved or died. If she got another surname, it's not possible anymore to find her.

2. Caroline Schochenmeyer (1829). As we know she got married to Romuald Jacobi or Jacobs on the 2nd January 1848. STOP!!! Did you spot it??? I can't believe))) They got married 2 (TWO!!!) days after Caroline came out of the ship))) How can it  be possible??? In the same list of passangers, I din't find his name, it means he was already in the U.S. How can we interpret it? Did he wait for her? But where did they meet before??? I don't kniow what to think)))

The problem is that I couldn't find them after that. No info. However, I can suggest one explanation. My new discovery is that this Romuald Jacobi/s is Romuald Heinrich Bruno Jacobi, born in Düsseldorf in 1819, who, accroding to archives, died in in St. Louis (Missouri) on the 20th June 1849. It's 18 months after their marriage. It may explain why they didn't left anything after them, maybe it was a kind of epidemy. Either she died at the same time with her husband or she remarried and got new name.

By the way, Romuald Jacobi is descendant of a pretty known family in Germany. His brother was Victor Friedrich Jacobi (1809-1892), Professor of Zoology at the University of Leipzig, his father was Georg Arnold Jacobi (1768-1845), painter and state councilor of the North-Rhine Westphalia, his grandfather was Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819), German writer, economy reformer and philosopher (see the portrait!), his great grandfather was Johann Konrad Jacobi (1715-1788), German manufacturer, Electoral 'Councilor of Commerce', his great gr. grandfather was Johann Andreas Jacobi (1680-1756), Lutheran clergyman from the Lower Saxony, first from the simple Jacobis who ever studied. Well, it was a good catch by Caroline Schochenmaier))), it proves that she was a beautiful and well-educated girl!!!

3. Carl Gustav Schochenmaier (1834-1851). It seems to be that after the youngest brother grew up, he decided to join their sisters. In this case, we may suggest that two girls were still alive in the year 1851... Or he just followed their example in order to get a better life. Under the name of Gustavus Carl Schochemayer, he can be found within the death index in the Louisiana Archives (Bouton Rouge) in September 1851. He was 17 years old. But when did he arrive to the New World from Europe?  He is not on the passangers' lists, so maybe his name was spelled in a wrong way, and yes, we may stumble upon the following:

On the 7th April 1851 as Charles Schofelmeyer (was falsly transcribed by FamilySearch), he came out of the ship Lexington which proceeded from the French harbor Le Havre:

  
It's noticed "Bavaria" what was written for every German person in France)))

From April to September, there are only 5 months. That is why I think that he got seriously sick during the awful travel across Atlantic ocean and then he died. What a crazy destiny, to came to the U.S. for 5 months and then to die. 

Well, it's the end for the historical German Schochenmaiers. In the next post, I will share with you my new discovery from the Russia. It's so exciting, I've found the oldest mention of the Schochenmaiers in the Russian Empire. YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!