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Tracing the Kappelmanns to Lafayette County

 
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roger.pape
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Joined: 17 Mar 2009
Posts: 414
Location: Liverpool, NY

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:27 pm    Post subject: Tracing the Kappelmanns to Lafayette County Reply with quote

Usually, at least one of the branches of a family tree is hard to trace, what is referred to by genealogists as a “brick wall”. In my case, it has been my maternal grandmother’s family, namely the Kappelmanns. Recently, however, I have begun to make some progress in tracking down their history. [Note. Over the years the surname was changed from the original German spelling of Kappelmann to Kappelman, so the two forms will be used interchangeably in the following account.]

There are a number of reasons why this trace was difficult. Grandmother Marie Kappelmann’s immediate family moved from Franklin County, MO to Lafayette County in the latter part of the 1800s and had little contact with other relatives back in Franklin County. Although the two areas are only about 130 miles apart, my mother had never seen her mother’s birthplace until I took her there when she was in her late 80s. A large number of Kappelmanns settled in Franklin County and, with all of the similarities in their given names, it is difficult to separate out the family relationships. Contacting the local Lutheran church where Marie was baptized and confirmed, it was discovered that all of the records from that era had been destroyed by fire.

While searching various records, such as the Federal census, a number of variations in the spelling of the surname were encountered. This included not only the dropping of one of the n’s and switching of the ‘l’ and ‘e’, but also other misspellings such as Koppelman, Cappelman, Cobbleman, and even Copperman. As is common among many German families, first and middle names were frequently switched.

We were never quite sure what Great-grandmother Katherine’s maiden name was. Her death certificate listed her father as “Hy Kappelman”. However, since her husband’s name was Henry Kappelman, it was thought that the informant may have been confused when the information was recorded.

Slowly some of the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. The narrative Kappelman Migration to Lafayette County relates the information that I have uncovered to date. To summarize, Great-great-grandparents Peter and Marie Elisabeth (Beste) Kappelmann emigrated from Borgholzhausen, Westphalia, Germany in 1846 and settled in the Beouff Creek area of Franklin County, MO. Based on the marriage record for my great-grandparents, Katherine was also a Kappelmann so Henry and Katherine Kappelmann were probably distant cousins. They moved their growing family to a farm southwest of Concordia, MO in 1878 and were followed later by several other Kappelmann relatives who settled in Middleton Township (Alma/Waverly area). From that point on, the families are more easily traced.
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roger.pape
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Joined: 17 Mar 2009
Posts: 414
Location: Liverpool, NY

PostPosted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:42 pm    Post subject: More Borgholzhausen Information Reply with quote

David Menke’s excellent book From County Ravensberg to Miller’s Landing gives a lot more information about Borgholzhausen and the families that emigrated from the Borgholzhausen area to Franklin County. In addition to the Kappelmanns, a number of other families with familiar surnames came from that area. They include Borgelt, Freitag, Kuhlmann, Scheele, Scheer, and Walkenhorst to name a few.

If you think you have ancestors from that area, you might be interested in locating a copy of this book.
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