concordia-memories.org Forum Index concordia-memories.org
Recalling Concordia's Past
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Pape Ancestral Connections in Germany

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    concordia-memories.org Forum Index -> Pape family
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
roger.pape
Site Admin


Joined: 17 Mar 2009
Posts: 414
Location: Liverpool, NY

PostPosted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:52 pm    Post subject: Pape Ancestral Connections in Germany Reply with quote

Social interactions were quite localized in the early days. Most people seldom traveled more than several miles in their normal activities. It is amazing how many villages there were in Germany. There were over 125,000 villages in the country with an area not much greater than the state of Missouri. Families remained in the same village for many generations. My grandfather Jacob Pape’s family lived in Meinstedt from the late 1600s. The families attended church in Heeslingen about 1 ˝ miles away. His gr-gr-gr-gr grandfather Gerd Pape had moved to Meinstedt from Selsingen when he married Annen Bredehoeft in 1682. Although Selsingen is only about 5 miles from Meinstedt, there seemed to be little contact between the families in the two areas during the following generations.

This brings me to the point of this posting, namely possible connections between the Pape families in Meinstedt and Selsingen. When I was growing up in Concordia, MO there were several other Pape families in our area but we had no indication that we were related. In fact, there were two Henry Pape families. In the one family that lived on a farm near Emma and were members of St. John Church, there were three successive generations of Henry’s. There was an old joke that, even though both of our families were named Pape, “we aint got no religion”. However, based on some genealogical data that I received from John Schlue, the eldest Henry Pape (1834-1890) was born in Selsingen. He immigrated to the U.S. with his wife Anna Marie and oldest daughter Maria in 1867 (date based on Anna Marie’s declaration in 1910 census). So it is quite possible that there is some connection between our families back in Germany.

The other Henry Pape (1869-1943) was a merchant in Concordia. According to his death certificate, he was the son of Jacob and Kathryn Wilpern Pape. On a passport application for a purchasing trip back to Germany, he declared that he had immigrated to the U.S. in 1884 on the ship Eider, which arrived in NYC on 20 Jun 1884. He listed his birthplace as Hanover. The only Pape in the passenger manifest for that voyage is a “Hinr. Pape” listed as 28 years old. If his passport information is correct, he would have been 15 years old at the time and would have arrived in the U.S. just two months before my grandfather Jacob Pape (who was also 15 years old at that time.) After arriving in Concordia, he married Mary Evert in 1894. The 1900 census shows his family living on St. Louis St. in Concordia along with a younger brother John. (John declared that he came over from Germany in 1891.) I remember some of Henry’s children. Everett was a radio repairman in Concordia, Ralph operated a garage on old Highway 40, and Francis was the wife of Harry (“Paper Dick”) Oetting of Dick’s Garage. To date, I have been unable to determine from where in Germany this Pape family originated.

There were also several Pape families in the Blackburn, MO area. Two brothers, Fred (Fritz) and August Henry, show up in the census records for Blackburn beginning in 1900. They had been born in Morgan County (Stover, MO), Fritz in 1866 and August in 1875. In their death records, their parents are listed as Peter and Caroline Nolting Pape, both born in Germany. In the earlier census records, the family shows up under different spellings, possibly Papin in 1860, Poping in 1870 and Papen in 1880. Both boys were still living with the family in the Stover area in 1880, so they obviously moved to Blackburn between 1880 and 1900. Father Peter must have immigrated to the U.S. by 1860. According to data received from John Schlue, Peter Friedrich Pape was born in Selsingen, Germany on 12 Aug 1835. Did Peter’s sons move to Blackburn because they knew the Henry Papes in Emma? There is some speculation that Peter and Henry were related, but to my knowledge this has not been established. If they had been brothers, it is more likely that Henry (who arrived in the U.S. later) would have immigrated to Morgan Co. rather than Lafayette Co. In any event, again it is quite possible that there is some distant connection to my family back in Germany.

Any common ancestors between my family and the other Pape families would have to have lived in the 1600s or earlier. Finding any records in Germany that early is very difficult. Many of the records were lost during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). Furthermore, the beginning of church record keeping (births, marriages, and deaths) in Germany was a result of a decree from the Council of Trent in 1545. So one can probably only speculate that this connection exists because both families can be traced back to the small village of Selsingen.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    concordia-memories.org Forum Index -> Pape family All times are GMT - 6 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group