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More Kappelman Family Search

 
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roger.pape
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:24 pm    Post subject: More Kappelman Family Search Reply with quote

Tracing the Kappelman family history has been a bit more difficult than I expected. The following paragraphs indicate some of the problems one might encounter when trying to track ancestors.

A number of variations in the Kappelmann surname can be seen when searching through old immigrant and census records. Over the years, most have dropped the second ‘n’ at the end of the name. Some of the variations appear to be the result of an immigrant ships crew or the census takers interpretation of what they heard when a person declared the family name. Other misspellings may result when someone had difficulty interpreting the handwritten records as they were indexed. Variations of Kappelman(n) that can be found in the records are Kappleman(n), Koppelman(n), Kobbelman(n), Cappelman(n), and Coppelman(n). The Census Bureau was aware of this problem and devised the Codex system used to indexed records. It groups together similar sounding consonants and drops vowels. This system does a good job of associating variations in spelling but also results in a number of false groupings of unrelated names.

Another problem is the given names. Most were eventually anglicized, such as Johann to John, Heinrich to Henry, Ludwig to Louis or Lewis, etc. But the more difficult problem is the frequent switching of first and middle names for various reasons. The spelling and order may change from one census to another and sometimes may revert back to the christened name, particularly with funeral records.

Birthdates derived from stated ages in the various records frequently vary by a year or two, sometimes significantly more. It all depends on what someone declared when the information was recorded.

To start the Kappelman family trace, I began with family records indicating that my great-grandfather Heinrich Johann (a.k.a. John Henry) Kappelmann brought his family from the Boeuf Creek area of New Haven, MO to the Concordia area in 1878. See the Concordian death announcement for Charles (Carl) Kappelmann at Kappelman obituaries. The 1880 census records showing John and Cath. Kappelmann living in Freedom township with the oldest eight of their eleven children. They lived on a farm west of Concordia that was handed down to son Gus, then daughter Rose, and finally grandson Marvin (Bud) and Geneva Deke Kappelman.

In a special Missouri state census taken in 1876, the Boeuff Township in Franklin County records show John H., wife Catherina, and seven of the children. These two census enumerations are consistent with the move to Concordia. It should be noted that in the St. Paul’s Church funerals and on his tombstone, he is again listed as Heinrich.

When going back farther in the census records, things become a little more confusing. Family records indicate that Heinrich Johann was born October 28, 1837 in Prussia. That means he would have been about 23 when the 1860 census was taken. The Boeuff Township records for 1860 list a John H. age 23 with a 54 year old mother Elisabeth (no father living at that time). It also shows a Henry age 23 with a 55 year old father William and a 50 year old mother Wilhelmiena. Which is my great-grandfather? When did he switch his name to John Henry?

My mother never knew the names of her great-grandfather or great-grandmother, so the trace ends in Franklin County MO. People often named one or more of their children after the grandparents, so this sometimes can be a clue. My grandmother Marie’s middle name was Elise and she had a sister Elise. Was this short for Elisabeth?

After the 1990 St. Paul’s Church sesquicentennial celebration, I took my mother to the Boeuff Creek area to find her mother Marie’s birthplace. (Mom had never been there.) After some hunting, we found Bethlehem Lutheran Church where her mother was baptized and confirmed. The old schoolhouse where she went to school was still standing next to the church. The cemetery was filled with tombstones bearing the name Kappelmann; but without an idea of who her great-grandparents were, we did not know what to look for. Later, Mom wrote to the church hoping to get more information about the Kappelmann family. She received a response from the church secretary (who happened to be a Kappelmann by marriage) which said that all of the church records had been destroyed in a 1926 fire. A historical note indicated that the founding members of the church in 1856 included four Kappelmann families, Frank, H.W., F.W., and Henry.

Trying to determine when my great-grandfather Kappelmann immigrated to the U. S. is difficult not knowing for sure what the other names of his family members were. Having been born in Prussia and married in Missouri, he came to America as a single man probably with his parents. All of the Kappelmanns in Franklin County appear to have come from Prussia, mostly in the 1850s and mostly through the port of New Orleans.

I’ve searched Germans To America, a multi-volume work the lists most of the German immigrant ship passenger lists from 1840 on and also the ancestry.com online records. So far I have been unable to find a good match between the family group names and ages in these passenger lists with those in the Franklin County census records. No luck!

There is some uncertainty as to the maiden name of my great-grandmother Katherine Elizabeth. Family records indicate that she married John H. on Nov. 6, 1861 in Franklin Co., MO; however, I was unable to find any marriage records in the Missouri archives to substantiate this. (This would have clearly stated her maiden name.) In her 1920 death certificate, the informant (son John H. L.) listed her birth date as May 25, 1841 and the father’s name as Hy Kappelman. Was her maiden name also Kappelman or was John H. L. confused with the entry and listed his father’s name rather than the name of his mother’s father? Interestingly, in the 1860 Boeuff Township census records, there is another Henry Kappelmann listed with a 19 year old daughter whose name appears to be Chathariena W. The age matches but not the middle initial. (Note. The spelling of the first name appears throughout these records and may be the way the census taker recorded the name Catherine.)

Great-grandmother Katherine also immigrated to the U. S. before she was married. Since she was still alive when census records required one to state the year of immigration, these records were checked. In 1900, she stated that she immigrated in 1853. In 1910 she said that she immigrated in 1851. In 1920, she is again listed as immigrating in 1853. So one would guess that it was in 1853 at age 12. The only ship in 1853 that lists Kappelmanns is the Hermann that arrived in New Orleans on Nov. 16, 1853. The father is listed as H. W. Coppelmann, but the wife’s name doesn’t match and neither does the list of children and their ages (although there was a daughter Cath. listed as age 9, but too young.) In 1852 four different ships with Kappelmanns aboard arrived in New Orleans, but none of those family groups have a good match. None in 1851 listed any Kappelmanns. Again a dead end!
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