Hi, my name is Rob Vance and I'm the author of this Google Site. My email address is rkvance@gmail.com if you want to contact me.

THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED HERE ARE:

Who were my father's family (maternal line Gildemeisters and Radtkes) who came from Prussia, and where did they live there? Once that is is figured, can we follow the family lines back in time? BIG NEWS ON 12/2/2019 - Gildemeister marriage records show birthplaces of Charbrow and Landechow bei Köslin. Thank you Teresa McMillan and details follow below...

NEWS! 8 March 2020 - Hans Herman Goebel at Facebook Group Der Kreis Lauenburg in Pommern has some very interesting Rettke data and their location is near Leba. This may tie out the Rettke/Radtke line to my folks.

A WHO's WHO ...

Let's meet my very working class Protestant Prussian born family getting off the boat (from Bremen) in New York at Castle Garden on 14 May 1869. And here we find the gang in Chicago about a year later in June of 1870 for the US census. It appears that some of the family stayed behind in Pomerania based on the few available records found for the area and period.

And my relations are...

Johann (also known as Carl) Gildemeister (1812-1890, my great great great grandfather). He, his wife and daughter (and her husband) are at buried Concordia (Lutheran) Cemetery Section 2E (plot 55).

Constancia Radtke Gildemeister - my great great great grandmother. Here is her death certificate (1823 -1880). Her maiden name may well be Rettke, but is spelled Radtke on her son's death certificate.

Gustav Gildemeister (1844-1915) - here is his death certificate. Please note the death certificate confirms his mother's maiden name as Radtke and it was his younger brother Carl who provided the information. Marriage records from First Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church (Chicago) located at the Newberry Library show he was born at Charbrow (now Charbrowo, Poland).

Auguste Gildemeister Hupke (1850-1874) - here is the Trintity Lutheran Church record of her death. She died very young, sad story. Marriage records from First Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church at Newberry Library show she was born at Landechow bei Köslin (just west of Labbehn/Lebien) and close to Charbrow (about 5 miles away).

Carl Wilhelm Gildemeister (1854-1936, my great great grandfather) - here is his death certificate. This document gets his birth date wrong. It's April 1854 per multiple references given by him while he was alive (e.g. US census records). His mother and father have been dead for 40+ years when he dies so I'm not surprised that some of this data is missing and/or wrong. He and his second wife are also buried at Concordia Cemetery west of Chicago, thought not in the same plot as his parents. Marriage records at what is now St. Peter's UCC (for his second marriage in 1891) show his birthplace as Landechow bei Köslin (21 Feb 2020).

Caroline Gildemeister Stoewsand (1859-1923)

See also https://sites.google.com/view/chicagogildermeisters/home for more on the American side of the family in Chicagoland.

At Ancestry see the R & M V Family Tree for the Gildemeisters, and also the Radtke DNA Family Tree (collateral line aka Rattke).

We'll talk more about their fellow passengers Ferdinand, Caroline and Carl Rettke later. Are they family? Maybe. As noted consistent surname spelling is an issue with my family. Can't say for sure at this time and more on that topic below. Americanization of given names is a thing too.

And please let's agree in interpreting historical records, Gildermeister=Gildemeister=Gillmeister= Gilmaster, etc. And Radtke=Rathke=Rettke as well. And Carl=Karl=Charles. Unless proven otherwise.

OK, SO WHERE IN PRUSSIA ARE WE TALKING ABOUT WHEN WE SAY THEY CAME FROM THERE? THE AREA NEAR CHARBROW IS THE PLACE, IN KREIS LAUENBURG, OSTPOMMERN, PRUSSIA.

This part was difficult until marriage records from the First Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chicago cleared up the mystery. The documentary references that I have for my family locations for the relevant generation, are to Charbrow and Landechow bei Köslin (just west of Labbehn/Lebien and close to Charbrow). The maiden name reference for Constancia "Radtke" Gildemeister ties with DNA results that I have associated with a family named Rettke/Radtke from Pomerania, and specifically from the area of Lauenburg/Lebork. See also records at St. Peter's UCC (from his second marriage in 1891) which show Carl's birthplace as Landechow bei Köslin, a few miles south of Charbrow, on the road to Lauenburg.

AND NOW FOR THE SCIENCE PART

I have five Ancestry DNA relations with Radtke/Rettke surnames and suitable family trees, all of whom end up being related to Johann Rettke and Wilhelmina Gnadt (see below for more details). Here's a chart that lay's out the relationships. And I have another three Ancestry DNA relations to a Carl Michael Rettke (wife is Augusta). Their descendants ended up in central Illinois - farming in the late 19th Century.

Cyndy Harkins is the person with the closest measured DNA relation to me (we are 4th -6th cousins, which means our common ancestors would have been born between 1750 and 1800 [approximate]) and she has Rettke family from the area of Lauenburg/Lebork. My educated guess is that these folks are related to Constancia Radtke Gildemeister, my great great grandmother, though it's possible they are related to Johann Carl Gildemeister. This is a collateral line to explore in an attempt to connect it to the Gildemeisters as a low priority.

The obituary for Cyndy's great grandmother Wilhelmine Gnadt Rettke says she was born in Pomerania in 1824 (Freist Prussia, now Wrzeście Poland, near Lauenburg/Lebork Poland). Here's another obituary for her with a slightly different birthplace - Charbrow which is right next door to Freist btw. Cyndy's great grandfather was Johann Rettke born in Charbrow (Charbrowo Poland) which is also near Lauenburg/Lebork (b. 1827) - this statement is based on Johann Rettke's 1881 death certificate (and my best non-documented understanding of their marriage was 1859). Johann's parents are George Rettke (d. 1852?) and Constancia Bock per Johann's death record from 1881 in Charbrow. Also I checked Meyers Gazetteer - there are other Freists and Lauenburgs in Prussia/Germany just not in combination with Charbrow, which is why these locations are in Eastern Pomerania.

See also this 1920 Census for Macon County Illinois for Julius Rettke, Cyndy's grandfather, which specifically points to Lauenburg, Germany as his birthplace, and that of his parents. Now there are several towns named Lauenburg in Germany/Prussia, so why the one in the Province of Pomerania? Because of the locations in the obituary for Wilhelmine Gnadt Rettke is why.

With respect to four of the other seven DNA related Rattke/Radtke families, I've got them all connected to the Johann Rettke/Wilhelmina Gnadt family in Charbrow - though they immigrated at different times. The relevant son's names are Julius (emigrated 1886), Charles (emigrated 1884) and Henry ([Heinrich?] emigrated in 1881 just after Johann's death). Records show other related members of the Gnadt family had come to Illinois before the Rettke's did (see The Decatur Review d. 16 Feb. 1937 for reference)! Unsurprisingly they settled in Wicker Park - same neighborhood as the Gildemeisters and about the same time (best as I can tell, they arrived in 1865).

HOW ABOUT SOME MORE SCIENCE? ANOTHER FAMILY FROM CHARBROW, WITH DNA CONNECTIONS TO THE GILDEMEISTERS, RADTKES (AND BOCKS AND GNADTS) [January 2020]

www.piotraschke.eu - it is also the case that our DNA connection to the Piotraschke family is old and distant. On the order of 7-8th cousin and currently we share no common relations tested at Ancestry. This is better than nothing as it is another connection to the region, but it's not a home run by any means. We'll see if they will share their family tree - which appears to be quite extensive.

SPECIFIC RESEARCH INTERESTS IN KREIS LAUENBURG, POMERANIA

I want to find additional records for Johann Carl (c.1812-20 Jan 1890), Constancia Radtke (c.1823-2 Mar 1880), Gustav (1844-4 Mar 1915), Auguste (1850-1874), Carl Wilhelm (Apr 1854-29 Sep 1936) and Caroline (27 Jan 1859-26 Jun 1923) Gildemeister, and for their ancestors if possible. And it's entirely possible that said records may not exist. In addition to checking (Protestant) church, land and census records, please note the Gildemeisters immigrated to the US in 1869 if some paperwork survives. Note: Prussian bureaucrats may not have spent the time to do the papers for those who were in danger of becoming a burden on the community. Better to get them gone.

Also, here's a map of Gildemeister birth and death locations from data at PTG Pomarskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne.

A BIT OF BACKGROUND ON CHARBROW FROM GERMAN WIKIPEDIA

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charbrowo - and this has much more detail than the English language version.

OH YEAH, ABOUT THEIR FELLOW PASSENGERS ON THE CHRISTEL, THE RETTKES

We know that Constancia's maiden name was Radtke (Rettke?), so given the similarity in surnames who was Ferdinand Rettke (and Caroline and Carl) listed next to the Gildemeisters on the 1869 Christel passenger manifest? Possibly a relation, and if so how close? As it turns out, these Rettkes went to Milwaukee, WI. which is not where our Gildemeisters ended up obviously. Please see the following to confirm their presence in Wisconsin - 1870 census here. 1880 census here - note they are on 617 Vliet St. - downtown Milwaukee. As a side note, as of 1890 Ferdinand (and family) were the only Rettke's in the Milwaukee city directory (and yes it's them per the given names, and yes there were plenty of Radtkes in the book). There is now a Rettke Family Tree at Ancestry that I built for these folks. They had a number of other children (after Carl/Charles), all of whom died young. Given where they lived (2 blocks away from) they might have been involved in Saint John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in downtown Milwaukee (and on the National Register of Historic Places), which is also on Vliet Street. Here is Ferdinand's death record (d.1894) - buried at Union Cemetery. I reached out to the cemetery that accepted the graves from Saint Johannes Lutheran Cemetery (which I thought was Forest Hill Memorial Park) when they were moved (which is where I believe Ferdinand was planted). They could not find the related records. In 1896 and 1897 the Rettke's disappear from the city directory - did not check further.

AND WHAT ABOUT MY OTHER PATERNAL LINE FROM NEAR PUCK, POLAND? ARE THEY CONNECTED TO THE DNA COLLATERAL LINE? PRETTY UNLIKELY AND NOT AS OF NOW.

I believe the odds of this being the case are very low, but just to be sure here are some details for reference. These are my father's mother's folks - to be specific, his maternal grandfather's people (aka the Rintz's). They immigrated to the US in 1886, and the surnames of interest in the relevant timeframe are Rintz, Brzozowski, Reinhart and Stasiewski and they are Catholic. They lived in in Rzucewo and Oksywie, about 30 miles away from Lauenburg (near what is now Puck). This line is well documented (thanks to my Rintz cousins) back to about 1800, and the surnames are NOT the same, even if the location is relatively close to the Rettke/Gnadt/Bock folks. Based on the closeness of the DNA relations the common ancestor could go back to about 1750 (a conservative estimate is 3c1r-5th cousin [the specific value is 48 cm to Cyndy Harkins, and I have her Rettke line documented to the early 1800s]). Also, Anton Rintz married my great grandmother Magdalena Gildemeister in Chicago in 1892.

LINKS

Bock family of Charbrow relation

https://wabaunseecomuseum.org/2019/05/12/prussian-hero-grandfather-adapts-to-wabaunsee-county/

https://www.myheritage.com/names/caroline_piotraschke

http://kpbc.umk.pl/dlibra/publication?id=56321

https://mapire.eu/en/

https://reiseleiter-leba.eu/en,0,home.html

https://reiseleiter-leba.eu/en,11,0,genealogy_in_pomeraniawest_and_east_prussia.html

Google map of DNA related family locations in Pomerania and near Lauenburg/Lebork.

Old Pomeranian maps.

https://www.meyersgaz.org/

https://blog.pommerscher-greif.de/

https://sites.google.com/site/ancestorsinpommern/home

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1L_4TnbqIgoBHQeM923jrOEKMThlb1ZE1

http://mypomerania.com/

http://pommernkontakte.de/

https://www.pommerscher-greif.de/quellensuche.html

https://www.pommerscher-greif.de/anzeige-kirchenbuecher-kreis.html?county=17

http://pommerndatenbank.de/

http://skany.koszalin.ap.gov.pl/27/278/

https://www.stolp.de/

https://www.szczecin.ap.gov.pl/ - archive in Stettin, emigration records of Kreis Lauenburg from 1868-1871.

https://www.szczecin.ap.gov.pl/media/pliki-do-pobrania/genealogia/HOW_TO_START_A_GENEALOGICAL_QUERY.pdf

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Pomerania_(Pommern)_Online_Genealogy_Records

www.Kartenmeister.com

http://www.lostshoebox.com/

http://mypomerania.com/kirchenbucher-and-standesamter-on-cd-koszalin/

stanleyfrymark@yahoo.com

http://metryki.genbaza.pl/en

https://digitale-bibliothek-mv.de/viewer/image/PPN559838239_AF_42/209/

http://baza.archiwa.gov.pl/sezam/pradziad.php?l=en

NDAP records searches for records of Charbrowo and Lebork

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O1Iu64bH7RFyG806LUHfLPWtLM-fyteOB-5YKNmU3C0/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AhJFBrWTkK2JJfPyofD9Yx_bRfsMcIqDngfKnzGf5EY/edit?usp=sharing

http://www.byarnd.de/home.html

https://www.pomeranianews.org/

https://nvk.genealogy.net/map/1890:Gildemeister,1890:Radtke,1890:Rettke

http://www.ezab.de/english/index.html

https://www.pomeranianews.org/dv_indices_intro.html = this is good

http://pommerschen.blogspot.com/

https://agoff.de/?p=95750

http://mypomerania.com/stettin-archive-guides-using-bkge-and-szukaj-w-archiwach/

http://remus.shidler.hawaii.edu/genes/WPrussia/sitemap.htm

http://balticheritage.com/Kashubian%20Homeland.pdf

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charbrowo

maybe join https://www.sggee.org/

Nineteenth-Century Emigration of "Old Lutherans" from Eastern Germany ...

By Clifford Neal Smith

Ordinary Prussians William Hagen UCSB Main Library DD801.B687 H34 2002

The People of the Lands Lauenburg and Bütow. by Baron Jesco von Puttkamer. Translated by John Milton Hingst.

MAP OF KREIS LAUENBURG

with cities abstracted from 18th and 19th century maps, including marking for protestant churches

PHOTOS