Kleinhans / Petitjean Family
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German/ Prussian/ French Roots and Emigration facebook
Protestant village church in Trampe, Brüssow, Brandenburg, Germany / Prussia (see below)
Born in Germany/Prussia, Frederick Kleinhans/Petitjean and his apparent brother August Kleinhans/Petitjean immigrated to America over a hundred and sixty years ago. Frederick and his wife Ernestine migrated to the USA in 1856 from Trampe, Brüssow, Brandenburg. In the 1920 US Census Frederick's daughter Wilhemina/Minnie stated she immigrated in 1857. Being 64 years later Wilhelmina probably forgot the exact year. The trip was completed on an ocean ship from a German port presumably Hamburg.
►1856 Cooper Passenger List: click to show/hide
Confirmed - An immigration passenger list on FamilySearch shows Friedr [sic] Petitjean 32, Wilhelmina [sic] Petitjean 34, Wilhelmina Petitjean 6, and Augustine Petitjean 11 months arrived at the Port of New York on Nov. 18, 1856, from Hamburg, Prussia on the James N Cooper ship. (see the highlighted sections below) The location, the date, their names, and their ages all match what we know of Frederick Kleinhans/Petitjean's family except somehow Ernestine was incorrectly listed as Wilhemina. There was no sign of August Petitjean (see below).
1856 passenger arrival list for the James N Cooper ship, Port of New York
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►1856 Gerhardt Passenger List: click to show/hide
Confirmed - Another 1856 immigration passenger list on FamilySearch shows August Petitjean 22 arrived at the Port of New York on June 9, 1856, from Hamburg, Prussia on the Gerhardt ship. (see the highlighted sections below) This means that August immigrated about five months before his brother Frederick did. This raises several questions. Did August write to Frederick in Prussia telling his brother he was in Wolcottsville, NY, and not Wisconsin (the passenger list indicates his original destination might have been Wisconsin)? Was there enough time to write, send, and receive a letter before Frederick left Prussia? Was that their plan, for August to go first and report back to his brother?
Frederick's travel plans were likely flexible meaning that as long as they made it to the New York Harbor he/they could have negotiated accommodations for travel to almost any destination in America. Also, August and Frederick were likely guided by "Old Lutheran Faith" pastors (see below) who traveled with them and who helped orchestrate and coordinate their immigration along with other German/Prussian families. The Lutheran pastors may have used letters to inform the others where they were with updated guidance and tips for the trip. As slow as letter-mailing was they had no choice since they couldn't pick up a phone or even send a telegraph.
August possibly went by himself first because he was single, younger, and better educated (or at least more literate) than Frederick. That could be why August spelled his last name correctly on his naturalization form and Frederick didn't. If something went wrong they wouldn't have lost the whole Kleinhans family. Again, this may have been at the guidance of the Lutheran pastors.
Two (2) pages from the June 9, 1856 passenger arrival list for the Gerhardt ship, Port of New York
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►1655 French Emigration: click to show/hide
Although the church documents below clearly show the last name Kleinhans being used, other documents on FamilySearch indicate the family used Petitjean at times. For example, they immigrated with the name Petitjean (see above). In French, Petitjean means "little John" and Kleinhans means "little John" in German. It's possible some of the Kleinhans / Petitjean ancestors were French. (see following) The French and Germans being close geographically have been intermingling for hundreds of years so it's plausible. When French King Louis the 14th forbade Protestantism in 1685, many French Calvinists or Huguenots sought shelter in Swiss and German states and the Netherlands. In Germany some settled in Baden, Württemberg; Hessen; and Brandenburg (see map below).
Confirmed - According to FamilySearch Frederick Kleinhans / Petitjean's great-great-great-great-grandfather Jean Petitjean was born about 1628 in Macau, France a few miles from the city of Bordeaux which was a former Roman capital. He left France around 1655 and moved to Frankenthal, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany near Baden where he had 6 children. Years later after having relocated again, he died on 2 March 1718 in Gramzow, Brandenburg about 8 miles south of Trampe, Brandenburg where Frederick lived (a hundred years later) before emigrating to America. France was in great turmoil over Protestants around the time Jean left when it wasn't safe for any non-Catholic. There's no indication Jean and his family were Calvinists or Huguenots, but some of his children were baptized Lutheran. After leaving France and relocating to Germany for what appears to be religious reasons, it's possible about 200 years later the Kleinhans / Petitjean family was predisposed to relocate once more for religious freedom.
note- The Rhineland-Palatinate area Jean Petitjean moved to about 1655 was the same area of Germany where the Deissinger family lived before they immigrated to America in 1748. They lived about 35 miles from each other. There's a strong possibility that Jean Petitjean left the Rhineland-Palatinate area for the same reasons the Deissinger family did. The Palatinate region was a hotbed of religious, wartime, and economic strife. Brandenberg was likely a safer, more calm area to live in at the time.
1759 Port de la Lune, Bordeaux. Macau is roughly 10 miles to the north of this port.
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►1843 "Old Lutheran Faith" Pastors: click
Brandenburg a part of Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire earlier was ruled in the Middle Ages for several hundred years by royalty and ancient noble families. Even though many things had changed by the 1800s, they could not practice their religion without the royalty or state church interfering. The rulers at the time were King Frederick William III and King Frederick William IV and despite some democratic reforms they instituted the merging of the Lutherans and Calvinists (Reformed) to form the United Church of Prussia which greatly upset many Lutherans.
Numerous articles have been written about Germans migrating to the US. One of them, German Prussian Immigrants on the Niagara Frontier, is a specific account of German immigration to Niagara County. According to the author Paul Lubienecki, Ph. D., the German families of the Pomerania and Uckermark (Brandenburg) areas were encouraged by "Old Lutheran Faith" pastors to emigrate to America to gain religious freedom from the United Church of Prussia. These pastors helped organize and guide them.
In 1843 about sixteen hundred (1,600) German emigrants in separate groups over several months left with their possessions and clothing packed into trunks and cases. Before leaving they had to apply for emigration permits and some had to acquire loans to pay for the passage. They loaded their belongings onto riverboats on the Oder River south of Szczecin/Stettin in present-day Poland where they departed for the port of Hamburg. Some headed north on the river to the ocean, nearly 700 miles around Denmark on the Baltic and North Seas to reach Hamburg. Some followed the Oder River south to the Finow Canal to the Havel River (through Berlin) and then the Elbe River to Hamburg, a trip of some 300 miles. Others bypassed the water and traveled overland to Hamburg which was shorter by about 200 miles but couldn't have been easy. Once in Hamburg, they departed for America on ocean ships. (see below)
You can also read the history of the Moll Brothers if you're interested in more detailed information about late Medieval and 19th-century Germany. The Moll Brothers' story is similar to any German immigrant's history. It is particularly close to the Kleinhans' family history since they came from the same area in Germany / Prussia and immigrated to Niagara County. Friedrich Moll was involved in the purchase of the Wheatfield property as well as Wolcottsville. (see below)
After arriving in America according to the article German Prussian Immigrants on the Niagara Frontier the immigrants then traveled up the Hudson River from NYC to Albany, NY in towed barges or more comfortable steamships if they had the money. Once in Albany, they could have taken a train or canal boat to Western NY. The cheapest rate would have meant riding on a dirty canal freight boat along with rather crude working-class men and poor conditions. Along the way, one immigrant wrote they saw rich farmland along the canal that was settled by other German immigrants from the Palatinate region over 100 years before (like the Disinger family who did have some farms near the canal).
Most of the immigrants congregated in Buffalo. With the guidance of the pastors, some decided to travel further to Wisconsin. A number of the other remaining immigrants decided to buy property in Wheatfield, NY with the help of the former Governor of New York State/congressman/ lawyer/judge/land agent Washington Hunt, a Lockport resident. They called the village "New Bergholtz" and quickly constructed a Lutheran church there. Other groups of immigrants started a community in North Tonawanda, NY called Martinsville near the Erie Canal/ Tonawanda Creek and the old Wurlitzer factory, and also in Walmore, NY just a short distance north of New Bergholtz.
Before planes, people traveled via ships. During the end of the 19th century, many emigrants traveled on iron-hulled steamships to the Ellis Island port in the United States. These transatlantic liners would carry 1900 people, with about 500 of those being employees, and about 1100 steerage passengers. The rest were “cabin class” passengers. Steerage was smelly, noisy, and stuffy, and offered limited privacy. For first-class passengers, it was a luxurious experience with saloons, ballrooms, and top-quality dining. Many Germans immigrated to America on these ships, and many steerage passengers were farmers. Before steamships, wooden sailing ships were used.
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Washington Hunt
An 1870 article about Wolcottsville from a letter written by a traveling newspaper correspondent from Rochester, NY.
►Wolcottsville: click to show/hide
On the other side of Niagara County, Anson Wolcott bought 2,000 acres from the Holland Company in 1847-48. In 1851, he sold his whole tract to four trustees, Frederick Moll, Christian Moll, Frederick Welland, and Carl Martins, who laid it out in small lots, and in 1872-73 (misreported, actually 1852-53, see newspaper article above written in 1870) seventy-five immigrant families settled there, drawing their locations by lot. In 1857, some disgruntled families left Wolcottsville and moved back to New Bergholtz, Martiansville, or Walmore. The Kleinhans family may have benefited from this departure, allowing them to settle in a previously full Wolcottsville. The German Heritage Museum in Bergholtz published three (3) newsletters about the topic from author Wilhelm Iwan's 1943 "Die Altlutherische Auswanderung um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts".
note- A recent article was published in the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal about the history of Wolcottsville.
Frederick and Ernestine weren't in the first wave of immigrants since they arrived in 1856. It's pretty clear though that they didn't just randomly immigrate here by themselves on a whim. Old Lutheran Faith pastors likely encouraged the Kleinhans/Petitjean family to emigrate, accompanied them on the way, and guided them once again after arriving in Western NY. Their biggest issue may have been finding the means to pay for it.
As a side note, Frederick, his wife, and his children may not have been literate enough to read and write letters. No Kleinhans descendants today speak German or weren't raised speaking the language. However, Frederick's church almost certainly had a pastor or members who could've helped. Once here they may have written back to their families in Germany / Prussia. According to the German Heritage in Letters website "An increasingly sophisticated and reliable postal system made it possible for immigrants to remain in regular contact with their communities, and for those who remained in Europe to share news from home. By the 1880s, more than three million letters were traveling from Germany to the United States each year."
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►1843 Prussian Church Records: click to show/hide
Below is a FamilySearch scanned image of marriage records in a Church Book from 1843 Brandenburg and Posen province, Germany / Prussia. At the bottom are Friedrich Wilhelm Kleinhans 19 and Ernstine Krüger 20, groom and bride, married on Sept 26, 1843. The groom's father is Jacob Kleinhans, and the bride's father is Friedrich Krüger, with no mother's name given. Their religion is Evangelische; the Evangelical United Church of Prussia.
The church is in the village of Trampe, municipality of Brüssow, district of Uckermark, Brandenburg Province, Germany / Prussia (see map below). Trampe is a small rural village about 10 miles from the current Poland border, 10 miles from Prenzlau (20,000 pop.), 15 miles from Szczecin/ Stettin, (now in Poland, 400,000 pop.), 40 miles from the Baltic Sea, and 60 miles from Berlin (6,000,000 pop.). Regardless of the nearby cities, Trampe is remote and isolated with little more than some houses, a church, and a bus stop surrounded by acres of farmland much like Wolcottsville. And like Wolcottsville, there are a fair number of ponds and creeks around making it ideal for hunting, trapping, and fishing.
From the village church at Trampe, Brüssow, Uckermark, Brandenburg, Germany. Click to see full image
Click to see full image
Above is a FamilySearch scanned image of baptisms in another church book from the same village church. Toward the bottom on the left is the name Johan Friedrich Wilhelm Kleinhans baptized on 23 Jul 1843, born 14 Jul 1843, father Friederich Kleinhans, mother Ernstine Krüger.
Sadly, the image below is from another church book, the same church, with Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Kleinhans listed for burial on 27 Oct 1843, 3 months after his birth.
Click to see full image
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Village of Trampe, Brüssow, Uckermark. The church is in the center surrounded by farmland and ponds with several houses and a bus stop. Frederick and Ernestine's families likely lived in Trampe or nearby. Szczecin/Stettin is 15 miles to the west. Prenzlau is 10 miles to the southeast. Berlin is 60 miles to the south.
Wollcottsville, Town of Royalton, NY. The two Lutheran churches are in the center surrounded by farmland and at least seven ponds and Mud Creek. The Kleinhans and Jago families were settled to the west on Fisk Rd. By 1875, Frederick moved near the junction of Mud Creek and Akron Rd., less than a mile off the left side of the map. Lockport is 8 miles to the northwest. Gasport, Middleport, and the Erie Canal are 7 miles to the north. Akron is 6 miles to the south, and Buffalo is about 20 miles to the southwest.
Protestant village church in Trampe, Brüssow municipality, Uckermark district, Brandenburg state, Germany. Possibly the actual church where Friedrich Kleinhans and Ernestine Krüger were married.
Brüssow coat of arms
Front of the Protestant village church in Trampe, Brüssow
Inside the Protestant village church in Trampe, Brüssow
19th century Szczecin/Stettin, now in Poland
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