Carrie was born 2 June 1840 in (then) Charlottenwerder, Kreis Rosenberg, West Prussia, which is now Redaki, Poland. Redaki is a very small village about 90 miles / 140km south of Gdansk.
I wrote several posts of my search through maps and microfilms for my Prussian ancestry. Here are a few if you wish to read my process. Otherwise, I am skipping right along to the DORK's.
Seriously, genealogy is fun for me, but when I work on the DORK family, I cannot help but smile!
Carrie's parents were Gottfried PAPKE and Augustine or Augusta FETZKE. I have yet to get back farther on her parent's lines, nor do I know their marriage date. They did have at least three other children: Augustine, who married Carl WALDOWSKI in Charlottenwerder, and Gottfried and Wilhelm, who both died as young children.
Carrie married Carl DORK on 14 August 1859 in Charlottenwerder. Carl's parents were Gottfried DORK and Anna Maria PODANN. Carrie and Carl had all of their known children in Charlottenwerder:
- Carl Herman
- Augusta
- Wilhelmina
- Johanna
- Maria
- Otto Carl *my line
- Rudolph
What became of husband Carl is a mystery I have not yet solved. I did not find his death record in any of the microfilms I have reviewed so far. I do know that in 1882 on the ship Braunschweig, Carrie and all of her younger children left West Prussia and landed in America.
I learned a lot and have more to learn:
- Caroline is listed as the traditional head of this group, but no Carl is found
- On the second page, there was a surprise: Auguste PAPKE, Carrie's mother!
- I do not know who the 5-month-old Otto is
- Carl her husband and Carl her son are not on this ship, but son Carl does end up with the family in America
Carl the younger would have been about 22 years old at the time of this emigration, plenty old enough to go on his own ahead of the family. I know that Auguste was obviously on the voyage but have no other records of her in America...yet. My supposition is that both Carrie's husband Carl and her father Carl died, so the rest of the family left for America.
On this ship list, I found three other family names that all settled in the same area of Lansing, Ingham, Michigan with the DORK's: RIEMANN, SCHIFRANSKI, and SZCZPANEK. This 'group migration' is a very interesting topic, one I hope to explore in later blog posts.
Carrie lived to see six of her seven adult children marry and have grandchildren. Carrie died on 15 March 1900 and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lansing.
On this ship list, I found three other family names that all settled in the same area of Lansing, Ingham, Michigan with the DORK's: RIEMANN, SCHIFRANSKI, and SZCZPANEK. This 'group migration' is a very interesting topic, one I hope to explore in later blog posts.
Carrie lived to see six of her seven adult children marry and have grandchildren. Carrie died on 15 March 1900 and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lansing.
© 2014 Sally Knudsen
