Our German Immigrants: The Pfeil family - Part 1

Here's a post for my Gardner and Pfeil cousins, and those of us descended from William Gardner (born about 1861 in Germany) and Elizabeth Pfeil (also born in Germany).  This family has always interested me because I always like an immigrant's story.  What is more adventurous than choosing to live a new life in an unfamiliar place where you may not even speak the language?  And back in the days where it was very unlikely you'd ever return to your first homeland and the people who were most dear to you.  That must have taken a tremendous amount of courage, but it's how we all ultimately are here in America today.

I have had very different success with learning about our two original German immigrants in this part of the family.  William Gardner, or originally Wilhelm Gartner as he was probably known in earlier days, is currently a bit of a brick wall in my research.  I know little about his exact origins or parents, and I plan on go into more detail about what I do know in another post.

I can paint a much richer picture of his wife Elizabeth Pfeil (aka Elisabetha) and her family.  From their original home in Germany to their lives here in the US.  So I start with their story first:

Elizabeth Pfeil was my great-great grandmother.  She was born in or near Adelshofen or Eppingen in Baden, Germany on 26 February 1861, one of twins.  Her twin brother's name was Heinrich Pfeil. We know this because I located their christening record in microfilm from an old German church archive graciously translated for me by a German acquaintance.

Their births were recorded at the time of their baptism, the latter which took place on 10 March 1861.  Their parents were Ludwig Pfeil (born 1828) and Elisabetha Frank (born 1828).

The same set of records were a goldmine of information.  They also revealed the twins' family members, including their parents' birth and baptisms.  And a few siblings: older brother Anton Pfeil (b. 1859), younger sister Maria Pfeil (born and died shortly after in 1869).  Youngest sister Rosine Pfeil is missing from the records.

I was curious to learn more about the town of the family's birth and christening.  Adelshofen can be easily found through a simple web search.  It was a small village in Baden, Germany located near to (and now incorporated within) Eppingen.  Here are a few photos from the town including the town hall and a typical street.  I am uncertain about which particular church the family belonged to.  There only seem to be a few but need to do some more research to confirm.  This is definitely a place I would love to visit one day to get a feel for what the family's lives must have been like.

The family must have sought new opportunity (I imagine), as many families did in southern Germany at the time.  Ludwig, at least the time of Elisabetha and Heinrich's birth, was working as a "coachman".  For whatever specific reason we see that young Elisabetha left for America in 1885 and would be followed just a few years later by her family.  Elisabetha arrived 26 September 1885 in New York on a ship called Die Werra.  She can be found in the ship's passenger record, which is where I obtained the information.  On an interesting side note, my grandmother claims to have had a chest or trunk stored away in the past, which had the words "Die Werra" on it.  Until I found this passenger record, I had no idea what the words meant.  I have yet to have had the opportunity to look for the trunk to see if there is other identifying information on it. (UPDATE: We found the trunk!)

Image of the Die Werra taking from Ancestry.com

I know nothing about Elisabetha's life those early years, but find record of her once again in 1890 when she marries William Gardner (aka Gartner).  Here are their marriage records:

By then, several of Elizabeth's family members had joined her from Germany.  We find record of their immigration in ship's passenger records on 23 May 1888.  On the ship are her parents Lugwig and Elisabetha, her brother Anton and his probable wife Susana and their probable small children Heinrich and Elise.  We also see a 9 1/2 year old girl named Emma Pfeil who I am not certain of the identity.

The family would go on to settle in Chenango County, New York, where Elizabetha Pfeil (now a Gardner) and her husband William were as well.

More on the Pfeils and Gardners and their lives here in Part 2.