"I can tell by the line of my great-great grandfather Heinrich from Bendingbostel that nobody else decided to leave Germany. His brother, Dietrich (born 1860), who also worked as a stationmaster, lived in Visselhoevede, had five children - four daughters and a son, Wilhelm Heinrich, born 1883. That son, Wilhelm (later also known as "Dutch Bill") followed the others to Ohio and married Katharina Spoering in 1911. It is possible that he emigrated to avoid the draft. Maybe he was allured by the stories of the new life of his aunts, uncles and grandparents in Ohio. I can only guess.
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| August 1929 - L to R: Heinrich Tietje and wife Mary, his brother Herman and wife from Ohio, then Heinrich's family - Emma and her husband, Hinrich Hoops and their children, Hertha, Arthur and Hilda and then Heinrich's sons and their wives - Heinrich, Gustav and Karl |
I read in Kate's story that Wilhelm was said to be very strict to his adopted son, and he and his wife, Kate, had been very religious. I don't wonder about it because I heard from my mother and grandmother that Bill's father's brother (my great-great grandfather Heinrich) had been very strict to his children in the same way. So my aunt Hertha told, when they visited Heinrich in Bendingbostel, they had first to pray: "Komm Herr Jesus, sei unser Gast und segne was du uns bescheret hast" or "Jesus, sei Dank fur* Speis und Trank." The translation is "Jesus, thank you for food and drink." And after praying and before they started with eating, he shouted, "Hands under the table," and they had to eat with one hand, which was so difficult.
Every Sunday he and his wife went to church. Sometimes they went by coach to the church of Visselhoevede and met the family of Dietrich Tietje, Bill's father. And if a child had done something stupid, he did not show mercy and they were locked into the dark and cold cellar, sometimes for hours. I think that Bill's father could have been strict to his children in the same way.
Wilhelm's sisters were younger and their names were Elfriede, Else, Emma and Marie. Elfriede became a nurse, married a man name Minister, and lived in Ottersburg. Else married a man named Todter* and lived in Blankenese. Emma married a Brunkhorse who worked on the railroad in Rotenburg. She had no children. Wilhelm's sister, Marie, married Paul Freitag, a baker in Rotenburg. They had two sons - Paul, who also became a baker, and Hans, who died at the age of 42 at a horse race.
I made some investigations about my immigrated great-great-great grandfather, Hermann Hinrich Johann Tietje whom I already mentioned above. He was born on March 7, 1835 in Verdenermoor. This is his real name at birth and there are original documents in the churches of Kirchlinteln and Wittlohe where he had belonged. In America they called him Johann Heinrich Tietje and his wife, Maria Schwiebert and they are the same persons. Sometimes his name is written with the additional name of Kohler*,because this is the name of his father, Johann Hinrich Kohler. It is presumed that this man is his father, who lived together with his mother, Margarethe Tietje. Maybe they got married; there are different sources. He had no sisters or brothers, but a lot of cousins."
* needs an umlat and I couldn't get blogger to do that!
This story first appeared on another of my blogs in September, 2011.
