Sempsrott/Semsrott/Semsroth - Surname Saturday

My husband's grandmother Naomi's maiden name was Sempsrott.  At some point she had given my husband a family tree that covered the years from 1829, when his great great grandfather Frederich Albert Sempsrott was born in Germany, through 1947 when the trail ended.  After we retired to Florida in 1992, my husband came across the paperwork once more and we decided it was time to do something to document the family history.  It seems that their mother, Anna, feared they would be drafted into military service and so she put them on a ship bound for the United States.  Family legend reports that two brothers, Frederich Albert and Johann Heinrich were stowaways on a ship that left Berlin and they ended up in Cincinnati, Ohio.  From Cincinnati the two brothers traveled to southern Illinois settling in Jasper County.  At some point probably in the 1870s, Johann and his family moved to the Covington, Kentucky area while Frederich and his family remained to farm in Jasper County, Illinois.

This family is one of many which has variant spellings to challange the genealogist.  Some of the variations have included Simperoot, Samscrott, Samesroth, Sempsrote, Sompcrott, Semprote and Samsrott.  In Germany the name appears as Semsrott.  Some have traced the name back to Asendorf, Germany in 1583.  This is about the time Sweden invaded northern Germany.  If this is true could the Semsrotts be descendants of the Sammen (Swedes)?  Still working on this line as every spelling needs to be checked out.

11 September 2001 - My Experience

I was at work that Tuesday morning and got a phone call from my husband who had just returned home. He walked in the door and turned on the Today Show just as the first plane hit. He called me since he knew our office would have no knowledge of the event. At first everyone thought it was just a terrible accident. Then the second plane hit. Shock and horror were setting in rapidly. Stunned disbelief can best describe my emotions. Then the Pentagon was hit. I knew immediately that we were at war!

Since I worked at a moving and storage warehouse, most of our crews were out on deliveries. There were no radios other than the dispatch radio in the trucks. I got on the radio and told our crews what was happening and said "We are at war!"

That night after work, we watched the towers fall over and over again, along with everyone else in the country. All of us were looking for something, anything to explain what had happened.

All air travel was grounded. My husband and I were to have gone to Germany on September 12. I wasn't afraid to fly, but there were no planes flying for several days. Finally on Saturday the
, we were allowed to board a plane for Germany. By chance we had chosen to use a German Airline originally. We had to go to Tampa to get the plane. I don't think the smaller airports, like Ft Myers, had the desired security yet. Security was so tight in Tampa that the man in front of us set off the alarm by having a foil wrapped stick of gum in his pocket. The crew on our plane had been grounded in the States for the past week and I'm sure they were very anxious to get home.

We landed in Germany on Sept 16. The Frankfurt airport was well populated with armed soldiers watching everyone. Our granddaughter Brigid didn't wait for us to get there. She arrived on Sept 14, 2001. We almost made it in time!


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Genabloggers - Church Record Sunday - Scandanavian Records

Copy of a Swedish Household Inventory from Quidinge, Varmland circa 1855.

I have both Norwegians and Swedes in my sights as I work on my genealogy.  As such I have found the Church records of both Norway and Sweden to be extremely valuable in my research.

Christening records indicate  the names, ages, and residences of the parents.  Godparents (usually relatives) are also listed.  Both birth date and Christening date are indicated.  Careful observation may yield even more information.  For instance I had noticed that in my Great-grandfather's Christening record his mother's name was written before his father's name.  On further checking it was determined that this indicated that his birth was illegitimate.  That is why I could never find a marriage record for his parents.

Marriage records show birth date, place of birth,  residence at time of marriage, parents names, witnesses, occupation, and when vaccinated. 

Other church records might include a household inventory, which like a census shows every member of the family.  It also includes year of birth, and where someone moved to if they left the family.

I have also found German and Hungarian records to be valuable and meticulous.  If only the Irish records hadn't all been held in thatch roofed cottages that burned!

Surname Saturday - The Burbachs

I always knew my grandmother Henrietta was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI and that she was of German heritage. What I didn't know was that her father was born in Germany and immigrated with his parents in 1856. In all the censuses the family faithfully said that they came from Hesse-Nassau. That helped me find the immigrant records from Hesse-Nassau and that gave me the date and village that Georg and Catherina Burbach left with their 2 sons, John and Hermann. It was from the village of Villmar.

The church records from Villmar revealed that Georg Burbach (born in Oberselters) married Catharina Caspari in Villmar and they had three sons born there. Adam (b 1849 - d 1854 Villmar), Hermann (b 1852 Villmar - d 1896 Milwaukee, WI), John (b 1854 Villmar - d ? Milwaukee), George (b & d 1857 Milwaukee, WI), Helena (b 1868 Milwaukee, WI), and William (b 1870 Milwaukee, WI).

Exploring the Oberselters church records shows that the prolific Burbach family (George was one of 11 children) were farmers and remained in the village for over 100 years before they began to emmigrate. At this point I can go back to 1756 when Johan Jacob Burbach married Helena Mueller in Oberselters. On the marriage record Johan Jacob said he was born in Oberselters in 1713/1723. Guess I'll keep looking for him - it's an unsolved mystery.