The Families of Bob & Nila Frei

The Gerken Family of
Bob & Nila Frei

Gerken Obituaries

Here I am trying to accumulate any obituary related to the Gerken family of Henry and Engel (Poppe) Gerken of Mulsum, Niedersachsen and Bridgeport, Michigan. If you have access to any obituaries which should be included here, please send them to me so I can post them for all to find. If possible, please include the source information and information on where it can be found. Gerken Obituaries

Gerken Family Found
In Mulsum Archives Hinrich and Engel (Poppe) Gerken brought their young family to Bridgeport, Michigan from Mulsum, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) in 1865. The Gerken family had been recorded in the Mulsum Parish, Stade District for over 200 years at that point. Many of Engel's family were also in the same area. I have traced her parents, and identified her grandparents, but I have not associated her family with the rest of the Poppe family which also lived in the Mulsum area for 200 years.
   Henry, as he was known in this country, was killed when a tree fell on him just 5 years after arriving here, while clearing land for his farm at the Bridgeport - Buena Vista township line on the west side of Portsmouth Road. He was buried in the Bethel cemetery on Dehmel Road between Baker and King in Frankenmuth. The old Bethel Lutheran Church there is long gone, but the cemetery remains, though no stone marks Henry's grave. Engel placed a stone near her own grave in the Pine Grove cemetery in the village of Bridgeport in memory of Henry and of their daughter, Catherina, who died in 1875. Catherina is probably buried under that monument, but it is likely that Henry remains buried at the Bethel cemetery.
   Engel eventually married Adolph Cordes in 1880. As it turns out, Adolph's family also came from Mulsum and had figured prominently in the local records for over 2 centuries. Many other Bridgeport and Buena Vista families (the area east of Saginaw and west of the "Franken" communities) were also from the Mulsum parish. These include Schumacher, Dieckmann, Ehlers, Meyers, Poppe, Dankers, Steinmetz, Hettrich, Polzien, Bremer, Mueller, Kartz, Ahrens, Schultz, Fehrmann, Neumann, Schroeder, Meinecke, Hoeft, Dingman, and many more.
   I have just begun my research on these families -- many thanks to Diane McCartney (a Shomacker descendant) for telling me about a single book which abstracts centuries of Mulsum parish records. That book, with the ponderous title "Ortssippenbuch Mulsum II im kreis Stade Niedersachsen" by Dr. Hans Sarninghausen is available on microfilm at Family History Centers of the LDS Church.

HEY!!! You're not going to leave without saying hello, are you?
Please email - we really want to know everyone who looks at this page. We
are interested in information on ALL of the descendents of ALL our ancestors.

bfrei@ejourney.com

Site designed and maintained by Bob Frei, Beaverton, MI - last updated on 2/11/2002

FastCounter by LinkExchange