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Emigrants arrival

Belgians in America

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Sources

Biography :

Xaverius Droesbeck (from Waterbury). Before coming to America, Xaverius Droesbeck was residing in England were he was married at Chelsea (London) in January 1859. His wife, Maria, was a dress maker born Little Hampton, Sussex. They lived in Marylebone (London) at 24 Norfolk Street. In that England census it was stated that Xaverius, a boot maker, was a naturalized British subject born in Grammont, Belgium. I don't know what happened but his wife was still living in England the years later, at Islington All Saints, London, with her daughter Minnie born about 1861. The last trace of them is the death record of Minnie who died at East Preston on October 1872 at the age of twelve. 

No trace of his arrival in the States before his enlistment at Waterbury in Connecticut and, after the war the first trace of him is in 1880, anew a married man, 50 y.o., a shoemaker with wife Hannah, 45 y.o. born New Jersey. He stated being born Belgium from a French father and Belgian mother. 

He anew moved away as in 1890 he was living in Washington DC, still a shoemaker, while is wife was living in Atlantic City, New Jersey, stating being a widow. In May 1891, he was admitted at Hampton, Virginia in the Soldiers' Home, giving no relative, stating being a single, and suffering of rheumatism. He went from Home to Home till his arrival in December 1901 at Sawtelle. In the 1900 census, when he was in the Ohio Soldiers' Home, he stated being born in July 1827, both parents born Belgium. He left the Home on September 21, 1903 and there is no further trace of him.

Sources :
Pacific Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Santa Monica, California