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My Stalmanns from
Oldenberg, Germany
Posted
Sunday, January 11, 2009
I found this 1995 column I wrote when I
worked for the Chamberlain-Oacoma newspaper and wanted to share. barbara
I have always wanted to get to Germany (Baken
Vechta, Oldenberg) from whence my Stalmanns came. Spelling
changes for immigrants happened when they landed in America and we could
not communicate with them, so we wrote their name as they spoke it resulting in
the surnames being "soundexed." Just a little trivia I thought I would throw out
for whomever.
My great-grandfather, Clement
Stallman, came to America in 1879. My grandfather, Clemens Anton, was the first
American-born Stallman (Roselle, Iowa, 1881.) Prior to that, Franz Joseph
Schelle and his family came over from Kreis, Paderborn, Germany in 1857. My
grandmother, Anna Mary Schelle Stallman, was born in 1880, at Breda, Iowa. Clem
and Anna married in 1900 and settled at Reliance in 1910.
My most extensive family
research was on the Stallman side. It was so interesting doing the research
because people you have never ever heard of slowly become familiar. The hardest
part for me was the repetition of names. For instance, we have Clemens, Clement,
Clementina, Clementine, Victoria Clementina, Mary Clementina, Tena (another
Clementina,) Theodore Clement and T.C. (another Theodore Clement.) As I was
getting acquainted with all of these people on my tree, I would separate them by
code names to keep them apart. Also on our tree are scads of Bernards and
Bernadinas and Heinrichs and Henrys, such as Heinrich Bernard and Bernard
Heinrich, etc. I even found a Sister Barbara Stallman on one of the Theodores'
branches. But enough of this.
After Victoria passed away
and I was working at her house one day, going through the thousands of cards
that had been kept since 1900 (when Grandma Stallman started saving her cards,)
I pulled down another box and it was full of cards, I thought, "oh no, not more
cards," as I brushed my hand across the top. One envelope popped up out of the
stack. It said Roselle, Iowa on the return address side. Inside were
baptism, immunization, birth and marriage records of my great-grandparents from
when they came to America! What a find! Now I had to get to Germany! Gotta find
those Stalmanns!
In the meantime, I had met a
cousin who was also working on the family history and we shared everything we
found. She
found a German contact and things started happening for us. We now have
information on those Stalmanns and know that
there is a hectare of land over there that has been in the Stalmann family since
1665, or thereabouts. I want to walk that
land. I want to go to the cemeteries and find some of those Bernards and
Clementines! My dad was a Theodore, Uncle Ray was a Clement, we have a Henry, my
great-grandmother was Mary Bernadina.
I have three grandchildren
and one great-grandchild and all I ever wanted was a
Theodore or Theodora. It could be called Teddy or Teddi, couldn't it? I wasn't
into genealogy way back there when I was a-birthin' babies, so my chance to name
one of my children Theodore(a) was a missed opportunity.
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