QUELL Family History

Where, o where did Johann Quell come from in Prussia in 1863?

What ship did they take to immigrate to the USA?

These are the questions driving this family history research.

Johann Quell, a Roman Catholic, was born

7th or 17th (tombstone date) April 1838 in Prussia.

He married Antonia (Antonill) Laibach,

who was born on 7 November 1835.

The marriage date is estimated to be from 1856 to 1860.

Children, Fredrick L. Quell, b. 1860 and John A. Quell, b. ~1862,

were born in Prussia.

Subsequent children were born in the USA,

New York State, Rensselaer County.

There may have been other children born in Prussia.

The family left Prussia because they were Catholics

living in a Lutheran country.

Because there is a Charles Laibach, born ~1828 in Prussia,

living near Johann & Antonia in Rensselaer County, NY,

we believe he may have been a brother to Antonia.

(Elly remembers a Charlie Laibach visiting her parents.)

Break through!

Per the 1870 census, a Charles Leibach,

living in Poestenkill, NY gives his birth place as

Hesse-Kassel / Hessen-Kassel / Electorate of Hesse / Kurhessen.

Using an internet Germany telephone directory,

the town of Hünfeld, north of Fulda,

shows 10 Quell's and 10 Laibach's living in the area.

An Email from an archeologist, working on a small parcel of land in Troy, NY, where Valentine Quell lived in 1880, stated:

both parents were born in Fulda.

A possible route of leaving Prussia is via the Main and Rhein Rivers,

and then leaving from Rotterdam or Antwerpen

to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

A family story has the plot that Johann and Antonia

changed their last name to "White" or "Weiss" to leave the country.

Work in progress! Stay "tuned" for further developments.

We plan to write the Catholic Church in Fulda to see if they have

a marriage record and birth records for this family.

Do a google search with "dioesesan archiv Bistums Fulda Gen Wiki"

Having fun with genealogy, Walt Bruetsch