Haberstroh Genealogy Page, The

Last Updated : 19 Oct 2015

Welcome to . . .

The Haberstroh Genealogy Page

You're apparently interested in genealogy, and the name Haberstroh may be of special significance to you. If so, our internet contact could - and hopefully will - lead to a mutually beneficial exchange of family history information.

If you are a male surnamed Haberstroh, your particular Haberstroh line - the direct paternal line formed by you, your father, his father, etc - is uniquely specified by your Y-DNA. Please consider joining the Haberstroh Surname Project at Family Tree DNA. The goal of this surname project is to determine biological connections between Haberstroh lines throughout the world via Y-DNA profiles. To join the project you must first order a test kit to determine at least 37 markers of your Y-DNA. If you live in Europe you may find it more convenient to order the kit at iGENEA, the European affiliate of Family Tree DNA. A link to my own Y-DNA profile can be found at the bottom of this page.

A Milwaukee-born American now living in Germany, I have - together my wife Helga - traced the ancestors of my great-grandfather Christian Haberstroh back to Germany, where they lived in the southwestern German states of Baden and Württemberg.

My great-grandfather

emigrated to the USA about 1850, and founded a family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At emigration the Haberstroh family lived in Diefenbach, a small town in Württemberg located between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart.

Christian's siblings

and Eberhardina's husband and son also came to America in the 1850's. With the exception of Johann David, who died upon arrival at New York, they all settled in Port Washington, Wisconsin, where Catharina Barbara and Heinrika Christiane married immigrants from Germany, Heinrich Pauli and Christoph Kraus, respectively. The Pflüger's had at least 3 more children there, the Pauli's just one daughter before Heinrich died in 1871. The Kraus's had 9 children in Port Washington before moving to Milwaukee, where the 10th was born in 1879. We're attempting to trace the development of these families; can you perhaps help us? The present state of our research can be viewed by clicking on the daughter concerned.

Christian's mother

arrived in New York in 1853 on the ship carrying her children Catharina Barbara, Heinrika Christiane and Johann David (Eberhardina and her family arrived there in 1856). We feel that she also may have lived at least briefly in Wisconsin with her daughters, but with the exception of the arrival record no reference to her has been found in the USA.

German records indicate that Christian's older brother

emigrated to America before 1853. No trace of him has been found in the USA, but there is evidence that he probably emigrated to Chile in 1852.


Haberstrohs with Roots in Dürrn

Before coming to Diefenbach in 1791 my Haberstroh ancestors lived in Dürrn, a small town near Pforzheim on the boundary between Baden and Württemberg. The first known recorded reference to Dürrn was in the year 1240. The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) devastated the area; about 70% of the inhabitants perished. The French wreaked similar havoc about 40 years later. For this reason the church records in Dürrn only date back to 1691. Those church records indicate that there was only one Haberstroh family in Dürrn after the Thirty Years War, that of Johann Michael Haberstroh (1650-1733) and his wife Anna Elisabetha nee Schimpff (-1694). It is not unlikely that ancestors of Johann Michael also lived in Dürrn, since lists of Leibeigene in Dürrn for 1567 and 1585 contain many Haberstrohs. The Leibeigene - perhaps translatable as serfs - were in this case persons in bondage to the monastery at nearby Maulbronn. This serfdom, which was transmitted through the mother, was of a mild form in southwestern Germany. Similar lists for 1685 contain no Haberstrohs. Ancestors of Johann Michael, if they lived in Dürrn, may or may not have been serfs. On the other hand, Johann Michael may not have settled in this depopulated area until after the Thirty Yeas War. Johann Michael and Anna Elisabetha (Schimpff) Haberstroh had 3 sons, who founded Haberstroh lines which still exist today, one of which is my own. Haberstrohs with roots in Dürrn can presently be found in Germany, the USA, Russia, the Ukraine, South Africa and Argentina.

In the case of the following Haberstrohs with roots in Dürrn who came to America, we're looking for information on their descendants, and would much appreciate any help you can provide.

  • Johann Carl Haberstroh (Haverstraw), a cousin of my great-grandfather, emigrated from the town of Horrheim in Württemberg to the USA in 1854. He settled in Plymouth, Indiana, where he had several children in 2 marriages. Johann Carl changed the family name to Haverstraw in Indiana. Descendants of his sons Charles William, John Henry and Christian Fred have been found.

  • Two brothers, Ferdinand and Christian Gottlieb Haberstroh, came to America from Dürrn in 1869. Ferdinand emigrated with the consent of his wife, who remained in Dürrn. Details in chart 1.

  • Gottlieb Haberstroh emigrated to America from Dürrn with his wife and 2 sons Johann Jakob Elias and Karl Friedrich in 1869. Gottlieb returned to Dürrn alone in 1870. See chart 2 for details.

  • Both Wendel Haberstroh and Michael Haberstroh emigrated from Dürrn in 1744. Wendel went to Pennsylvania, and Michael probably also came to America.

There are 2 Haberstroh lines in the Ukraine and Russia, the Nikolayev line and the Odessa line, which are named according to the region in the Ukraine where the immigrants first settled. They were founded by these Haberstrohs, who emigrated from Dürrn to the Ukraine about 1819:

  • Georg Adam Haberstroh founded the Nikolayev line. The members of this line later changed their surname to the Russian form Gabestro.

  • Johann Jacob Haberstroh founded the Odessa line. The members of this line later changed their surname to either Gabershtro or Gabersto.

While the Odessa line maintained strong connections to German customs and traditions, the Nikolalev line assimilated and became Russian. Because of its stronger German element the members of the Odessa line suffered particularly hard times under Stalin. Many members of the Odessa line returned to Germany after WW2, and several emigrated to South Africa.

About 2006 Sergey Gabestro, a Moscow businessman who is a member of the Nikolayev line, commissioned 2 Russian genealogists, Michael Katin-Yartsev and Andrey Schumkov, to research his surname line and publish the results in a book. Lilli Haberstroh, who is a member of the Odessa line who returned to Germany, also contributed data on the Odessa line to the book. The book, "Family Haberstroh in Russia" (St. Petersburg, 2010), is almost entirely in Russian, but with the assistance of Michael Katin-Yartsev and Lilli Haberstroh, I have been able to add the records in the Nikolayev and Odessa lines to our English-language database whose link is found at the end of this page.


More German Roots

Helga and I have done considerable research on the families of all of my great-grandparents; they were, in addition to Haberstroh, surnamed Klug, Jensch, Porth, Unke, Böse, Neufeldt and Bulau:

  • Christian Haberstroh, (1831 - 1882), the father of my paternal grandfather, was born in Diefenbach, Württemberg, Germany. We've traced the Haberstroh direct line back to about 1650, and some other lines back to around 1520. Of the other lines that of Christian's mother, Catharina Barbara Fazler, has been documented particularly thoroughly. The Fazler family is a very old Diefenbach family.

  • Friedericka Klug (1843 - 1914), the wife of Christian Haberstroh and the mother of my paternal grandfather, was born in Prussia, probably Pomerania. We unfortunately have not yet succeeded in finding German records for the Klug family, and thus our information in this case only goes back to about 1810.

  • Wilhelm Jensch (1841 - 1887), the father of my paternal grandmother, was born in Bosenheim, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. Bosenheim is now a part of the city of Bad Kreuznach. We've traced the Jensch direct line back to about 1760, and some other lines back to around 1650.

  • Maria Anna Porth (1845 - 1880), the wife of Wilhelm Jensch and the mother of my paternal grandmother, was born in Gappenach, Mayen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. We've traced the Porth direct line back to about 1610 in Gierschnach, which is near Gappenach; the data for some other lines goes back to around 1530.

  • Hermann Unke (1846 - 1932), the father of my maternal grandfather, was born in Storkow Busch, Neustettin, Pomerania, Germany. We've traced the Unke direct line as well as some other lines back to about 1755.

  • Wilhelmina Böse (1846 - 1930), the wife of Hermann Unke and the mother of my maternal grandfather, was born in Eschenriege, Neustettin, Pomerania, Germany. Our information on the Böse direct line and on some other lines starts about 1820.

  • Ferdinand Neufeldt (1850 - 1917), the father of my maternal grandmother, was born in or near Blumfelde, Berent, West Prussia, Germany. Our information starts about 1780 for the Neufeldt direct line, and around 1750 for some other lines.

  • Henriette Bulau (1851 - 1932), the wife of Ferdinand Neufeldt and the mother of my maternal grandmother, was born in or near Gillnitz, Berent, West Prussia, Germany. We've traced the Bulau direct line and some other lines back to around 1785.
All 8 great-grandparents came to America between 1848 and 1884. With the exception of Maria Anna Porth, who was Catholic, they were Lutheran (German: evangelisch).

I've written 3 family histories dealing with the genealogy of 6 of the above persons:

    A History of the Unke Family
    A History of the Neufeldt Family
    A History of the Jensch Family

The Unke history deals with the ancestors and descendants of Hermann Unke and Wilhelmina Böse.

The Neufeldt history treats the ancestors and descendants of Ferdinand Neufeldt and Henriette Bulau.

The Jensch history is about the descendants of Wilhelm Jensch and Maria Anna Porth. It presents little information on ancestors and only conjectures about where these families originated in Germany, since it was published (1996) before the German records were known to us.

The 3 histories are present in the following libraries:


My wife and I have also researched the families of her parents, Friedrich Heinrich Otto Güthenke (1900 - 1982) and Else Güthenke née Krieger (1908 - 2004), families which have lived for centuries in Westphalia, Germany. The Güthenke genealogy goes back to about 1635, that for the Krieger family back to around 1680.

Database:

    Haberstroh/Jensch/Fazler/Porth/Güthenke/Krieger/Unke/Neufeldt
    Salient features: comprehensive information on Haberstroh/Gabestro/Gaberstro/Gabershtro from Dürrn, Jensch from Bad Kreuznach, Fazler from Diefenbach, Porth from Gierschnach, Güthenke & Krieger from Westphalia, Unke from Pomerania and Neufeldt from West Preussia.

    The Unke Genealogy Page highlights those Unke families which emigrated to the USA.


Robert Haberstroh *1935
Bonner Logsweg 37
53123 Bonn
Germany
my email
my record
my Y-DNA and Haplogroup
Chart Overview
[ chart 1 | chart 2 ]

[key words: Haberstroh/Pflüger/genealogy/emigration/Germany/Württemberg/Baden/Neufeldt/Unke/
Jensch/Porth/Haverstraw/Milwaukee/Wisconsin/Diefenbach/Dürrn/Plymouth/Indiana/Fazler/Güthenke/
Krieger/Gütersloh/Westphalia/family history]