Tag: Peter Joseph Hubert Fassbender

A Trip Home

Kaiser Wilhelm der Große

In late 1898 or early 1899, 60-year-old Peter Fassbender returned to Oedekoven for a visit. He made the trip with his friend and neighbor, Joseph Tennie. Not much is known about this trip, but what we do know is gleaned from the return trip passenger list, manifested on Ellis Island, March 7, 1899. For the manifest Peter states that he is a naturalized citizen, he had been in the U.S. for 43 years, he was in possession of a ticket all the way back to Appleton, Wisconsin, he had paid for his own passage, and that he was currently in possession of more than $30.00. [1] All of this is true, having been verified by other sources, but the passenger list goes on to ask the following questions: Ever in Prison or Almshouse or supported by Charity: No, Whether a Polygamist: No, Condition of Health, Mental and Physical: Good, Deformed or Crippled, Nature and Cause: No. While I believe his statement of “No” to all of these questions was a true answer, would anyone actually answer these questions with a “Yes?” Well, other than if there was an obvious deformity, as that could not be hidden.

What I find most fascinating about this trip, is the ship that he chose to return home on the Kaiser Wilhelm der Große. The ship was built for  Norddeutshcer Lloyd by AG Vulcan Shipyards. The ship, named for his grandfather, was launched by Kaiser Wilhelm I, on May 4, 1897. It was the first ship to have a four funnel design, which for the next decade represented size and safety. It consumed 560 tons of coal per day.

In 1898, traveling at 22.5 knots, it was the fastest merchant ship in the world, carrying 24% of the First Class passenger revenue on the North Atlantic to New York.

The ship which was top-heavy, was known as “Rolling Billy” by her regular passengers. She could hold 332 First Class passengers, 343 Second Class passengers, and 1.074 in Steerage.

In 1913 the ship was rebuilt to carry Third Class passengers only, and when the First World War broke out, she was requisitioned and turned into an armed cruiser. The Kaiser was sunk August 26, 1914 off of Rio de Oro, Africa.

What I find confusing about this passenger list, is that it seems to go on forever with no organization. I cannot tell (yet) what class of passenger he traveled as. I cannot believe that he would have traveled steerage, but there is not clear statement of class of passenger noted on each page. More work will need to be done to figure this out, but in the meantime I found this really cool YouTube video with many images of the ship. Enjoy.

SOURCES:

  1. Ancestry.com, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957 (Digital image by subscription, Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com), from National Archives microfilm T715), Peter Fassbender entry; Kaiser Wilhelm der Große Passenger Manifest, 7 Mar 1899, page 9 line 15, T715; roll 50. Cit. Date. Oct. 2002.

It’s a Google World

It is hard to remember the internet without the term “Well just Google it!” What a difference it has made in our lives, and in our genealogy.

I recently began working on a revised edition of my book about the Fassbenders, and one sleepless morning I attacked the pages of the book that chronicle their lives in Oedekoven, Germany. It had been a few years since I had Googled Oedekoven, and wanting to beef up the early history section of the book, I started an intense Google search. Knowing the Fassbenders had been Roman Catholic for “as far back as can be traced,” [1] I was looking closely at the history of the Catholic church in the region. My morning Google search showed me that the small chapel built in Oedekoven in 1756 was only large enough for private prayer, so regular church attendance in 1856 still occurred at St. Lawrence in Lessenich. This confirmed why all of the baptism, marriage and death records were recorded in this nearby village. Wikipedia, translated from its German page, gave me an insight into the chapel, now called St. Mary’s Marriage.

1904 St. Mary's Marriage

Later that morning as I was heading down to our lower level, I stopped on the landing to look at a chalk drawing that I received from Peter Fassbender’s grandson, Arthur. The drawing was done in 1904 by an unnamed cousin of Peter’s. Looking at the drawing I let out a gasp! For up in the hills sat the exact chapel that I had been learning about during my Google morning.

If you haven’t Googled an ancestor’s homeland in a while, do so, I bet you will be amazed at what has been uploaded since you last searched.

SOURCES:

  1. Commemorative Biographical Record of the Fox River Valley Counties of Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago, (Chicago, Illinois: J. H. Beers. 1895), 571.