RODEKOHR ANCESTORS

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THIS AND THAT

 

This page last updated: 12 September 2007

RODEKOHR ANCESTORS is my attempt to record the history of the my family using original research.  This is not an attempt to write a complete history of my family that includes every descendant. 

My research for other than direct line ancestors, in most cases, follows a direct ancestor's sibling no further than their marriage and children, and usually ends with the first or second generation of that line.  To avoid a major duplication of verbiage  a direct line wife's story after she marries is continued in the web page of her husband. 

To respect the privacy of my living relatives, I try not to include that relative nor his/her siblings whether they are alive or not.   If you find your name and don’t want it to be published, please contact me

Where there are conflicts of information, it has been presented so that the reader may draw their own conclusion, which may be different than mine. 

Research is presented for the benefit of future  researchers so they won’t have to retrace the same path.  I have attempted to give accurate source information for each statement made.  For the most part, the sources have been given in their entirety with no attempt to abbreviate them when they are repeated.  This is for the benefit of future researchers, so they don’t have to hunt for the source, and, as research continues, the insertion of new material may void an ibid and abbreviations.  Some of my early research lists only the source and not the text within the source.  This will be corrected as I have time.  

Often, a lead has been followed from another researcher’s information and, where it has been corroborated through my research, the corroborative source has been used.  Credit is given to other researchers information when used.  Where there are numbered footnotes with no information following, it is to remind me that further research and documentation is needed. 

Spelling of names and places have been left as found in the original document. 

All names are entered in bold so that they stand out from the rest of the text.  Surnames of relatives are CAPITALIZED while surnames of non relatives are not.  The exception for this is when a relative is mentioned in a quotation. 

If errors are found, I encourage you to contact me so that the errors may be corrected.  Additional information is welcomed, but please include source information.

Within the website.  Only relatives and possible relatives are listed in the Surnames or Given Names Indexes.  Words in blue are hyperlinks. Click on them to go where they direct you

CLARK:  This whole genealogy thing started with John CLARK, born 1740.   After my father died in 1984, I received a box of things from my step-mother.  In it, was an application to the Daughters of the American Revolution for John CLARK, born 1740. made by an aunt.  It stated that John, born in Rhode Island, was in the 4th Militia of Westchester County, New York.  After three years of researching this and my RODEKOHRs and finding nothing, out of frustration, I put it away until after I retired.  In 2002, I started again and found that John was not born in Rhode Island.  Through Ancestry.com message boards, I found other researchers of John.  I found that there were a half dozen people researching John, so we formed a Clark Cousins e-mail group and shared information.  One of these cousins, Liz Cornish, is almost as obsessive as I am when it comes to genealogy.  We have developed a close relationship over the last five years and communicate by e-mail at least weekly .  Liz lives in Livingston County, New York and runs the Livingston County, New York GenWeb site.  She also has started her own genealogy web site John Clark 1740-1818Liz has done a lot of footwork all over New York on the CLARK family as well as for my WHITE family, that the  CLARKs married into in 1844. 

PAYSON The PAYSONs married into my WHITE family in 1883 .  The RUSSELL family married into the PAYSON family in 1848.  While researching the RUSSELLs, I met, on-line, Pat Taylor of Whiteside County, Illinois, a cousin that is researching the RUSSELLs,  who provided a lot of help with the PAYSONs  and RUSSELLs in Illinois.  A special "Thank You" goes to Pat for information she found that led to the breakthrough of my PAYSON brick wall.  

German Research:  I neither speak, read nor understand, German, but with the aid of German dictionaries, "how to" books and translation software, I have made, at least for me, an acceptable translation of German church records from Gothic script to modern German to English.  Every attempt has been made to be accurate but I am sure mistakes have been made.

German church records began, in some areas of Germany, as early as 1524, and were kept by the parish priest or pastor, depending on the religion of the ruler at the time.  Records were kept in church books (kirchenbücher) of births (Geburtsregister), or, more than likely, baptisms (Taufregister), confirmations (Konfirmationregister), marriage or marriage banns (Heiratsregister), and deaths (Totenregister), in chronological order.  These are considered primary records as they were made when the event occurred.   At a later time, a compilation of these records was made in the Family Register, (Familienregister), by numbered page, usually listing the male head of family, his wife(s), their parents and children.  These are secondary records.    Many of these records were microfilmed and are available through the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon Church) and may be searched through their website  or at their local Family History Centers.

 When searching through these old German records, we are at the mercy of the pastor that made the entry, in the way he spelled the surname, often phonetically, and in his structure and style of handwriting.  Surnames in Germany were not necessarily common until the 1500’s.  Surnames may be spelled differently over time, but by comparing entries of different records over the decades, a family pattern develops.  I have indexed a person under the surname as it was listed in the earliest record found for that person, and then show the variations as they were written in later records.

PRAEUNER is the maiden name of my Grandmother, Rose (PRAEUNER) RODEKOHR.  I started my PRAUNER research after several years of researching my English/Irish half (my Mother’s side) and my RODEKOHR (Dad’s) quarter. 

On the internet, I found Praeuner Descendants and Early Präuner Ancestors by Cousin Richard HOOVER of Pasadena, California.  I then located my German Cousin, Ernst PRÄUNER of Wüstenau, Germany, the Grandson of Johann Friederich PRÄUNER, born 1842, the brother (that stayed in Germany) of the immigrants, Rosina, John, and my Great Grandfather, Carl PRAUNER.  Ernst provided me with a direct line descendant chart of Wustenau PRÄUNERs.  With these names and dates, I located the sources that were used for their information on microfilmed German church records and found more PRÄUNERs on other microfilms, that I went through page by page.  Richard HOOVER continues the lineage to the present day, and I encourage you to visit his web sites to see his information.

The PRAUNER name has been spelled in various ways: Breuner, Preuner, and Prauner, with the umlaut, (two dots) placed over different vowels at different times, and will be spelled as found in the original records  In some instances, the change in spelling was kept by the ensuing generations, either intentionally as a way to identify the different lines of the same family, or because they were illiterate at the time, and used the Pastor’s spelling when they had to record their name in later generations.  This may have led to later generations not knowing that they are related.  As well as the known variation of our name, there are also the following names recorded in the 1600’s of families living in the same area as out PRÄUNERs that may or may not be variations of our original family: Brauner,  Braunger, Bremmer, Brenner, Breumer, Brumer, Bruner, Brunner, Praenner, Praner, Pranner, Praunger, Prenner, Preunner, Prunner.    

RODEKOHR:  My RODEKOHR information is a compellation of research by other RODEKOHR genealogist and my original research.  I have used information from copies of RODEKOHR ANCESTRY, Compiled June, 1968 by Mrs. Carl W. (Lola Margaret TIEDGEN, deceased) RODEKOHR, formerly of Cheyenne, Wyoming; RODEKOHR FAMILY HISTORY 1991, by Artie (RODEKOHR) SUMMERLIN of Tucker, Georgia; DESCENDANTS OF JOHANN CHRISTIAN OETTING Family File, Compiled by Gary LANGEWISCH of Pasadena, California langewische@aol.com ,  provided 29 August 2004; JOST RODEKORD DESCENDANT REPORT and correspondence with cousin Wolfgang RODEKOHR of Detmold, Germany, and his cousin (and mine), Klaus RODEKOHR, Hannover, Germany (they are Great-Great-Great Grandsons of Johann Heinrich RODECOURT, b. 1774, the brother of my Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Johann Christian RODECURT, b. 1765.  Klaus has shared his research of Jost RODEKORD , b. 1550, through the children of Johann Carl Julius RODECOURT, b. 1738 and continuing through his line.  Without the research and generosity of these people, this would have not have been possible.

BRACKMANMost of the information that I have on the BRACKMANs in Germany, I received from Richard D. BRACKMAN rdbraqckman@sbcglobal.net, on 16 June 2005. which included a copy of the research by Jens Müller-Koppe, Historical  Research  Services, Schanzendorfer Str. 9B, D-28307 Bremen, Germany, hrs@hist.de, Research Report LXXV/63171/04 (Brackmann/Gömann), 11.10.2004.  Most of the information that I have on the BRACKMANs in America comes from Gary LANGEWISCH, Langewisch File, FTM, Descendants of Johann Heinrich Brackman, Gary Langewisch  Langewisch@aol.com. 29 Aug 04

Compiled by Edwin Charles (Chuck) Rodekohr
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