Paul Schnake of Portland, Oregon sent a gedcom of his branch of this Schnake line. A gedcom file can be read by any good genealogical program--PAF, Family Tree Maker, Family Origins, etc. You can down load his gedcom if you will click here.
Following is a partial translation of Eden Seminary records on Karl Friedrich Ferdinand Schnake. I teach at Webster University, which shares a library with Eden Seminary just across the street. I called the seminary and inquired about Pastor Schnake's records there. Someone there photocopied this record and sent it to me by interschool mail. The name of the book or source was not given. The obituary is on Page 4, and at the top it says "Der Bote Aus Emmaus" (The news from Emmaus). -Webmaster
In Memoriam
must we sadly write of the following bad news:
---------------
(picture)
Pastor Karl Friedrich Ferdinand Schnake, born 17 May 1860, died 15 July 1824,
Below the picture it repeats most of the information in the English version from the Evangelical Herald about the different positions that he held. The quotation in his own words in the second column reads as follows:
"I was born on 17 May 1860 in Tengern, Kreis Lubbeck, Wetsphalia**. During my confirmation ceremony, I had one passionate longing, to be an evangelical preacher. Pastor Weihe recommended me to Pastor F. v. Bodeschwingh in Bielefeld, to become a pastor to the Germans in America. With joy I was accepted into the Brotherhood "Nazareth" in Bielefeld. Here I started with my studies for the service in the "innere Mission" (Inner mission means pastoral care within Germany). Here began my preparation for service in the American mission. In 1884 I was sent to Harlem, Holland, to take position ministering to epileptics. In this work God gave blessings and success, and the opportunity came to me to become a housefather, but the wish to become a pastor in America was so strong that I did not accept. In the summer of 1886 I was sent to America to continue my studies at the Theological Seminary near St. Louis."
(He goes on to outline the rest of his career, as described elsewhere.)
**"Kries" means "Circle" and is the same as a county here. Each Kreis goes by the name of the administrative center, or "county seat"; thus "Kreis Libbeck" would be "County Lubbeck". This is the next county to Kreis Minden. Kreis Minden is where many Schnake records and the possible original Schnake farm is found.
Letter from Roy Johnson to Paul Schnake
June 19, 1995
Paul Schnake 2122 SE 55th Ave Portland, OR 97215
Dear Paul,
This letter will go out to two Pauls, so the salutation was easy.
I have new information about your ancestor Karl Friedrich Ferdinand Schnake. I am an adjunct professor (fancy word for part-time instructor) at Webster University, which is adjacent to Eden Seminary and shares a library and other facilities. I called Eden and learned they have an archives department. I contacted them to get information on Rev. Schnake, and they sent me an obituary in German from their files. I am sending it to you.
The first paragraph tells of his illness and stay in the hospital in some detail. Then comes the important part as far as new information is concerned (underlined in the article):
Pastor Karl Friedrich Ferdinand Schnake was born on 17 May1860 in the so-called Ravensberg Land as the son of Christian parents Ferdinand Schnake and Louise, born Kottmeier, inTengern [town], Kreis [county] Luebekke, governmental region Minden, province Westphalia, then kingdom of Prussia.
I assume Tengern means where he was born, not where Louise Kottmeier was born. At any rate, we now have definite proof he was from this area.
The rest of the article traces his career, which you know, and the last part gives names of survivors, etc. It says also that he had surviving relatives in Germany, but does not give names.
I have an old book from the 1920's named "Minden-Ravensberger Land" which explains that Ravensberg was one of the smallest principalities in Germany in the middle ages, when Germany was a hodgepodge of tiny independent states with no central authority. It joins Minden on the south. In 1719 they were joined as one administrative district, which accounts for the notation "governmental region Minden." I have been unable to find a map of exactly where the border is, but Bergkirchen, Unterluebbe, and the areas of our Schnakes are in Kreis (county) Minden, but Tengern and the other areas are not. Minden was both a "county seat" and a district center. So he was born in the Minden district but not in the Kreis [county] of Minden.
This strengthens the hypothesis that he was connected to the Schnakes that I found in the emigration records. Remember that the naming pattern was the same, and now we know that the specific area is also the same. To review the evidence:
I found these Schnakes in the emigration records, as getting permission to leave the Minden area. Permission to emigrate was required, and the records on these grants of permission are excellent.
Schnake, AM Caroline Louise, North America, 1884. p. 337 Brother Carl Heinr Brother Carl Fr.
Schnake, Carl Christian Ferdinand, North America, 1891 p. 286 Next, Rev. Norman Rahmoeller, of whom I wrote previously, found the listing for Carl Christian Ferdinand Schnake in the town of Schnathorst. You can see that it is near the areas mentioned in Rev. Schnake's obituary. The naming patterns of Carl and Ferdinand are consistent. Note that Rev. Schnake's mother was Louise Kottmeier, and the above group has a Caroline Louise, maybe named after her mother. Do you know anything about his brothers and sisters? Could he have had a brother Carl Heinrich and a sister A.M. Caroline Louise? Have you ever heard of a Carl Christian Ferdinand Schnake?
Rev. Schnake's wife, whom he married in America, was from Huelhorst.
Tengern is the other town in question, mentioned in the obituary.
Note how all of these towns cluster just south of the Unberluebbe-Oberluebbe-Rothenuffeln-Bergkirchen cluster that was the homeland of Doris's ancestors.
My theory is that the Schnake name may have originated at the one house in Unterluebbe, since that is the oldest recorded Schnake that we now have, then over the next three hundred years they drifted out to the other villages in the area. The connection between the different Schnake families may go back several hundred years, but I believe there must be such a connection. They certainly all seemed to know each other and end up in the same small town in Illinois as their starting point in America.
If you ever get a chance to go to Germany or do original research, I believe the parish church in Schnathorst would be the place to start. I don't know a lot about when the E & R was set up--I saw only Lutheran churches when I was there, and in the old days, I think everyone was required to attend. The church in Schnathorst is the parish church for that area, as Bergkirchen is for our Schnake area. When we were there, the Bergkirchen church had all the records for every person in the area.
I hope this material is useful to you. I'll leave it to you to spread the info to Dick Schnake in Indianapolis and the rest of your clan. If you know anything else about your ancestor--siblings, for example--that would be helpful to me in case I run across anything. Also, as I contact other Schnakes, I would like to be able to check to see if they are already in the files. To this end, I would appreciate it if you could save your computer files as a GEDCOM on a disk, and send it to me. At present, I am unable to return the favor--I do not have all of our Schnake branch entered in my computer as of yet. I'm spending too much of my time researching the historical side!
Regards,
Roy W. Johnson 463 Dickens Ave. Kirkwood, MO 63122 (314) 821-0924
Subj: Re: Genealogy Date: 96-10-28 16:55:37 EST From:aes7907@kcpl.com (Schnake Gene) To: royjNOSPAM@webster.edu (Rjohn9)
Roy Thank you. I received the information the same day you sent your E-Mail. I'm sorry it takes me so long to respond. The picture is exactly like one I have. Two of his sons were educated at the Eden Seminary. Paul Schnake and Alfred Schnake. Then Paul's oldest son Paul was also educated there, I believe. Thanks Gene ---------- From: Rjohn9 To: aes7907 Subject: Re: Genealogy Date: Tuesday, October 15, 1996 9:15PM
Gene--the Schnake material is in the mail and you should have it by now. However, I found one thing that I may have left out. It is a partial translation of the article on Rev. Schnake that has his picture. I have it in my computer, so I will paste it in below in case you didn't get it in the packet:
---Roy
========== In Memoriam
must we sadly write of the following bad news: --------------- (picture)
Pastor Karl Friedrich Ferdinand Schnake, born 17 May 1860, died 15 July 1824,
Below the picture it repeats most of the information in the English version from the Evangelical Herald about the different positions that he held. The quotation in his own words in the second column reads as follows:
"I was born on 17 May 1860 in Tengern, Kreis Lubbeck, Wetsphalia**. During my confirmation ceremony, I had one passionate longing, to be an evangelical preacher. Pastor Weihe recommended me to Pastor F. v. Bodeschwingh in Bielefeld, to become a pastor to the Germans in America. With joy I was accepted into the Brotherhood Nazaretho in Bielefeld. Here I started with my studies for the service in the oinnere Missiono (Inner mission means pastoral care within Germany). Here began my preparation for service in the American mission. In 1884 I was sent to Harlem, Holland, to take position ministering to epileptics. In this work God gave blessings and success, and the opportunity came to me to become a housefather, but the wish to become a pastor in America was so strong that I did not accept. In the summer of 1886 I was sent to America to continue my studies at the Theological Seminary near St. Louis.
(He goes on to outline the rest of his career, as described elsewhere.)
**"Kries" means "Circle" and is the same as a county here. Each Kreis goes by the name of the administrative center, or ocounty seato; thus oKreis Libbecko would be oCounty Lubbecko. This is the next county to Kreis Minden, which is where many Schnake records and the possible original Schnake farm is found.
Subj: Schnake Date: 97-12-13 20:15:58 EST From: dhoecker@neo.lrun.com (dhoecker) To: royjNOSPAM@webster.edu
Dear Roy,
I am probably a distant, distant cousin of your wife. I was surfing this morning and decided to check out family names, and ran across your excellent SchnakeNet. Congratulations on your fine work!! I am a descendant of your chain number 11, but some of our family information is different from yours. This will get a bit long, and a bit of our family belief as to the history is alightly different from some of what your chain 11 shows.
To start our family's knowledge, we have only the names of Ferdinand Schnake, born in Germany, who married Louise Kottermeyer, also born in Germany. Note slightly different spelling of Kottmeyer/ Kottermeyer. These are the parents you refer to in an obituary of Carl. We show that they had a son Carl, born in 1860. Carl with a C is doubtless our Americanized version. Our records show that Carl emigrated in 1886, and came to Femme Osage, MO, near St Louis. He married Anna Catherine Louise Struckmeyer, who was born 2/21/1869 in Westphalia. We do not know when she emigrated. Carl did study at Eden Seminary, and was the second minister at the Evangelical Church in Femme Osage. He married Anna on 10/24/1889. This is doubtless the person referred to as Catherine Struckmeyer in your listing. Carl and Anna(as we know her) had Alfred, Hedwig, Hulda, Emil, Reinhardt, and Paul Carl. Alfred and Paul Carl also studied at Eden Seminary and both became ministers in the Evangelical Church, later Evangelical and Reformed, now United Church of Christ. I am a grandson of Paul Carl, I know where his descendents are, and we also know the whereabouts of the descendents of Alfred. We do not know any of the descendents of Hedwig, Hulda, Emil or Reinhardt. Paul Carl was born in Femme Osage 8-16-1890, so you see he was the oldest, born just 10 months after the marriage. He married Anna Louisa Kleinau (good German name), and served churches in Illinois and Cincinnati. He and Anna died in an automobile accident in southern Ohio on 12/30/1957, the day after he retired from the ministry. Their children were/are Paul, Ruth (my mother), Robert and Richard. Robert has died, but the others survive. Paul is not the same as Paul William Schnake mentioned in your listing, as this Paul lives in Belleville WI. Paul also became a minister in the Evangelical and Reformed Church, but did not study at Eden. My mother, Ruth, married Vernon Hoecker, and they live in Indianapolis, where Richard also lives. The Hoecker side of the family came from Osnabruck in the 1880's to Cincinnati. In another coincidence, my father also studied at Eden Seminary and is now a retired minister from the United Church of Christ. I have one brother, Mark, and I am married to Susan Ameling, whose ancestors come from the Hanover area. We have two children Sarah and Paul, age 22 and 20 respectively.
You mention that Paul William Schnake of Portland OR has a family history. I presume he is a descendent of Hedwig, Hulda, Emil or Reinhardt. If you could put me in touch with him, I would appreciate that. I tried a couple of on-line address listings and could not find him, although I did find a Kent Schnake in Philomath, OR. My parents have some additional history that compiled by Alfred Schnake's wife, Edna, before she died. It is handwritten and I'll have to get a copy if you are interested. Let me know.
David Hoecker 5248 Wood Trail NE Canton OH 44705 dhoecker@neo.lrun.com ------------------------------------- Name: dhoecker E-mail: dhoecker <dhoecker@neo.lrun.com> Date: 12/13/97 Time: 9:56:02 AM
Important links:
I wrote a beautiful song for the 50th wedding anniversary of my in-laws 20 years
ago. It is now available on CD and I havae set up several Internet sites to sell
it. Go to any of the following:
Golden Love site at
http://goldenlove.att.net
Golden Love site on SchnakeNet
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake/goldenlove.htm
Golden Love site on Pace Network
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pace/goldenlove.htm
Golden Love on FortuneCity
http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/cern/1343/ or
http://www.nav.to/compu-tutor1
Main site http://goldenwedding.net
Rick Schnake has an interesting hobby/part time business. He collects
and sells authentic historic signatures on original documents. He has US
Presidents and many other historical figures represented. Why not check
it out?
Rick's main site at "http://www.historyinink.com"
Mirror site on Schnakenet
at
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake/HistoryInInk.htm
Mirror site on Pace Network
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pace/HistoryInInk.htm