Other Online Resources

• Descendants of John Gerhard Sudmeier - This Family Tree Maker site contains information about the descendants of William and Elizabeth (Sudmeier) Gerken. William was a son of Herman Gerken and an uncle to Tom's grandfather Ewald Gerken. Elizabeth Sudmeier was William's first wife. The link takes you to page 22 and the information about the Gerken branch of this family continues on to page 25.
• Descendants of Herbert Johann Willenborg - This Family Tree Maker site contains information about the descendants of William Henry and Ida Elizabeth (Diers) Gerken. William was a son of William and Carolina (Wuebbelt) Gerken, Carolina being William Gerken's second wife and William being a son of Herman Gerken and an uncle to Tom's grandfather Ewald Gerken. The link takes you to page 6 and the information about the Gerken branch of this family continues on to page 8. Information about the descendants of Bernard "Ben" and Amalia "Molly" (Gerken) Willenborg are also part of the same Family Tree Maker site. Molly was a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Sudmeier) Gerken, Elizabeth being William's first wife. The link takes you to page 45 and the information about the Gerken branch of this family continues on to page 47.
• Descendants of Bernard John Gerken - Branch of Francis Xavier (F.X) Gerken family. F.X. Gerken was a first cousin to Tom's great-grandfather Henry Gerken.
• Descendants of William Pape - by Andy J. Mack. William Pape was a half-brother to Tom's great-great-grandmother, Mrs. Herman (Maria Catherine Schulte) Gerken. Both the Papes and Gerkens emigrated from Germany to New Vienna, Iowa, about the same time in the 1850s.
  Descendants of William Pape (Interne Tree).
• Descendants of Johan Hoenkamp
  Descendants of (--?--) Kramer
  Descendants of Wernicke KROGMAN
  All three of these webpages include Hubert Gerken and Henry Hugo Gerken. Hubert, incorrectly named Herbert in the family trees, was a brother to Ewald Gerken (Tom's grandfather). Henry Hugo Gerken was a son of William Gerken (brother to Henry Gerken and Ewald Gerken's uncle).
• Descendants of Joannes Fridericus Scheiffers - Tom Steichen's genealogy includes Anna Maria Elisabeth Reimann, daughter of Conrad and Anna (Gerken) Reimann. Anna Maria Elisabeth Reimann married Joannes Hermann Schaefer, and their descendants are distant relations to Tom Larson's branch of the Gerken family. Ancestors of Thomas J Steichen is his base genealogical page.
• James Crea of Idaho -- Descendants & Relatives - includes Gerken relations, information as found at the Ancestry World Tree site listed above.
• The John Meis Family Home Page - Some of the Meis family are steprelations to the Gerkens. M. Catherine (Schulte) Gerken, Tom's great-great-grandmother and Herman Gerken's wife, was a half-sister to Wilhelm Pape, who married Margaret (Happe) Meis.
• The Emil F. "Mickey" Meis III Family Home Page - includes the Meis and Pape families.
• The Engling Family Home Page - This family history includes Tom's brother Steve Larson, whose wife, Cathleen Larson née Ruff, was a granddaughter to John Jacob and Bernadette (Brimeyer) Engling.

• Mr. and Mrs. Ed Gerken - Click to read an announcement about the fiftieth wedding anniversary of Ed and Lyn Gerken of Amarillo, Texas (picture included). Ed Gerken was the son of William Henry Gerken, who was a brother to Archbishop Gerken and a first cousin of Tom's grandfather Ewald Gerken.
• Elmer Gerken obituary - from the Denver Rocky Mountain News. Elmer Gerken died on January 31, 1999. Elmer was a first cousin of Joan (Gerken) Larson, Tom's mother. Elmer was the owner of Gerken's Church Supply.

• Township Plat Maps, Dubuque County, Iowa - 1874 and 1906 maps already online; 1892 still to come.
  • 1874 New Wine Township Plat Map, Dubuque County, Iowa - find the location for the H. Gerken (east of Dyersville) and C. Pape (southeast of New Vienna) farms.
  • 1906 New Wine Township Plat Map, Dubuque County, Iowa - find the location for the Wm. Gerken (east of Dyersville) and Louis H. Pape (southeast of New Vienna) farms.
• Photographs in the 1906 Township Plat Book, 28 pages of Black and White Family and Individual Photos, Dubuque County, Iowa.
  • Citizens of New Wine Township, Dubuque County, Iowa, 1906 Plat Book, Page 183 - page of photos.
  • Citizens of New Wine Township, Dubuque County, Iowa, 1906 Plat Book, Page 184 - page of photos, includes F.X. Gerken, a first cousin to Tom's great-grandfather Henry Gerken.
  • Combined Views of St. Boniface Congregation, New Wine Township, Dubuque County, Iowa, 1906 Plat Book, Page 185 - includes Rev. F.W. Pape, a first cousin to Tom's great-grandfather Henry Gerken.
  • Citizens of New Wine and Prairie Creek Townships, New Wine and Prairie Creek Townships, Dubuque County, Iowa, 1906 Plat Book, Page 186 - page of photos.
• The Steichen 2000 European Trip - Tom Steichen's trip included Hegensdorf, Germany, our Gerken ancestors' home.
• Woonsocket, Sanborn Co., SD - 1909 Business Directory - includes John E. Gerken, a first cousin to Tom's great-grandfather Henry Gerken. Woonsocket, Sanborn Co, SD History - index includes the John E. Gerken family.
• Saint Peter and Paul Church, Richmond, Minnesota - centennial history (1856 to 1956) of this church in an area settled by Germans, some of whom had passed through New Vienna, Iowa, including the Schaefers, relatives of the Gerkens.
• Dyersville and New Vienna Immigrants from Steinfeld/Oldenburg - Südoldenburger Auswanderer ab 1845 in Iowa. Stephan Honkomp (stmuck@aol.com) of Steinfeld have published in "JAHRBUCH für das Oldenburger Münsterland 1999" about immigrants in Dyersville and New Vienna from "Oldenburger Münsterland" particularly of Steinfeld.
• DECEASED PRIESTS OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF DUBUQUE, 1833-2002 - includes the Reverends Leo Gerken, William A. Kunkel, Frederick W. Pape, and the Reverend Monsignor William A. Pape.
• DELAWARE COUNTY 1869 PLAT MAP COLONY TOWNSHIP - includes land owned by "H. Gerkin" = Herman Gerken.
• DELAWARE COUNTY 1869 PLAT MAP BREMEN TOWNSHIP - includes land owned by "A. Mullenkamp" = Anton Mullenkamp, who married Herman Gerken's niece, Anna "Maria" Elisabeth Ostwald.
• Kramer Funeral Home - This funeral home, with parlors in Dyersville, Monticello, and Holy Cross, has begun posting obituaries online.
• Henry Schumacher, a brother of Tom's great-grandfather George Schumacher, who in turn was father to Anna (Schumacher) Gerken, Tom's grandmother.
• St John's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Ashford, New York, where Tom's great-great-grandparents Martin and Theresia Schumacher and other Schumache relations are buried.

Archbishop Gerken was a first cousin to Tom's grandfather Ewald Gerken. Prior to becoming the archbishop of Santa Fe, he was the first bishop of the Amarillo diocese.

• Handbook of Texas Online: GERKEN, RUDOLPH ALOYSIUS.
• Handbook of Texas Online: AMARILLO, CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF.
• GERKEN, RUDOLPH ALOYSIUS (1887-1943).
• AMARILLO, CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF.
• AMARILLO, TEXAS.
• CATHOLIC FAMILY SERVICE - Amarillo, Texas.

• Butterfly Creek Winery and Vineyards - Visit the winery operated by descendants of John E. Gerken of Woonsocket, South Dakota.
• Mission to Nicaragua - Click for Don and Sharon Gerken's Mission to Nicaragua, a teaching and social ministry to the people of Nicaragua and Central America. Don is one of Tom's first cousins. Click here for the Centers of Hope, the mission they founded.
• Saint Francis of Assisi Church - Fr. Tim Reker, a grandson of Hubert Gerken and a second cousin to Tom, is pastor of this parish in Rochester, Minnesota.
• Crown Moulding & Door Co. - Click for the Crown Moulding & Door Company of Corona, California, which is operated by Tom's brother Steve Larson.
• Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration - Sister Ewalda, sister to Ewald Gerken and great-aunt to Tom, was a member of this order based in La Crosse, Wisc.
• Don Gentner’s Home Page - Fellow genealogist and distant relation of Tom's through the Schumacher line.
• Patrick Scully - a second cousin of Tom's.

• Argyle, Wisconsin.
• Grant County Genealogical Society.
• The Dyersville Area Historical Society.
• Home Page: Dubuque County-Key City Genealogical Society.
  • Book Catalogue: The Dubuque County - Key City Genealogical Society.
• Die Geschichte von Hegensdorf - in German.
• Siddinghausen Online - in German.
• Minnesota Historical Society.
• Wisconsin State Genealogical Society: Lafayette to Lincoln Cos.: Wisconsin Cemetery Inscriptions.

• RootsWeb MetaSearch (Gerken)
• Gerken Message Board - at Ancestry.com
• Gerken Family Genealogy Forum - GenForum site
• Gerken - popularity of the Gerken surname