Who am I? It's a question I've asked myself on many occasions and for a number of different reasons. I'm sure many people ask themselves this question as well. Recently it's been a question I've pondered from a genealogical sense.
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| Germany 1885 |
I've always been fascinated with history so it isn't surprising that I'd find my own family history equally as interesting and something to explore. As a child I remember hearing about the German people who had come to America to settle and start their family...my family. I was always enamored with the idea of someone leaving their entire family behind and making the trek across the ocean to America. For some reason those two people, my grandfather's grandparents, were really all I considered when thinking about where I came from...and I was proud of my German heritage although I really knew nothing about them.
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| Karl "Charles" Struck |
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| Wilhelmina "Minnie" Struck |
Karl and Wilhelmina Struck left Germany for America in 1885. Their ultimate destination-Oakley Michigan. I often wonder why someone would leave Germany to make their home in Oakley. If you've ever been there, I'm sure you'd wonder the same thing. But from what I can understand, there was a thriving population of German Lutherans in the area and they came here to join that community.
They built a community there in Brady Township and helped to build the German Church which stood on the corner of M-57 and Hemlock Rd. This church was established in 1888 and sat in that same location until 1991 when it was moved to the Corunna Historical village. I grew up just 1 1/2 miles from this church and the lighted steeple was a beacon in the distance always lighting the way home. In my lifetime, there were many baptisms, marriages, and funerals of family members in that church.
Charles and Minnie had 6 children-three girls and three boys-who were all born and raised Brady Township not far from where they would have arrived in Oakley. And their children stayed in the areas close to where they had grown up-most of them marrying and raising families of their own. And that little church was a major part of their lives.
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| Charles Struck |
My great-grandfather, Charles Struck, was their third child and the oldest boy. I remember how he walked with a hitch in his step and that he was so hard of hearing that you had to basically yell for him to hear you talk. I also remember him singing O Tannenbaum in German to us one Christmas morning. He was my direct link to my Struck German heritage, but while he was alive, I was much too young to realize just how much knowledge and family history he could have shared with me. As I get older, I reflect and wonder how many stories he could have shared with me about our family. It really is a shame that we don't appreciate sooner those in our family who could provide us with so much information.
Over the last several years, I've done a lot of family research and set up an ancestry.com account to build my family tree and most recently, I even sent in my ancestry dna kit to see what I can find. It's amazing what you can find online now to trace your roots back many many generations. This German branch of my family is just a small part of who I am. I've found some really interesting people in my lineage and I've discovered a lot more German heritage and quite a lot of Irish heritage as well. I can't wait to see what I discover through the dna test as well.
But no matter how much information I have, for some reason, these two Germans and their lives continue to intrigue me more than anyone else in my family tree.
