Reinhold was the fourth child born to William and Bertha (Guse) Zielke. Records indicate that William was born 24 March 1843 in Pommern/Posen, Germany while Bertha was born 30 March 1845 in Poznan, Poland. This is an area that frequently changed hands belonging to Germany sometimes, Poland sometimes and even Russia at other times as my girls and I learned when we visited Poznan in 2016. Posen and Poznan, from what I've been able to decipher are the same area, which also means William and Bertha were born in the same general area. They came to America in 1865, although there was some discrepancy in family history. According to Rudolph's daughter Bernice, Bertha arrived later, in 1868, but Aunt Grace is quite certain she remembers her Grandma telling her that she and William met on the ship coming to America in 1865. Since we haven't found documentation yet to prove or disprove this fact, we decided we're going with this story; it's pretty romantic. Don't you think? Besides the romance, Aunt Grace is quite certain her grandma told her she was twenty-years-old on the ship and they were married 27 March 1868 in Chicago. That would have been a difficult accomplishment if she didn't arrive until 1868 and they had yet to meet!
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| Bertha & William Zielke |
William had two brothers and one sister that Aunt Grace knows of: Louis Zuehlke (who retained the original spelling of their last name), Ludwig and Elvina. Louis had a daughter, Minnie Mueckler who had daughter, Eleanor Rosenthal that Grace met once in the 40s. Ludwig was married to Augusta and they had a son, Gustav, who never married. Elvina had a son named William Elke. "Bill" worked in a candy factory and when he came to visit, he always brought them chocolate covered cherries! (Bill was younger than Reinhold but older than Uncle George, so he was born somewhere between 1880-1900)
We have no records (yet), but it's possible that Bertha had a brother, Paul, for whom William and Bertha named their oldest son.
William and Bertha had six children who lived: Ida, Paul, Meta (aka Aunt Mate), Reinhold, William and Rudolf* (aka Rudy). Paul died in 1928 and William died in 1945. Aunt May lived into her 90s, but Aunt Grace isn't sure if she made it to 95!
William worked in a factory sewing feed bags. Aunt Grace said that she saw him classified as a tailor somewhere, but that's a bit of a stretch for sewing feed bags! Bertha cleaned houses. They lived in Chicago until William purchased a farm in Lemont, Illinois in 1882. Everyone but Reinhold stayed clustered in that area until Argonne National Laboratory bought them out. Reinhold ventured out on his own.
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| Argonne National Labs on land originally owned by William Zielke & family |
Now, let's take a look at the Staffeldt side of the family. Carl Johann Christian Staffeldt married Johanne Sophie Charlotte Hacker on 11 November 1842. Carl was born 13 August 1816 in Grunow, Mecklenburg, Germany and "Sophie" was born 17 March 1816 in Usadel, Magdeburg Strelitz, Mecklenburg, Germany. They had five children: Johann (John), Karl, Wilhelm, Fred and Wilhelmina.
Our line of the family comes through Wilhelm (aka William), whose full name was Wilhelm Karl Johann Friedrich Staffeldt. William was born 20 December 1850 in Roedlin, Mecklenburg, Germany. He married Wilhelmine Friederike Caroline Arndt, who had been previously married to a Carsten. She was born 7 July 1852 in Usadel, Germany. William and Wilhelmine left Roedlin, Mecklenburg, Germany for the United States on 31 August 1885, 20 years after the Zielkes. They brought their oldest six children with them: Fritz (12), Wilhelm (6), Augusta (5), Louisa (4), Anna (2) and Friederika (aka Frieda, 9 mos). William and Wilhelmine lost five other children between Fritz and William, Jr) They had four more children and lost two others after settling in America: Carl, Martha, Frank and Emma. They lost four more children after Emma. I have noticed some different spellings for the girls' names, but Aunt Grace told me for a fact that she knew ALL of the girls' names ended in the letter "a."
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| The William Staffeldt Family Back L-R: Frieda, Frank, Martha, Emma, Louisa & Fritz Front L-R: William Jr, Wilhelmine, William, Anna & Augusta |
William and Wilhelmine came to America quite awhile after his brothers and parents who came between 1871-1877. Aunt Grace shared that our Great-Grandfather William was considered the "black sheep" of the Staffeldt family. While his brothers were all businessmen, William was unsettled and moved the family from farm to farm. He was also an alcoholic who was so desperate for a drink one day that he drank wood alcohol (similar to denatured alcohol which is used for removing paint or fueling small camping stoves). Drinking the wood alcohol had an immediate, life-long side effect which caused him to go blind.
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| Emma, Wilhelmine & Martha Staffeldt |
So now the Zielkes and the Staffeldts have made it to America from Germany, they're settled and the scene is set for our parents' generation! That's where we'll go in the next post of "Everyone Needs a Little Grace," but before I publish this post, I HAVE to share the following video, because this song has always touched my heart as I imagine our great-grandparents leaving their homeland, possessions, friends and family to come to America to set the stage for the life we've been blessed to live.
Neil Diamond: "They're Coming to America"
* Rudolph Zielke had three daughters and one son: Norma, Bernice, Lois & Richard
He also had two stepchildren from his wife's first marriage: Marshall & Mildred
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