Kruse Family from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany Homepage

Kruse Family from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany
By: Frederick C. Kruse III
Mecklenburg Coat of Arms
State Arms of the old Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
 See my Kruse Family Tree at RootsWeb WorldConnect Project
Kruse DNA Testing Tree using atDNA on Ancestry

See the KRUSE Y-DNA Project.  See Project Goals We have 18 Kruse DNA Tests Results
Find your KRUSE Family deep ancestral origin and connect with other KRUSE families worldwide. 

 Hello and welcome to my Kruse Family website.  My earliest known Kruse Ancestor, Marcus Kruse , my 6th great grandfather, was born about 1635.  My first known Kruse immigrants were children of Johann Joachim Kruse, my great grand uncle, John, Fred, Minnie, and Sophia.  John's family sailed from Hamburg to Quebec in 1853, Fred's family and Minnie on the clipper ship John Bertram in 1857, and Sophia on the John Bertram in 1858.  They first migrated to Wolcottsville, near Buffalo, New York.  Then John's and Fred's families moved to Belle Plaine, Shawano County, Wisconsin in 1866.  Following in 1869, on the steam ship Allemannia, were two more Kruses;  my 2nd great grandmother, Maria Jenning Kruse and family, and Johann Joachim Kruse and family, along with a Schroeder and Thode families, and a Lehmann.  Maria Kruse's family settled in Chicago, Illinois, and Johann's family in Belle Plaine.  Then my 2nd great granduncle's, Joachim Kruse's, family came on the ship Lessing in 1884 and settled in Des Plaines, Cook County, Illinois.  The Kruses were from Selow, Reinstorf, Klein Belitz, and Viezen, of the old Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany.  These small towns are in far northeastern Germany between Schwerin and Rostock, in Landkreis Güstrow, or 100 miles northwest of Berlin, in the German State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.  Church records, from the Neukirchen parish built in 1233, date back to 1660.  Please contact me if you have family from the old country of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
 Mecklenburg-Schwerin Parishes Photos | Old Kruse Family Pictures
Photo Gallery of Belgium and Germany Trip | Trip Highlights Text | Quick Time Movie Neukirchen Church
History of my Kruse Family | Wedding Picture Great Grandparents | Neukirchen Church Records
  Neukirchen Church History | Ship Records for S.S. Allemannia | Illinois Documents
Neukirchen Region Photo Gallery | Old Photographs | Old Oldsmobile Dealership Pictures | Kruse Database

 
Fritz in front of Neukirchen Church - Sept 2001
Neukirchen Parish of my Kruse forefathers in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania - Photo 2001
Researching the following German surnames
Schroeder, Thode, Lehmann, Jenning, Koppelmann, Juerss, Sommer, Lange, Adrian, Bahr, Bruhn, Benick, Buller, Dopp, Dau, Engel, Freytag, Fick, Fritz, Hintz, Hinze, Koepke, Knaack, Krohn, Koop, Kruael, Lapp, Martens, Moeller, Papenhagen, Pantz, Peterfeld, Randt, Sass, Scherpelz, Schmidt, Schulz, Sellmann, Sievers, Siewert, Stampe, Thielck, Trinde, Wichmann, Willert and Wittenburg.  To view, see the index for these family surnames.
  Marie Sommer Kruse found in Wilhelmine, Brandenburg, Germany
Marie Amalia (Emilie) Sommer, my great grandmother, thanks to many good friends help, was found in Willmine, or called Wilhelmine in the older records, in Kreis Uckermark, of Brandenburg, Prussia, now of the current State of Brandenburg, Germany.  Willmine is near the churches of Gerswalde and Gross Fredenwalde, or about 50 miles north northeast of Berlin.  She married John Kruse, my great grandfather in 1884 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Chicago.  The ship "Konprinz Friedrich Wilhelm" arrival record shows she came over with her cousins family on 21 March 1882 with August Sommer, his wife Emilie Wendt, and 2 children, August and Wilhelm.  The Kruses moved to Fifth Avenue, now currently Wells Street and worshiped at St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church on Dearborn Street.  Marie Sommer Kruse died on 25 April 1934 and was buried at Concordia Cemetery.  See the Marie Kruse History Page for the church book archives, ship records, death certificates, Chicago home, and a Kruse History timeline. 

  Kruse and Related Families in Belle Plaine, Shawano Co., Wisconsin
Includes Kruse, Schmidt, Buller, Adrian, Retzlaff, Krumbach, Lange, Knaack, Tornow, Peters, Stroinsky, Zimmer, Goltch, Haley, Hughes, Anderson, Elhert, Heling, Heidke, Degener, Fischer, Trump, Jehle, Force, and Scott familes.  Most of this family has been located in Belle Plaine, Wisconsin.  Click here or see the index for these families.  See the St. Martin Church Page.

Kruse and Related Families in Des Plaines, Cook Co., Illinois
Includes Kruse, Hintz, Wichmann, Schroeder, Ladendorf, Bray, Alten, Boesch, Bruescher, Stamm, Storm, Williamson, Butenschoen, Peterson, and Moss familes.  These Kruses are of my great great granduncle, Joachim Kruse and Elisabeth Wichmann Kruse's children.  They were from Wokrent, near Viezen, of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The actual Ship Manifest shows the steamship Lessing arrived from Hamburg at New York on 10 November 1884.  They settled in Des Plaines, Maine Township, Cook County, Illinois.  Many are buried at the Maine Cemetery.

Kruse and Related Families of West Chicago, DuPage Co., Illinois
Includes Kruse, Hilgendorf, Dannenberg, Kramer, Glasshagel, Huwald, and other families. These Kruses are of my 3rd great  grandfather's brothers children, Joachim Heinrich Kruse.  Grit Ende, researcher in Rostock, found that Joachim was born in 1766 at Steinhagen of the Kirch Mulsow Parish.  More importantly, his father, or my 4th great grandfather, was Christian David Kruse who married Charlotte Frantz of Kirch Mulsow in 1763.  These new findings now link several other previously unlinked Kruse Families to my Ancestral line.  Peter Kruse, Joachim's son, born in 1807 at Juergenshagen, married Charlotte Schult in 1837 at Satow.  He immigrated about 1853 probably through Quebec to Buffalo, New York with his 3 kids, then probably to Cottage Hill, now Elmhurst, DuPage Co., Illinois about 1856.  His older brother John and family immigrated in 1854 and to York Center, DuPage Co. by 1860 but we cannot find Peter in any U.S. census. Two of Peter's kids were confirmed at Zion Lutheran Church in Bensenville.  In 1869 son John Kruse worked on Wells Street in Chicago as a Section Foreman.  Could this be why my great grandfather, John Kruse immigrated to Chicago in 1869 and later lived in a house on Wells? They were 2nd cousins. Peter's son, John, then moved to old Turner Junction, now called West Chicago, near Wheaton, DuPage Co. and worked for the Chicago and Galena Railroad.  From this family, Frederick Kruse was born in 1874, and his old house was left to the West Chicago Historical Society and named the Kruse House MuseumArlene Kruse, now a newly found cousin, had been looking for many years for the origin of Peter and his family.   Welcome aboard all newly found Kruse Family members in June 2006!

See my Karll Family Tree at RootsWeb
They came from Bardenhagen, Hanover, Germany.  Includes Freiburg, Meis, Barnhart, Wolf, Forth, and Flinn families.  For old pictures of some of these families click here.  Caution, this file is a "work in progress" and may need verification.  Please contact me if you have information.

Vercruysse and Related Families from West Flanders, Belgium
They came from Lichtervelde and Torhout and traveled several times between 1906 and 1920 to Detroit, Michigan.  They were scheduled to take the Titanic in 1912 but were not able to make the ship.  My grandmother, Gabriella Angela "Annabelle" Vercruysse, and her mom Alida Boussauw Vercruysse, came for the final time on the ship "Kroonland" on the 31 May 1920 to Ellis Island.  Annabelle met and married Fred Kruse in Chicago, Illinois in 1930.  Other families include, Boussauw, Kesteloot, Van Steelant, Bruynooghe, Casteleyn, De Muelemeester, Vanden Berghe, Pape, De Ketelaere, De Coutere, Vergote, and many more.  Many thanks to go to Ivan Beernaert for linking his West Flanders families with my Vercruysse.

1963 Kruse Kids

I want to extend my grateful appreciation to all the kind people at the Family History Center in Dodge City, Kansas; to Linda Bethke for finding my Kruse ancestors and ship in the "Germans To America" series;  and to my family and relatives who provide a continuous source of information and support.  Also I want to thank all my friends on the internet who continue to provide assistance and guidance, and finally to RootsWeb and Ancestry.com for the WorldConnect Project, the online census database, and this free web space.  So if your family was from the old region of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and/or you need any assistance please contact me.  I don't read or write in German, sorry, but I can make some partial translations of German church book records from the 1800's and later. Note also that KRUSE is a very common surname in Germany, and there are many more KRUSE families that immigrated that are probably not related to mine.  On the other hand we may share a common KRUSE ancestor from way back, before church records or paper trails, so a new technology is being used to find if people share a common ancestor.  This is called a Y-DNA test and is for males only, since the Y-DNA is only passed from father to son.  New helpful links to help find your Mecklenburg Ancestors.  
Thanks very much.  Jesus is Lord !  Auf wiedersehn.


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Created 15 November 2000   -   Updated 20 September 2017


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