Zach WEBPAGE

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Zachmann Family History Page

ZACHMANN as I am told means sack or bag man, one who worked in a mill and bagged the product.  Yet another more literal translation, in oberdeutch, (high German) is synonymous with  (and really another spelling of) "zäh", which means tough, tenacious, stubborn.  This translation is not only geographically the most logical translation but, also seems to fit the known personalities of many of the Zachmanns in our family.

Philip Zachmann

A paper trail has finally led me back to Germany. Philip Zachmann of Baden, Germany was born about 1830. He married Caroline Hammer and they had three  sons and a daughter that I was able to uncover.

Gustav was born 1864, Heinrich in 1867, Philip in 1868 and Margaret in 1878. I am not yet aware of any other siblings but it is from here that we came to be. Further research will undoubetedly uncover much more that is now unknown.

The three sons immigrated to the United States in about 1880. I have not yet discovered any documents of their trip or arrival but they apparently sailed to New York and settled in the Yorkville section of Manhattan's Upper East Side. Margaret was undoubetedly sent later.

Gustav Zachmann

On October 4, 1884, Gustav married Katherine Jager. They later had a son Frank, born on June 21, 1895. I was also able to locate a birth record for their son Martin Zachmann who was born on April 3, 1902. Martin's certificate indicated that there were five children living at that time.


In October of 1890 these two brothers were naturalized as American citizens. Both Gustav and Heinrich were granted citizenship on October 23, 1890, and each applicant was the witness for the other. They listed their addresses as locations within several blocks of each other in Manhattan's Upper East Side.  Both listed their occupation as Housesmith, and each signed their name with (2) N's. There was no mention of or indication of Philip being in the states at this time.

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