HANNE FRIEDERIKE CHRISTINE BERG

BIRTH:
August 17, 1802
Quetzen, Westfalia,
Prussia

PARENTS:
Johann C. F. Berg
Anne I.M.C.L. Dreves


 CHILDREN
Fr. Wilhm. Chr. Berg
Carl Diet. Siegfried Berg

Augusta Em. Bultemeier
Wilhelmina Bultemeier
Marie Sophia Bultemeier		 BORN
April 23, 1825
December 1, 1829

May 8m 1836
August 12, 1838
February 13, 1842
 DIED
September 16, 1901
October 23, 1856

Click here for Hanne's Ancestral Tree

Hanne Berg's

 The first two children were born out of wedlock. It is not known who their father was. Legend has it that she fell in love with a prince from the neighboring state of Schaumberg-Lippe, but because she was not of royal blood they could not marry. The village of Quetzen is very near the boundary line separating Westphalia and Schaumberg-Lippe. The "prince" and "royal blood" story may be an enhanced version of what really happened, though there may be some degree of truth there. The man may have held a privileged position which would have been compromised is he'd married a commoner.

Adding credence to this story is the fact that word came from Germany around the turn of the century, advising Hanne's grandson, Fred Berg, that an inheritance was available if he would come and claim it. Fred, at the time was a minister in a Lutheran church in Beardstown, Illinois. To have made the claim would have meant admitting the illegitimacy of his father, so he chose ignore it.

Another speculation centers around the fact that this was a time when Napoleon's army was occupying the area. It doesn't take too much imagination to visualize French soldiers using the situation to take advantage of local girls.

Ultimately, Hanne married Carl Dietrich Wilhelm Bultemeier on 27 Dec 1833, and had three daughters by him. He was a farm laborer. In 1856, deeply in debt, they were loaned money by her brother to make the trip to America. They may have come to America on the sailing ship, the Elise, which arrived in New York on September 29, 1856. The passenger list of that vessel includes a Wilhelm Bultemeier and his wife, "Johne," possibly an abbreviation of Johanne, which in turn could have been someone's idea of what Hanne's name was. If this couple was Carl and Hanne, they had only one of their daughters with them - the youngest at age 14. She is listed as "Lisette," though the name on the church rolls was Maria Sophia. The passenger list recorded their destination as Indiana. There are a number of Bultemeiers in various parts of Indiana, possibly some of this Carl's descendants, but to date we have found no evidence of where the couple settled or how long they lived.

Carl Dietrich Wilhelm Bultemeier was born on 2 Dec 1808, the son of the late Johann Conrad Bultemeier and Anne Catherine Ilsebein Schutte of Bierde Nr.42.

Sources:
Church records at Ev.Luth.Ch. at Lahde, Germany.
Correspondence with wife of pastor of above church.
Stories told by Berg family in Germany during 1984 visit.
Berg family traditions in this country.

Vol. 10, p.230, Germans to America, Glazier and Filby, as reported by Annette Honsel in an email dated 7 September 2002.

 

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