Branching out

In 1791, Johann Christian’s son, Joachim Engelke, founded a bakery in the Pelzerstrasse 31, Bremen. The bakery was continued by a son and later by a grandson, until 1903, when it was taken over by Adolf Garde (later, it became part of Backstube Siebrecht GmbH & Co, until 2015).

First family of Joachim Engelke (source: “Die Maus”, Bremen)

Joachim Engelke initially was known as “Holz” and “von Holz” and ultimately as “von Holtz”. In his first “Stammtafel” this is explicitly noted. In the second one, just the name “von Holtz” is used.

On July 22, 1804, Joachim Engelke married Anna Magdalene Margareta Gröning. The couple had 2 children:

• 1805 Anna Maria
• 1807 Christian Friedrich

Anna Magdalena died 3 days after the birth of her second child. Also her son, Christian Friedrich, died early at the age of 6 years. Her daughter, Anna Maria, married Friedrich Hermann Rudolf Wirth in 1831, but she only lived to an age of 35 years.

Second family of Joachim Engelke (source: “Die Maus”, Bremen)

Three months after Anna Magdalena’s passing away, Joachim Engelke married Sophia Catharina Elisabeth (aka Elise) Kracke, with whom eventually he had 4 children:

• 1814 Joachim Friedrich (aka Fritz)
• 1816 a stillborn girl
• 1817 Adelheid Sophia
• 1819 Christian

Fritz continued in the footsteps of his father, as a baker. He first married Helene Beckmann, with 2 children. After Helene’s death he married Margaretha Adelheid Schütte, with 4 children. He and his second wife are buried in the Riensberg cemetery in Bremen (the gravestone is a listed monument).

Adelheid Sophia married Carl Wilhelm Zeitz, a successful businessman in Bremen. No record was found of offspring.

Christian became a trader: initially wholesale and retail of tea in 1848, later also dealing in oil-paints and sicattif-varnish, in 1857. He gave up his firm around 1862, and as of 1866 he was listed as procurator for the firm of his brother-in-law. The apparent lack of success in Christian’s life, presumably was the reason for several of his offspring to leave Germany and emigrate to different countries.

September 28, 1847, Christian married Henriette Caroline Therese Steinmann, in Wolfenbüttel, the city where she was born (see also sources below). They had 7 children (source: LDS FamilySearch):

• 1848 Wilhelmine Elisabeth Ida
• 1849 Sophie Adelheid who obtained a passport for France in 1868
• 1851 Georgine Olga Therese: died in Bremen at the age of nearly 8 years
• 1854 Carl Georg (aka Geo): left for Africa, and ended up in the Dutch East Indies – nowadays Indonesia – where he died in 1911
• 1856 Christiane Alwine: left for South-Africa (perhaps together with her younger brother Hans Christian), where she died in 1935
• 1858 Adolph Carl Eduard (aka Edward): left for the USA at the age of 14 years, where he died in 1927
• 1862 Hans Christian: left for South-Africa, where he died in 1931.

What happened to the first 2 daughters is unknown. There are entries in the Bremer address books for 1896, 1897 and 1898 for the “Geschwister von Holtz”, which may apply to them, but this is not certain. So far no records were found of a marriage or death in Bremen for these 2 sisters.

The death of the third daughter was reported by a.o. Christian’s brother Fritz. The cause recorded was “Lungenlähmung” (diaphragmatic paralysis). Christian himself died relatively young, at the age of 54 years (“Leberkrankheit – Hypertrophia hepatitis”). His wife, Therese, initially remained in Bremen where she moved house 3 times. But on October 5, 1880, she moved close to her place of birth, to the city of Braunschweig (aka Brunswick).

The remaining children decided to emigrate, as stated above. In 1885, Therese received a visit of her daughter Alwine and her 3 grandchildren, just 3, 2 and 1 years of age. A second visit of Alwine and her children occurred in 1891/1892.

In Braunschweig, Therese moved house 3 times, before – at the age of nearly 70 years – on March 28, 1895, she deregistered in Braunschweig with destination Port Elizabeth, South-Africa (i.e. Alwine’s residence). On March 30, she actually sailed with the ss. “Pretoria” from Hamburg to Algoa Bay. Whether she died on the way to – or later in – South-Africa, unfortunately, is unknown. But, in the July 16, 1904, issue of the weekly journal “The Chemist and Druggist” a request can be found for the whereabouts of her youngest son Hans, then traveling in the UK.

This request could well have been placed on behalf of the daughter Alwine, needing to get in touch with her younger brother Hans as a matter of urgency – perhaps the passing away of their mother, in which case Therese did make it to a respectable age of 79 years.

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Sources:

Taufe 1825, Seite 54/55, Nr. 6
Sign. 103 N : 439, Bd. 1 – transcription of the entry in the birth register of Wolfenbüttel:
Vater: Johann Carl Georg Steinmann, Kaufmann und Buchhalter bei der Brauwel’schen Tapetenfabrik hieselbst.
Mutter: Henriette Juliane Wilhelmine geborene Schaper, zwanzig Jahre.
Tag der Geburt: Den neunten April, morgens um zwei Uhr.
Tag der Taufe: Den achten Mai.
Taufname des Kindes: Caroline Henriette Therese.
Taufpaten: 1. Frau Sophie Caroline Elisabeth Rodenfuß geborene Zeitz, jetzige Ehefrau des herrschaftlichen Mühlenmeisters Rodenfuß, die Mutter des Vaters des Kindes.
2. Heinrich Daniel Schaper, Bürger und Brauer in Helmstedt, der Vater der Mutter des Kindes.
Bemerkung: Zu Nr. 6. Die Frau Sophie Caroline Elisabeth Rodenfuß, die hier als Gevatterin angeführt ist war vorher an den verstorbenen herrschaftlichen Mühlenmeister Johann Heinrich Christoph Steinmann verheiratet gewesen.

Kirchenbuch der Kirchengemeinde Beatae Mariae Virginis in Wolfenbüttel, Seite 488, Nummer 37:
“Der Bräutigam war Herr Christian von Holtz, Bürger und Kaufmann in Bremen (geboren dort den 1.3.1819), ehelicher Sohn des daselbst verstorbenen Bürgers und Weißbäckers Herrn Joachim Engelke von Holtz und dessen verstorbenen Ehefrau Sophie Catharine Elisabeth, geborene Kraken.
Die Braut war Jungfrau Caroline Henriette Therese Steinmann (geboren in der hiesigen Gemeinde der St. Johanniskirche den 9.4.1825), eheliche Tochter des Bürgers und Kaufmanns hier Herrn Johann Carl Georg Steinmann und dessen Ehefrau Henriette Juliane Wilhelmine, geborene Schaper.
Proklamiert wurden sie am 19. und 26.9.1847 in der Hauptkirche und am 29.8. und 5.9.1847 in der St. Petrikirche in Bremen.
Getraut wurden sie am 28.9.1847 nach erfolgter Concession im Hause hier.”