Camann photos

Remember how excited I was a while back when I found all the Camann children!

My dad has been visiting us through this summer and he brought a box of family history that his father, Don Caman, had compiled.  I have been going through the box and scanning all the documents and photos, etc.  Yesterday, I came across a photo, and dad and I were trying to figure out who it was, as (sigh!) there was no name or date on the back of the photo.  (SOAPBOX: Write on the backs of your photos people!!)

We could tell it was a Camann, as it bore a striking resemblance to Carl Camann, as seen in this not-so-great copy of a photograph of Augustus Camann (my 3rd great-grandfather) and his brother, Carl Camann (on the right, in the right-hand photo):

But, we decided, the clothes were telling that this was not Carl, so, could it be their father Christoph Friedrich Camann??  His clothes were definitely an older style.

Then I saw this photo!!  I knew who it was before I turned the photo over.  That is what I love about family history!  You connect with people you have never met, and you KNOW them, even though you have not shared the same time on the earth.  I knew!  This is a photo of my 4th great-grandmother, Louise Friedericke Grobengiesser Camann!!

Isn't she marvelous?!!  What a beautiful photograph!  I turned it over and nearly started to cry when I saw her name written on the back of the photo.  I was instantly connected to her and all I know about her and her life!  Wonderful!!

And there was more!  In another file I found many of the other members of the Camann family! 

1. Frederich August Camann

2. Augustus William Camann

3. Wilhelm Julius Camann

4. Louise W Camann - no photo

5. Charles (Carl) Gotthilf Camann

6. Johannes Heinrich Camann

7. Paul Leberecht Camann - no photo

8. Augusta Louise Camann

9. Anna Lydia Camann

10. Martha Henriette Camann

And then, a few folders later, I found this paper, that confirms that the original photo we found was, indeed, Christoph Frederich Camann!

It is so thrilling to find wonderful photographs like these!! I love the photo of a young Augustus William Camann and the Civil War photo of his brother, Wilhelm!

I know this one is not a Camann (although her daughter would be by marriage), but I had the same reaction to this photo as I did to the one of Louise.  I am fairly certain that this is a photo of Anna Teressa Halligan, my 2nd great-grandmother. 

This photo looks very much like the photos I have of her daughter, Annie, but again, the period clothing make it seem more likely that this is Anna.  

What an absolute thrill!!  These women are so important to me and I am so happy to be able to have faces to put with the names!!

Direct line ancestry: Christoph Friederich Camann --> Augustus William Caman --> William Harrison Caman --> Clarence Chapman Caman -- Donald William Caman --> Donald William (Caman) Marshall --> Lora Marshall Nehring

I found them all!!

I found all of the Camann children!! Woohoo!

I have been working on this for a few months, and today I found the last one!! In a copy of Christoph's biography, it says that he and Louise had ten living children. I have found information in obituaries, on the internet and this week I had talked to a very nice lady at the Historical Society of North German Settlements in WNY, and she sent me a page from the Holy Ghost Church records, and on that list was the one child I was missing!

So, here is the information I have about Christoph and Louise Camann and all ten of their children:

Christoph Friedrich Camann
parents: Dr. Carl (Charles) Gotthilf Camann (in Brussow in the Neumark) and Marie Karch (not married)
birth: 30 September 1807 - Brussow, Prussia
occupation: Slippermaker (per 1838 court document), School teacher and Sexton at Holy Ghost Church, New Bergholz (per biography in the “Kirchliches Informatorium”, official publication of the Synod of the Prussian Emigrated Lutheran Church, Dec 1857)
emigrated to America: Hamburg, Germany to New York, New York, 26 August 1843 on the Barque Rainbow (35 years old)
married: 30 September 1838 - Bergholz, Niagara, New York
death: 27 October 1857 - Bergholz, Niagara, New York
consumption
burial: Holy Ghost Cemetery, Bergholz, Niagara, New York
(it is confirmed that Christoph is buried there, but the headstone may have been removed)

spouse: Louise Fredricke Grobengieser
parents: John Justus Grobengieser and Caroline Wilhelmine Ribicke
birth: 5 September 1815 - Brussow, Prussia
emigrated to America: Hamburg, Germany to New York, New York, 26 August 1843 on the Barque Rainbow (28 years old)
death: 6 Mar 1895 - Bergholz, Niagara, New York
burial: Saint James Lutheran Church Cemetery, Bergholz, Niagara, New York



children:
1. Frederich August Camann
birth: about 1839 (18 years old at time of father's death in 1857)
emigrated to America: Hamburg, Germany to New York, New York, 26 August 1843 on the Barque Rainbow (4 years old)
death: date unknown, New York, United States

2. Augustus William (August Wilhelm Camann) Caman
birth: 1 Jan 1841 - Brussow, Prussia
emigrated to America: Hamburg, Germany to New York, New York, 26 August 1843 on the Barque Rainbow (2 years old)
military: Private, Company A, 28th Regiment, Sixtieth New York Infantry, Civil War (Union)
spouse: Charlotte Courtney
married: 17 September 1866 - Lockport, Niagara, New York (in the home of her father)
occupation: Wagon maker/Carriage Builder - Bergholz, Town of Wheatfield, New York and LaCyne, Kansas
death: 27 Oct 1857 (50 years, 27 days) - Bergholz, Niagara, New York
consumption
burial: Oaklawn Cemetery, LaCygne, Linn, Kansas




3. Wilhelm Julius Camann
birth: about Feb 1842
emigrated to America: Hamburg, Germany to New York, New York, 26 August 1843 on the Barque Rainbow (1 year 6 months old)
death: date unknown, New York, United States

4. Louise W Camann
birth: 1845
death: 1907
burial: Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, Erie, New York



5. Charles (Carl) Gotthilf Camann
birth: 21 February 1846 - Niagara, Niagara, New York
spouse: Emilie Grassman
death: 22 Feb 1919 - Niagara, Niagara, New York
burial: Holy Ghost Cemetery, Bergholz, Niagara, New York




6. Johannes Heinrich Camann
birth: 24 May 1848

7. Paul Leberecht Camann
birth: 25 Feb 1850 - Niagara, Niagara, New York
death: 21 June 1868 - Niagara, Niagara, New York
burial: Saint James Lutheran Cemetery, Bergholz, Niagara, New York



8. Augusta Louise Camann
birth: 13 May 1852 - Niagara, Niagara, New York
spouse: Herman Ferdinand Stieg
death: 1926
burial: Saint John Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery, Niagara County, New York



9. Anna Lydia Camann
birth: 10 June 1854
death: 1935
buried: Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, Erie, New York



10. Martha Henriette Camann
birth: 26 June 1856
spouse: Mr. Wendell "of Buffalo, NY" (from Augustus Caman’s obituary)
death: 1936
burial: Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, Erie, New York


This is kind of funny! This is the Camann plot marker from the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York. When I was looking at the photo up close, you can see Martha's headstone in the background. The plot marker is blocking the last number of her death year.

Direct line ancestry: Christoph Friederich Camann --> Augustus William Caman --> William Harrison Caman --> Clarence Chapman Caman -- Donald William Caman --> Donald William (Caman) Marshall --> Lora Marshall Nehring

Christoph Friedrich Camann

As with most of our ancestors who came to America, Christoph Camann was escaping religious persecution.

Christoph was born on 30 September 1807 in Brussow, Prussia. (Prussia is now Germany) He wanted to go to the university to study, but there was not enough money, so he took up the shoemaker trade. He is often referred to as a slippermaker. At exactly 31 years of age, he married Louise Fredericke Grobengiesser.


Louise Camann's headstone in the St. James Lutheran Church Cemetery in Bergholtz, Niagara County, New York

In 1838 he was imprisoned for his religious beliefs and all his rights and privileges of citizenship were withheld from him. The Union Church was the state religion, and Christoph had come to believe that the Evangelical Lutheran Church was the church he wanted to be affiliated with. From a biography of his life published by the Synod of the Prussian Emigrated Lutheran Church in 1857, it states: "He openly declared his break with the Union church and for this he suffered imprisonment. This happened even before he made his official assertion as a result of the legal investigation which followed secret surveillance and persecution by the state police who were carrying out their duties at the instigation of the pastors of the State Union church."

He spent nearly three years in prison before being released and all his citizenship restored.


Translation of a documents referring to Christoph's imprisonment and release.

In 1843 he and his family, along with the Lutheran congregation he belonged to, emigrated to America. My 3rd great-grandfather, Augustus was eight at the time. From a biography about Augustus William Caman, it states: "his family, along with 500 other "Old Lutheran" emigrated to America. The group bought land and established the town of Bergholtz just east of Niagara Falls, New York."

In 1845 he became a sexton and a schoolteacher, at a salary of $18/month. He taught for ten years before he got consumption (tuberculosis) and died within four weeks of time, on 27 October 1857. I am unaware at this time of where Christoph is buried.


Augustus Caman and Carl Gotthilf Camann (brothers), circa 1920.

Direct line ancestry: Christoph Friederich Camann --> Augustus William Caman --> William Harrison Caman --> Clarence Chapman Caman --> Donald William Caman --> Donald William (Caman) Marshall --> Lora Marshall Nehring