Dad's History Part 4

Here it is about 14 or 15 years after I started doing genealogy. It has taken me this long to find out much, much more about my Dad's side of the family. I knew they were German, but just how much German I did not know. As it turns out, my Dad's mother's side is all German. My Grandmother, Martha Sophia Joehnck (Jenks)Burton Bent Crambert (whew), parents both immigrated from Germany. As of today I have the Joehnck's family back to the early 1800's in the Schleswig-Holstein area or Gross Nordsee area of Germany or Denmark. This area of Germany has gone back and forth from being part of Denmark or Germany for many years. Schleswig-Holstein has an interesting history that one can read about at www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/schleswig-holstein.

The name Joehnck can be spelled so many different ways. In Germany it is spelled Johnck with an umlaut over the O. My relatives at some point, after about 1900 changed it to Jenks. AGH a genealogy nightmare.

Through perserverance I recently found my Gr-Gr-Grandfather and Grandmother's names. My Gr-Gr-Gr-Grandfather was Johann Hinrich Johnck, who's occupation was a Day Laborer in Gut Noer, his wife was Dorothea Petersen. Son of Johann and Dorothea was Friedrich Hinrich Johnck who married Magdalena Sophia Caroline Seaman daughter of Detlef Hinrich Seaman and Dorothea Magdalena Trost (possible last name). So there are the names of my Gr-Gr-Gr Grandparents. Now I have to hunt to see who came to the US and when.

So the quest continues, why did they come to America, when did they immigrate, where did they settle first? So many questions, so much research.