A N C E S T O R S

...Vahlsing family branch...

who emigrated to the USA

General:

The Vahlsing line is my mothers line. All older Vahlsings are Lutheran Protestants - according to the curch books.

On this page only the paternal Vahlsing line of the US-Emigrants is shown.

The names of the couples are connected via Link to their parents. If you click on the resp. Vahlsing, you'll be guided back to his parents. (Links at the "Children"-part of the tables lead you directly to their own table.)

The counting of the generations backwards starts at my own generation at zero. The link to the US-emigrants dates back 6 generations ago. Please have a look for more information - e.g. pictures of landscape or buildings on my line of the vahlsing family.

Links to other URL - especially to the US-branch of other family lines - e.g. the Dicke family - are notated seperately. If you have more information about the genealogical development of the Vahlsings in America please contact me.

Please note that this genealogical research is still in progress and that not all data are available yet.

Locations

It seems that the sources of the Vahlsing family originated at Loh.
Loh is today part of the village Gorspen-Vahlsen, community of Petershagen, state of North-Rhine-Westfalia. (This part belonged to the kingdom of Prussian before 1918.)
Unfortunately all informations on the Petershagen Webpage are on German. You'll find an interactive map of Petershagen and if you search for "Loh" in the Alphabetic search you'll get a detailed map of the Gorspen-Vahlsen part Loh.

To evaluate the mobility of the Vahlsing people one has to take into account that the canal between Lahde and Windheim was built in the 20th century. The Weser river thus was a natural border for our ancestors - although a ferry existed in Lahde. If we look at the places where the Vahlsing and their wives originated, we'll see that all of them lives at the east side of the Weser river. Furthermore all activities seem to concentrate on the villages Windheim, Jössen, and Gorspen-Vahlsen (Loh). These villages are all within a radius of 5 km around Loh - the distance of an one hour walk.

(If you are not familiar with the landscape of the Weser-Marshlands I suggest that you take a look at the homepage of H.-H. Hoelscher, the pastor of the Lahde church. )

The prussian administration of that time filed every emigrant either as legal when he had asked for the leave officially or as illegal when they noticed that they could not get the men to army. Therefore we have quite a good overview over some of the names. Of course young men who were not yet enlisted or men who already had served the army could not be listed. So it is not quite clear, how many Vahlsings left Prussia illegally.

Here is a list of Vahlsings form the prussian listings; I can't (yet) categorize them - I don't know to which branch of the family they belong:

5th generation back:

This is the time after the Napoleon Wars and the following Restauration Period (the "Biedermeier"), when some (many?) Germans left Europe for political or economical reasons. So did Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Vahlsing in 1844. He left Prussia with his family and went to Indiana.
(I guess Indiana at that time must have been quite a wilderness.)

From my nowadays point of view it looks quite funny, that his children married not only people with German names but also with family names that I knew from the people next door when I was a child in Germany: Bleeke, Piepenbrink. Come to Lahde nowadays and ask e.g. for Bleeke... you will find out that you have to go only 3 houses further down the road from my parents house.

Chain effect. Chaining. (Older Programmers know the word). The people from Loh, Vahlsen or Wietersheim etc. did not go to the UNKNOWN: they followed the tracks of some pioneers that reported back to the people home at Prussia: "Follow us! Here is the land of milk and honey!" Some of the Vahlsing followed and have survived. I wonder where they are now...

Here is the line of the Vahlsings that we know details of:

6th generation back:

7th generation back:

8th generation back:

9th generation back

10th generation back

This is where the records end. Due to the Thirty Year War (1618-1648) no older records could be found. All older Documents had been destroyed

But it is assumed all Vahlsings come from Vahlsen: Vahlsing:= he from Vahlsen.

A Vahl (fahl) refers to germ. falwo, ahd. falo or engl. fallow.

The name of "Martens Stätte" (martens place, martens settlement) is Loh. Loh refers to germ. *lauh (undergrowth, clearing) and indogermanic *loukos (pasture, meeting place). Loh ist related to light, shine and flame.

It seems naturally that the place of Martens Stätte with this very old name was inhabited long before the 15th century. In fact hints of settlemet go back as far as the Stone Age.

Impressum: Bernd Kassler