There are so many Johanns and Hinrichs and Johann Hinrichs in my family that I go cross-eyed, and Tibken itself appears as Tibbeken, Tipken and Tybken, among a few other variations. Names are spelled in multiple ways, which makes it tricky to know if a match is the right person. Old documents, digitized online, can be difficult to read. I've spent countless hours on over the years, trying to build my family tree. Two years ago, I became one of them, confirming most of my DNA is German (though there's a big chunk that's unexpectedly British).Īs I've found, though, online research gets you only so far. The company has more than 3 million paying subscribers, and more than 15 million people have used its AncestryDNA service since it launched in 2012. Ancestry, the parent company of, has about 20 billion records and adds 2 million more every day. But nowadays, it's natural to check online first. Starting high techĪs a journalist, I should've known that working the phones would produce more leads. I jump at the chance.įinally, the lead that I need. If I travel there, she can show me the farms where my family lived. That emigrant, my great-great-grandfather Johann Hinrich Tibken, was born March 23, 1842, in Ahrenswohlde, she says. "The last Tibken in Klethen was born in 1783," she says in cautious English. When I reach Fricke, she immediately fires information at me. She is not your relative, but it seems like she knows a lot." "She does family tree research in the area, but she said there are many Tibkens. "Call Frau Fricke tomorrow," my friend says. She gives Fricke's number to my friend, who eventually passes it on to me, along with a link to letters from newly minted Americans to their relatives back in Germany. She tells my friend that we're not related - but her neighbor across the road, named Annegret Fricke, is interested in genealogy. My friend leaves her number with Irene, in case she discovers something. There's nothing on the family tree, which is framed and hangs on the wall in the Tibken home in Klethen. My friend calls back and has Irene check for Henry. Shara Tibken's great-great-grandparents, Johann Hinrich (Henry Sr.) and Katharina Tibken, immigrated to the US from Germany in the late 19th century. Maybe there's a Hinrich on the family tree? My great-great-grandfather's first name was Johann, but he went by Hinrich and Henry Sr. What do I do now? I ask my friend to call the number back. Soon, she emails me: "Called them and talked to Irene, unfortunately no Johann or Katharina in their Stammbaum (family tree). I give her the three numbers I called, share the names of my ancestors and wait. This time, I ask a German journalist friend for help. I'm determined to get in touch with the Tibkens living in Klethen. They were looking for somewhere to start over, and that was the New World. Three years after Germany became a country, Johann Hinrich and Katharina Deden Tibken left for America. Hanover was a territory that switched hands many times, from the Holy Roman Empire in 1692 until it became part of the German Empire in 1871. From the 1800s to early 1900s, more than 7 million Germans emigrated to the US.Īt the time my family lived there, it was part of the Kingdom of Hanover. By the middle of the 19th century, about 75% of farmers didn't have enough land to make a living. Europe faced war after war, and a population boom led to millions of people in poverty. It didn't even become a country until 1871, around the time my Tibken great-great-grandparents left for the US. The Germany of the mid-1800s wasn't the Germany of today. Some left Europe as early as 1850, while others came in the 1870s and later. My entire life, I've known that my grandparents, many "greats" in the past, emigrated from Germany to Iowa. This isn't going to be as easy as I thought. I blame those phone hangups on my lousy German skills. One more hangs up on me, and another doesn't answer at all. I try two more Tibken residences listed in the same town, with no luck. It's the same I called before, and I can't figure out what went wrong.
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