GENESBYJOHN.INFO
< Previous Page - Home - Index - Next Page >
Goldbeck Family History
1.
Introduction
This is the story of the Goldbeck family from the earliest know origins to the present. Unfortunately this goes back only 174 years to a place called Potzlow, Uckermark in Brandenburg, Prussia. This town was on a small lake about a mile from the Ucker river and about 50 miles south of the Baltic coast. With the changes made to the German border after World War II, this town is now about 30 miles west of the Polish border. Carl Goldbeck said he was born there in 1823 and that his father's name was Christian Goldbeck. This information was from his marriage to Henrietta Hartmann and recorded in the church records of Greiffenberg, Brandenburg Prussia,
Unfortunately the church records for Potzlow are incomplete. Many years are missing, in fact, they are only for the years 1817, 1823-1824, and 1832. Either they were lost or never kept at that church and are in another parish's records. The microfilmed records state that a duplicate copy of the parish register was filmed. This indicates that the original was lost or destroyed at some time. More research needs to be done here. It is also interesting to note that after 1832 only German Reformed and French Huguenot Church records were kept in this parish. What happened to the Lutheran Records is not known. Did all of the people change to the Reformed Church? Too many questions and not enough answers.
The name "Goldbeck" itself is interesting. It means "golden stream" and it may refer to a river or stream that the family originally lived by. When people started to take on last names or surnames they sometimes took the name of a geographical place and sometimes the town they came from. In German the word "von" means from. Everyone probably has heard or knows of someone with the last name of Fields, Meadows, Hill, Forest, Rivers, Von Bismarck, Von Schrader, or Von Horn, etc. There is also a village or town with the name Goldbeck farther west in the Province of Saxony. At the present time it is not known if their is a connection between the two. Also the "beck" ending of the name "Goldbeck" is more common in this area of Germany.
Carl Goldbeck came to Greiffenberg sometime before 1856. This is a larger town 10 miles southeast of Potzlow. Their parish records only start in 1810. This whole area may have suffered during the Napoleonic wars and this is probably the reason that earlier church records are not available for either Potzlow or Greiffenberg.
This genealogy is in the Register format. This is the style that was developed and used by the New England Historic Genealogical Society's publication called THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL REGISTER. The first person or earliest ancestor would get the number 1. All of his children would get Roman numerals in order of their birth. Then, any of his children that married and had children would get another number such as 2, for his eldest child that had children. This person would be listed in the next generation with their spouse and their children. This may sound complicated at first, but after you get used to it, it becomes easy. This is an efficient way to organize a large number of descendants.
A big thanksto all of the people who have made this project possible. Hazel Goldbeck Henrickson was especially helpful in this regard. When I interviewed her for this history she was very helpful. She had some spare time on her hands and decided to help me. She had become interested in expanding the scope of this history. She was very good at contacting distant relatives and getting information out of them. A number of them had compiled various accounts and lists of relatives or short family histories on their own. Theses have been incorporated, where possible, and there help is listed in the footnotes. This helped me immensely as I was much better at tracking the dead relatives and she much better at getting facts out of the living. She spent many hours in correspondence and in telephone conversations with people in Sheboygan and other areas in northern Wisconsin on the Marks and Goldbeck sides. Many other relatives have given their time and effort to supply us with the data in this booklet. There is always one more piece of information to look at, one more date to add, one more birth, death, or marriage. I have tried to add background information on as many people as I could. Most of these have come from obituaries and some from personal interviews. Some people have large sections on them. This is only because I was able to interview them in depth. In anyone has information on themselves or their ancestors please send it. Additions will always be welcome.
< Previous Page - Home - Index - Next Page >
Goldbeck Family History
1.