The Family Kolberg/Colberg, Part One

And, for my German readers, (whom I hope will be many!!):

Design of Gerhard Kolberg, Berlin

"HEIMAT BŰTOW"

When I began my genealogical research in the mid-1970's, the family I most wanted to trace was my Kolberg family. I had been extremely close to my maternal grandmother, Ella Kolberg Kijak, and I wanted to honor her memory by learning as much as I could on her family. She had passed away in 1973, and while she had not discussed her family that much with me over the years, I wanted to begin my research with this line.

In Berrien County, Michigan where my grandmother had been born and where her father, August Kolberg, and 4 of his brothers had settled when they immigrated to America, there were many, many listings of Kolberg in the telephone books. Over the next 30+ years, with intensive research, I would come to learn that each and every person in Berrien County, with the name of Kolberg, would tie into our family group. A long research project was begun.

To begin my research, I gathered the information that I did have from my grandmother which indicated that her father and 4 of his brothers had immigrated to the United States between 1880-1910. These brothers were August, Heinrich, Otto, Paul and Ferdinand Kolberg. My grandmother had a few photos of her father and his 4 brothers and she had previously given me those photos. But there was no indication, either on these photos or in other papers of my grandmother, of the place of origin in Germany of our Kolberg family other than that they had been from Pomerania. A small note on one of her papers indicated the name of "Beoto" but it was hard to read and I wasn't sure that I was interpreting it correctly. Long before the Internet was available, I had to rely on trips to the library and research in maps and atlases to try to locate this village, if it indeed was the name of a village.

During this research, I did learn that Pomerania was divided into many Kreis or what we would call in the United States "counties". I was amazed to see in my study of the various counties or Kreis in Pomerania an area named Kolberg, on the Baltic Sea, and I did wonder at the time if our family could have originated there and I spent a great deal of time trying to find a village in this Kreis Kolberg that would be spelled similar to the "Beoto" that was in my grandmother's notes. But nothing could be found that would even slightly resemble the only clue I had as to the village of my Kolberg family.

I then decided to contact some of my grandmother's cousins for help. From these cousins, Grace Kolberg Gaul (daughter of Otto Kolberg), sisters, Edna Kolberg and Ruby Kolberg Berndt (daughters of Paul Kolberg), and Walter Kolberg (son of Ferdinand Kolberg), I learned that my great-great grandparents were Friedrich-Wilhelm Colberg and his wife Henriette Amalie Kautz and that they had had 12 children (11 sons and 1 daughter) and that 7 of these sons had lived to adulthood. I learned that these sons were, in order of age, Friedrich-Wilhelm, Jr., August, Heinrich, Johann, Otto, Paul and Ferdinand and that, as I had previously known, August, Heinrich, Otto, Paul and Ferdinand had immigrated to the United States between 1880-1910.

Henriette Amalie (nee Kautz) and Friedrich-Wilhelm Colberg, Sr.

From letters and documents that these 4 cousins had, I finally had success in pinpointing the location in Pomerania where my Kolberg family had come from and this was the small village of Klein Tuchen, in Kreis Butow.

As you will see from these two maps, Kreis Kolberg is in the north of Pomerania, on the Baltic Sea, while Kreis Butow is in the far east of Pomerania near what was West Prussia and is now near to Gdansk, Poland. There may be nothing more than a connection of the 'name' of Kolberg and there is nothing in my 30+ years of research to indicate that my family ever originally came from that area of Kolberg, Pomerania.

Map of Pomerania showing the area of Kolberg

Map of Pomerania showing all the Kreis
with Butow on the far right in lilac

Walter Kolberg was of further help as he and his siblings had been born in Barkotzen in Kreis Rummelsburg, Pomerania which was near to Kreis Butow and they had immigrated with their parents, Ferdinand & Helena Kolberg, to the United States in 1910 and he could remember the villages of his youth. From Walter I received photos and further information in which I learned that the two remaining sons of Friedrich-Wilhelm, Sr. and Henriette Amalie Colberg remained in Germany with son, Friedrich-Wilhelm, Jr. remaining on the family farm in Klein Tuchen and son, Johann, moving to Berlin.

Maps of the land of the family Kolberg/Colberg from 1750 on forward
(maps of Gerhard Kolberg, Berlin)

Over the years, since I began this research, my knowledge of Pomerania has grown. While the family name has been spelled as Kolberg in the United States, I learned that originally the name was Colberg. My research to date has gone back to Jacob Colberg, born ca 1737 and his wife Dorothea Schlutt, born ca 1737 in Franzwalde, Butow, Pomerania. From Franzwalde, the family later lived in the village of Klein Tuchen and attended church in the neighboring village of Gross Tuchen. In a visit to these areas in 1993, I was able to see some of the surrounding countryside where my ancestors had actually walked and I was able to visit with people living there now who remembered Kolberg family members. This was a very exciting part of my research which made the family seem so much more personal to me.

Village of Gross Tuchen, Butow, Pommern
(now known as Tuchomie, Poland)

Village of Gross Tuchen, Butow, Pommern
(now known as Tuchomie, Poland)

Village of Klein Tuchen, Butow, Pommern
(now known as Tuchomko, Poland)

Village of Klein Tuchen, Butow, Pommern
(now known as Tuchomko, Poland

As my information grew, I was able to make contact with the remaining church in Gross Tuchen. This area, now part of Poland, has been renamed Tuchomie. Originally there was an Evangelical church (which my ancestors belonged to) and a Catholic church. The Catholic church remains active to this day and the churchbooks from the Evangelical church are housed in the Catholic church. The priest at the time in the Catholic Church there shared numerous records from the churchbooks with me on my Kolberg family and interesting disparities in the spelling of the name came to light. It became apparent that the name continued to be spelled with the "C" as Colberg right through to my great-great grandparents, Friedrich-Wilhelm Colberg, Sr. and Henriette Amalie Kautz. Early church records from this Evangelical Church in Gross Tuchen indicated that at the christenings of their 12 children, the name again was spelled with the "C". In immigration records on the 5 sons who came to the US, I find that my great-grandparents were listed as August and Bertha "C"olberg on the passenger list yet other brothers were listed with the "K"olberg. One could make the case that perhaps upon entry into the US that some immigration officer "understood" the pronunciation of the name to be "K"olberg and that is how the spelling changed. That seems logical but is not the entire story as brother, Johann Colberg, who remained in Germany and settled in Berlin spelled his name as "C"olberg but yet his son, Otto, who was a dentist in Berlin, spelled HIS name with the "K"olberg and his descendants to this day, living in Berlin, continue to spell their name with the "K" while other cousins still living in Germany use the spelling "C"olberg.

In any event, whether Colberg or Kolberg, we are a huge family to this day. From Friedrich-Wilhelm Colberg, Sr. & his wife Henriette Amalie Kautz, there were 12 children, at least 61 known grandchildren and hundreds of great-grandchildren and beyond. While I personally have 6 first cousins on both sides of my family, it is hard for me to fathom that my grandmother had 60 first cousins just on her Kolberg side alone and through my research I have been able to trace each of their families down to this present generation, complete with photos of each and every one of the 7 children and 61 grandchildren of my great-great grandparents.

Thus, this is the first post in what will be a series of posts on my "Family Kolberg/Colberg".
Together with my cousin, Gerhard Kolberg, of Berlin, Germany, we are anxious to try to find any descendants of our ancestor Friedrich-Wilhelm Colberg, Jr. and Hermine Melchert which is the only branch in our family that is incomplete. I have seen some 'hits' on my site meter from areas in Germany with indications that searches were conducted on the Kolberg name. There is a Kolberg/Colberg website on our family that Gerhard has created in German and, together with my blog and my Family Tree Maker website, both in English, we are hopeful to be able to make a connection that will complete this remaining branch.

The German Empire 1871-1918

Pomerania between World War I and World War II

(click on any photos or images to enlarge)

Anyone reading this blog, or anyone reading Gerhard's website, who think they might have a connection to our Kolberg/Colberg family, please either respond to this blog or e-mail me at ancestrylove(at)gmail(dot)com. The e-mail address on Gerhard's website is no longer active and we don't want to miss the opportunity to connect with someone if they write him directly and their e-mail returns to them. Any mail that comes to me in German I will immediately forward to Gerhard for response.