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Crawford County Emigration Project

From the beginning of my research I have found first indicators that Crawford Co., and Bucyrus and its neighborhood had been a center of first settlement of many emigrants from my hometown area. With the great help of lots of volunteers from the Crawford Co. mailing list I was able to establish first links. Thanks to all of you who have supported me in the last years.

After the great success analyzing the cemetery book in Florence Twp., Williams Co., OH I ordered the Crawford Co. cemetery books Vol. 2a and Vol. 3 from the Crawford County Genealogical Society. It was a great source of information and that I could find a lot more of emigrants being buried on Crawford Co. cemeteries. Thanks to all the volunteers for their great work they have done.

After a few months of intensive work I have extracted data about 29 emigrants from the cities of Wankheim, Jettenburg, Maehringen, Kusterdingen and Immenhausen and other emigrants from the extended area including Moessingen and Pfullingen giving a total of 76 emigrants and 824 persons in total where I can assume they have died in Crawford Co. or at least are buried in Crawford Co. cemeteries.

For a better analysis of all the persons and their relation to the various families I have setup separate pages you can access them by this link Crawford County cemetery burials. On these pages you don't find persons buried in Crawford Co., but also persons having a relation to Crawford Co., (born, settled for a few years or married there).

So if you have a German heritage from the former Kingdom of Wuerttemberg and the names Braun (Brown), Duerr, Fauser, Grauer, Hoss, Lang (Long), Leutze (Leitzy), Mollenkopf, Raiser, Schwartzkopf, Steinhilber or Walker are part of your ancestor chart you may find them in the listing below. With either the RIN no. or the names of your grandfather or grandmother I will try to match your data with my database. In case of a match I will be happy to provide additional information about your German roots and family relationships.

In several cases the second generation of these families moved on to Williams Co., OH or to Blackford Co, IN where I could find other hot spots of settlements.

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Some pictures related to Crawford Co., Ohio

Johann Adam Hoss emigrated in 1834 from the village of Maehringen in the former Kingdom of Wuerrtemberg with his wife Christina Grauer and his kids Johann Adam, Anna Maria, Katherine and Christina and settled in Crawford Co. He and his family is buried on Lust Cemetery.

The inscription reads:

Hier ruhet
Johann A. Hoss
gestorben Aug 26, 1853
Alt. 60 J. 6 M.
& 11 T.

I have also a picture of the tombstone of Christina, but the inscription is hardly readable.

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This is a picture of Philipp Frederik Hoss, s/o of Johann Adam Hoss and Maria Catharina Leuze (Leitzy) and his wife Elizabeth Klink. Philipp is a grandson of the first Hoss emigrant Johann Adam Hoss (see above).

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This picture shows Johann Adam Hoss s/o of Johann Adam Hoss and Magalena Lutz and his wife Emma Catherine Schnarrenberger. Johann Adam is a grandson of the first Hoss emigrant, Johann Adam Hoss (see above), and a half brother of Philipp Frederik. I have a second picture of this couple showing some of their kids. The quality is unfortunately poor.

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This picture shows Jacob Burke and Katharina Hoss, d/o Johann Adam Hoss and Christina (Grauer) Hoss, born Nov 25, 1830 in Maehringen.

He remembers me always to Abrahma Lincoln.

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This is the tombstone of Johann Georg Walker who emigrated in 1834 and was the first of several Walker emigrants. Three of his nephews followed him. All of them came to Crawford Co. first and stayed with im for a while. One of them John George Walker settled in Crawford Co. as well, the two other nephews, John Frederick and John Jacob Walker moved on to Hartford City, Blackford Co., IN.

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Katherine Walker was the d/o of Johann Georg Walker and Elisabeth Barbara Durr.

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Copies of a precious document

From relatives, I have recently found in Crawford Co. I got a copy of a "Wanderpass", it's like an early passport.

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This copy is the cover of the "Wanderbuch" of Johann Georg Walker. It can be regarded as an early passport. It contains several places where he has stopped on his way from Wankheim to the port of Bremen where he obviously took the ship to America.

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On page 3 a description of the person is given and also shows the signature of Johann Georg Walker. The description says:

Age: 22 years
Size: 6 feet (German)
Figure: strong
Face: longish
Hair: brown
Forehead: flat
Eyebrows: brown
Eyes: blue
Nose: ?
Jowis: half full
Mouth: middle
Teeth: good
Chin: round
Legs: even
Distinguishing marks: none

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