Cultural Exchange: A Piece of Germany in Puerto Rico

I'm always interested and amazed by the diversity our small island of Puerto Rico has! Every time I'm doing genealogy and I come across a person from Corsica, France, Italy, Spain, Guinea, or whatever other country they were from, I just go "wow, where are my cool Puerto Rican ancestors?"- which I have found through my Martinican line ;)

While searching through the Utuado birth records I ran into a child being born in 1892, and what caught my attention was that both of his parents were from Germany. So I decided to jot down the information and see how far I could trace this family outside of Puerto Rico with the information I have. (I like to challenge myself in genealogy as you can see).

Deutschland/Germany

The child born was Heriberto Leopoldo Hess Klinger in Santa Rosa, Caguana, Utuado, Puerto Rico. He was born on June 26th 1892, the legitimate son of Jorge Hess Jung, a mechanical engineer from Freiburg, Baden, Germany and his wife Elisabeth Klinger "Wetterolh", a native of Nieder-Modau, Hessen, Germany.

What surprised me (which it shouldn't have) was that the grandparents of Heriberto were listed. Since they were from Germany, I imagined that maybe there wouldn't be able to communicate names besides their own to the person jotting down the information. But a lot was provided very accurately and as I would soon find out.

The paternal grandparents were John Jorge Hess, from Freiburg where he passed away and his wife Anna Maria Jung, a native of Emmendingen, Baden, Germany but lived in Freiburg. Her maternal grandparents were John Adam Klinger and Anna Wetterolh, both natives of Nieder Modau, where they passed away.

So right away I knew that these families originated in Freiburg, Germany and Nieder Modau, with one grandmother a native of Emmendingen.

My search took me to FamilySearch where I tried to see if they had civil records for Baden, which they did but truly I could not navigate that part of the site since I don't know the proper provinces and what was what back in those times. But I did find Marriages, Death & Burials, and Birth & Baptism sections which would provide me the information for these families.

I began by typing in the last names Hess, Jung, Klinger and Wetterolh into the different sections. Hess and Jung haven't provided anything so far but through the mother's family I found a lot! I was able to find Elisabeth Klinger was christened on 27 January 1856 and born 13 January 1856, the daughter of Johann Adam Klinger and Anna Wetteroth which matches with (John Adam) Klinger and Anna "Wetterolh". As you can see they were also residents of Nieder Modau which was awesome to see since they had it right in Puerto Rico!

Elisabeth Klinger's christening record

Now that I knew Elisabeth's parents' "German" names I would check for their marriage. Awesomely, I found that Johann Adam Klinger married Anna Wetterroth on September 18 1851 in Nieder Modau and the record stated both of their parents' names! Johann Adam's parents being Johann Adam Klinger and Anna Maria Rodenhäuser (sometimes spelled Rodenhäußer) and Anna's parents were Georg Nikolaus Wetterroth and Eva Maria Hiller.

Johann Adam Klinger and Anna Wetterroth's Marriage

Also notice that it mentions when they were born. Johann in 1829 and Anna in 1831, how awesome! To take it a step even further I found Johann Adam's father marriage to Anna Maria Rodenhäuser. However, one record states they were married in 1839 while another says 1828. The 1828 marriage only mentions the dads while the 1839 mentions both parents (with the dads being the same from the 1828 marriage). The 1839 marriage says Anna Rodenhäuser was widowed but to who? Did she remarriage and to a brother of Johann Adam Klinger? None the less, Johann Adam's father was Georg Wilhelm Klinger and Anna's father was Peter Rodenhäuser. This traces the Klinger and Wetterroth to the earlier 1800s!

More amazing is that I was able to find Georg Nikolaus Wetterroth's marriage as well!!!

Georg Nikolaus Wetterroth & Eva Maria Hiller's Marriage

Georg Wetterroth was born in 1795 and Eva Hiller in 1811, Georg's parents were Johann Conrad Wetterroth and Sussanne Haas while Eva's were Johann Adam Hiller and Anne Marie Funck. Here you can also see they are living in Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt. 

To tell you the truth I can even go a bit further with the Hiller family as I found Johann Adam Hiller being christened in 1787 while living in Altheim, Hessen, Germany and marrying Anne Marie in 1810- but I think you get the point. 

Just with the name of Heriberto's parents and grandparents I was able to push the family's pedigree to the late 1700s in Germany, and potentially could go a bit farther if I put more energy into it. Also, it shows you the AMAZING work that has gone into FamilySearch indexing and cataloging of records. From sitting in my home I could track down 5-6 generations of Heriberto's family without having to travel to Germany and sit for hours searching records. Of course, going to Germany and visiting the Baden region would be amazing to really get the feel!

Seems that the Hess family stayed in Puerto Rico (not sure how many Hess siblings stayed and spread out throughout the island). Heriberto himself did father a son named Jorge Francisco Hess Garcia with a Puerto Rican woman . Maybe a Hess descendant will find this post and either contribute, verify or even learn more about their Germany ancestry. 

Goes to show how a family with deep roots in Germany uprooted themselves and came to the tiny island of Puerto Rico helping to enrich our culture. I know that in my tree somewhere lurks families like these who I hope to one day uncover and push back like how I was able to do for Heriberto's family. 

I really had fun doing this and maybe I'll give it a go another time with a different family! But for now I'll shake my tree a little more and see what falls out! :D

Small World, Smaller Island!

It's always crazy when something finds you serendipitously, especially in genealogy! So far throughout my searches I've come across some interesting things that have made me say "WOW! What a small world!". I'll talk about 3 different events that have happened to me that showed me that not only is this a small world but that Puerto Rico is indeed a small(er) island!

Look up! 

Looking for baptisms of my umpteen grandparents can sometimes be a taxing job. Especially in a town like Toa Alta, Puerto Rico where in the early 1800s the baptism books were divided by race categories such as Blanco (White), Pardo & Moreno (People of color/Black) and Esclavos (Slaves). If you didn't know what category your family was placed under, you'd have to search and search until you found them.

Finding my 3rd great grandmother Feliciana Mojica González wasn't to hard of a task. I knew her family was usually categorized as "pardo" so I checked those books first and found that she was baptized in Toa Alta on the 14th of March 1813. Easy enough! But finding my 4th great grandmother, Martina Vásquez Fuentes wasn't too easy. Her descendants moved into Corozal, Puerto Rico where my great grandmother Mercedes Marrero Ortiz would be born. So I thought that she too was born in Corozal. Yet looking over Feliciana's baptism record and looking at all the names I noticed that right above her was a "Marta" being baptized- turns out to be my Martina!! Since Corozal originally started out as a part of Toa Alta, many families originally had roots in Toa Alta before moving into Corozal or just falling into the section of the new town. These two women are not related but Feliciana's grandson and Martina's great granddaughter would father my grandfather! It would be so funny if these women either lived near each other or were behind each other on a line to baptize their children in the church. Small world!! Here is the record of Feliciana and Martina!

Baptisms in 1813 of Martina Vásquez and Feliciana Mojica
Toa Alta, Puerto Rico

An odd reunion

While doing some genealogy at one of the centers I visit, I met a nice woman who's family was also from Puerto Rico. As we started to chat we realized that we both had family in Toa Alta but no similar surnames. She was stuck with finding some records and so I decided to help her out since I knew the Toa Alta church records pretty well. While searching for her great grandmother's baptism record, I came across a great-aunt of her's being baptized in 1856. While looking at the names, I noticed something super interesting- the godparents of this great-aunt of her's were my 3rd great grandparents! So our families 157 years ago gathered at a church to baptize her great-aunt. Finding that record revealed that we actually had the surname Rivera in common! So far I haven't been able to confirm that we are connected by blood but our families did know each other. How weird that 157 years later in a different town and a different country, two strangers would meet who's families once knew each other!

My 3rd great grandparents: Pedro Rivera & Eusebia Diaz
as godparents in 1856.

At last!

Earlier last week, I had one of the best moments of serendipity. While looking for my paternal 2nd great grandmother's birth certificate (or her sister's) in Utuado, Puerto Rico I came across very unexpectedly someone else. I saw the surnames "Sánchez Arvelo" and right away realized those names were on my mother's side of the family! Oddly enough I found a 2nd great granddaughter being born in Utuado, Puerto Rico despite her parents being from Quebradillas and San Sebastián. This whole time I was looking through Lares, San Sebastián, Quebradillas and Manatí for them when out of nowhere I find one of them in Utuado! Odds are my 2nd great grandmother was also born there but since the records aren't indexed I'll have to search 1 by 1. Finding this record gave me the name of 2 sets of my 4th great grandparents- I was so happy to find out more names in this family because I had searched for so long to find out more about them.

I'm constantly surprised by how small this world really is!