The Waldthausen Ancestry
Overview
The Waldthausen ancestry can be traced far back to the early 1500s. The family history is divided into two sections, The First Waldthausens and the Essener Branch.
The first seven generations of the Waldthausen family ("The First Waldthausens") lived in and around Hamelin and date from 1500 to the early 1700's. Among them are Kord [17], who owned a mill in Afferde, and Jobst [48] who died in the plague of 1626 along with three of his children.
Johann Wilhelm [93], born in 1707, was the first to be born in Essen, and started the "Essener Branch" of the family. The male line of the family ends with Henriette Waldthausen, the mother of Clara Holterhoff Willius. Henriette's Story, as told by her daughter Clara, is a fascinating description of Henriette's life growing up in Essen with her grandfather, Johann Wilhem Waldthausen [102]. It concludes with the family's life in the Clarenburg and Clara's own childhood. The pages of Frieda's scrapbook are filled with photographs and family lore.
The first seven generations of the Waldthausen family ("The First Waldthausens") lived in and around Hamelin and date from 1500 to the early 1700's. Among them are Kord [17], who owned a mill in Afferde, and Jobst [48] who died in the plague of 1626 along with three of his children.
Johann Wilhelm [93], born in 1707, was the first to be born in Essen, and started the "Essener Branch" of the family. The male line of the family ends with Henriette Waldthausen, the mother of Clara Holterhoff Willius. Henriette's Story, as told by her daughter Clara, is a fascinating description of Henriette's life growing up in Essen with her grandfather, Johann Wilhem Waldthausen [102]. It concludes with the family's life in the Clarenburg and Clara's own childhood. The pages of Frieda's scrapbook are filled with photographs and family lore.
Sources of Information
The information on Waldthausen ancestry comes from two German volumes given to my Grandmother, Martha Willius Claussen by a family historian, living in Germany, Julius von Waldthausen. The books are Volume I and Volume II of Geschichte der Familie von Waldthausen in Niedersachsen by Dr. Max Bar, Hildesheim und Leipzig 1929. Von Waldthausen included a genealogy of the family he had published in 1932 titled: The Stammtafeln der Familie von Waldthausen Seit ihrer Übersiedelung nach Essen. You can find Julius von Waldthausen on the Essener Branch of the family chart.
He initially contacted my grandmother in the hope of finding American relatives for a new up to date genealogy of the family he planned to have compiled by archivists in Germany. Their correspondence was fairly extensive. You can read it here.
One letter, the translation of which is below, gives information about the books and about the genealogical table that Julius Waldthausen compiled:
Bassenheim, Distict Coblenz
November 14, 1932
"Most respected Madam Cousin:
I received your kind letter of January 25 in Berlin on February 12th and answered it the same day with a long epistle. Moreover, the administrator of my local estate has sent you a package from Bassenheim, containing three or four copies each, in two volumes, titled History of the Family von Waldthausen in Lower Saxony. This is the work of the deceased former director, the privy councillor, and arch curator of the state archives in Coblenz, Dr. Baer. In the meantime, finally, after great delay and many difficulties, the seventeen genealogical tables of the family Waldthausen, since their emigration to Essen, which I worked out, have been printed."
Frieda gave me the books and the genealogy as well as a Waldthausen family history written by Albert von Waldthausen: Beitrage zur Geschichte der Familie Waldthausen published in 1884. Unfortunately the genealogy of the Albert Waldthausen book does not always agree with the genealogy in the Bar books. I am planning on donating the three books as well as Julius von Waldthausen's genealogy to the Minnesota Historical Society where they will be available for anyone who wishes to see them. Albert von Waldthausen is also on the Essener Branch of the family tree.
I wrote a brief history of the family using translations of sections from the books I received from Frieda and from the correspondence with Julius Waldthausen. In designing my genealogical charts I used the information from Geschichte der Familie von Waldthausen in Niedersachsen by Dr. Max Bar, Hildesheim und Leipzig 1929 and the Stammtafeln der Familie von Waldthausen seit ihrer Ubersiedelung nach Essen by Julius von Waldthausen 1932.
You will find many other interesting tales and historical facts to read about in the history but first here is an introduction to the Waldthausen family.
He initially contacted my grandmother in the hope of finding American relatives for a new up to date genealogy of the family he planned to have compiled by archivists in Germany. Their correspondence was fairly extensive. You can read it here.
One letter, the translation of which is below, gives information about the books and about the genealogical table that Julius Waldthausen compiled:
Bassenheim, Distict Coblenz
November 14, 1932
"Most respected Madam Cousin:
I received your kind letter of January 25 in Berlin on February 12th and answered it the same day with a long epistle. Moreover, the administrator of my local estate has sent you a package from Bassenheim, containing three or four copies each, in two volumes, titled History of the Family von Waldthausen in Lower Saxony. This is the work of the deceased former director, the privy councillor, and arch curator of the state archives in Coblenz, Dr. Baer. In the meantime, finally, after great delay and many difficulties, the seventeen genealogical tables of the family Waldthausen, since their emigration to Essen, which I worked out, have been printed."
Frieda gave me the books and the genealogy as well as a Waldthausen family history written by Albert von Waldthausen: Beitrage zur Geschichte der Familie Waldthausen published in 1884. Unfortunately the genealogy of the Albert Waldthausen book does not always agree with the genealogy in the Bar books. I am planning on donating the three books as well as Julius von Waldthausen's genealogy to the Minnesota Historical Society where they will be available for anyone who wishes to see them. Albert von Waldthausen is also on the Essener Branch of the family tree.
I wrote a brief history of the family using translations of sections from the books I received from Frieda and from the correspondence with Julius Waldthausen. In designing my genealogical charts I used the information from Geschichte der Familie von Waldthausen in Niedersachsen by Dr. Max Bar, Hildesheim und Leipzig 1929 and the Stammtafeln der Familie von Waldthausen seit ihrer Ubersiedelung nach Essen by Julius von Waldthausen 1932.
You will find many other interesting tales and historical facts to read about in the history but first here is an introduction to the Waldthausen family.
An Introduction to the Waldthausen Family
The Family Crest
This is a reproduction of the first, 1556, Waldthausen family crest from Beitrage zur Geschichte der Familie Waldthausen by Albert Waldthausen. Over the subsequent years, details in the design of the crest changed. A new one came out in 1568 and another in 1570. The one in Frieda's scrapbook is the design from 1570. All of them are reproduced in Albert Waldthausen's book.
The Family History
The Town of Welliehausen
This picture of Welliehausen is from Geschichte der Familie von Waldthausen in Niedersachsen by Dr. Max Bar published in 1929.
This picture of Welliehausen was taken in 1995 by Mike Dunn. It's amazing how little the landscape has changed in almost 70 years.
More on the Waldthausens
In The First Waldthausens you will find a family tree and history about the very early Waldthausen ancestors. The Essener Branch has a family tree and history of the family in the 1700s and 1800s and includes information on some of Clara Willius's aunts and uncles.
