German Origins · The Wesemann Millers
Wesemann Family
A family of millers on the lower Lenne, where the little river meets the Weser at Linse and Thran, in the Duchy of Brunswick. The story begins with Johann Heinrich Wesemann, who came “from Grubenhagen” and took the middle mill at Linse in 1774, and ends with his great-grandson Georg Wilhelm Ehrenfried Wesemann, born at the Thran mill in 1838, who left for America in 1860 as George Wesemann.
The story in 8 pages
Start reading- 1Johann Heinrich Wesemann: Salzhemmendorf and Where He Came FromHis marriage at Salzhemmendorf in 1770, and the search for where a miller “from Grubenhagen” was born.
- 2The Miller's Household at Linse, 1774 to 1801The middle mill at Linse, the miller’s six children, and the household to his death in 1801.
- 3The Children Who Left LinseJohann Conrad Ludewig at Salzhemmendorf, Johann Ernst at the Bodenwerder town mill, and their sister Caroline Louise.
- 4Georg Ludewig Wesemann and Justine Marie Küster, 1803 to 1855The second miller, his nine children, the years of two mill wheels, and how both were lost.
- 5The Household at Thran and Kirchbrak, 1832 to 1852George’s parents lease the Thran mill, then a mill at Kirchbrak, and come back to Linse with no mill.
- 6Kemnade and the Silent Return: A TheoryWhy three children were baptized at Kemnade, and what the registers do and do not show.
- 7George: Boyhood and LeavingBorn at the Thran mill in 1838, a journeyman miller with no mill to inherit, he left for America in 1860.
- 8The Family Left BehindThe grandparents, aunt, brother and sister who stayed, and a fourth generation of millers.