And Siems Has Been Found

One day a few months ago, I was on my tree on Ancestry and saw a little leaf (hint) on John C. Siems. Siems is my direct paternal line, and John C. is the most distant ancestor I had found to date.

Siems was, of course, an early focus of mine when I started up researching about 9 years ago, being my direct paternal line. First census gatherings were easy, as were "recent" (1910s/1920s) death certificates. I quickly found John C., who immigrated to Saginaw from Mecklenburg. The C. is very important, as my line goes John C. -> John E. -> John L. -> John W.! This is better than my 6 Robert Grays in a row, at least. I'm still not sure what the E. stands for, but as we see below I have finally discovered the C.!

Collecting information about John C. proved more difficult than initially finding his name. Once I realized it was spelled Seams in 1870 and 1880 census records, I finally found the family in Bridgeport, Saginaw County. With manually scrolling through a poorly-transcribed and written 1860 census, I finally found the family living in East Saginaw in the 1860 census. I also found them, spelled Seams again, in the Oak Grove cemetery. Birth years for both him and his wife Mary were way off, but day and month were spot on. They were buried near their two children who did not survive to adulthood: Minnie and Friederich.






Here the trail ended for a while, until I found East Saginaw Lutheran records transcribed online. I was able to get a marriage record for John and Mary:

#18 SIRUS, Johann. 28 years. Lutheran. Worked by the day.  Maria EGGERD. 27 years. Married, September 4, 1857. East Saginaw.



As per usual, trying to search for the name Siems is practically impossible. It is always transcribed wrong. I've mentioned the Eggerts briefly before, but Mary came to Saginaw with her father and several siblings, arriving at New York in July of 1857. Less than two months later, she was married to John. I always wondered if they had met over in Mecklenburg, or if they really just decided to get married in such a short time since they were both newly arrived from the same country.

Back to my hint. It was in the record collection Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1519-1969. Johann Jochen Christian Siemss was born 30 Apr 1829 and baptized 1 May 1829. While a year off from his death certificate which gave a birth of 1 May 1828, it's not totally uncommon for mismatched birth dates in my experience in other records. And 1 May, while not his technical birth, was in a way being his baptism. But the birth location - Eickhoff!

I couldn't believe it. Eickhoff! This is the village that the Eggert family immigrated from. Where Mary came from and quickly married John in Saginaw. Where her father, who lived with the family in 1860, set off from to the new world. Off by a year, which I've encountered before, 1 May, John C. Siems/Johann Jochen Christian Siemss, Eickhoff - I can't ignore such coincidences!

Next was to see if I could trace this German Johann Siemss to where he ended up. I never had found a match to my John C. in ship records. But this time I checked a new record collection - Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934. I found a J. Siemess who departed Hamburg, alone, on 1 Apr 1857. He was a resident of Eickhoff and age 25, which gives an approximate birth year of 1832. A few years off, but I've seen a lot of poor ages on such records so it doesn't exclude him. And it's not like Eickhoff was crawling with young men named J. Siemss! I then pulled up the arrival record from New York for the ship named Humboldt. It arrived 12 May. The image is in poor shape, but I matched up some of the names with the Hamburg departure and think I found my guy. Of course, "Johann Schmidt Sr." in the transcription did not make this possible before!

Looking on FamilySearch instead of Ancestry gave me a much clearer image. There is a rip across the last name, but it looks like a Johann Siems age 28, which matched the 1829 birth record. He arrived with one case.

I do believe given the Eickhoff connection that this is my John C. He left Eickhoff in April of 1857, arrived on 12 May to New York, then made his way to Saginaw. Here he prepared for his family, who arrived a few months later. Soon after his bride-to-be arrived, they married at the local Lutheran church and began their new life in the U.S.

And now we move from John C. and Mary Siems of Bridgeport to:

Johann Jochen Christian "John" Siems, born 30 Apr 1829 in Eickhoff, Mecklenburg-Schwerin to Christian Jochen Friederich Siemss and Friederica Elisabeth Charlotte Frese. He immigrated to the U.S. on 1 Apr 1857 and later that year married Maria Carolina Charlotta "Mary" Eggert on 4 Sep in East Saginaw, Michigan at St. John Lutheran Church. Maria was born 6 Jan 1826, the daughter of Christian Eggert, who immigrated with her, and Margaretha Sophia Christina Reichmann and was born in Rosenow, baptized in Witzen, and later moved to Eickhoff with her family. She had several younger siblings born in Eickhoff, and there her mother died. John C.'s grandparents included Jochen Siemss and Margaretha D. Brüsch, and Johann Frese. Mary's grandparents were Johann Heinrich Eggert and Margaret, and Johann Friederich Reichmann and Maria Sophia Grewols.

I only wish this had happened before my grandfather passed, so I could share the information with him. He would have loved it.