Hi,

Be sure and Check the LDS records. Be sure and check USA Federal Censuses for IO and an early history book for that county. (To my amazement, I found some of the other families I was researching written up in old county history books I order via free interlibrary loan and my reference librarian!)

This may not be connected to yours, but I did save an e-mail from 1998 from a Cindy Siegrist at crs.@minn.net at that time who was researching a Herman N. Spieker born 1825, Schleswig Holstein. His son, John N. came to the US and was living in Iowa circa 1876.

There was also another 1998 e-mail from a Drew Hasselbach in Vancouver, B.C. Canada, stating his connection was through a Major Stielow, civil servant and privy councillor, who married his gggg-unt, Margarete Hasselbach who was born 1838 in Magdeburg, Prussia and died 18 Apr 1825 at Potsdam, Germany. The Major and Margareta had three children: Wolf, Fritz and Joachim. Frtiz married Laure Heye and Joachim married Else Seyffard. Nothing was known of Wolf. None of this took place in the USA, however, and he didn't say what the Canadian connection was.

These researchers are probably still on the Internet and will see your query.

(For your information, I am also researching the German name Hasselbach from Germany; in an entirely different family I am researching, the family surname was changed to Hazelbaker and my line ended up in Delaware Co. IN). I have heard there was a Hasselbach castle in Germany.

David Stielow, Burbank, CA, whose e-mail address in 1998 was hollywoodland@worldnet.att.net was researching the same family as mine which included (per my old notes) Johanna Spieker born in the town of Lettin, near the eastern border of Kreis Neustettin which is the part of Pomerania that is now part of Poland. Lettin is east of the Pielburg See. She and her husband, Edward Stielow, emigrated to Renfrew Co., Ontario, CAN in 1884. She had at least two sisters who also emigrated, Dorothy Amerlia (?sp.) Spieker who lived in McNab, Ontario, and a Mrs. John F. Kerr who lived in Sault Ste. Marie. Their father's name was Daniel Spieker, I don't know where he was born or whether he remained in Pomerania.

Edward and Johanna Louise (Spieker) Stielow had a child, August Johan Stielow, born Drummerfitz, Kreis Newstettin, Pomerania, 1881, and evidently the village has been re-enamed and is now Szczecinek, Poland. Johanna was born in Lettin. In 1883, Edward immigrated to Arnprior, Renfew Co. Ontario. Edward's wife and children joined him in March, 1884. August was just a little boy when he emigrated. August married Carrie Neil in Arnprior. They went to Canada via Hamburg, Liverpool and Quebec. Years later August and Carrie lived in the State of Washington.

I guess there is a very interesting book about this part of Germany, "The Damned Don't Drown," by A. V. Sellwood, about the sinking of the ship "Wilhelm Gustloff" with 6,500 people on board making it the worst sea disaster of all time, only 500 were rescued. It was an ocean liner designed to hold only one-third of that many passengers. In January, 1945, it was torpedoed by a Russian sub and sunk in the Baltic sea. At the time, it was evacuating refugees and wounded soldiers during WWII as the Russians were advancing on the eastern front of Germany.

One of my Stielow relatives included a Edgar Ferdinand (?Edward) Stielow, who died in a fire in a hotel at age 26 in Aloha, Grays Harbor, WA (05-20-36), a small sawmill town close to the Pacific Ocean. His death certificate is #71. Interestingly, the town of Aloha was founded in 1905 by R. D. Emerson and W. H. Dole, and the name Aloha (a Hawaiian greeting) was chosen by members of the Dole family who had heavy interests in Hawaii. (I am sure you are familiar with Dole canned pineapple). Edward's body was shipped to Arnprior for burial. His father, Albert, was born in 1878.

As above, my early Stielow connection was through August J. Stielow, who was born in the town of Drummerfitz. August's older brother, Albert Stielow, was born in Pielburg, which is just a little west of Drummerfitz.

For someone's information, on the St. Alban's VT Canadian border-crossing records at the LDS FHC (which covers the entire USA/Canadian border crossings of aliens between 1895 and 1924/25), I found a card for 1911 for an August Stielow which stated that he was in Michigan in 1900 and his last permanent address was Cranbrook, BC, CA in 1910. It gave his address as originally "Stattin," which might represent Stettin, evidently, located in Kreis Stettin. (Evidently Kreis Neustettin is much farther east and is what is now part of Poland within the county Neustettin.) This doesn't seem to be "my" relative, but I don't know for sure since I am not really familiar (still) with these areas.

In fact, I wish some kind researcher would post an addendum with some easy-to-understand information on these areas.

Anyway, my August J. Stielow was found on the 1920 USA Federal Census for Gray's Harbor, WA (Hoquiam City), as head of the home, born in Germany, age 38, wife Carrie, 38, born in Canada, son Kenneth, 17, born in Canada, daughters Margery and Sadie, 15 and 13, respectively, also born in Canada. Enumerated with them was W. R. Tinker, (son-in-law), age 24, born in Tennesee, parents both born in the "U. S." and wife Isabel (Stielow) Tinker, 18, born in Canada. A. J. Stielow appears to have had a tailor shop at that time. I am very interested in tracing this Tinker family, as well!

Jean