What are the chances? After yesterday’s story about a Hoffmann, I found another Hoffmann story for today. Not only that, but both yesterday’s and today’s posts include a Hoffmann who had a name that included Carl. And, if that is not enough, both stories include women who took on the name, Wilhelmine Hoffmann.

If you look at the list of immigrants who were part of the Gesellschaft listed in the back of the book, Zion on the Mississippi, you will find a whole crew of Hoffman’s. I am going to call them the Hoffmann’s from Frankenberg. All of the Hoffmann’s, including just a few not from Frankenberg are shown on the image below.

The name on the list that is the main character in today’s story is Carl Friedrich Gottlieb Hoffmann who is shown as a 33 year-old weaver. Most of the Hoffmann’s on the above list are shown to have traveled aboard the Johann Georg, including Carl Friedrich Gottlieb. However, we have a problem. When we look at the passenger list for the Johann Georg, we do not find this 33 year-old weaver from Frankenberg. Here is the passenger list for that ship showing the Hoffmann’s from Frankenberg.

The list above includes one married couple with children, several younger adults in their 20’s and 30’s, as well as a 68 year-old widow. Since they are all from Frankenberg, it is likely that they are relatives of one another.

There are documents available on Ancestry.com that include baptism records for Frankenberg. Such a record can be found for Carl Friedrich Hoffmann. It is shown below. It provides documentation for the fact that Friedrich was born on August 23, 1805, making today his 215th birthday.

The above document also provides us with the names of his parents, Christian Gottlob and Johanna Rosina (Richter) Hoffmann. Several similar baptism records can be found for other names on the Johann Georg passenger list, giving proof that they are members of the same family. Lynn Degenhardt has used some of these documents to place several of these Hoffmann’s in the same family in our German Family Tree.

Now, let’s take a look at the upcoming bride for Friedrich Hoffmann. Her name was Wilhelmine Martin. She was born on March 17, 1819. There were three people with the name, Martin, in the Zion on the Mississippi immigrants list. They are displayed below.

The bottom name would become Friedrich Hoffmann’s wife. She is said to have traveled aboard the Republik, however, just like her future husband, she is not to be found on the passenger list for that ship.

On April 22, 1842, Friedrich Hoffmann married Wilhelmine Martin in St. Louis. The records we find for the Frankenberg Hoffmann’s indicate they stayed in St. Louis instead of settling in Perry County. We can view a civil record for this marriage. It says the ceremony was performed by Rev. Charles F.W. Walther, who had become the pastor at Old Trinity Lutheran Church in 1841.

I was not able to find many Federal census records for this family, but I did find one for the one taken in 1850. They were still in St. Louis. Friedrich was a farmer, and there were 4 children in his household.

I have this feeling that Friedrich and his family moved to Madison County, Illinois sometime around 1860. The next census record I found for him was an 1865 Illinois state census for that county. This record says that the Hoffmann household had a total of 9 people in it. Their last child, Sophia, was born in that year.

I found two different census entries for Friedrich that were taken in 1880. First, here is the Federal census for Collinsville, Illinois. Friedrich was 75 years old and only 2 children remained in his household.

There was also an 1880 census taken that was called a non-population census for Illinois. Here we find Friedrich again.

I find the other names shown on the above image interesting as well. C.G. Hoffmann was one of Friedrich’s sons, Charles Gottlob Hoffmann. Here is a photo of C.G. Hoffmann.

Also, there is a Charles Arndt on the above census record. If you look at all the Frankenberg passengers on the Johann Georg, you will see a Charles Arndt not far below the Hoffmann’s.

I have no documentation or gravestone to verify it, but it is reported that Friedrich Hoffmann died in 1882 at the age of 76. A photograph was taken of Wilhelmine Hoffmann and her daughter, Sophia. I believe it was probably taken after Friedrich’s death.

Wilhelmine Hoffmann died in 1895 at the age of 75. She is buried in the Holy Cross Lutheran Cemetery in Collinsville, Illinois.

I know I have written a few times about personalities who were involved in the 1839 immigration that ended up in Collinsville, Illinois. I have the feeling that these people were involved in the formation of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Collinsville. That church began in 1848 and grew into a large congregation. The Hoffmann’s were another family that must have been part of that church’s early history.