An Introduction

Welcome to the website dedicated to documenting the family genealogy of Michael Hammes, Jr, and Margaretha Hammen. Much of the information here comes from the dedicated, extensive genealogy research of Jerry Jackson and Victor Jacobs.

Have fun exploring the site. To get you started, you can see the individual information on Michael Hammes by clicking here. To see his descendants, just click on the "Descendants" tab in the menu above the information pane. You can see this information in different formats and detail amount by trying the Standard, Compact, Text, Register, PDF tabs above the information pane. You can see the individual information, ancestors or descendants for any person in this database. There are many more ways to view relationships. Just explore by trying out different tabs.

In order to protect the privacy of all living individuals, their names are shown as Living, and a User Account is required to view their details and will be provided to family members upon request. Once you have a user account you will see a tab at the top of an individual's page "Suggest". This links to a form where you can submit details about your family. Another way to add info is to click on "Submit Family" in the menu on the left side of the screen.

The descendants of Peter & Anna hold a family reunion every other year with the next meeting scheduled at Ss. Peter & Paul Church in Clear Creek, near Harper, Iowa on June 23rd, 2019. There will be a potluck dinner, scheduled to begin at noon, followed by the business meeting and visiting. We hope to see you there.

The Michael Hammes, Jr, family comes to America

I believe it all started in 1844. Peter Besser and family left Germany (the same place where Michael and family lived) and finally ended up in Clear Creek after considering other possibilities. They came over on the S.S. Henry Shelton from Amsterdam, landing in New York on 28 June 1844. Unfortunately, Peter died of malarial fever within a year of arriving in Clear Creek. His son Nicholas, age 12, took over the farm. You can see the fascinating written memories of Nicholas Besser here. Nicholas gives a wonderful description of their trip. He also tells of a family friend, John Blaise, who accompanied them on the first part of their trip as far as Nuremberg.

Nicholas wrote home and described the situation as a great opportunity, and in 1847, John Blaise plus five of his children (his wife and three more children remained in Germany to watch after their real estate) plus the Peiffer, Berg and Horras families left Germany for Iowa. They sailed on the S.S. Charlemagne out of Antwerp and landed in New Orleans on 15 May 1847 with that voyage taking 49 days. It has been said there was also a Hammes family, but I think this is incorrect. If you look at the Charlemagne's manifest, I think the family that is said to be Hammes is actually Hanson or something similar. If there was a Hammes family on that ship, they seem to have disappeared after they got off the ship. There is good info in the Berg Family History by Michael Kohnen.

Next, the Hammes and Hammen (Michael's in-laws) families emigrated to Clear Creek over the course of the next 23 years.

1852 - Michael's sister Magdalena and husband Lawrence Adrian plus children (Maria-7; Susanne-5; John-1) --

John Blaise has returned to Germany to sell his real estate as well as collect his wife and three remaining children. While there, he told of the great opportunities in Iowa. One of those to hear the stories was Lawrence Adrian. The Blaise and Adrian families sailed on the S.S. Tirrell out of Le Havre, arriving in New Orleans 18 May 1852.

1863 - Anna Hammen (Michael's sister-in-law) and her husband, Johannes Wehr, plus children (Margaret-15; Nicholas-11; Susanna-5) (according to the Eduard Pese website) --

I don't have a ship or definite arrival date for them. I do see that Johannes died in Keokuk County in October of 1865 at the age of 40. Perhaps he succumbed to the endemic malaria or typhoid.

1865 - Peter Hammen (Michael's brother-in-law) and wife Margaretha Petgen --

Peter and Margaretha were married in Perl, Germany, in January of 1865. Shortly after, they embarked on their relocation to Iowa, arriving on the Steamship America out of Bremen in New York City on 27 March 1865. Margaretha's brother, John, accompanied them.

1869 - Nicholaus, Michael's oldest son --

Sailed on the S.S. Hammonia out of Hamburg & Le Havre, arriving in New York 27 Feb 1869, traveling by himself. It is likely he stayed with his aunts & uncles while visiting Iowa. He did return to Germany since he is listed on the ship's manifest when the whole family emigrated to the US in 1872.

1872 - Michael and children (Nicholaus-22; Peter-20; Anna Marie-18; Jacob-16; Margareta-13; Frank-11; John-9; Michael-7; Anna Maria-5; Susanna-3) plus Michael's brother, Peter --

Sailed on the S.S. Rhein out of Bremen, arriving in New York 4 Nov 1872. Unfortunately, Michael's wife (and the children's mother), Margaretha Hammen, died of smallpox earlier in the year of their departure.

The steerage fare from Bremen to New York in 1872 was $40. Assuming they traveled steerage (also called between decks), total fare for Michael Jr. and his 10 children would have been $440. Upon arrival in New York, the family still had to get to Iowa. At that time, there were specially designated immigrant trains to take the immigrants to the American midwest. They could have purchased passage on the train separately or as a package deal which combined the ship/train fare. Perhaps they purchased a copy of Crofutt's Trans-Continental Tourist Guide to peruse on the train journey.

1875 - Michael's sister, Susanna and her husband Jakob Hammen (Michael's wife's brother) plus children (Nikolaus-20; Johannes-16; Peter-9; Karl-8) --

Sailed on the S.S. Frisia out of Hamburg and Le Havre, arriving in New York 18 Feb 1875. It is reported that their oldest son, Jakob, had emigrated earlier.

Out of the Hammes and Hammen families, all the adult children came to Iowa, with three exceptions:

1. Nicolaus Hammes - I have a date of birth of 28 Dec 1819 for him but have no date or place of death and no record of marriage.
2. Nikolaus Hammen - I have found a Niclaus Hammen who arrived on the S.S. Columbia from Bremen on 15 Nov 1866 in New Orleans, age 34. This may be him but am not sure.
3. Margaretha Hammen - Michael's wife, who died of smallpox in the year before her family emigrated.

Other resources describing these early times in Iowa are History of Keokuk County, published in 1880, and Iowa: Home for Immigrants, published in 1870.