Question

We are stuck on Hoffman-13196,  He supposedly came over with 5 cousins, and we found a census showing he came to the US in 1866.  

Family legend according to my great aunt was that they were all iron workers or blacksmiths, and spreadout all of the United States.   

Carl was a blacksmith in Dalton Kentucky, and his son Carl W followed in his footsteps in Madisonville, Kentucky.

Does anyone have information on the family group that came over in 1866 or possibly, his parents?

Answer 1

This might help. He was 27 when he arrived. You'll need to search among the arrival list for other Hoffman"s.

New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Detail Source

Name	Carl Hofmann
Gender	Male
Ethnicity/ Nationality	German
Age	27
Birth Date	abt 1839
Place of Origin	Germany
Departure Port	Hamburg, Germany and Southampton, England
Destination	USA
Arrival Date	9 Jul 1866
Arrival Port	New York, New York, USA
Ship Name	Saxonia

Comments

https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/10510757?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a227849647267746d77736a6b36472b6334536d377130724d7154517a6279476f4a6c4c5a572f3077646370593d222c22746f6b656e5f76657273696f6e223a225632227d    passenger list

Answer 2

Hi ! Do you have a more exact question ? Do you want to know where they originally came from ? Do you have any DNA support from your familiy lines indicating more northern, southern or eastern german DNA ? Another main emmigration port was Bremerhaven.   They have a really great museum there and also have some databases.   If you cannot find them on the internet, I may be able to support you.   I had a classmate by the name of Horst Hoffmann.   Trouble is, as far as I know, Hoffmann is a job-related and not geo-related surname and so Hoffmann is all over the place over here ...

Comments

Hi Dick.  We are really looking for any information we can find as my dad was an only child and didn’t have any cousins on his dad’s side of the family.  We know nothing about Carl’s life in Europe.  

My grandpa said Carl was half English and Half German.

There were some letters that were written in German from a cousin in 1949.  The cousin’s name was Johanna Bingel Elbert. She was married to a Hermann Elbert.  Herman died in March 1949 as she sent a funeral notice in one letter  The letters came from French Zone Deutschland.  

Johannas letters mention an Irmagard Jones who didn’t live far from them in Frankfurt. Johanna also mentions her only living brother who was living in Berlin but never mentions his name.  

Those letters are of course after the wars so we have no idea of these are much for clues on our direct line and where he was from.  We have tried to find information on Johanna as she mentioned she and Carl Wilborn were both 65 in 1949.  

Any advice on anything that could help lead us to where he was from, his parents and his siblings (assuming he had siblings if his son had the cousin who writing)