I am seeking information on Johann M Bohn and Caroline Ernestine Muller Bohn, both born in Britenstein, Germany.

Question

Johann M. Bohn & Caroline Ernestine (Muller) Bohn would be my Great Grandparents on my father's side.  My Grandmother, Wilhelmina Ernestina, is my Dad's mother.  I have a document showing that both Johann and Caroline were born in Britenstein, German, he August 15, 1819 and she, August 30, 1828.  I think the spelling should be Breitenstein, but I don't find it to be a town in Germany, but Switzerland?

Answer 1

First off, to establish who these people were in the North America:

Wilhelmine Ernestine was born abt. 1869 and died 1940, per her death record, which lists parents John Bohn and Caroline Miller (record for those with access to Ancestry). This family lived in Canada in the late 19th century; Wilhelmine is with those parents in the 1881 Canadian census in Renfrew North District, Ontario, which shows John to have been age 62 (i.e., born ca. 1819). John Michael Bohn died in Renfrew in 1892 at age 73 (again indicating birth ca. 1819), as shown by his death record, which lists his birthplace as Germany. His religion is listed as "Evangelical" (i.e., Protestant in German terms). He was already in Renfrew, Ont., in 1861, at which time he was listed as a Lutheran from Prussia. The transcription has him as single, but the actual record shows that he already had a wife Caroline and a son Francis, age 6, and daughter Augusta 4. All of this means that he was the Joh. Bohne who landed at New York from Hamburg in June 1860 with wife Caroline (age 32, thus born about 1828), son Franz (age 6), and infant daughter. And this in turn means he was the Joh. Bohne who left Hamburg in May 1860 and gave his place of origin as Breitenstein, Prussia

Answer 2

It would be good if you had a bit more information about where in Germany your greatgrandparents were from. Here is a German Wikipedia-page about what is all named "Breitenstein". From castles to townships in Germany, Austria, Poland and Russia there is everything. 

Comments

To follow up on this, since we know from the 1860 Hamburg shipping list that it was a Breitenstein that was in Prussia in 1860, it appears to me there are two viable candidates: Breitenstein (Overath) in what would then have been the Rhine Province, and Breitenstein (Südharz) in the Grafschaft Stolberg, which had been taken over by Prussia by 1836.

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Unfortunately it appears neither of those two places have their Protestant church books in archion.de yet.

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Don't forget that big parts of today's Poland were also Prussian in that time. All three Breitensteins that are written there as Polish were Prussian in 1860.

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Yes, you are absolutely right - though the one that is now Uljanow in Oblast Kaliningrad was Kraupischken until it was renamed Breitenstein in 1938 by the Nazis (I have ancestors from that Kirchspiel).

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And it looks like only Kraupischken has records in archion.de. I have tried searches in ancestry.com and familysearch.org, which have some Lutheran church books that are not at archion.de, but have had no luck there, either.