where do you find help...when you hit a brickwall?

Question

Hi am scott wessel and have hit a brickwall on my wessel

ancestors. I have only 4 generations going back to the early 1800...if any records do exist would be in Germany

I do not read German so if any out there would like to help me find my wessel for my family tree...:)

Answer 1

Have you located their immigration records?  Naturalization?  There should be some indication of the jurisdiction from whence they came (it wouldn't be Germany in the early 1800's).  Try tracking down more information from the North American side that might give hints on where to look in Europe.  Many records are held at the parish level, which requires knowing whether Reformed (Evangelisch) or Catholic to search the collections successfully.

Answer 2

I will help you,I need a full name exact date birth or Baptism,there religeon,exactly where  they lived,Did they immigrate.Or anything else you know. Also who married.

Answer 3

It looks to me like you're an Ancestry user.  Ancestry has given me hundreds of (correct) hints for my German ancestors.  Have you exhausted all your hints?  Have you reviewed the relevant ThruLines?

Answer 4

I found a death certificate for Henry Wessel which indicates a new generation. Have a look here: "Michigan Deaths and Burials, 1800-1995," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHJF-V5W : 10 February 2018), Henry Wessel, 04 Aug 1901; citing Hancock, Houghton, Michigan, reference v 3 p 5; FHL microfilm 1,008,266.

Comments

I also found baptism entries for more children of Carl Heinrich Wessel and Catharina Thomas. The interesting thing is that in the entries for the older siblings of Friedrich Wilhelm Wessel, Catharina's surname is not Thomas but Tommes. You might have to research if her LNAB is Tommes or Thomas.

And there are also two German marriage entries for children of Carl Heinrich and Catharina.