Rehwald/Kleinschmidt Genealogy Forum

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Hello Tom Rawson,

I was searching the internet for some family history and came across your website. My heart started pounding when I saw the name Kleinschmidt as well as Rehwald.

My great-great-grandfather was August Wilhelm Rehwald (born 20 October 1837 - 1918). He and his wife Emilie Franz had many children of whom only 6 reached adulthood. Of these 6, the 5 older were boys and their only daughter Anna was the youngest (born March 19, 1878). She was my great-grandmother. Anna Rehwald married Heinrich Challier and they had 3 children. The middle child was my grandmother, Alice. Alice married Alexander Kroguletz and they had 3 children:
1. Anne (1932- )
2. Nelly (1934- ) my mother
3. Wally (1937- ) my uncle who lives in Abbotsford, BC and also very interested in family history.

I know this is a simplified version of the August Rehwald line but I wanted you to know that there is someone out here who is related to you. I'm willing to expand on our history if you would be interested. The oldest photographs I have are of August Rehwald and his wife Emilie and their children.

I hope to hear from you and perhaps share more of our family histories.

Bye for now,
Celia Fehr

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Hello Celia!

How nice to hear from you. If my calculations are correct, you are my fourth cousin. Howdy cousin!

Other than what you already see on my website, I don't know very much about the Rehwald/Kleinschmidt family. I know that my great grandmother, Emilie Dittman, was born in Berlin. I don't know when she came to the U.S, but her son (my grandfather), John Kepke, was born in New York. Do you know which one of your ancestors emigrated from Germany to North America? I'm making an assumption here--are you in North America? You mentioned your uncle in B.C., so I assume you are. Where do you live?

I live in Seattle with my lovely bride, Michelle Quesada, and her three wonderful children, Louise, Dalton, and Rory. I grew up in Connecticut and used to love visiting my grandfather in Brooklyn.

By all means, please send all the info on the Rehwald/Kleinschmidt family that you have. Please include birth dates and places, death dates and places, immigration dates, etc. if you have this info.

I am sending a copy of our correspondence to my mother, Connie Rawson, and my aunt, Edie MacDonald. They are John Kepke's daughters, and they are very interested in the family history too.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
--Cousin Tom

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Hello Tom, Thanks for your email. I'll try to answer your questions and get more information to you over time. There's a lot of information in our family history and it would take too long to do it in a few emails.

Yes, I'm in North America! I live in Ontario, Canada and was born and raised in Toronto. My mother and her family (my grandmother and my aunt and uncle) came to Canada by way of Germany in 1951. I'm married for almost 7 years to Abe Fehr and have 2 pre-school girls, Alicia and Becki, ages 4 and 2 1/2.

I guess I'll start with August Rehwald (my gg-grandfather). I have a copy of his "Taufschein" information (baby baptism). It mentions his name and his parents names and his birthday and his place of birth. His place of birth is Gerskullen, East Prussia. The borders of Germany were different way back then and much bigger than the borders now. Now I guess it is Lithuania. I want to send you a copy of this paper when I get to a photocopier (Laser) because there are also some pictures that I plan on sending you. Is there an address I can send them to? I don't have a scanner yet but hope to some day. Then I'll put all our family pictures into the computer.

August Rehwald married Emilie Franz on September 22, 1864 in Koenigsberg. He was a horticulturist.

I'll quit for today. I'm curious as to where you gg-grandmother was born (Johanna Rehwald). Do you have any pictures of her? Or other ones of her siblings?

Look forward to continuing our emails! Bye for today, Celia

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Hello Celia!
Thank you for the info.

Yes--please send a copy of the "Taufschein" and any other documents and photos you have to me. My address is:
Tom Rawson
2106 N 52nd St
Seattle WA 98103

I have forwarded these questions to my mother and aunt. Only one child in every generation since Johanna has produced offspring. Consequently, my mother, my aunt, my siblings, and my niece and nephew are the only living descendants of Johanna. Hopefully my mother and aunt have some info. My brother, Kit, is also a family genealogist. I will send these questions to him as well.

--Tom

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Hi Tom, I don't know any more than you do about the Rehwalds, etc. I always believed that Emilie came to this country with her father and step-mother. Maybe her mother had died in childbirth. She had half siblings, but I don't know when they were born. I remember being told that when Mr. Dittman died, the step-mother had to go to work, and Emilie had to stop her schooling and stay home with the siblings. My father seemed to think that was mean. But my mother said that was the obvious solution because the step-mother could earn more money than Emilie could have. But as to Rehwalds, I know nothing. I will be fascinated to see what Celia comes up with. I am wondering whether she has information further back than August and Johanna.

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Many thanks to Celia Fehr for contacting me and piquing my interest in the Rehwald/Kleinschmidt family. My guess, from the few details I've gathered thus far, is that Johanne(a?) Rewald's descendants lost contact with August Wilhelm Rehwald's descendants at the time young Emilie Dittman came to the U.S. If this is true, Celia's eMail to me is the first contact between these two families since the late 1860s. If anyone knows something different please let me know.

My records (most of which I got from Kit in 1993) show that Emilie was born in Berlin 19 Oct 1865. Her oldest half-sibling, William Walther Dittman, was born in Berlin 1 May 1868. The next oldest half-sibling, Samuel Ernst Dittman, was born in Dayton, Ohio 18 Jul 1870, and the next three children were born in St. Paul, Minnesota between 1872 and 1877, so apparently the family came to U.S. between 1868 and 1870 with a very young Emilie as the only Rehwald descendant.

Johanne and August Wilhelm had three siblings and four Rehwald half-siblings. Does anyone know anything about their descendants?

How about Christian Rehwald and Magdalene Kleinschmidt--do we know anything about them? My notes say Christian was born in 1800 or 1801. His occupation was "Kamerer". What is a "Kamerer"? Magdalene died 6 Aug 1845, Christian's second marriage was to Euphrosine Brocker (Broeker?). Do we know anything about Christian's and/or Magdalene's parents?

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Tom -- I am suffering from an overdose of family information! What fun! At the moment I just want to reply to the question about Christian Rehwald's occupation. I have asked several people what that could be. Two of my informants were German women now living in the US and one an American college professor of German. None was particularly helpful. The dictionary says that Kammerer ( with an umlaut over the a ) is a chamberlain. What did that mean in East Prussia in the early 19th century? It could be anything from some kind of upper household servant to an official in one of those petty royal courts that Germany was full of at that time. I shall continue to ponder all this. L&K, M

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Hi Tom, I thank you for letting me know that you received the package and I've checked out the updated charts as well. Wonderful! By the way, my grandfather, Alexander Kroguletz was born on March 23, 1904.

As to the question about Kammere (I don't know if I spelled it right), my uncle interpreted it as a Public Accountant. My dad who is from Germany and knows the language basicly agreed that it was an accounting type job. I hope this helps.

I have another link to the family history but not much information. I have 2 old pictures taken around 1905 that have August Rehwald's cousin and her children. The back of one is addressed to Anna who is my great-grandmother Anna Rehwald Challier. The note is signed by R. A. Hoff. One picture has August's cousin and her two children, Thelma and David and the other one has only the 2 children. The one photo was taken in Sydney, Australia. I haven't been able to find more info on them yet but apparently my grandmother's cousin Alfred Rehwald (son of Moritz Rehwald) visited them in the 1960's(?). The reason I've included them here is because if they are August's cousins then they are Johanna Rehwald's cousins too!

Hope this continues the search for Rehwald family. Hope your day is a good one!--Your cousin, Celia

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