Hello, Schleihaufs from Swabia and Baden-Wurttemberg came to Canada in1800s

[LukeSchleihauf]

Firstly, I am sorry about the English, my German is still hardly fluent although I am practicing.
I am 28, born and raised in Canada, but currently living in the United States (much to my dissatisfaction)
I have been on a true adventure the last few months and years trying to track down information about the origin of my family.
Our surname, Schleihauf, is not a common one, and seems to be almost entirely located around Swabia (Stuttgart particularly in the earliest records I could find from the 1600s) and in Baden-Wurttemberg, particularly around areas of Heidelburg and Heilbronn.
in the early to mid 1800's, my great great great grandfather Johann Christoph Schleihauf Sr. and his two sons, my great great grandfather Philip George Schleihauf Sr. and John C schleihauf moved to Canada, specifically to the county of Elgin in southwestern Ontario along the shores of Lake Eerie.
Together they seemed to form a very successful enterprise, and are credited as being some of the founders of the small town of West Lorne (the towns name was even originally Bismarck to reflect John C's love for the Iron chancellor around the time of the unification of the empire)
I have managed to get a few tangible leads regarding further tracing the lineage of Schleihaufs back (it appears our surname may have originally been Schleehauff) but I have run into a dead end in the late 1600s with a confirmed baptism of a Johann Conrad Schleehauff, but little else that predates this.
I haven't yet purchased access to the files on this archive, but I'd be more than happy to if someone could point me in the right direction to look, I believe records for Johann Conrad Schleehauff were discovered specifically in Stuttgart Stiftskirche archives, but narrowing in on specifics has proved challenging.
I just wish to see how far back I can trace the lineage of Schleihauf/Schleehauff now that I have finally concretely tied the roots from the crossing of the initial migrants to myself after studying Canadian census data, birth records, and tombstones.
Anyone able to help in any way, it would be very much appreciated.
Thank you very much my friends.

 

[LukeSchleihauf]

for those who may be curious, here are some photographs I have recovered of John C schleihauf and Johann Christoph Schleihauf Sr, two of the initial of my ancestors to migrate from Baden-württemberg to canada

 

[LukeSchleihauf]

here is also the rough tracing I have been able to do so far in terms of linking towards my ancestors, with things gettign increasingly less clear as I drift further and further from the canadian records;
Generation 1: Johann Conrad Schleehauff
- Born: Late 1600s
- Location: Stuttgart region, Germany

Generation 2: Johann Christian Schleehauff
- Born: Early 1700s
- Location: Württemberg, Germany
- Relation: Son of Johann Conrad

Generation 3: Georg Adam Schleehauff
- Born: Late 1700s
- Location: Heidelberg area, Germany
- Relation: Son of Johann Christian

Generation 4: Johann Christoph Schleihauf Sr.
- Born: 1809
- Location: Stadtkreis Heidelberg, Germany
- Spouse: Elizabeth Schmeltz
- Relation: Son of Georg Adam

Generation 5: Philip George Schleihauf Sr.
- Born: 1841
- Died: 1890
- Location: Elgin County, Ontario, Canada
- Spouse: Anna Catharine Berger
- Notes: Immigrated from Germany to Canada
- Relation: Son of Johann Christoph Sr.

Generation 6: Philip George Schleihauf II
- Born: 1875/76
- Died: 1943
- Location: Aldborough Township, Elgin County, Ontario
- Spouse: Jeanie (Jennie) Watson (1877–1972)
- Occupation: Farmer (1931 Canadian Census)
- Relation: Son of Philip George Sr.

Generation 7: John Philip Schleihauf
- Born: 1925
- Died: 1993
- Spouse: Jean Huis (later Bos, d. 2016)
- Location: West Lorne, Elgin County, Ontario
- Notes: Confirmed son of Philip George II and Jeanie Watson by 1931 Canadian Census

Generation 8: Alphonse Gordon Schleihauf, contemporary aunts and uncles
- Born: 1971
- Location: London, Ontario
- Spouse: Tonya Brown

Generation 9: Luke Samuel Schleihauf, contemporary siblings, and cousins
- Luke Samuel Schleihauf
- Gabriel Schleihauf
- Faith Schleihauf

 

[eggi]

Generation 5:
Georg Philipp Schleichauf, born April 14, baptized April 20, 1840 in Reichartshausen,Baden. Parents Johann Christoph Schleichauf, citizen and farmer in Reichartshausen, coming from Helmstadt, and Catharina Elisabetha, nè Schmelzer from Reichartshausen.

Viewer

www.archion.de

Generation 4:
Wedding of Johann Christoph Schleichauf and Catharina Elisabetha, né Schmelzer, in Reichartshausen on May 19, 1837. Christoph was a new citizen and farmer there.
Parents Christoph; Georg Philipp Schleichauf from Helmstadt, and Katharina Barbara, né Linz, from Neuenstetten
Parents Catharina Elisabetha: Johann Nicolaus Schmelzer, citizen and farmer in Reichartshausen, and the late Catharina Elisabetha, né Schmidt, from Reichartshausen

Viewer

www.archion.de

(continues on the following page)

Birth of Johann Christoph Schleichauf on December 5, 1808 in Helmstadt. Baptized December 6, 1808.
Parents: Georg Philipp, citizen in Helmstadt and Catharina Barbara, né Linz.

Viewer

www.archion.de

Generation 3:
Wedding of Georg Philipp Schleihauf, son of the late Wolfgang Schleihauf from Helmstadt, and Catharina Barbara, natural daughter of the late Philipp Lins on May 19, 1801 in Helmstadt.

Viewer

www.archion.de

So in Generation 3 there is a deviation from your list. Generation 1 and 2 are most probably not correct.

 

[LukeSchleihauf]

Generation 5:
Georg Philipp Schleichauf, born April 14, baptized April 20, 1840 in Reichartshausen,Baden. Parents Johann Christoph Schleichauf, citizen and farmer in Reichartshausen, coming from Helmstadt, and Catharina Elisabetha, nè Schmelzer from Reichartshausen.

Viewer

www.archion.de

Generation 4:
Wedding of Johann Christoph Schleichauf and Catharina Elisabetha, né Schmelzer, in Reichartshausen on May 19, 1837. Christoph was a new citizen and farmer there.
Parents Christoph; Georg Philipp Schleichauf from Helmstadt, and Katharina Barbara, né Linz, from Neuenstetten
Parents Catharina Elisabetha: Johann Nicolaus Schmelzer, citizen and farmer in Reichartshausen, and the late Catharina Elisabetha, né Schmidt, from Reichartshausen

Viewer

www.archion.de

(continues on the following page)

Birth of Johann Christoph Schleichauf on December 5, 1808 in Helmstadt. Baptized December 6, 1808.
Parents: Georg Philipp, citizen in Helmstadt and Catharina Barbara, né Linz.

Viewer

www.archion.de

Generation 3:
Wedding of Georg Philipp Schleihauf, son of the late Wolfgang Schleihauf from Helmstadt, and Catharina Barbara, natural daughter of the late Philipp Lins on May 19, 1801 in Helmstadt.

Viewer

www.archion.de

So in Generation 3 there is a deviation from your list. Generation 1 and 2 are most probably not correct.

thank you so much for finding these! the most I had to go on for the earliest links in gen1-2 were the fact that the surname seemed so uncommon, and the naming convention of "Johann Christian Schleehauff" being so similar to names which popped up around the 1800s, so this gives me a much more direct link to georg phillip, I'll see if I can keep pursing these leads and get a more ironed out timeline going further back

 

[LukeSchleihauf]

Generation 5:
Georg Philipp Schleichauf, born April 14, baptized April 20, 1840 in Reichartshausen,Baden. Parents Johann Christoph Schleichauf, citizen and farmer in Reichartshausen, coming from Helmstadt, and Catharina Elisabetha, nè Schmelzer from Reichartshausen.

Viewer

www.archion.de

Generation 4:
Wedding of Johann Christoph Schleichauf and Catharina Elisabetha, né Schmelzer, in Reichartshausen on May 19, 1837. Christoph was a new citizen and farmer there.
Parents Christoph; Georg Philipp Schleichauf from Helmstadt, and Katharina Barbara, né Linz, from Neuenstetten
Parents Catharina Elisabetha: Johann Nicolaus Schmelzer, citizen and farmer in Reichartshausen, and the late Catharina Elisabetha, né Schmidt, from Reichartshausen

Viewer

www.archion.de

(continues on the following page)

Birth of Johann Christoph Schleichauf on December 5, 1808 in Helmstadt. Baptized December 6, 1808.
Parents: Georg Philipp, citizen in Helmstadt and Catharina Barbara, né Linz.

Viewer

www.archion.de

Generation 3:
Wedding of Georg Philipp Schleihauf, son of the late Wolfgang Schleihauf from Helmstadt, and Catharina Barbara, natural daughter of the late Philipp Lins on May 19, 1801 in Helmstadt.

Viewer

www.archion.de

So in Generation 3 there is a deviation from your list. Generation 1 and 2 are most probably not correct.

with the seemingly similar lutheran rufname conventions of Wolfgang and beyond though, do you think it possible that the link to Johann Conrad Schleehauff of Stuttgart remains? could Wolfgang perhaps be a son of Generation 2 Johann Christian Schleehauff? all I have to go on is the successive naming tradition of their childbed, but that still seems a decent link given the rarity of the surname from what I've found.
if you happen to find any more records regarding the lineage further back from Wolfgang please let me know!

 

[vnagel2004]

if you happen to find any more records regarding the lineage further back from Wolfgang please let me know!

Please pardon me, but first Archion is no portal for free -as you know- and next it is no portal „to order records“.

Instead everyone with a valid Archion subscription / so-called „passport“ has to search for his/her ancestors himself/herself.

Your questions can only be answered profoundly by detailed research, sorry.

Kind regards, Vera

 

[LukeSchleihauf]

Please pardon me, but first Archion is no portal for free -as you know- and next it is no portal „to order records“.

Instead everyone with a valid Archion subscription / so-called „passport“ has to search for his/her ancestors himself/herself.

Kind regards, Vera

yes I fully plan to invest in a membership once I am concluded my daily work, and will begin looking through records myself, especially now that I have a much firmer lead towards lineage tracing back from Johann Christoph Schleichauf. I was merely suggesting that if you happen to come across anything out of your own curiosity while I also am searching, pointing me towards any leads would be greatly appreciated, I apologize if I caused any offense, none was intended, thank you so much for your help.

 

[vnagel2004]

yes I fully plan to invest in a membership once I am concluded my daily work, and will begin looking through records myself, especially now that I have a much firmer lead towards lineage tracing back from Johann Christoph Schleichauf.

Well, please finish your daily work - buy a passport - use the links to the original church book records which were already kindly provided to you above.

See what you can make out of them (especially given the need to decipher historic German script) in order to get an impression what research in historic German church registers means.

(BTW Archion has no name indexes or the like which may be searched automatically.)

Take your time and then you are of course very welcome to ask for further help, if needed.

Thanks and kind regards.

 

[LukeSchleihauf]

Well, please finish your daily work - buy a passport - use the links to the original church book records which were already kindly provided to you above.

See what you can make out of them (especially given the need to decipher historic German script) in order to get an impression what research in historic German church registers means.

(BTW Archion has no name indexes or the like which may be searched automatically.)

Take your time and then you are of course very welcome to ask for further help, if needed.

Thanks and kind regards.

got it, I'll keep all of this in mind, I have a busy rest of my week and weekend as I am an apprentice stain glass maker, so I may hold off on purchasing my passport until the start next week when I will have more time to fully dedicate towards working through the files.

to get an idea of what to start working at specifically once I'm ready, would you recommend combing through the specific parish records for the churches I believe my ancestors may have live around and just looking for my surname, and then try to link specific notable ancestors to one another? or would there perhaps be a more efficient system to locate them with more precision?

you mention there not being a name index and it seems like not much if anything has been translated or digitized, so I imagine I'll be going purely by my eyes looking for Schleihauf / Schleehauff names, which I'm happy to do, tedious though it may be, I am just curious if long time members of this archive might have developed any methods for more effectively locating specific data.

thank you so much for your help Vera, I cant wait to undertake this next step of connecting my heritage

 

[vnagel2004]

Luke,

in the vast majority of cases genealogy is based on clear facts.

There's little room for "believe were my ancestors may have lived" - once you clearly traced a starting point where to begin the research (see generation #5 in Germany in your case), it is simply and strictly following the facts, provided by the church book records.

Given that there's also hardly any need at all to "combing through parish records" since the record's for your specific family members tell you / provide the information / clearly lead to the next record.

Take your time to understand and follow the line of records -as already kindly provided by @eggi above / see message #4- from generation 5 to generation 3:

>>1840 birth record in the church book of Reichartshausen,Baden --- details tell: parents are residents at that place, so next step is to check for the marriage of that couple in Reichartshausen, Baden prior to 1840

>>1837 marriage record in the church book of Reichartshausen, Baden --- details tell: groom is a new citizen there, while his place of origin is Helmstadt // in addition the names of the groom's parents are provided, so next step is to check for his birth in the church books of Helmstadt

Also keep in mind that especially men had to be adults -aged over 21 / 23 years at min- in order to get married.
This provides a basic idea about the time frame as to were starting to look for the groom's birth record > about 1815

>>1808 birth record in the church book of Helmstadt --- details tell: parents are residents at that place, so next step is to check for the marriage of that couple in Helmstadt prior to 1808

>>1801 marriage record in the church book of Helmstadt --- details tell: groom's father is from Helmstadt

+++++next step: looking for the groom's birth record in Helmstadt prior to 1801 > starting point from which to go back in time about 1780 OR in parallel: looking for the death record of the groom's father prior to 1801 in Helmstadt

See the clear and transparent picture / system strictly to follow in order to end up with a family lineage based on facts and no on believe....

And yes, in order to find the specific records you are looking for -in this little example above- you need to browse page by page thru the relevant church books focusing on your family name, Schleichauf (or variations thereof).

That is / may be tedious work of course, but profound genealogy has nothing / absolutely nothing(!) to do with the number of persons you have in your family tree, or how far back you may be able to trace your family, or how quickly you add people to your tree.

Instead it is a strictly, fact-based science.

-------------------------------

In order to get a better impression about the digitized church records being available at the Archion plattform, take a look at the free sample

Dippach

www.archion.de

....open the various books, try to read the script etc.

....as you will note, some church book descriptions provide a comment like "N.Reg. am Ende" = (manual) name register at the end (of the book)
Such manually written / added name registers can help to ease the process to find records for one's family.
However, as I already said, that's just it - the "little rest" is manual work....

Apart from Archion (having nothing to do with Archion) for some places a so-called "Ortsfamilienbuch" / "Familienbuch" may exist.
Such books (be them printed or even online available) provide names and data for families and people living at a certain place.

For a initial overview of online available Ortsfamilienbücher see here - sorted by Bundesländer / States and then place names

genealogy.net - Online-OFBs

www.online-ofb.de

Enough for today.... please take your time and don't hurry ..... don't jump form generation to generation without previously having researched the clear facts, simply driven by the "intention" to trace anything as far back as possible within a "minute."

Greetings, Vera

 

[LukeSchleihauf]

Luke,

in the vast majority of cases genealogy is based on clear facts.

There's little room for "believe were my ancestors may have lived" - once you clearly traced a starting point where to begin the research (see generation #5 in Germany in your case), it is simply and strictly following the facts, provided by the church book records.

Given that there's also hardly any need at all to "combing through parish records" since the record's for your specific family members tell you / provide the information / clearly lead to the next record.

Take your time to understand and follow the line of records -as already kindly provided by @eggi above / see message #4- from generation 5 to generation 3:

>>1840 birth record in the church book of Reichartshausen,Baden --- details tell: parents are residents at that place, so next step is to check for the marriage of that couple in Reichartshausen, Baden prior to 1840

>>1837 marriage record in the church book of Reichartshausen, Baden --- details tell: groom is a new citizen there, while his place of origin is Helmstadt // in addition the names of the groom's parents are provided, so next step is to check for his birth in the church books of Helmstadt

Also keep in mind that especially men had to be adults -aged over 21 / 23 years at min- in order to get married.
This provides a basic idea about the time frame as to were starting to look for the groom's birth record > about 1815

>>1808 birth record in the church book of Helmstadt --- details tell: parents are residents at that place, so next step is to check for the marriage of that couple in Helmstadt prior to 1808

>>1801 marriage record in the church book of Helmstadt --- details tell: groom's father is from Helmstadt

+++++next step: looking for the groom's birth record in Helmstadt prior to 1801 > starting point from which to go back in time about 1780 OR in parallel: looking for the death record of the groom's father prior to 1801 in Helmstadt

See the clear and transparent picture / system strictly to follow in order to end up with a family lineage based on facts and no on believe....

And yes, in order to find the specific records you are looking for -in this little example above- you need to browse page by page thru the relevant church books focusing on your family name, Schleichauf (or variations thereof).

That is / may be tedious work of course, but profound genealogy has nothing / absolutely nothing(!) to do with the number of persons you have in your family tree, or how far back you may be able to trace your family, or how quickly you add people to your tree.

Instead it is a strictly, fact-based science.

-------------------------------

In order to get a better impression about the digitized church records being available at the Archion plattform, take a look at the free sample

Dippach

www.archion.de

....open the various books, try to read the script etc.

....as you will note, some church book descriptions provide a comment like "N.Reg. am Ende" = (manual) name register at the end (of the book)
Such manually written / added name registers can help to ease the process to find records for one's family.
However, as I already said, that's just it - the "little rest" is manual work....

Apart from Archion (having nothing to do with Archion) for some places a so-called "Ortsfamilienbuch" / "Familienbuch" may exist.
Such books (be them printed or even online available) provide names and data for families and people living at a certain place.

For a initial overview of online available Ortsfamilienbücher see here - sorted by Bundesländer / States and then place names

genealogy.net - Online-OFBs

www.online-ofb.de

Enough for today.... please take your time and don't hurry ..... don't jump form generation to generation without previously having researched the clear facts, simply driven by the "intention" to trace anything as far back as possible within a "minute."

Greetings, Vera

thank you so much for the help, this will be a very useful way to approach this process and you are entirely correct that I must pace myself and find very careful, dutiful, and well founded connections before resorting to speculation and theory to fill in the gaps.
I believe I was caught up in the excitement of my recent discoveries, as before very recently the connection between myself and the Helmstadt schleihaufs of the 1800s was only implied due to my childhood in the area around the place they settled in Canada, and the shared surname.
having found the solid connections through Canadian census data verifying my direct trace back from my grandfather, to great grandfather, to great great grandfather, to great great great grandfather in Johann Christoph, has been an incredibly fulfilling and spiritually enriching experience, and it made me overzealous to continue the lineage and gain further clarity.
(All of these men are buried in that same town, from my grandfather to my great great great grandfather, I have located their tombstones which I plan to visit in September to pay my respects to all of them.)
In my searching for the traces of our true line, I shall endeavor to be methodical and careful, so that one day when I am able to travel to Heidelberg and Helmstadt, I am able to go with the full context of knowing I am walking where my forefathers walked.
Thank you for your help, I look very much forward to the start of next week to begin my searching.

 

[eggi]

My advice would be to follow the method that Vera pointed out. When you have enough time left to do research, buy an Archion pass and open the links that I have provided recently. You'll certainly find, that the text is not easy to read. It is written in Kurrent, the German handwriting that was in use from late 16th century until early 20th century. However, the more often you try to decipher it, the easier it will be to read. You can always ask for help in the "Lesehilfe" part of this forum. Provide your best guess, and it will be corrected.
As a heads-up, I did a quick research, and the Schleihauf line of your ancestors can be traced back at least until the middle of 16th century. And don't forget the maternal lines, they might be just as interesting as the paternal one.
Finally, follow Vera's advice that quality is more important than quantity or speed. Try to get trustable results and to clear up any doubts. Sometimes you have to accept that your research has ended in a dead end. However, that doesn't need to be the end of your journey, you might find additional hints months or years later.