Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Did August Heiden have any brothers?

Ralph Heiden - Not from what I could find out. He did have a half-sister, however.

One of the other things that I got from Aunt Agnes was a bunch of letters from Germany to August and Rika (Knaack) Heiden back in the 1920's. Most of them were signed from a Maria Dohmstrich from Rostock, Germany. That is only about 30 or 40 miles away from the little towns where our ancestors lived.

On some of the letters she adds “geb. Schmidt” after her name which means that her maiden name was Schmidt. Well, it seems that August’s half sister (left) married a man named Schmidt and had a daughter, Maria.

So, the letters are from August’s half-sister’s daughter. His niece. She was born in 1866 so she would have been in her sixties at the time the letters were written.

My great-grandmother, Rika, must have sent them the occasional five dollars. That was a huge amount back then because of the inflation going on in Germany at the time. They really appreciated it.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I didn’t know that our grandma was a Knaack.

Jeanie & Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Yes, she was.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - So, Maria Heiden never married Kannseyer?

Ralph Heiden - No, and who knows why. From what I’ve read, they were having a population problem in Germany so they made it very difficult for people to get married. But, people being what we are, they went ahead and had children anyway. A very large percentage of the births during the mid-1800's were out of wedlock.

But they never did get married. When she died in 1874, she was still listed as Maria Heiden.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - So, how many children did she have?

Ralph Heiden - Just the two as far as I know. August in 1838 and the daughter, Fredericka, in 1832. She was the mother of the one who wrote the letters.