A family history
Wesemann Family History
This is the story of the Wesemann family and the families who married into it, from mills on a small German river in the 1700s to Philadelphia and its suburbs. It begins with Johann Heinrich Wesemann, who came “from Grubenhagen” and took the middle mill at Linse in 1774, and follows his great-grandson George, who left the Duchy of Brunswick for America in 1860.
Every fact here rests on a record, and every page lists its sources at the foot. Where the record is thin, the story says so.
Start the story Explore the family tree
Background: Bodenwerder, Kemnade and Linse on the Weser. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Three ways into the story
German Origins
Where the Wesemanns and the families they married came from: the Weser valley mills, Brunswick, Hanover, Württemberg and Bavaria.
Start with The World They Came FromOther Origins
The English, Italian and Irish homelands of the Parrish, Squitieri, Hanlon and McCann families.
Start with Parrish Family (England)In America
From George Wesemann’s arrival in 1860 to the families of Philadelphia, Bucks County and the coal region.
Start with George and Fredericka's Family, 1860 to 1907
Three ways into the records
Family Tree
Find anyone in the family in any spelling, follow each family line, and trace how two people are related.
Open the family treeSource Documents
Read the transcripts behind the story: church registers, census pages, ship lists, military files and newspapers.
Search the recordsChronology
Every dated event in the family history, with world events alongside, grouped by period and searchable by name.
Browse the chronology
Living family members are not named on this site. Facts about them stay with the family.