Friederika Johanna Christine Harning was born in Kussow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany on March 25, 1841 to Johann Joachim Wilhelm Harning and Friederica Magdalena Dorothea (aka Luise) Schroeder. She was the 5th out of 6 children in all, and the 3rd of 4 daughters. Sadly, her mother Luise died in 1847 when Friederika was just 6 years old. Friederika's older sisters Louise and Dorothea had to do a lot of extra work caring for Friederika and her younger sister Christine.

In 1854, at the age of 13, Friederika along with her father, 2 brothers and 3 sisters emigrated to the United States - arriving in New York City on August 4, 1854 aboard the SS Marchioness of Queensbury from Hamburg. They continued west to Detroit, Michigan to make their new home there.

Unfortunately, life in Detroit was not kind to the Harning family. Friederika's father and her brother Christian succumbed to Asiatic Cholera very shortly after arriving in Detroit, in 1854. Her younger sister Christine died of the same disease in 1855. Friederika's remaining siblings got busy - working to better their family's lives. In turn, each of them married and started new families: Louise married Heinrich Engel in 1854, oldest brother Johann married Heinrich's cousin Caroline Leesch in 1856, and Dorothea married Helmuth Miller, also in 1856.

Each of these spouses were also recent immigrants from Germany. The Harnings had met the Engel family (along with their cousin Caroline Leesch) at some point during their long journey from Mecklenburg to the US. Both families had the same goal of starting life anew in the New World; they became close in the process.

Another tragedy occurred in the Harning family in 1860 when Friederika's older sister Louise Harning Engel died of Scarlet Fever. Friederika was still only 19 years old at the time. When Heinrich Engel's younger brother Christoph Engel returned to Detroit in 1861 (from his 5-year US Army service), he and Friederika became re-acquainted. They decided to marry - and on January 8, 1862, they did just that. They made their home in Springwells Township on the rural west side of the city of Detroit, and started their family right away. They eventually had 13 children!

1862 - Emma
1863 - George
1865 - Frank (died in 1865)
1866 - Louis
1867 - Albert
1869 - Martin
1870 - Wilhelmine (died in 1872)
1872 - Herman
1874 - Augusta
1876 - Elise
1882 - Elias (died in 1887)
1885 - Edmund
1887 - Oscar (died in 1887)

Sadly, 4 of Friederika's 13 children died in infancy (or early childhood), but 9 of them lived to adulthood and began their own life journey. Friederika's husband Christoph died in 1899 at the age of 66. Friederika outlived him by nearly 28 years - she passed away in 1927 at the age of 85. In her later years, after the farm had been sold and subdivided (as the city of Detroit rapidly expanded around them), Friederika moved in with her daughter and son-in-law Augusta and Charles Jehle, just a few doors down the street.