According to Lutheran Parish Registers on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Hermann Emil Werner, born March 19, 1847, in Dreidorf, Prussia, christened April 2nd in Lobsens, Posen, was the second child of Daniel and Caroline Werner. Castle Garden, New York immigration records show a Herman Werner arriving on the “S.S. Mosel” on March 2, 1878, age thirty, occupation “smith.” The naturalization record below of Hermann Werner of Cleveland, Ohio, states he was born in Germany on March 19, 1847, and arrived in the U.S. on March 2, 1878. The dates of birth match exactly. The dates of arrival also match.

The 1900 Cleveland Census shows Herman born March 1846 [sic], wife Eva born February 1856, and children: Augusta, Fred, Bertha, Lena, and Matilda. Augusta was born in Prussia in May 1876 indicating Herman and Eva married there about 1875. The other children were born in Ohio. Another daughter, Emma born December 1877, in Prussia is enumerated with them in the 1880 Cleveland Census, but does not appear in the 1900 census.

The 1900 census shows Eva and Augusta arrived in 1878. Checking the Castle Garden records shows they did not arrive on the same ship as Hermann. Traveling in steerage Eva, Auguste, and Emma arrived on the “S.S. Leipzig” out of Bremen on June 20, 1878, just three months later. Their destination was Ohio. Hermann must have already established himself in Cleveland, and was waiting for them to arrive.

Additionally the 1900 census reports Eva having eight children, five still living. The five children enumerated in the census are: Augusta, Fred, Bertha, Lena, and Matilda. Fred was born in March 1880, Bertha in August 1882, Lena in February 1884, and Matilda in August 1889. Fred was an awning hanger, and Augusta and Bertha were seamstresses. Apparently Emma passed-on before the census.

Hermann E. and Eva Werner appear in the 1881 to 1900 Cleveland City Directories at 131 Literary St., 138 Professor Alley, and 138 Thurman St., but not in 1903 or 1904. His occupation was either laborer or grinder. Upon his death on August 7, 1906, in Cleveland he was living with his daughter Adeline Ott, at her residence at 6 Floria. Eva continued to appear in the censuses of 1910 and 1920, and in the city directories of 1911 through 1923 at 3728 Woburn Ave.

Eva R. Werner died August 7, 1924, in Cuyahoga County. The middle initial “R” might stand for Rosine. The 1900 census, mentioned above, shows Eva’s birth as February 1856. Extracted Lutheran parish christening records show Eva Rosine Weinkauf, daughter of Carl Weinkauf and Caroline Buschow, was born February 19, 1856, and christened March 2, 1856, in Vandsburg, Kreis Flatow, West Prussia. This is the same parish where the twins were christened, and where Daniel Werner is buried. Extracted German records in Ancestry and FamilySearch do not reveal the marriage of Hermann Werner to Eva Weinkauf.

Of their eight children, apparently it was Hulda and the infant girl who died before 1900. Apparently Emma married, moved out, or died before 1900. If she married, the age limit was 18 and could not have occurred before 1895. Cuyahoga County has records of a couple of Emma Werner marriages before 1900, but the dates of birth do not match.

Above her bed, a living great granddaughter of Hermann Werner, has an original framed document written in German. Between my own limited knowledge of German and a volunteer at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, we have translated the document. It was created on May 25, 1861, by the minister of the Lobsens’ Parish, proving Hermann’s birth and baptism, taken from the church records. Hermann needed to keep it with him when he moved to other parishes. At the age of fourteen, he would have been getting ready to move to Schmilowo, Kreis Flatow, West Preußen with his family. His twin sisters, Charlotte and Auguste, were born there in February 1866.

“Hermann Emil Werner, legitimate son of a blacksmith, Daniel Werner and his wife Karoline, born Zierke, born in Dreidorf on the 19th of March, 1847 and baptized on the 2nd of April. Written in Lobsens on the 25th May 1861 by Father . . .”

This document not only proved his church membership but also proves his relationship as the oldest living brother of my great grandmother Bertha Auguste (Werner) Goms.