This is pretty much the same as last week, with my direct ancestors in red.  I really need to work on this line…

–1-Wenzel Tross d. Bef 1900|

+Maria Strassheim b. 18 May 1841, Eberstadt, Giessen, Oberhessen,|   Darmstadt, Germany, d. 18 Feb 1921, Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA

+-2-Balthasar Tross b. 19 May 1869, Eberstardt, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany|

–2-Elise Tross b. Abt 1876|

–2-Katharine Tross b. Abt 1877|

–2-Augusta M. Tross b. 6 Sep 1877, , , , Germany, d. 1 Jan 1939, Buffalo,|    Erie, New York, USA|

–2-Heinrich Tross b. Aug 1875, , , , Germany|

–2-Philip Tross b. Abt 1883, , , , Germany, bur. 30 Oct 1958, Cheektowaga,|    Erie, New York, USA

As I walked the two blocks from the Veddel S-Bahn stop to the BallinStadt Emigrant Museum in Hamburg, I stopped in from of the first sign and felt tears welling up in my eyes.  As I stared at the boats and other signs along the past to the entrance of emigrant families, it hit me: this is where, in 1859, John and Dorothea Passel and their 5 children, ages 3 – 19 left for a new life in America and where, in 1884, Maria Strassheim Tross took her 6 children, ages 11 months – 9 years, and 3 pieces of baggage and set off to meet relatives in Buffalo, New York.  I was standing in the place where they last saw their homeland of Germany, filled with hope, but nervous about the strange new land they would soon embark upon.

BallinStadt is a set of three reconstructed buildings, located on the Elbe River’s Veddel Island, where the Emigrants Halls once sat.  Although what my ancestors would have seen would have been much different, since these buildings were not build until 1896 – 1907, the exhibit has information from 1850 until the present day.  Building number 1, actually the last building you come upon, is the entrance and also holds a multitude of computers with free access to Ancestry.de.  This allow patrons to search for their ancestors in records which include the Hamburg passenger lists.  Being in German, I could not do any research, but I did get a shot of the passenger list with the John Passel family.

I will post part 2 of this, on the main exhibit building, shortly.

The first record of Lillian L. Eichhorn’s life is a birth certificate in Buffalo, NY for F. Eichhorn.  No first name name, just an “F” for female, indicating that a new child had come into the world on 22 December 1908, an early Christmas present.  Lillian was the fifth child and fifth daughter born to William Fred Eichhorn and Augusta Tross.  If the weather was anything like it is today, 22 December was cold and snowy, but in the excitement of a new baby, I imagine no one minded.

Six years later, the Eichhorn’s would welcome their sixth and final child, a boy, William Tross Eichhorn into the family.  Life must have been fun for this young family.  William worked for the railroad, while Augusta took care of the home which they were able to buy while Lillian was still young.  There were aunts, uncles, cousins and grandmothers around to be with.

While in high school Lillian would meet Alfred Marco Casell, three years her senior and son of Italian immigrants.  It is hard to say what her German parents thought of him, but they married when she was just 16.  Like her father, Alfred too worked for the railroad and with the money he made they rented a house on Sherman Street in Buffalo.

Between 1928 and 1935 they had four children, first a girl, followed by three boys.  I always imagine the promise that life had for them.  Then, at 2:45 pm, 19 December 1938, just three days before her 30th birthday, Lillian died of lobar pneumonia at their home on Division Street.  Suddenly, everything changed for Lillian’s young family.  Lillian was buried on her 30th birthday in Acadia Park Cemetery, North Tonawanda, NY.  Her young widow could not afford a plot, so her brother-in-law let them have a space in the grave site he had purchased.

Life was not easy for the family she left.  Her mother, Augusta, was so overcome with grief, she died of a broken heart a mere 13 days later, on New Year’s day 1939.  Alfred, unable to take care of four young children and work, put them into an orphanage in October of 1939, where they stayed for nearly 8 years.
Alfred died in 1981, never remarrying.  His eldest son, Robert and his wife had purchased four plots in Acadia Cemetery some years earlier, and placed Alfred in one of them.  Until that time, when a cemetery worker happened to mention it, neither Robert, nor any of his siblings knew that that was also where their mother had been buried.  In fact, standing on Alfred’s grave, one can see to where Lillian is buried and it is just a short walk.  Using part of their inheritance, the four siblings placed a marker on their mother’s grave site, marking her place and short life for those visit there.

This weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun by Randy is:
* Read Megan Smolenyak’s article 120 Years of Smolenyaks in America: A Note of Gratitude from a Great-Granddaughter

* Do you have an ancestor like Megan’s great-grandfather that was the first one to come to America (or your present country of residence) that you would like to thank?

* If so, tell us about that ancestor – and why you are thankful for their effort.


Maria Strassheim Tross, on the 24 June 1884, you arrived in New York City and then traveled to Buffalo from Eberstardt, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany with 6 children, all under the age of 10, including an infant, and only 3 pieces of baggage.  I believe your husband had died in the prior few months and yet you still set out to a new country, relatively alone.  I cannot even imagine doing something like that, even in todays world of quick airplanes.  Thank you great-great-great grandmother Tross, for being such an incredible, strong woman.

Augusta Tross Eichhorn, 1877 – 1939

My great-great-great grandmother Marie Strassheim Tross (1841 – 1921) in Buffalo Cemetery, Buffalo, Erie, NY.  The tombstone belongs to to her granddaughter Louise J. Tross (1913 – 1937)

In 2010, I hope to accomplish the following:

• Interview my grandmothers, parents and great aunts, uncles and cousins on video ASAP!
• Goal is to do this by the end of February for my grandmothers
• Update each of my lines sideways and forward.
• I usually do well with my information about my ancestors siblings, but I have not done so well finding cousins in more recent generations.
• Focus my search for my German lines so that I can visit their hometowns while I am in Germany for 4 1/2 months
• I will therefore focus on the Eichhorn, Gresz, Fink, Weiss and Tross lines for the next two months
• Stay in touch with my relatives searching my fathers side of the family.
• I research my mothers side as I have great aunts and uncles who research my fathers.  I will be helping my Aunt Dottie with her search in Poland for the Karpinski’s (my great-grandmother’s line)
• Complete Dear Myrtle’s finally get organization checklist from 2009
• Start researching my fiancé’s line (at the very least, get the information he knows into my file)
• Blog: Participate in Surname Saturday each week in order to get my surnames out there and find new cousins!  I plan on going alphabetically though all my surnames.

From Randy over at Genea-Musings: Here is your SNGF assignment for the evening (if you choose to accept it – this is not stump the genealogist or even Mission Impossible):

1) List your 16 great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.

2) Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.

3) Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 – 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).

4) If you don’t know all 16 of your great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.

5) Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.

My great-great-great grandmother Maria Tross’s death certificate arrived earlier this week, as I discuss here, with a birth date of 18 May 1841 in Germany and her father’s name as John Strassheim. The source of information was Adoph Wetzlelen, her son-in-law. The passenger list she is listed to America on with her 6 children has her as being from Hessen, Germany.