Posted by Francine Lawlor Hart on July 21, 2000 at 11:45:14:
Two brothers, Eugen Christian Joseph and Otto and their sister, Martha, emigrated to Alberta, Canada in 1910, 1912, and 1913 respectively. Their mother died in Germany in 1914, and then the first World War began, making it impossible for the rest of the family to emigrate to Canada as they had planned. Martha died in 1918 after the birth of her second child. (My mother, Charlotte Irmgard, was Martha's first child and was named after her youngest sister. There were a total of thirteen children in the family.) Their father, Joseph, received a great deal of persecution from the German police because he had allowed Eugen and Otto to leave Germany without serving their obligatory time in the German army. He received fines and had to travel to Frankfurt many times to answer to the police for this "infraction of the law". (Eugen was 17 when he emigrated and Otto was only 16 when he emigrated!) The result was that the brothers left southern Alberta for fear that the German police would catch up with them. Martha's two brothers are said to have gone to Montana and my mother was told that one of them became a "Marshall in Montana". My mother's cousin in Germany indicated that her father, Alfred, (their brother) had been contacted in Leipzig by someone in about 1956/57 and told that Otto Schellenberger was a "Marshall" in the American army during World War II and was alive and well. Eugen was known only as "Gene" and was well known at the rodeos from Calgary to Montana at least during 1912. (A portion of Otto's diary indicates this.) Neither the American branch of the family nor the German branch of the family heard what became of them from the time that they left the Cardston, Alberta area, but we were told that they "Americanized" their name and shortened it. If any of this sounds like it could be connected with your family, I would love to hear from you. This has been a great mystery in our family for over 80 years now, and we hope to eventually find out about our long lost kin and what became of them! I have a great deal of information on the family in Germany. Our branch of the Schellenberger family lived in Miltenberg, Bavaria, back to the early 1700's and were Catholic. For a period of time all of the Schellenbergers seem to have left the area (since they are not mentioned in the Catholic parish register). There is a period from about 1680 to 1730 where no Schellenbergers are mentioned in the parish register. I would appreciate any clues as to what became of these two brothers.Sincerely, Francine Lawlor Hart