What became of Johann Wolfgang's traveling companions?

The Dafler Family Tree takes a simple form: a husband and wife at the top, and several generations of Daflers succeeded them. But were Johann and Rosanna the only two Dörfler immigrants to start families in America, or were there others?

What we knew to begin with

From the Dörfler family records, we know that the Dörfler family, in April 1839, lived in Denzenlohe and looked something like this:

The Dörfler family, April 1839. Ages are in black.

Johann Wolfgang's father's death on April 9th seems to have been the catalyst for the migration. By September, the two oldest Dörfler children had planned to depart for the United States, as we see in the translated church letter from their Heinersreuth congregation:

Finally, we know from the Dafler book (and specifically, from Johann Wolfgang's annotated passport) that his intended destination was Baltimore. However, no further mention is made in the Dafler book of any of his siblings - calling into question whether they split up in America, split up in Germany, or if his family members ever made the trip at all.

What we've learned recently

Ideally, answers could be found in immigrant arrival records kept in Baltimore. According to the Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, no. 22 (Winter 1981):

In 1833 a state law was enacted requiring the captain of each vessel entering Baltimore to register the names of all immigrants and to pay $1.50 for each German or Irish immigrant over five years old. This law was the result of a decade of agitation over immigration fueled by the fear of disease, financial strain on local charities, and a large number of paupers; the intent of this law was to restrict immigration.

Eventually the funds derived from this tax went to relief agencies. Starting in 1834 two-fifths of this income was passed to the German and Hibernian Societies for assistance to German and Irish immigrants who composed the vast majority of the foreigners. After 1842 the remainder of the monies went to the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County. This system finally ended in 1875 when the United States Supreme Court ruled that such taxes were unconstitutional.

Several websites index and compile these immigrant arrival records, including NARA, FamilySearch, GermanRoots, and (my favorite) the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild. I've exhaustively searched these and other sites, looking for arrivals near the presumed December 1839 arrival, trying to decipher cursive scrawls and guess how our surname might have been mangled... only to ultimately discover that the Baltimore arrival records from late 1839 have been lost.

(However, we can surmise the most likely ship that Johann Wolfgang took. This list of immigrant ship arrivals to Baltimore lists two ships of German immigrants that arrived in December 1839. The first, the barque Pennsylvania, arrived on December 5th from Bremen - from the right port and almost exactly when we would have expected Johann Wolfgang to arrive according to the Dafler Book narrative. The second, the barque Friedrich Jacob, also sailed from Bremen and arrived on December 14th.)

Another new source of information comes from the German Genealogy Group and their database of newspaper articles. Each entry in the German Emigration Database is an emigration notice printed in newspapers. "Printing the notice gave the newspaper readers plenty of time to put in a claim if they were owed money by the person leaving." Sure enough, Johann Wolfgang followed this procedure and his departure was duly announced in the Royal Bavarian Intelligence for Upper Franconia:

Tap the arrows at the sides of the image to switch between the article and the English translation.

This gives us three sources that are challenging to reconcile. I think the older Anna Barbara from our German records is actually Anna Catharina (which would match the newspaper notice and the church record). If so, the resulting traveling party that departed Upper Franconia in 1839 would have consisted of the following persons:

• Johann Wolfgang Dörfler, 41

• His sister Anna Catherine (43) and her children Johann and Anna Barbara

• Another man - Johann Conrad Dörfler. The church record refers to him as Catherine's husband; the newspaper says he is her brother. In the family tree above I have him listed as a spouse but he could be the 27-year-old brother.

• A new mystery man: Johann Casper Hermannsdörfer, of nearby Oberwalz.

(Since we have later German records for Johann Eberhard and the younger Anna Barbara, we know they did not depart Germany at this time. Anna Barbara married in Germany in 1842; Johann Eberhard died in Denzenlohe in 1883.)

We have one final piece of the puzzle that was recently found in the St. Louis County Library's genealogical collection. They hold a huge collection of historical and reference works as part of their focus on German-American genealogy. In the "Index to Baptisms, Burials and Confirmations, Second German Evangelical Lutheran Church, Baltimore City, Maryland, 1835-1867", I found a single entry:

This baptism announcement for Margarethe Hermansdörfer, daughter of Katharine Dörfler and Kaspar Hermansdörfer, would indicate that Anna Catherine and Johann Casper Hermannsdörfer also made it to Baltimore and started their own American family. Initial census searches don't show anything further on Anna Catherine or Johann Casper, but a "Margaret Erdman" shows up as a 19-year-old woman in the 1860 census, living in the 12th Ward of Baltimore city, with a one-year-old daughter - Anna Barbara.

Conclusion

In response to the opening question above, we now know that the Dafler family in the United States has at least two sources- the well-known Johann Wolfgang, but also his sister and her Hermansdörfer / Erdman progeny. We have clear evidence from newspaper and church records that Johann Wolfgang's sister Anna Catherine departed Germany and made the trip to Baltimore, arriving either with him or soon after him. This new Erdman line, with an unknown extent and duration, would be some of our closest American relatives from our German roots.

Less clear is the fate of Johann Conrad, as is the fate of Anna Catherine's children. No evidence of their departure, arrival, or fates is currently known. They may show up in future research, however. The search continues!