Surnames

Surnames in my tree include: Kunnmann, Hoffman, Basso, Koster, Lutz, Denton, Cavagnaro

Monday, January 8, 2018

Week 1:
#52Ancestors


The first person I was interested in when I started my journey was my Dad’s (Donald) father, my grandfather Karl Kunnmann. He was born at 6:30 AM on 02 Sep 1902. That seems clear.

Records, however are less clear on his name. While they agree, differences appear in what names are recorded and spelled in Germany and the USA. The State Archive in Cuxhaven Germany (signed by his father Amandus) shows his name as Hinrich Carl. The New York Passenger List when he arrived in October 1923, listed him a Karl Kunnmann. The Declaration of Intention for citizenship shows it as Karl Hinrich Kunnmann. This is the name under which he became a United States citizen in 1929 (just 82 days before the 1929 stock market crash). Finally, on his death certificate his name is shown as Carl Kunnmann.

In Germany, he was listed as a bank clerk (1923). In Brooklyn, in the 1930s, he was a salesman and later a supervisor for a baking company.

When Karl arrived in New York he stated he was going to be staying with Minnie Koster in Brooklyn. Actually, this was his sister-in-law Minnie Koster. Minnie was the sister to Ella Koster (wife of Ferdinand Koster, his brother). This is the link by which Ellen Kunnmann and I are double cousins. Later Karl married Minnie’s daughter Anna, who became my grandmother!

Minnie was my great-grandmother; her sister Ella was Ellen’s grandmother.

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