I also have a George Aschenbrenner as a Great Grandfather. It is my understanding that he was born in 1855 in Bohemia. A New York passenger list had the Aschenbrenner family arriving in the Port of New York on May 14, 1888 on the steamship Sorrento from Hamburg, German. It listed the origin and ethnicity as Austrian and their destination as Iowa. George’s occupation was listed as a carpenter and his wife was Elizabeth Hartl. He has two children traveling with him, Anna age 4 and Dorothea age 3.

George & Elizabeth had three children in the US: Josef & Emil who both died at an early age and Edward (my grandfather). George died on Oct 25, 1911 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and it is my understanding that George had four brothers, but I have no information on them or his parents. He is buried at the Czech National Cemetery in Cedar Rapids. Elizabeth parents were Albert Hartl and Marie Masna who were born in Czechoslovakia.

According to my mother, George changed his last name to Asenbrener to Americanize it, while my grandfather Edward used the name Ashenbrener.