Dear Deborah,
> Do you have information on the Goeppels here in the United States
> and Germany. My great grandfather is a Goeppel. Would love to
> share information.
I hope , it won't disappoint you, that I'm not a 'serious'
genealogist. I'm just curious of where in the world people with
my family name live and I love to have some pleasant
correspondence. Of course, this does include giving such help as
translating a letter or calling some, who has no English.
After opening the message board twelve months ago, your reply
was the first response I got. I guess, this is because this
family name is not very common. On the other hand, you may be
one of the few who are conscious of the fact, that you not only
need to look for the spelling you are used to, but for different
possible English spellings for the German "Umlaut" ö. Trying "eo"
instead of the "oe" a German would use, was in my opinion a good
choice, considered how strange the English pronunciation of "oe"
sound in a Germans ears. The Mormons don't seem to consider
this...
More than 650 entries with the family name "Göppel" are listed
in the German telephone subscribers directory. There is none with
the name "Geoppel" and none spelled "Goeppel", as "oe" is
considered equivalent to "ö" in German (please send me an
email, if you want me to send the list).
Tracking down the origin of your ancestry in Germany can be very
difficult due to the high mobility of people from beginning of
the 19th century and to the loss of many church registers in
WW II.
The family name Göppel is more often found in Bavaria. In the
area of the Bavarian town Anspach (Anspach-Heriden), the
name is even more common than "Muller" or "Schulze".
Investigating there may be more rewarding than in other areas
(my great grandfather moved, accompanied by some relatives,
from Anspach-Heriden to my home town around 1900, I managed to
get contact to a remote relative, age 85, five yours ago).
I guess your great grandfather Maximillian Peter Goeppel
was a first generation American (if not, it sure is more difficult
to track down his parents). If his father came to America in the
second half of the 19th century, there is a fair chance to find
some information on those who emigrated in municipal documents.
Otherwise the only source of information are the church registers.
However, as there is little chance to find the name of the
offsprings of an emigrant in the church register of some
German village, you'll have to know the name and the origin
of your great great grandfather. With very much luck, you may
find someone. who still has a old family bible. In many cases,
there was correspondence between those who emigrated and the
family in the homeland.
I already looked up several German genealogy web sites.
Unfortunately no query was successful. It looks like today, still
most hobby genealogists in Germany don't use the internet to trade
information (explaining the reasons would sure be beyond our
scope).
I hope, this rather lengthy discussion is of some use to you.
I sent a copy of this posting via email (if you didnt receive it,
and you'd like to get my ICQ or Yahoo-messenger id's or my phone
number, please feel free to contact time using my email address:
tgoeppel@123.45 (please replace "123" by "gmx" and "45" by "de").
With Kind Regards
Thomas Göppel