I'll put my two cents on this Nibbe bulletin board --
It looks like there are two major branches of Nibbes, one from Hanover in northern Germany, and one from Greifenberg in what used to be northeastern Germany but since WWII has been part of Poland.
With a name like Nibbe you'd think the groups would be related -- but the funny thing is that there's no clear evidence of that as of yet.
Jochen, we've talked via e-mail before; wie gehts??
Kelly and Penny -- do you know any more about your Nibbe ancestors (birth dates, birthplaces, general area of Minnesota they were from))?
The Hanover and Greifenberg Nibbes came to the US at exactly the same time (1868) and settled only a hundred miles of so apart, in Southern Minnesota (the Hanovers in Red Wing/Goodhue, and the Greifenbergers in Ormsby/Elbow Lake/Mankato (Little House on the Prairie country). There's some indication that a Greifenberg John Nibbe might have gone to visit the Hanover Nibbes, so maybe they were aware of each other; but other than that there's almost no evidence they were in touch. And there's no proof at all that they are related -- except maybe going back to the 1600's or something like that.
Penny -- your grandfather's name Herman would seem to indicate he might have been part of the Red Wing group. Between my brother Will and myself, we're in e-mail touch with several Nibbes who come from that branch.
Myself, I'm from the Ormsby/Elbow Lake group.
There's a cemetery just north of Willow Creek (near Vernon Center) that has many Nibbes buried; if either of you have a chance to go to the Lutheran Church there and look up records that might yield lots of information (I'm in California so I haven't been able to get the time to do that.)
At the library in Goodhue, there's a little book that tells Goodhue's history, that's full of references to Nibbes.
That's all from me for now. Again, if I know birthdates (even in general) I might be able to help find out more about Rinhardt and Herman et al.
Ron Nibbe
teclatrans@earthlink.net