I am seeking specific European birthplace information for my BRUSS family, and ancestors if at all possible. I also would like to find them in New York before they came to Wisconsin.

Here is what the data I've collected suggests: Freidrich or Frederick BRUSS was born in the early 1800s in Prussia. In the early 1830s, he came to New York with his wife [name unknown] and his son Augustus F. Bruss. It is possible that a son William or Wilhelm also came with the family. He died young, date and location unknown. Two more sons, Martin F. and John were born in New York in the 1833 to 1838 time period.

Family history says that Frederick BRUSS was a sailor on the Atlantic Ocean at some point.

In 1842, the family came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The tradition in the BRUSS family was that all the sons became sailors in their teenage years and were apprenticed as ship carpenters and caulkers. The 3 sons in fact took up those occupations as adults -- in Wisconsin, Florida and California.

Augustus F. Bruss was born 27 December 1830, in Germany, according to his death certificate in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. In the 1860 and 1870 Census records, he is shown as born in Prussia. In the 1880 Census, he and his parents are recorded as born in Germany.

Thus it seems likely that my BRUSS family came from one of the port cities of northern Prussia that had shipyards. In the late 1850s, the family adopted the English spelling Bruce for the surname.

I would welcome information and advice on how to continue my research for this family Germany/Prussia and in New York. Thank you!

Barbara

Hi,

I read your query about ancestors from Prussia. My Bruss ancestors came from Stettin (Szczecin) which is at the mouth of the Oder River on the Baltic Sea. Unfortunately, I don't know what church they belonged to so it's almost impossible to get any information like their birth dates and names of their parents. However, should the church records ever be indexed, we might get lucky. Have a look at my post.

Hello, and thanks for your message. Since I posted that query, I have made major progress thanks to great volunteers and key books. My BRUSS family turns out to be from Cammin, Kreis Cammin, not far north of Stettin where your Bruss family was from.

Frederick's full name turned out to be Martin Friedrich BRUSS, a ship's carpenter b. about 1799, who married Maria Sophia STIEMKE in 1828. He was the son of Johann Fridrich BRUSS, a Schiffszimmergeselle or journeyman ship's carpenter, as shown in his son Martin's marriage record.

Friedrich and Sophia had four sons, one of whom died young. The parents and three sons [one named August] came to America in 1839 with the Old Lutherans, and they settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where ship building work was available. They are listed in a book on the Old Lutheran migration, which is how we found them. So lucky!

I would love to know how the BRUSS families are connected, if they are. There are others in Kreis Cammin, for example. But I don't know anyone who doing a BRUSS genealogy for that part of Pomerania. And no, your BRUSS names are not in my family tree.

Even though you know the marriage year of 1877, since you don't know the church, it would be very tedious to borrow microfilm for all the Stettin churches thru your nearby Family History Center. If you did, you might find the marriage date and perhaps the fathers for August and Pauline.

Are you a member of any of the Pomerania/Pommern genealogy message boards? There might be someone who could help you.
Best wishes,
Barbara

Hi Barbara,

How interesting that you have made so much progress. I wonder if we'll ever find out if our ancestors are related. Perhaps Bruss was just a very popular name like Smith is or used to be.

I can remember seeing a whole list of churches in the microfiche file but I wouldn't know where to begin. I've tried doing that with the Latvian church records and it is a big job indeed.

So, I will put something out on the message board for Pomerania and see what happens.

BTW, have you been to that part of the world or do you plan to go? I've been to Stettin once a few years ago. I was there for only a few hours but I found it quite interesting, especially to think that my ggrandparents knew the place so well.

Hi Barbara,

How interesting that you have made so much progress. I wonder if we'll ever find out if our ancestors are related. Perhaps Bruss was just a very popular name like Smith is or used to be.

I can remember seeing a whole list of churches in the microfiche file but I didn't have a clue as to where to begin. I've tried to go through the records of the online Latvian church records and soon you get dizzy from it all.

So, I will put something out on the message board for Pomerania and see what happens.

BTW, have you been to that part of the world or do you plan to go? I've been to Stettin once a few years ago. I was there for only a few hours but I found it quite interesting, especially to think that my ggrandparents knew the place so well.

Hi again. Yes, I was so very lucky to make great progress - because my BRUSS ancestors were part of "Alt Lutheraner Auswanderung" or "Old Lutheran immigration fever" as it was called. See: http://www.donicht.de/lutheraner.htm

What is amazing is that a researcher - Wilhelm Iwan - used the German records to find all of the Old Lutheran applications to migrate and created a book with all the names of the family members, father, mother and children! See: http://archivaria.com/EmigList/index.html

A wonderful volunteer who knew about the book sent me the reference to a likely BRUSS family, and it was a match. You can see the family as the very bottom of this page:
http://www.archivaria.com/EmigList/EmigList2.html

Scroll up to see them, in German, at the bottom of the scan of page 250. You can imagine how thrilled I was!

No, I have not visited Cammin and am not sure I will. You are very fortunate to have visited Stettin where your BRUSS ancestors were from!

Hope the message boards help you out. Best wishes,
Barbara