My Ancestors Arrive on the Graf Waldersee
Whenever I watch “Finding Your Roots” with Henry Louis Gates I always start to think about my family tree. Tonight the show focused on immigrant ancestors. One of Jeff Goldblum’s ancestors left Ukraine, traveled to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Then he sailed to Halifax Nova Scotia He finally entered the United States from Canada. Both of my father’s family lines immigrated to the United Stares. His paternal line came from Hesse Germany and Switzerland. While his maternal line came from Dresden,Germany. My great-grandfather Henry Karn arrived in the US in 1882. He was 15 years old and by himself. My paternal greatgrandmother Pauline Hechler immigrated with her parents Daniel and Susanna and brother Gustav. My paternal grandfather was born in Delran, New Jersey. The Meyers and Doellings Come to America… My paternal grandmother Charlotte Meyer though, along with her mother and sister arrived in Philadelphia from Dresden Germany in September 8th in 1912. My great-grandfather Herman had arrived a year earlier. At the time of their arrival, my great-grandmother Helene was 32 Years old. My grandmother was 10 and her sister Irmagard was 13. Their trip was made about four months after the sinking of the Titanic. I have always heard that my greatgrandmother spent much of the trip trying to check the water temperature! On the episode of Finding Your Roots we watched, Henry Louis Gates showed Jeff Goldblum a picture of the ship his ancestors sailed on. In doing a Google search tonight I found this picture of the Graf Waldersee…
