There is so much to love about my new business (Family History Sleuth) helping people to reconnect with their past and their ancestors. If anyone has ever watched Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr you’ll understand how much can be learned and shared about someone’s ancestors and the feeling of groundedness most feel after reviewing their Book of Life. It’s an honor and so rewarding to be a part of other people’s family history mysteries.
The added bonus for me is that most of my clients are investigating people in places where either my husband or my families passed through at some point and sometimes while searching for a client I come across something for me! This blog is about a recent added bonus about my family, that was made possible by a client’s search.
A find for my client
I learned that one of my client’s great-grandmothers was a “teacher” in 1880 as a 16 year old in Hebron, Potter County, Pennsylvania, presumably a one-room school house. In the 1880 census there were approximately 830 people living in this rural hilly northern Pennsylvania township. I found a map that identified all of the one-room school houses thinking that I might be able to locate the one (based on the census where she lived) that she worked at.
At the same time, I contacted the Potter County Historical Society through their FaceBook page chat. I asked them for information about Hebron and possible listings of one room school house teachers. They responded very quickly, they looked, and responded that they didn’t have any records for teachers at that time. While I was in the chat, I realized that I had sent an acknowledged but unanswered message in 2021 about my own family, so I brought that to their attention and this is where it gets fun for me!
Sackman House
On 15 July 1856, my great-great-great-grandparents (Johann Sackmann and Christina Dunker) left Hamburg, Germany enroute to New York aboard the ship named John Herman. They joined up with a new settlement called Germania in Potter County, Pennsylvania founded by Dr. Charles Meine in 1855. I haven’t determined yet if they left Germany specifically to join them or learned about it and made their way sometime before 1860. According to the 1860 and 1870 census, they were living in Germania within the township of Abbott. They had three young children prior to leaving Germany (Louise, Carl, and Pauline) and two children in Germania (Emma–my great-great-grandmother and Henry). There may have been another child who died as a baby around 1860.
I have performed substantial research on the 3 sisters (Louise, Pauline, Emma), who I affectionately call the Sackmann Sisters. I have connected with 4th cousins who descend from each of the other 2 sisters. One of these 4th cousins, Amanda Grethe, has found among her family’s collection some incredible photos of the family. One of them is this amazing photo of the house identified as “The Old Sackmann House Germania, PA”. And this is what I was asking about to the Potter County Historical Society.
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| 1869 Map of Potter County with Ownership was labeled “Mrs. J. H. Sackman” |
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| Land Warrant Book, Source: Potter Co. Historical Society |
Over the course of a week, this time, the researchers at the historical society provided me with a copy of an 1869 map identifying where their farm would have been, which is where this house was located, AND the original deed with Johann H. Sackmann and his older brother’s name Jacob!! I’m hypothesizing that Jacob, who had been in the US since the mid 1830s and very successful in Kings County, New York, probably purchased the land for his younger brother in 1858. The land was advertised as farming land, but I have been there and this land would have been incredibly difficult to farm because of the rocks, hills, and trees! It’s absolutely beautiful, but definitely not what I would call prime farm land!
Section 15 No 5612
August 1, 1858
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| About 1887, Christina Dunker is sitting holding her granddaughter, my great-grandmother, Louise Hillmann. My great-great-grandfather, John Hillmann & Emma Sackmann Hillmann are to the left. This photo is thanks to cousin Marion, who descends from the boy in the photo, Herman Hillmann. |
I haven’t found the death records for Johann Sackman but he was deceased by the 1870 census and by 1880 most of the rest of the family was in Manhattan. My great-great-grandmother Emma Sackman married Johannes Willheim Hillmann (the man in front of the house photo) in 1882 and lived in Brooklyn owning a bar/liquor dealership. Emma Sackman Hillmann lived to be 88 years old, and was very much beloved by my grandmother and my father, who called her “Granny”. She lived with my father’s family for several years so my dad has some cherished memories of his great-grandmother.
I am delighted to now know, thanks to my client, the exact location of the original farm and farm house!
