The Nehrenz Network
Newsletter
Volume 6. Number 1
August 2001

The "Send Your Items for the Nehrenz Archives !"  Issue

This edition is dedicated to Alvin Nehrenz, who is from the Frederick Nehrenz line. The photos, postcards and autograph books displayed here are all from him. We thank him for his interest and his active participation. We see here what just ONE person can contribute to our general knowledge of our common Nehrenz ancestry. Think what we could find out about our shared history if EVERYONE did his or her part to contribute to these efforts!

 Here's a great Nehrenz Archive photo from Alvin of his grandfather Henry Nehrenz:

This Henry Nehrenz was married to Mamie Soergel and he would die at a young age in 1898. He was a teacher, musician and director who attended Addison Normal Teachers College near Chicago, IL. (There are several other Henry Nehrenzs in addition to him.)

This  Nehrenz Archives Issue

Of special note in this issue:

1.  We are in need of YOUR copies of old letters, postcards, certificates, family trees,                also birth, confirmation, marriage and death certificates, and old and new photos of both your ancestors and your descendants-

2.  Also, an example will be given here, showing what one part of a letter (which Alvin Nehrenz has)   told us about two of the original Nehrenz lines- Henry and Jane!

Alvin Nehrenz has these postcards in his possession. William Nehrenz left his wife Carrie  and their children and would later remarry two more times.

Thus these postcards record the difficult time she had raising her children on her own, having to "move upstairs again."

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Mamie's husband Henry Nehrenz died at an early age  in 1898 when he was only 25. He was a Lutheran school teacher and musician. They had one son- Walther Nehrenz Sr. in 1896. After Henry died, Mamie married a Pastor Guckenburger with whom she had another son- Carl._________________________________________

An example of a boat which navigated on Lake Erie and came into downtown Cleveland

Carrie writes Mamie about her daughter Esther coming to see them. She writes from Cleveland, OH. to her sister in Baltimore, MD. She also mentions her daughter Elsie.

Note that even then they had Central time.Also note the mention of the Pennsylvania Rd. This was written in 1915. Carrie's children were: Frederick b. 1897;   Elsie b.1900;   Esther b.1902;   Carl  b.1906

A note concerning additional William's descendants:

William would later marry Maude Shell and have two sons: Norman Nehrenz and Ronald Nehrenz b. 1914. After he left her, Maude also raised her sons on her own.

Then later William would marry Zoda Bullock and have 7 more children:   William b.1920;  Verna b.1922;    Thelda b.1926;    Zoda b.1928,   John b.1931;   Bernice  b.1933;          Ruby  b.1934

      One can see that the Frederick Nehrenz line has become quite a large family since William had 13 children,  Henry had 1 child and August had 1 adopted son. These folks still have family reunions and they continue to grow in number!

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A view of an old lane and street in Cleveland. Since our ancestors came over in 1869, scenes like these would have been common. All of our earliest roots in the USA are in Cleveland!

Carrie Nehrenz writes to her nephew Walther Nehrenz, though since he was being raised by his step-father Pastor Guckenberger, that last name is on the postcard. Note the reference to trousers and a picture. Also note that she is very busy and doesn't have time to write much. She tells him to tell his mama (Carrie's sister Mamie) to write.  Some things never change!

2. SECOND ITEM FOR THIS NEWSLETTER:

         A letter from Elsie Nehrenz to Alvina  Nehrenz-        

       (in Alvin Nehrenz's possession.)

Here is an example of how the old letters you have stuffed away in boxes in the attic have valuable information in them - especially if a person knows something about the events and people described there.

      This letter has two fascinating references in it:

1.     She mentions that her mother would bring food over to Dr. Nehrenz's family when his father was dying. Her mother was Carrie Nehrenz, first wife of William Nehrenz. Even though she was raising four children on her own, she was helping out another Nehrenz relative. 

The family she was helping was as follows: Dr. Nehrenz was John Nehrenz my grandfather and the dentist in Cleveland. His father who was dying was Henry Nehrenz, my great-grandfather. He died of TB. His wife was Mary (Rupprecht) Nehrenz and they had four living children: John, Anna, Clara and Mae. Since Henry Nehrenz' death has always been shrouded in mystery, it was exciting to read this since it is the ONLY other reference we have ever found about his illness!

2.     She also mentions an Uncle Beier who had cancer. This would have been Karl Beier who married Jane Nehrenz. Here we have the only reference so far about him and his illness. This also is informative, since we have lost track of the Beier line completely.

The overall impact to note is this: Elsie was from the Frederick line, the Dr. Nehrenz family was from the Henry line and the Beier family was from the Jane line. These Nehrenz people were aware of each other and interacting in those first decades of having immigrated to the U.S. Of course we know they would have been doing this, but letters like this document what was going on in their lives.

If you are confused about how these people are related, here is a diagram:

 Frederick Nehrenz /

               Jane Nehrenz mar. Karl Beier (had cancer) /

            Henry Nehrenz (had TB)

son: William Nehrenz/           /son: John Nehrenz(dentist)

1st  wife Carrie(had fourchildren)/    

                     knew about Karl's cancer/    

     helped Henry's family above

daughter of Carrie- Elsie, writes the letter/

The point: All this was gleaned from a few references in a letter which Alvin Nehrenz has. He asked if I knew about the Uncle Beier and the Dr. Nehrenz reference, and I wrote back that yes I did. Had he not sent me the copy of the letter, I would have never known about these two Nehrenz ancestral references. In addition, he would not have known who those people were either, unless he asked someone else! This leads us to the third part of this newsletter:

SENDING YOUR COPIES OF LETTERS, DOCUMENTS AND PHOTOS FOR THE NEHRENZ ARCHIVE

1.     GO into the attic or closet, take out both the old and new photos of your Nehrenz people (ancestors AND descendants). Also dig out the old and newer letters and documents you have stored away.

2.     THEN- go to a copier store or to the library and make copies of them.

3.     FINALLY, write your own notes on the copies describing who the people are and what the letters  or documents are about. Then send them in the mail to us at:

         If you do this, you will be doing your part to assist in the compiling of vital information for an eventual NEHRENZ HISTORY BOOK. Such a book has not as yet been written. With your assistance it can be. All the family history can then be shared with everyone. The more of you who send items in, the more interesting of a history it will be!

NOTE:     A search for photos of our common ancestors JOHANN CHRISTIAN THEODOR AND MARY NEHRENZ has so far been unsucessful. We are hoping that a discovery will one day be made of such a picture or of any documents refering to them. So if you find a very old picture and are wondering, "Who are the people in this picture?" - don't throw the picture away! You may have stumbled upon a family treasure!  Make a copy of it and send it to us, and with the over 150 family units in our Nehrenz Network, somebody will be able to help you identify the people in such a picture. 

IF YOU HAVE A SCANNER- Scan the photos, letters  and documents also and send them to us as file attachments to:    nehrenznet@aol.com        You can combine several scanned items into a .zip file and send them that way also.

Here is a hilarious photo of Henry Nehrenz with some buddies. He was the director of the Arion Quartet and this was possibly a postcard they put out.  This was an ad for some kind of a comedy play. So many of the Nehrenz people are artistic - musicians, teachers, painters, actors, singers and the like. Wouldn't it be great to have a whole book full of pictures like this?

Henry Nehrenz writes in his future wife Mamie's autograph book, "Every book, "Ever yours"

The handwriting was beautiful to behold back then,since all students learned penmanship.

Today, one is lucky to even receive a handwritten letter!
 

Old downtown Cleveland, Ohio. A postcard written by Carrie (Soergel)Nehrenz