Carl II Nicolai

< Augusta Laura Nicolai birt: 14 DEC 1890 plac: Bridgeport PA deat: 20 OCT 1964 plac: Worcester Township PA marr: 29 MAY 1913 plac: Shepardstown, WV < Marie Lillie Nicolai birt: 11 NOV 1892 plac: Bridgeport PA deat: 30 MAR 1982 plac: Northampton Twp. PA marr: 7 JUN 1924 plac: Norristown PA by the Rev. C. P. "Pal" Harry marr: 15 OCT 1952 plac: Norristown PA Elizabeth Elsa Nicolai birt: 8 OCT 1894 plac: Bridgeport PA deat: 18 SEP 1971 plac: Philadelphia PA
					Carl Nicolai
					birt: 1828 plac: Moresnet, Europe deat: 24 JAN 1900 plac: Essen, Germany
			Carl II Nicolai
			birt: 5 MAY 1858 plac: Moresnet deat: 16 OCT 1903 plac: Bridgeport PA Gottliebin Christiana Knoll marr: 3 MAR 1889 plac: St Paul's Church, Philadelphia PA, by Rev. G. J. Miller birt: 28 AUG 1853 plac: Lauffen am Neckar, Germany deat: 1 MAR 1923 plac: Norristown PA
					Auguste Grossman
					birt: MAY 1832 deat: 22 APR 1885 plac: Essen, Germany

Notes:

We arrived in Essen.... Then walked around the pedestrian street which
started beside the hotel. This was Kettwiger, a name that was familiar
from my great grandmother's [Elisabetha Stiritz Knoll or Auguste Grossman
Nicolai ?] death notice; however, the next day I learned that she lived
on Kettwiger Chausee which was on the other side of the station....
Essen has been trying to shed its old reputation of being a coal and
steel city... ... the new city library near the hotel.... I found maps
of the city from 1885 and 1893 and made copies of them. The librarian
also had a register of the people living in the city in 1900 with
addresses and occupations. I had known that my great uncle, Heinrich,
was a real estate broker -- called agent in the register, but learned for
the first time that my great grandfather, Carl, was a "schreiber." That
is one who writes out official documents.... I had also had Carl's
street address but learned Heinrich's for the first time.... We walked
past the apartment house where Carl had lived. It has had a face lift
but is still the same-size apartment house....

...[Visited] La Calamine.... This town was close to Moresnet....
Presumably my grandfather, Carl Nicolai, was born in Moresnet in 1858
[sic?] and at that time it was a free city between Belgium and Germany.
It wasn't more than 50 km from Gemund and c. 15 km from Aachen.... We do
not have any information... except the letters from my great grandfather
to my grandfather and the notices of their funeral in Essen.... I do not
know when they moved to Essen, only that my grandfather left from there
in 1877....
[Notes from Dorothy Neiman Swanson's visit to Germany, 1990.]

Carl left Essen, Germany by train at 10 am and sailed on the Neederland,
from Antwerp on 30 Nov 1877. Carl's naturalization papers call him
Charles.

Carl was not originally a baker, but ran the delivery wagon for the
bakery of Gottliebin and David Hofsas.

Carl's entry in the 1900 census: Bridgeport, 8-Jun-1900, DeKalb street;
150 house visited, 150th family visited; name Nicklei Charles; head of
household; white; male; birth month May; birth year 1851 [sic?]; age 49;
married for 12 years [sic?]; born in Germany; father born in Germany;
mother born in Germany; immigrated in 1885 [sic?]; 15 years in the USA
[sic?]; naturalized no [sic?]; occupation baker; can read, write, and
speak English; owns his house with a mortgage.