Lowenhardt Family Information

[Enthusiast]

Gents,

In July of this year, I am planning on making a pilgrimage home to my maternal grandfather's ancestors' land of Germany. In recent months (4 or 5), I have begun studying my family history on that side of the family more and more. I've researched my grandmother's family enough over the years, and have found much on them; it's just my grandfather that I don't know much about. So you're probably asking already, what exactly does this have to do with Erich Lowenhardt?

Not much more than a hunch, to be honest. I've asked my grandfather several times what he knows about his family, and the answer always was, "Not much." He knows he's Irish (from the Tucker side of the family, which also blended with some English, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry) and German (from the Lucas side of the family; an Irish name admittedly, but I'll get to that in a moment).

I got to asking my Aunt Shirley more about the Lucas side of the family, and she told me that they had merely adopted the name to sound more Americanized when they immigrated to the United States around 1905. She told me that they had come from Old Germany (what part, she did not specify) and that my great-grandfather's original name was "Josef Georg Lowenhardt", which he changed, for whatever reason on the first and middle parts, to "John James Lucas" when he landed in Boston. That's all I'm running off of here. My grandmother told me that Aunt Shirley told her that this information had come from my great-grandmother, who had been told this by my great-grandfather (he's been dead since 1985, for the record; she died in 1999).

I've collected (or rather inherited) various books over the years that list Lucas family records from recent times. What I would like to find out, however, is whether or not this Josef Lowenhardt could be of any relation to the Breslau Lowenhardt's. Based off what I've heard from word of mouth (this part came from my Great-Uncle Ronald), Josef worked as a farm hand in rural Liegnitz which is just a few miles away across the Oder River from Breslau (and, for the record, I'm aware the names have changed since the empire fell and Poland was formed). Not only does this give me a little more to go off of, but it also sparked further interest- just because of how close the two cities were/are.

All I would like is this: a family tree or some detailed records from the Lowenhardt's from Breslau. Website resources pertaining to them would also be useful. I'll pass it all along to my Aunt Renee. She does more work with this than I do, and has lately also taken a keen interest with the Lowenhardt/Lucas discovery. She's got plenty of materials, resources, and records that we've given to her and that she's found to use. I've got school to worry about ATM, but she's off for the next couple of weeks and has got plenty of time to do all this. I'll get back on it after we finish up testing (it's a pre-finals kind of thing we're doing).

As far as the trip to Europe goes, I intend to check records in both Germany and across the border in Poland for information on the family, regardless of whether I find I am related to the ace ahead of time or not (Liegnitz is something like Liegnicia in Poland today; pretty sure I've mispelled the name). I also intend to tour some of the graveyards and military cemeteries, just to see where some of my family is buried (asides from the Lowenhardt side of the family, my grandmother's 2nd cousin, Byron King, was shot down in a B-17 during World War II over Friesack and apparently was buried there) and also see where some of the most interesting historical figures (to me, anyway) rest (originally, we were also planning to make a stop in the Netherlands in early June to see where Kaiser Wilhelm is buried at the manor near Doorn; plus, I hear the imperialists and monarchists from Germany and that general locality hold an annual opening of the tomb and ceremony in his honor on anniversary of his death; it would be a neat thing and rare opportunity to experience this- but now, it's pretty much just going to be Germany [Berlin especially] and Northern Poland).

Cheers.

[rammjaeger]

Very interesting report.

Today we have only 6 entries with persons with the name Löwenhardt in the German telephone book (CD). That means there are ca. 16 living persons with this name existing. So, the name is very rare and your chances not that bad that the emigrated brench with holders of the name is related to the pilot.

[Enthusiast]

Very good to hear, Rammjaeger; and thank you very much. I searched immigration records from Boston, and apparently Josef sailed down from New York (he never registered at Ellis Island; or at least, there's no correct entry for him there) and was passed through a harbor immigration post set up there. From what it seems, very few people passed through this one, but his name is still on the books. I'll probably spend the coming days checking up here and trying to find out how exactly the Lowenhardts made it here to the Midwestern United States.

[rammjaeger]

I looked again and found another 9 Loewenhardt (ca 24 persons) vs 6 (ca 16) Löwenhardt phone numbers.

BTW old Silesian address books and archival material or church books in Poland could be helpful for you too.

[frontflieger]

Hi,

here you can see where telephone book registered Loewenhardts live: Loewenhardt.

... and Löwenhardt.

Thorsten

[Lance B]

Hi Enthusiast,

I had the good fortune to correspond and visit with Erich Loewenhardt's nephew (son of older brother Felix) and he shared the family's genealogy as far back as 1824 with me. Though I'm not at liberty to share that information (the family's request) I can disclose that a Josef Loewenhardt is not present in the genealogy that was provided to me. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I believe it's probably better to know than keep on wondering.

Best wishes,

Lance Bronnenkant