The Mystery of Katherine: Solved at Last
Posted on September 28, 2007 - Filed Under Family history
There have been two books written about Pulskamp family history, that I know of. Leona Pulskamp Doll published her book about the descendants of the middle son around 1980 and Mary Elizabeth Ryan Pulskamp published her book about the descendants of the youngest son around 1987. Both books have been marvelous resources for us. (We wish that there was a similar book about the family of the oldest son, but maybe that could still happen.)
Both books have errors in them. Some errors are just mistakes, some where made on purpose to protect someone from unpleasant information. I am not going to deal with those issues in this post, but there is one piece of misinformation that appears in both books that I am going to deal with now.
Both Leona and Mary Elizabeth reported that a daughter, Maria Katherine Pulskamp, was left behind in Germany when the family came to America. I had always wondered about that story, since Katherine would have been only about eleven years old at the time. If she had been older, I might have thought she had married or was engaged to be married, so the family reluctantly agreed to leave her behind. We now know that was not the case. Both books also report on the name of her husband, Anton Dickmann, and the names of their children.
In response to an email from me, cousin David Schuman wrote: “You mention the supposed marriage between Catherine Pulskamp and Anton Dickman. I can tell you that it is more than supposed. … information I found about their marriage from an index in the Cincinnati library.” With that information I was able to find a copy of their marriage and baptismal records of their older children.
So how did this false story get started? We can only guess. Was it just a clerical error on the part of the parish priest at the time or was it a transcription error later? I doubt I will ever know. I have seen a record from Germany in which the church records from Merzen indicate that five Pulskamp children emigrated to America in 1845, while two of the children’s names are missing that notation – Herman Heinrich, the oldest son, and Maria Katherine, the middle girl. Of course, we always knew that Herman Heinrich came because we are aware of his descendants, but with a girl it is a little more difficult, because a woman gives up her name with marriage. But we did know the name of her husband and her seven children.
With a bit more research, I found Anton and Katherine in Federal Census reports. Eventually I was able to trace her family down to current descendants living in Missouri and Indiana. I am hoping that some of them will attend our World Wide Gathering of the Pulskamps.
So then, what of the other two girls? Two new mysteries!
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7 Responses to “The Mystery of Katherine: Solved at Last”
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Oooh, Mysteries are so much fun! Does anyone out there have any more pieces to this puzzle?
According to my father, Anton Dickman (only one ‘n’ at the end, after living in the USA) married Catherine Pulskamp (I don’t know why the ‘C’ versus ‘K’). One of their sons was John Herman Dickman, born in Tell City, IN. He married Rosa Gesser and one of their sons was John Harry Dickman who married Rose Anna Brunner. They had two sons and a daughter. One son was Herman Brunner Dickman, my father.
Delighted to hear from you, cousin! Thanks for the details on your side of the family. Do you have any idea of where Catherine is buried?
I’m glad I found your blog! No, I don’t know where she is buried but I would guess somewhere in Tell City. The dates I have for here are: born Sept. 12 1834, died Aug. 26, 1902.
Humm. I have Catherine’s birthdate as 18 Jul 1832 but another source shows it as 12 Sep 1833. So now I have a third date. I’ll need to see where those dates came from. But I have never found a date of death, so that information could be useful. I have not been able to find record of her death in the past. Thanks for the clue.
I’m so glad to get this information. I am one of Michael Dickman’s cousins so also a descendant of Catherine. We have pretty good records of our ancestors in the U.S. but have had very little from Europe.
By the way, my mother, Rosemary Dickman (Seyler) was the daughter Michael mentioned and Brunner Dickman’s sister. We are a bit more spread out unfortunately than just in Indiana (I didn’t know about Missouri). Michael’s sister Trina is in Kentucky. We have another cousin in California. My sister is in California and I’m in Washington State as my two daughters and their children are.
I am Kathleen Seyler Mcknney’s sister Jennifer. Our great great grandfather is Anton Dickman on our mother’s side (Rosemary Dickman Seyler). Our grandfather John Harry Dickman liked to say that Anton told him he lost the sight in his left eye because of a duel in Heidelburg. Anyone know if this is can be verified. Perhaps just a stray bullet? We would also love to know where both Anton & Catherine’s graves are. From earlier posts, Tell City but not together?