The Four Branches of the Henderson - Wiegand Family Tree
Each "found" generation of a family tree results in a doubling of the number of family groups (two parents, 2 parents. 4 grandparents, 8 grandparents, and so on). The goal of the research for the Philadelphia, Marblehead, and Bavaria Branches of this Tree was to trace the ancestry to the point of immigration. (The Greiz Branch went back several generations in Germany). Some of the ancestors in this Tree arrived in America as early as 1630, so the entire Tree has a large number of Family Groups.The division into branches places the focus on what the groups in each branch have in common - either the location where they settled or the location from which they came.
Click on the location tabs menu below for the information about the source of each branch.:
Philadelphia
Samuel Ruggles Henderson is the base of the Philadelphia branch. The first Henderson immigrant in this line was Hannah, the wife of (first name inknown) Henderson, who arrived with their four children from Tyrone County, Ireland, and settled in Philadelphia at some time between 1782 and 1796. (Whether Hannah's husband came with them or died before they left Ireland is unknown at this time). Our ancestor Joseph, the oldest of these children, married a Philadelphia native, Anna Hill (parents not yet known). Their son, Joseph, married the daughter of David McDonald and Rachel Wright, both born in or near Philadelphia (their parents also as yet unknown). The families in this section have their Philadelphia roots in common.
Marblehead
Martha Harris, who married Samuel Ruggles Henderson, was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Her parents, Thomas Martin Harris and Mary Oliver LeMaster (LeMaistre) were born in Marblehead, grew up and married, and had all three of their children there before relocating to Philadelphia between 1871 and 1880. All of their American ancestors were either born in Marblehead or immigrated there, many of them in the 17th century. All the family groups on this branch share their Marblehead roots.
Bavaria
This branch stems from Florence Rosina Kuehnle. Her parents, Henry Kuehnle and Emma Schemm, were both born in America to parents who in the mid-19th century had immigrated from Bavaria in Germany. Louis Kuehnle, Sr., immigrated from or near Baden-Baden, and his wife, Katherine Werdann, from nearby Weinheim. Peter Schemm, immigrated from Dottenheim, and his wife, Fredericka Schill, from Wurttemberg. Their Bavarian roots are what the family groups in this section have in common.
Greiz
Greiz, Thuringen Germany was the hometown of Gerhard Franz Wiegand and Margarethe Clauss. Gerhard who had various cloth-making and administrative experience from various jobs in Germany, was recruited by a cloth manufacturing firm in the New York area. The move was to be temporary, but with World War I imminent, he sent for his fiancee to join him. They were married a week after her arrival,and early in their marriage settled in Clifton, New Jersey. After his retirement, Gerhard took on the project of tracing his ancestors in Greiz. This effort resulted in the records of his Greiz ancestry that are published in this section of the site.
