Hi Richard,
Thanks for responding to my inquiry.
My Marhenke family came to Ft. Wayne Indiana from Germany. We think four
brothers and their mother. We are not sure they were all brothers but on
August Marhenke's Tombstone it says :"Born Marienhagen Lauenstien
Hannover Germany". If they were all brothers then my Gr Grandfather
Christian Marhenke must have come from there also.
In my research, the Marienhagen/ Weenzen/Wallensen/Thuste area had many
Marhenke families. I know this from looking at Kirche records and
writing to Marhenke families still living in the area. I also have
written to many Marhenke families that originate from the Berka area but
I have never been able to make a connection between the two. At one time
I wrote to 175 Marhenke families and I received about 20 replies.
Several sent their Ahenentafel and I have managed to connect some of them
but I have not been able to connect any to my line.
In addition I received information from an historian in the Marienhagen
area and he sent information of the name being spelled Jobst Meyerhenke
on the Marienhagen tax list and a short time later the name appeared as
Jobst Marhenke. In addition from my correspondence I have received
several spellings of the name along with several definitions of the name.
It appears it has an agricultural meaning probably to do with animals
Here is my problem: I am pretty sure the Marienhagen area is the correct
area to search but the Mormons have only filmed the church records since
1853. The records before that are in the hands of a man by the name of
Horst Stueben or at the Hannover Archives. Mr Horst Stueben is old and
failing and he either can not or he cares not to respond. From this
Hannover E-mail site I have contacted others that have had the same
experience with Mr. Stueben. In fact through my correspondence with
Marhenke families, we had a German Marhenke student attending Michigan
University visit us a few years ago and when he went back to Germany, he
and his father both went to see Horst Stueben and he then wrote to me
that it looked hopeless. In fairness to Mr. Stueben I need to state, in
1996 he did send me some information about several Marhenke families in
the area. From this information I was only able to connect one of the
Marhenkes that came to Ft. Wayne. (This is why I am not sure they were
all brothers).
I am to the point I am ready to pay some one to research the Archives but
I can not afford an open check which most want to research. Any
Ideas??----Thanks for you reply----Bob Marhenke
Bob Marhenke
1732 Rancho Rd
Lincoln NE 68502
402 423-6203 fax 402 423-6203
bobmarval@juno.com