Guten Tag, Eva,
My great grandfather could write and read, first in German then in English. When he signed his name early in America, they confused his last name as Blate. You and I know that the "P" looks like a "B" in German script writing.
It seems that my great grandfather is playing hide and seek with me and you. I did research at a LDS family center years ago and found out that there were so many Adolphus Josephus Plates in various towns besides Burgsteinfurt (now Steinfurt) and Borghorst. Henry A Plate was a farmer in Wisconsin and Francis Plate was listed in 1840 and 1850 New York City census.
As for Adolphus Josephus Plate, he was a furniture dealer for John Belter (a German cabinet maker with his products now in famous museums) from 1844 to 1849 and a gun dealer in San Francisco from 1850 to 1878. He married a Hanover woman named Augusta Agnes Tolle born in 05.02.1820 in Goeltingen (I think in New York City about 1849). Her father was Henry A. Tolle born 18.11.1786 in Hannover???. He had four daughters and one remained in Germany (Bunschau?) and two of them married in San Francisco.
My family oral history mentions that A J Plate's parents and the Wisconsin Henry's parents came to America and they were related to each other. They still continued naming children with similar given names as noted in my earlier postings. It was easy to find all the children in America through genealogical researches.
I tried to do research in Central Europe and found out that the earliest Plate was a Heinrich in Westphaliia in the 17th Century. In 18th and 19th Centuries, the Plates scattered everywhere to Holland, Russia, England, Spain, France and even in South America. In my case, I think that my great grandfather's parents went to America first, then helped the rest of the family clan to emigrate. I was unable to find then in immigration and passenger lists in USA and suspect that they emigrated in secret.
Danke
Laurence L Plate jr