Our family dates back to Hamburg in the 1500's…ie Wolckenhauer/wolkenhauer. My father died last year nearly 100 years old. However. I met my Aunt, Elizabeth Musche in Hamburg during my time in Germany in 1962-64. She filled me on on our family history…Our Wolckenhauer/Wolkenhauer family was a very large land owner. However. sometime in the 1770's, one of the Wolckenhauer brother's got a family friend prageant and we (the Wolckenhauer's) changed the name to include the "c" in our name…ie German doesn't have a C in their writings…remember, this is per my Tante (Li) You can check this out thru our church (St. Johannus) in Hamburg. During the 1770-1860's…the seperate Wolckenhauers moved to Harburg (south of Hamburg)…Due to family issues,ie the Wolckenhauers brothers (4) had major family problems thru the Clous family…ie…the 2 brothers stayed in Harburg and the other 2 moved to Eppendorf(north of Hamburg)…Believe you can check this out in a local library. The story makes sense after speaking with my father's cousin Karl Schmitt…He was President of the Deustche-Sud-American Bank in Hamburg around the 1960-70's…also, the Wolckenhauer's have a senior nursering home (Bahr-Wolckenhauer)…in Harburg…I have saved my family tree data going back to the 1700's should anyone be interested.
The bad part in all of this is my Dad came to the US in 1930 and eventually fought in WW 2 as a American against his own family including his own Mom and sister (Elizabeth)..his father was killed in France in 1917 (German soldier)..hope this gets to the right party collecting data on family history..thank you..you can call me anytime.