The Drantz Family

The Drantz Family

This document is the 1885 passenger manifest for the New York arrival of Fr. Bernhard (Friedrich) and Wilhelmine Braendle Drautz, known as Minnie (passengers 258 & 9). The Drautz family listed their home as Wurttemberg and their hometown as Heilbronn. Frederick, a farmer, was 26 and Minnie, 25.

With them are their four daughters: Emma 6 years old, Louise 4, Minnie 11 months old, and Marie was 1 month old.

http://www.wolfhard.info/Pfarrerskinder-3-Anna-Dorthea,-Stammmutter-eines-amerikanischen-Clans-1646-bis-1703/

Below is the baptismal record for Marie Caroline Drauz baptised on November 29, 1883 in the Evangelical Lutheran church. "Kirchenbucher" means, literally, Church Book. The far right column shows the Godparents, the witnesses to the baptism which I can't make out the names. Friedrich and Minnie had both been baptized and married in the same church. 

https://www.citykirche-heilbronn.de/

Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1564-1971

The Drautz family sailed from Hamburg on the Moravia and sailed past Lady Liberty on August 18, 1885. After their arrival, Marie was known as Mary and often stated that she was from Bremen, Germany.  Bremen was an enclave for German families as they awaited their passage, departing from the port of Hamburg. The Immigrants Experience is a wonderful website detailing the life of a European immigrant in the 19th century.

There are many factors that could have contributed to their decision to leave Germany. Often, German conscription, or obligated participation in the military, is cited as the main reason for young men to emigrate at this time. Perhaps it was the political upheaval around the unification of Germany or perhaps it was the religious crises that were so intricately woven among these political changes. This time is often known as the German Kulturkampf.

Christmas Kindlmarkt in the Heilbronn town square.

The next record of the Drantz family is the 1900 census in the small town of Gilman, Illinois in Iroquois county. 

The family lived on Main Street and Frederick worked as a laborer in the tile factory. By now, the letters of their name have been changed to Drantz and Fred and Minnie have six more children: Fred was born in 1888, Annie 1890, Frank "Fran" 1892, Albert 1895, Helen 1897, and baby Florence was 4 months old. 

The eldest, Emma had married Charles Jones in 1899 and they started a family in the town of Washington, Illinois. Not verified, one of their sons may be Russel "Bulldog" Jones who moved to Alabama to pursue a career as a professional wrestler. 

Louisa, 19 years old, was working as a domestic servant in Gilman. Minnie married Harry O'Neill, also in 1899, and they had two children, Harry and Dorothy, and moved to Kankakee.

In 1905, lovely Mary married the dashing George Bechtloff, the Real Estate Broker of Chicago, and the couple moved next door to George's parents in the 7000 block of South Halsted. The Bechtloff Family

Dear Mother Minnie passed away on Feb 16, 1908 and she is buried in Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago now called Forest Home.  Her final resting place can be viewed here.  Minnie's sister, Lisette Caroline Braendle had also emigrated to Illinois. She married Henry Henrichs and remained in Iroquois County, Illinois.

The Drantz family has moved to the city by now and in 1909, Anna married Edward Johnson and they had one daughter, Mildred, and lived in the 14th ward of Chicago.  

In the 1910 census, Fred, the patriarch, is living at 221 North Oakley in Chicago and he has been married to his new wife, Sadie Hasson Drantz, for one year. Fred is a salesman in a grocery store along with his sons, Frank and Albert who live in the same house. 

In 1914, Fred, Jr. married Helen Rowley and they had a son, also named Fred. In that same year, Fran married Mabel Gottsch and they had two boys, Francis and Russell. Frank became a police officer and a top-rated homicide detective in Chicago and worked the famous Richard Speck case in the 1960s.
See the page about Frank Drantz here. 

By 1920, the elder Drantz's had moved to 920 N Karlov Ave and the youngest, Helen and Florence, still lived at home. 

Also in 1920, Fred, Jr. and his family and Albert and his young family all lived on Kimball Ave in Humboldt Park, Chicago. 

Fran and Mabel Drantz now lived on South Halsted down the block from the Bechtloffs, with their three adorable girls: Mabel, 13 and the twins, Lucille and Louise were 7 years old, delighting all the neighbors with their matching dresses and sweet smiles.

This Drantz Family Picnic was taken around 1920, perhaps in celebration of the recent marriage of Helen Drantz and Joe Lippe. 
I have a chart here where I've named as many of the faces as I can.

These photos are screenshots from Finding Your Roots with Melissa McCarthy. Professor Gates points out that Germans were very quick to abandon their German identities and cultures and religions, perhaps.

Fred, Sr. passed away on Feb 27, 1929 and he is buried along with his first wife, Minnie, in Waldheim Cemetery. The following year, 1930, the widow Sadie took in two female boarders. Not a mile away, at 850 N. Monticello, Elizabeth and Ben Wrenn lived in a two-flat with her sister Helen and Joe Lippe. Through the '30s and '40s these neighborhoods are where the Drantz family members chose to raise their families.