This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

Our immigrant ancestor was Johannes ?John? Zengerling. This family name is spelled as Zengerly, Sengerling, Zangerly, Zanger, Zangerl, etc. in the early German records. Once in the United States, the name started off as Zengerling, and then took on the spellings of Zengarling, Zingarling, Zingerling, Singerline, Singerling, etc. The name, pronounced in German, sounds like ?Singerling? ? they pronounce the ?Z? like ?S .? This is part of the reason why this name is spelled so many different ways.
Johannes clearly used ?Zengerling? as his last name because he signed it that way on several early records. It was his children that began using ?Zengarling, Zingarling, and Zingerling? and their descendants still use these spellings today. On the many records of these families, we find a mix of all three spellings in each family. It is obvious that none of them were sure of the true spelling of their last name. This is somewhat surprising, for we know their immigrant father could clearly spell his name correctly.
Our Johannes Zengerling was born in the village of Gehrden, which is part of the town of Brakel, which is in the county of Hoxter, which is in the region of Detmold, which is part of the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. We visited Gehrden in September of 1985 and found a population of approximately 500 residents. Everyone that we met was very friendly. The current population is approximately 900 people. Also in 1975, Gehrden, and a number of small villages, became part of Brakel, which now has a population of around 16,000 citizens.
While there are no Zengerlings living in Gehrden today, we did meet Theo Zengerling, Chief of Police, in the nearby town of Peckelshein. When we saw him, he looked just like Jerry?s Uncle, Robert Zengarling! We took his photo and were shown around the village. Gehrden is primarily a farming village in a beautiful northeast part of Germany near Hannover.
Gehrden?s claim-to-fame is its ?Schloss? or castle. The castle was first built in 836 and is now a hotel used for tourist. Gehrden was originally a Benedictine Monastery in 868 at which time a chapel was built for the locals. In 1142, the Monastery was given to an order of Nuns. In 1160 the Benedictines took over the monastery, and the chapel was enlarged in 1245. In 1319 Gehrden was recognized as a ?city? by the Duke-Bishop of Paderborn. In 1810 the monastery closed and came under civil control. In 1933 the surrounding fields were sold, and in 1959 it was made into a hotel as it is today. The other important building in Gehrden is the St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church. It was built in 1184 with records dating back to the early 1700s, and it is from this church we found our earliest Zengerling records.
Our Johannes ?John? Zengerling was born in Gehrden on September 15, 1815, and his baptismal record is in St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church as are his siblings and three generations of older Zengerlings. Johannes was the son of Joseph Zengerling and Maria Franzisca Weber. He grew up in a Catholic family, and this was evidenced in later life by his dedication to his church. His father was a ?distiller? on one record, and an ?innkeeper of the keller? (cellar) on another. This means he was in charge of a local storage facility for the production and storage of wine. He was probably a farmer as well. Johannes no doubt spent his early years farming for this is what he did later in life. He apparently had some education in Germany because we know he could read and write.
Based on a note by Johannes? baptismal record in Germany, we know he ?urn 1835 in die U.S.A. eingewandert,? translated, immigrated to the U.S.A. around 1835 (age 20). This was not unusual for Germans, at that time, for war was breaking out around Germany, and
1