A few years back, I went to a reunion for my mother-in-law’s family. I took charts (including the tri-fold shown above), my computer, and my scanner, with a plan to gather lots of family information. That is the day that it sunk in just how confusing the Helm family could be.
The Patriarch and Matriarch
In 1854, Johann (Phillip) Helm arrived in the United States from Edenboken, Germany. As far as it has been determined, he was about 30 years of age and single. By 1860, he had made his way to Granville, Putnam County, Illinois.
The following year, Maria Katherina “Mary” Herzberger, who was 14 years his junior, departed Bremen, Germany headed for New York City. Once she arrived in the United States, Mary quickly made her way to Illinois. In less than a month Phillip had taken her as his bride.
Size & Timeline
Despite Phillip’s late start on a family, he and Mary became the parents of 13 children. Nine grew to adulthood. Their children gave them 72 grandchildren, although many were born after Phillip died and a smaller number after Mary died.
Despite numerous grandchildren having only single children or none at all, Phillip and Mary’s grandchildren gave them 145 great-grandchildren. Adopted and step-great-grandchildren, are not included in those counts.
As you can see, the confusion starts with a very large family. Add to that the fact that despite the children being born over a 17-year span, the grandchildren were born over a 51-year span. As the youngest of all the grandchildren, my mother-in-law’s earliest born first cousin was a grandmother when my mother-in-law was born. Members of the family who were her age were her cousins’ children and grandchildren.
Additionally, my mother-in-law had half-siblings that were 30 years her senior. The generation differences confused everyone.
Names
Naming Conventions
So, if the size and timeline of the family wasn’t cause enough for confusion, being German, the family had several naming conventions that added to the complexity of understanding who was who. First, it was not uncommon for people to have three or even four given names. Additionally, family members often used a middle name or a nickname as their primary name.
When my sister-in-law was in high school, she took her grandfather’s baptism record to the German teacher to have it translated. That is when the family found out that Jacob was his middle name, not his first name. They always thought his name was Jacob Phillip, but it was actually Phillip Jacob.
Repeating Names
In addition, this family loved to repeat names and sometimes parents even used the same or similar names within their own children. Phillip and Mary used the name Phillip with two sons and a form of it for a daughter. They also used the name Johann with two sons and Wilhelm/Wilhelmena with three children. It didn’t follow the tradition that I have seen in some German families where the first name for all the boys’ names is derived from the fathers and the first name for all the girls’ names is derived from the mother’s name.
In some later cases, the families just simply seem attached to a certain name. For instance, one family had four daughters named: Carol, Coral, Coralee, and Carolyn. In addition, they all had the middle initial of “A.” Talk about confusing!
More Name Fun!
To make it even more fun, names were inconsistently used and inconsistently spelled. The name Phillip, for instance, was primarily spelled Phillip, Philip, and Philipp. Sometimes it seems intentional, but in the end, it seems that it was just how it happened to be written.
All of the factors discussed lead to complexity when discussing the family. For instance, we had a long discussion about the picture that is shown at the side of the family tree chart. I had placed it as Frederick the son of Phillip and Mary. However, someone thought it was a different Frederick/Fred. A discussion of several people took place. In the end, we decided the photo was of the Frederick, son of Johann (Phillip) Jr. And, I must say that I am still not 100% sure.
Infographics
Discussing this family is very complicated. Sometimes it is even difficult to describe, for example, where the Katherina you are talking about fits in the tree. That is, even when you know. To demonstrate this issue, I created two infographics where the size of the words indicate how often they occur in the family.
The First Three Generations
The first shows the names of Phillip and Mary, their kids, grandchildren and the spouses. All of these people would have been a part of the discussion. It was always very important to ask if the last name was Helm because the Henry that is being discussed might just be someone who married into the family.
Note: To create the infographics, names that were similar, were forms of the other name, were nicknames for a name, were female/male versions of a name, etc. were standardized so that they could be counted together. For instance Marie, Maria, and Mary were recorded as Maria.
Four Generations And Counting
At the time of the reunion, the family in the United States had grown beyond the first three generations. All of the great-grandchildren had been born. Thus, taking a look with everyone who had been in the American Helm family and their spouses through this generation is reasonable since all of them were potential subjects of conversation. Many or most of the great-great grandchildren and a portion of the 3rd-great grandchildren had also been born. However, more research on the family is needed before they can be included in a graphic.
The graphics clearly show that some names were used in bulk. However, a shift definitely occurs in the great-grandchildren to more Americanized names. And, based on the changes in common baby names over the years, I suspect that a future view of the next generation will show yet another shift.
One final note . . . I plan to do a similar graphic with another large family, likely the Peelle or Pellett families. I know they will look very different in part because they have origins in the U.K. and have been in this country for 400+ and approximately 225 years, respectively.