16 February 2013

Heinrich Herman Starkebaum

and

Elisabeth Ridder

Family Home

Sonneborn, Germany

photo of the front of Sonneborn No. 47, in 1941
Sonneborn; 1941.  Permission of Martin H. Meier; all rights reserved.

House 47, Sonneborn, Land Lippe, Deutsches Reich, in 1941.

The photos on this page show the home in the village of Sonneborn that used to be known as House No. 47.

Heinrich Herman Starkebaum (1800-1865) and his wife, Elisabeth Ridder (1800-1872), raised their seven children on this farmstead when Sonneborn was located in the Principality of Lippe (Fürstentum Lippe ). It was from here that three sons began their migrations to North American.

Friederich Heinrich Starkebaum (1830-1898) departed from Bremen aboard the Westphalia and arrived in New York on 3 July 1854.

Two other sons, Heinrich Friedrich L. Starkebaum (1838-1923) and Hans Hermann August Starkebaum (1843-1900) travelled on the Hansa from Bremen to New York, arriving on 30 October 1867.

Martin H. Meier reports that his great-grandmother, Karoline Christine Luise (Niere) Starkebaum, lived in this house until her death in 1958. His research in local church records and in Eheprotokolle (similar to marriage contracts) filed with the Amt at nearby Barntrup show that ealier generations of the Starkebaums lived on farms No. 34 and No. 76 in Sonneborn.

The address of the house at the end of the 20th century was Alte Dorfstrasse 25, Sonneborn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

photo of the front of Sonneborn No. 47, in 1985
Sonneborn; 1985.  From Fiegenbaum-Gerber family; all rights reserved.

The home in 1985


The home in 1997.

photo of the front of Sonneborn No. 47, in 1997
Sonneborn; 1997.  Permission of Martin H. Meier; all rights reserved.
photo of the side of Sonneborn No. 47, in 1997
Sonneborn; 1997.  Permission of Martin H. Meier; all rights reserved.
photo of the rear of Sonneborn No. 47, in 1997
Sonneborn; 1997.  Permission of Martin H. Meier; all rights reserved.

The rear of House 47 in 1997 showing that a Fachwerk house adapts easily to a digital age.

Brief Genealogy

Heinrich Hermann Starkebaum's family

Elisabeth Ridder's family

Starkebaum - Ridder family

More Resources