In 1873 two of my great uncles, Frantz and Robert BARTELT, left the Stettin, Kreis Cammin area of Pommern, Prussia, reportedly to avoid being drafted into Kaiser Wilhelm's army. Their ages were 17 and 16. They left the Port of Bremen, Germany and arrived at the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, USA on Apr 18, 1873 aboard the steamship Baltimore. They then settled in Wisconsin and some family members later moved to Winona, Minnesota. According to family members, the Ben LEMKE family of Medford, (Taylor County) Wisconsin, was their sponsor. Two years later, in 1875, their parents, Julius August and Wilhelmine BARTELT (nee BARTELT) followed. Accompanying them were the rest of their children , Bertha, Augusta, Karl (my great-grandfather), Wilhelm and Albert. Also immigrating with the family was Christine BARTELT, age 68, who may have been the mother of my great-great grandfather, Julius August . They arrived at the Port of Baltimore, Maryland on Apr 26, 1875 after leaving from the Port of Bremen, Germany. They also settled in Wisconsin with various family members, eventually moving to Milwaukee, the Town of Bern, the Town of Goodrich, the Town of Medford, (Taylor County) Wisconsin and the Rollingstone and Winona areas of Winona County, Minnesota. Julius & Wilhelmine's last child, Hugo, was born there. I've yet to find out where/when Julius died in Wisconsin. As was common with German naming customs of the time, Julius was known by his middle name, August, to family and friends, but used his first name for legal documents. Related family names: FIENE (WI/IA), FREDERICH (WI), FREIBERG MI/WI), GRUBE (WI), HEUER (MN), JACOBS (WI/AK), JENSEN (Copenhagen, DN/MI/WI), KLEIN (WI), KLUMB (WI), KNAACK (WI), KRENZKE (MN/WI), LISSNER (WI), MAERCKER (WI), NOVAK (MN/WI), OBITZ (MN), RISCH (WI), SCHULTZ (MN/WI), SCHUMACHER (WI), SCHWENKE (WI/FL), STROHMEIER (WI), STUEBER (Pommern), VOTAVA (IL), WAPPLER (WI), WEGNER (WI), WEILER (WI/AK), ZALUSKY (WI). Below are some Wisconsin genealogy resources I'd like to share with the list : The Wisconsin Historical Society has an online search engine at: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/roster/ in which you can research your Civil War ancestors to see if they or any relations of theirs served in the military. The list shows county of origin when they signed up once you've established what unit they were in. Wisconsin's University of Wisconsin system has archives for birth, death, marriage, etc. genealogy records for surrounding counties at their different campuses and you'd have to find which ones cover your county. Most of them are online and you can send inqueries by email or you can go to the campus libraries to research for free. Karin Schoepke has an excellent German website at: http://www.on-line.de/~karin.schoepke/Forscher.htm#Anfang for those doing research for Prussia/Pommern names and you might get lucky and find your ancestor there. For those whose ancestors came to the US through Ellis Island you can search free for the actual ship's manifests at: http://www.ellisisland.org/ I've found that by typing the surname of your ancestor into any of the online search engines that you can also find many websites carrying your name and you might get lucky that way. Andy Bartelt