Descendants USA

Photo courtesy of Jim Edgar ownwe of the building in Warren Count

During my research twelve years ago (1993) I was able to find about 48 families with our name in the phone book. In the so called Schoppenhorst Family World Book No. 282521, Family Heritage International USA of 1997 there are 32 entries in the US phone book with our name: Alabama 1, Arizona 2, Georgia 1, Illinois 1, Indiana 6, Kentucky 2, Michigan 1, Minnesota 1, Missouri 10, South Carolina 1, Wisconsin 6.

In contrast today (2005) I can find 126 entries in the USA. But that is not because of the fast ‘reproduction’ of the ‘Americans’ but because back then I only checked one phone book while this time I checked three books. In one of the three examined phone books there is a accumulation in the states of Missouri (15), Indiana (11), and Wisconsin (11). In Minnesota there are 3 entries for Schoppenhorst. These states lay in relatively close proximity to each other.

In another phone book I found 45 entries for Schoppenhorst: Illinois 5, Connecticut 2, Florida 13, Alabama 5, Georgia 7, Colorado 4, Arizona 6, Alaska 3.

In a third phone book I found 41 parties: Missouri 12, Indiana 7, Wisconsin 7, Minnesota 3, Georgia 3, Texas 2, Alaska 1 (www.boreallodge.com), Alabama 1, Arizona 1 (www.schoppenhorst.com), Florida 1, Illinois 1, Kentucky 1, Ohio 1. However, it should be noted that as yet I wasn’t able to check up on how many of them had themselves entered in two or even three phone books at the same time.

According to the knowledge at hand 50% of all Americans with the name Schoppenhorst live in 3 states (63 of 126): 27 in Missouri, 18 in Indiana, and 18 in Wisconsin. Of the 8 Schoppenhorsts from Ladbergen who emigrated in the middle of the 19th century most settled down in this area. I wrote to a couple of Americans asking whether they knew anything about their ancestors. Until today (May 13, 2006) I received some messages namely, that is from Heidi Schoppenhorst (341) who herself is from Alaska and married Scott Schoppenhorst. His ancestors are from Wisconsin.  

Heidi writes that there were many people with the name Schoppenhorst there. I had a temporary correspondence of a couple of months with A. (287) (he doesn’t want to be mentioned by name). He wrote that he visited Ladbergen in 1993 and that he is interested in his ancestors. I hit the mark with Jane Denny (84) and Cathie Schoppenhorst (316) who heard of my plans through A. Both had engaged themselves with ancestry research for a long  time already, especially with the emigrants from Ladbergen. Of course with the Schoppenhorst family, too. Through numerous e-mails by Jane Denny suddenly a flood of data was available to me – I was able to draw on abundant resources and was hardly able to catch up, to process, and to read up. Jane is on friendly terms with Pastor John Clausing who is considered a specialist in the field of ancestry research regarding Ladbergen. Through Jane I established contact with him.

Besides new data that he made available to me, time and again he (just like Jane) pays thorough attention that I don’t make any mistakes. This is great help, as a amateur you cannot imagine how easily a mistake happens and how easily a terrible confusion can emerge, especially when you keep several lists. From the start Pastor Clausing warned me of this problem.

If you are interested in astronomy on the internet, you know Gary Schoppenhorst (327). There he exhibits wonderful space pictures. Jane Denny drew his attention to my homepage, too and he wrote me a letter with a complete list of his ancestors that starts with Emanuel, born in 1709, and ends with Gary’s children. By the way, he has nearly the same nickname as me, his is Schoppy, mine is Schoppi.

I received an e-mail by Steve Schoppenhorst (325) from Holland, Indiana, USA. He shares common ancestors with A. (287) (see above) and keeps in touch with Ladbergen.

In Steve Land’s (315) family even two Schoppenhorsts turn up. He married Shirley Schoppenhorst and his great-aunt (109) was a Schoppenhorst, too.

Of late there is a new list of the distribution of individuals with the name Schoppenhorst in the USA to be found under http://names.whitepages.com/Indiana/last/Schoppenhorst

I tried to compile a list of ancestors including all Schoppenhorsts from Europe and the USA, which is still incomplete though.