Oehrling to Schwarz: A History in Letters
The following collection is a history of the Oehrling family. Two brothers, Ernst August Oehrling and Carl Heinrich Constantine Oehrling, immigrated from Arnstadt, Thuringia, Germany to Wisconsin, United States, in the 1840s. As their families grew and their descendants became part of a new growing nation, family members sent letters across the states, and across the Atlantic, to keep in touch with each other. Some of those letters, as well as photographs and other family documents, can be seen here.
The collection has been sorted into sections:
Table of Contents:
- Oehrling Histories and Pedigree Charts has several versions of the family history, from both Europe and the US, with pedigree charts and family trees.
- Oehrling and Seyring Family Letters is full of original letters between Ernst August Oehrling, his wife Amalie, and Amalie's family, the Seyrings, in chronological order. Each original (German) letter is followed by a legible transcription (in German) and a translation (in English).
- Miscellaneous Documents contains original poetry, greeting cards, notes, and family announcements (some with translations).
- Uncle Wilhelm Seyring's Letters and Journal details his interesting life story, sketches, journal during the American Civil War, and personal letters.
- Bruschke Brothers' Letters are letters written between Hugo and Johnny Bruschke, grandsons of Ernst August and Amalie Oehrling.
- Frieda Bruschke's Life and Letters was a granddaughter of Ernst August and Amalie, who wrote many letters beginning in the early 1900s, and wrote her own personal history.
- Clara Bruschke Ruhland and Town of Fillmore contains letters sent to another granddaughter of the first American Oehrlings, notes on the town where they settled, and a biography of their uncle, Wilhelm Seyring.
- Photographs, Postcards, Newspapers holds the remaining visual pieces of the collection.