The document below originally appeared in newspapers in Germany in 1852. It warned Germans thinking of emigrating to America of the dangers that awaited them in the United States. The goal was to stem the huge numbers of Germans leaving for either America or Australia. In retrospect, some of the claims made are so exaggerated they seem almost humorous. 

Entries in Portland City Directories from 1892 (first appearance of Gottsackers in Portland) through 1944 are listed in this document. Individual Gottsackers, employers, residences and other information provide insight into the life of the Portland Gottsackers.

Years ago I received a short photocopied history of Farmer, SD from a Gottsacker relative. It appeared to be a compilation of 3 separate short histories of the town. This document is a scan and edit of the original. It contains several notations about Gottsackers and the founding of the town of Farmer.

Wilhelm Gottsacker, one of the original Gottsacker immigrants, kept a short register of family events. This is a transcription of his original handwritten register written in German.

Frank Gottsacker Sr. kept a detailed chronicle of life events over most of his life. His activism in the social, economic, and political life in Sheboygan coupled with the details provided in his chronicle make this an exceptional document. 

In this transcribed article, Frank Gottsacker Sr. is profiled in a book about prominent Sheboygan figures. The date is unknown, although it appears to be written in the early 1900s.

A second profile of prominent Sheboygan figure, Frank Gottsacker Sr. This profile was extracted from a book about prominent Sheboygan County figures.

As far back as 1957, American Gottsacker tried to figure out their German roots. This document is a series of letters received by Erich Kirscht of Leverkusen, Germany. Erich’s mother was a Gottsacker. The letters were discovered in the early 1990s by Michael Gottsacker of Essen, Germany while doing research on our German family.

Below is a short article that appeared in the Sheboygan Press about the marriage of Raymond Gottsacker and Carolyn Kotnik in Sheboygan in December of 1947. 

Below is a brief ‘looking back’ article that appeared in the Sheboygan Press and refers to the surprise marriage of Frank Gottsacker Sr. and Margaret Gottsacker (a cousin).

Several real estate transactions involving Gottsackers are recorded in Manitowoc County records. The Gottsackers involved are Peter Joseph and Barbara Gottsacker and Carl and Catherine Gottsacker. These transactions are summarized in this document.

Below is a list of Gottsackers who have not been connected to their relatives on the family tree due to very limited information. Their names and some related information were discovered during research on the family genealogy, but limited information has left them in limbo on the family tree. This list is similar to that found on the ‘Mysteries’ page on the web site, but has a bit more information.

A family member, whose ancestors married into the Sheboygan Trimberger family, provided a copy of the Michael Trimberger Genealogy.   I’ve scanned the genealogy and posted it here in .pdf format.

Michael Trimberger was an immigrant from Bavaria who established the Trimberger family in Sheboygan. Trimberger Court in Sheboygan is named after Michael Trimberger.

To keep the file size reasonable, I eliminated much of the white space in the original document, so the page sizes vary. If you print the .pdf file, you likely won’t notice the different page sizes.

The file is large–about 6 megabytes.