(Click the image to enlarge) Thank you to our cousin Sandra (Schmidt) Banwart of Algona, Iowa for this terrific photograph of Martha Elisabeth (Lindemann) Schmidt (1837-1923) (the wife of Conrad Jacob Schmidt, one of the original Schmidt immigrants to the West Bend, Iowa area) and twenty nine of her grandchildren! This picture was taken in […]
Many Schmidts from Machtlos, Germany left behind family, friends, jobs, and everything they knew when they ventured to a foreign land with a different culture and a different language. Driven by a belief in the American Dream, these Schmidts sought and achieved opportunity, freedom, and prosperity. No doubt they would have celebrated the Fourth of […]
The Schmidt family of Machtlos began with Hans Heinrich Schmidt and Barbara (Rimbach) Schmidt, who lived in the latter 1600s and early 1700s. The branches of the Machtlos Schmidt family who settled in America, however, exist because of Hans Heinrich’s great great grandson: Dietrich Schmidt. Dietrich Schmidt baptism record, 6 April 1803, Machtlos Dietrich Schmidt was […]
When we hold our record-breaking Schmidt Family Reunion in Spencer, Iowa next summer, from July 30-31, 2016, all of the invitees will be descendants of Hans Heinrich Schmidt and Barbara (Rimbach) Schmidt. But just who is this ancestor of ours named Hans Heinrich Schmidt? Hans Heinrich Schmidt baptism record, 8 December 1656, Blankenbach Hans Heinrich Schmidt was […]