Martha (Lindemann) Schmidt and her Grandchildren (1913)

April 3, 2016 Schmidt Reunion Family Photos 2016, agnes, algona, anna, banwart, bud, carl, chris, conrad, dick, elisabeth, elizabeth, ernie, esther, family, frank, fred, george, gesina, grandchildren, henry, herman, howard, iowa, jergens, john, kevin, lilly, lindemann, lizzie, louis, lydia, marie, martha, michael, mike, photograph, picture, reunion, reunite, rose, sandra, sandy, schmidt, schmidts, sina, spencer, thank you, thanks, van loh, west bend Leave a comment

(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 […]

The Yo-Yo Immigrant Who Helped the Schmidts Get to America

October 24, 2015October 24, 2015 Schmidt Reunion Family History 1850, 2016, anna, balthasar, blankenbach, boston, caroline, catharina, civil, civil war, conrad, dietrich, dropsy, economic, economy, emigrant, emigrants, emigration, family, georg, german, germany, hannah, herman, history, immigrant, immigrants, immigration, iowa, johannes, john, karl, louis, ludwig, machtlos, martha, massachusetts, new york, recession, reunion, reunite, rimbach, schmidt, schmidts, ship, sophia, spencer, sumter, travel, typhoid fever, war, west bend, wilhelm 2 Comments

The vast majority of we Americans who trace our ancestry back to the Schmidt family of Machtlos, Germany have an unlikely character to thank for us being where we are today. Her name was Anna Martha (Schmidt) Rimbach. She was born in Germany and she died in Germany, yet without her we would not be Americans today. […]

10 Schmidts Who Left Everything Behind

July 4, 2015October 21, 2015 Schmidt Reunion Family History, Family Photos anna, ashton, balthasar, baltimore, benton, bochum, boston, catharina, civil war, conrad, dysart, elisabeth, essen, family, franco prussian war, franz, germany, günther, hans, hazleton, heinrich, herman, iowa, jacob, johannes, karl, kersten, könig, lee, lindemman, lizzie, louis, louisa, ludwig, luzerne, machtlos, maggie, margaretha, martha, maryland, massachusetts, michael, pennsylvania, philadelphia, raub, reunion, reunite, schmidt, schmidts, spencer, tama, uemmingen, vinton, washington dc, west bend Leave a comment

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 Real Reason the Schmidts Went to West Bend, Iowa

June 22, 2015June 10, 2018 Schmidt Reunion Family History, Family Photos adam, bradgate, conrad, dysart, family, germany, herman, hotzel, humboldt, immigration, iowa, jacob, karl, kersten, lindemann, lizzie, machtlos, maggie, margaretha, maria, martha, mexican american war, michael, reunion, reunite, saint louis, schmidt, schmidts, spencer, starff, vinton, west bend Leave a comment

The Schmidts of West Bend, Iowa will dominate the record-breaking 2016 Schmidt Reunion in Spencer, Iowa. Yet, of all the places that the Schmidt immigrants from Machtlos, Germany could have settled in, why did they choose West Bend, Iowa? Hessian Troops in British Pay in the US War of Independence, by C. Ziegler, 1799 (Wikimedia commons) The […]