The Henkels
The Henkels came from the little town of Speckswinkel in Hesse-Cassel, in central Germany. Until the late 1800's there were several Hessian states, usually distinguished by the name of their capital city, in this case the City of Cassel. Hesse-Cassel was annexed by Prussia in 1866. Speckswinkel is near the larger town of Marburg.
German records generally take an expert to decipher. The handwriting is difficult, the language is German, and they are written using the old-style Fraktur script. Robert Koenig has corresponded with Heinrich Naumann, the Kastenmeister (archivist) of the Lutheran Church in Speckswinkel. By great fortune, Herr Naumann himself is descended from the Henkels and had already traced his own ancestry. Working from the church records and his own family records, he gave us the following line of descent:
| Henche Henkel of Erksdorf (Feb 1648 - 21 Mar 1715) | |||||
| m. | Catharina (1646 - 10 Feb 1709) | ||||
| Wilhelm Henkel of Speckswinkel (1670 - 22 Aug 1744), Castenmeister | |||||
| m. | 1696 Anna Elisabeth Losekandt (29 Nov 1677 - 5 Jan 1740) | ||||
| Henrich Henkel (12 Mar 1710 - 11 Feb 1759), shepherd | |||||
| m. | 3 Jun 1741 Catharina Elisabeth Sittich (1711 - 22 Mar 1775) | ||||
| Johann George Henkel (6 Jun 1742 - 20 Jul 1815) | |||||
| m. | 4 Apr 1764 Catharine Pausch (12 Mar 1743 - 14 Mar 1791) | ||||
| Johannes Henkel of Speckswinkel (Nov 1767 - 23 Feb 1832), shepherd | |||||
| m. | 20 Apr 1800 Elisabeth Rodding (25 Jun 1782 - 16 Oct 1860) | ||||
The twelve children of Johannes Henkel and Elisabeth Rodding were as follows:
| George Henkel (8 Jul 1801 - ) |
| Georg Henkel (22 May 1803 - ) |
| Johann Henrich Henkel (15 Jan 1807 - ) |
| Johannes Henkel (15 Dec 1808 - ) |
| Elisabeth Henkel (3 Apr 1813 - ) |
| Georg Henkel (3 Apr 1813 - ) |
| Anna Elisabeth Henkel (9 Jul 1815 - ) |
| George Henkel (9 Mar 1818 - ) |
| Johann Heinrich Henkel (9 Mar 1818 - ) |
| *Johannes Henkel (15 Jul 1820 - ) |
| Peter Henkel (8 Jul 1824 - ) |
| Elisabeth Henkel (12 Nov 1827 - ) |
Usually when two children in the same family have the same first name it indicates that the first sibling has died. That is probably the case here, but we lack the evidence to confirm it. Our own line is descended from the second Johannes.
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