| Notes |
- http://www.burkhartfamily.com/burkhart-history.html
Butz Burkhart's great-grandfather, George Peter Burckhart, was born in 1819 in Schaidt, Rheinisn-Pfalz (Rheinland-Pfalz), Germany. It's a small village along the Rhine river, a bit east of Frankfurt, near Karlsruhe. (See green arrow on map link.) At the time, it was part of the kingdom of Bavaria. George Peter's father, Sebastian, was born in 1783-84 and his grandfather, Michael, was born about 1750.
Sebastian and Michael Burckhart were born in or near Schaidt, with the first record of Burkharts in Schaidt dated at 1718. (see left of this page) Burckhart is listed as one of the oldest family names in Schaidt, called "Altschaidter". (Link is to a Google translation of the history of Schaidt. Scroll down the page. The translation is a bit rough, but you get the idea.) Other Altschaidter names related to our family or listed as witnesses in church documents include: Bernhardt, Broßhardt, Burckhart, Dietrich, Eckert, Getto, Heußer, Jöckle, Rinck, Schimpf, Schmaltz, and Völckel. Many of these early family names in Schaidt are found in local censuses from 1465 and 1530 at the state archives in Karlsruhe. Because the Burckharts intermarried with so many Altschaidter families, we likely have at least one direct line who lived in Schaidt back to the 1500s, such as the Getto family.
George Peter Burkhart left Germany and arrived in New York on May 10, 1860 after an ocean voyage of 47 days. He brought with him his wife Maria Anna Bernhart and their three children, including Butz's grandfather, Ferdinand, who was nine years old. If you've ever been to Germany, it's easy to see why so many Germans migrated to southern Indiana and Ohio in the 1800s. Of course, they were seeking opportunity and land was cheap. The rolling hills, fertile river valleys, and climate were very much like back home in Germany, which must have been reassuring when so far from their homeland.
The family made their way to Cincinnati, and finally to Brookville Indiana by canal boat, where they settled. He was listed as a "day laborer" in the 1860 census, shortly after his arrival. On the eve of the Civil War, George Peter became a US citizen on January 16, 1861. His son, Ferd, was listed as a "carpenter" in the 1880 census, a "saloon keeper" in 1886, an "agent" in 1899 and was elected Treasurer for Franklin County, Indiana from 1900-1904. He was listed as a "bridge builder" when he died in 1932.
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1818 - 1901 (82 years)
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