German family traces lineage to Missouri, where trail ends

ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- If you have German ancestors and you've wondered about your family homeland, you might be lucky enough to be related to Heinz Tonjes.

Tonjes, 65, is the sole owner of his ancestral farm in Kolkebeck, Germany, and he desperately wants to invite any American relatives to visit. The problem is, he doesn't know who those Americans might be. He knows two brothers left the farm in the 1850s and eventually spent some time in St. Charles, and he is looking for any descendants.

"We would be glad or pleased if they could come to a family reunion," Tonjes said through a translator.

The brothers, Peter Heinrich Toniges and Heinrich August Toniges, came separately to America from their home in Kolkebeck, which is in the northwest part of present-day Germany. It is a rural area, just west of Bielefeld, which has a population of about 325,000.

The spelling of the family's last name can vary in documents from Tonjes, Toenges, Toenjes, and even Tonnies. Peter Heinrich, born in July 1826, was a merchant. Heinrich August, born in July 1829, was a farmer.

While researching his family history, Heinz Tonjes came across a document from 1859. It was a receipt of a money transfer from Marie Elisabeth Toniges, the widowed owner of the family farm in Kolkebeck, to her two sons, Peter Heinrich and August Toniges. The document says the brothers lived in St. Charles. The Germans often used their middle names as common names.

Heinz Tonjes enlisted the help of Chicago resident Phil Shappard in his search. Shappard, 50, said Tonjes read German newspaper accounts of Shappard tracking down his ancestors and visiting family in Germany. While on his last visit to Germany in 2003, Shappard met Tonjes.

Tonjes was excited to learn Shappard lived just 300 miles from St. Charles -- closer than Kolkebeck, at any rate -- and asked for his help.

Tonjes is "very sincere, so eager," Shappard said. "I looked him in the eye and saw him as he's talking, it really moved me in my heart to try to help this guy."

So back home, Shappard did his own research on the brothers. He found the records of a Peter Heinrich "Henry" Toenges, who lived in St. Louis and fought in the Civil War. Henry moved to Madison County in 1865 and spent his older years at a soldiers home in Quincy, Ill., where he presumably died a bachelor.

In searching for information on Heinrich August, Shappard found the mention of a marriage record of an August Toenges marrying an Elizabeth Wigman in St. Louis in 1867. He found a death record mention of August Toenges dying in 1887 in a "Poor House." Shappard does not know if August and Elizabeth had any children. Shappard also found a record of an August Tonnies in California who was also born in 1829, and he plans to follow the lead.

Shappard posted questions on a Toenjes genealogy bulletin board online and enlisted the help of genealogy buffs in St. Charles, but so far, no one seems to have more information about the brothers. According to census figures, nearly a third of those who live in the St. Louis area claim German ancestry.

Today, Heinz Tonjes and his wife, Edith, live on the 50-acre farm with their two daughters, their son-in-law and grandchild. They know the farm has been in the family since at least 1556, and today, they use the land to grow barley and corn and raise pigs. The family would be thrilled to find descendants of the brothers and give them a taste of rural life in the "old country."

They're determined to keep searching until they do.

"The fate of the emigrated Tonjes brothers, who never sent a sign of life to Kolkebeck, has been up until today a subject in our family," Tonjes said, "and still not a solved mystery."