Our Hulshoff & Kerchner Ancestors

In the latter part of the 1680s, Johannes David of Hul’s Hoff (Hul’s Farm) became a Dragoner and was eventually stationed at Gut Swede in Cappeln - some 100 miles to the northeast. There he met and married Anna Margareta Thoben from nearby Dingel. In 1855, their great-great grandson Johann Gerhart Hulshoff and his pregnant wife Lisette left Bremen on the bark Eberhard and sailed to the port of New Orleans Louisiana. The child was born during the journey. From New Orleans, the Hulshoffs traveled overland to Baltimore Maryland. In September 1896, Johannes David Hulshoff’s fourth great-granddaughter Anna Gertrude was born in Baltimore, Maryland. This is the story of the Hulshoff line from Johannes David to Anna Gertrude, encompassing the three centuries from roughly 1665 to 1983. Also included are histories of our Kerchner and Kern ancestors written for his family by Fr. Frank Kunkel prior to World War II; these two manuscripts are reproduced here with corrections, updates, and commentary. Other family surnames discussed in Fr. Kunkel’s manuscripts are Etter, Haynes, Huguenin, Marshall and Rauch.