Emigrants from Gross Zimmern, Hessen - George and John Stumpf

Our ancestor Johann Georg "George" Stumpf was born November 18, 1804 in Gross Zimmern in the Starkenburg region of Hessen, Germany. This was formerly in the Grand Duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt. We know that George arrived in Monroe County, Illinois by April 1836. However, emigration records from the Hessen state archives suggest that he emigrated with his brother John in 1834.

There are two entries for George in the Hessen archives "Auswanderungsdatum" (emigrant data). The combined information:
Stumpf, Georg
Herkunft (Origin): Groß-Zimmern.
Auswanderungsdatum (Emigration Date): 1834-12-10
Ziel (Goal): Amerika, USA.
Bemerkungen(Remarks): Ediktalladung vom 10.12.1834.
Bemerkungen (Remarks): mit (with) Johannes Stumpf, Groß-Zimmern

The information for Johannes "John" Stumpf is the same. John is almost certain George's brother, who was born in Gross Zimmern in 1809. The biography of Fritz Stumpf, John's son confirms that John emigrated in 1834 (Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, IL, 1894, page 351).

The Stumpf brothers may have initially stopped in Pennsylvania after arriving in America. The birthplace of George's eldest son, John, born 1835, is sometimes shown as Pennsylvania, and no record of George's marriage to Elizabeth Keim has been found in the Illinois marriage records*.

The first record of the Stumpf brothers in Illinois is the December 1836 purchase of 40 acres in Monroe County by George and 80 acres by John. At the time of their purchase they were living in neighboring St. Clair County.

* There was a marriage of a George Stump to Elizabeth Keim at St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Gettysburg, Adams, Pennsylvania on March 3, 1833. Record. If this record IS our George and Elizabeth, the immigration date is obviously incorrect.

Links
•1848 Map of Hessen (Gross Zimmern is a short distance east of the the city of Darmstadt in Hessen-Darmstadt).
•Groß-Zimmern information
•Hessisches Archiv-Dokumentations- und Informations-System (Hessen archives - in German)
•Previous post: Land owned by George Stumpf and William Wenkel in Monroe County, Illinois