The Rehfeldt Family


Our Rehfeldt family history starts with John Charles (Johann Karl) Rehfeldt. John Charles Rehfeldt was born in a part of Germany that at the time of either his birth or his marriage, was evidently under the control of the French, a common occurrence along the border that separates France from Germany. With every war, and there were a number of them every century in Germany, the towns along the German-French border went to whomever won the war. (In Napoleon’s time Germany almost as far as Hamburg belonged to France after one of Napoleon’s conquests.)

On the 8th of July, 1867, John Charles Rehfeldt married Pauline Bruckner. They had 9 children. Pauline and Charles Rehfeldt’s first child, John A. Rehfeldt, was born in 1870. On the 18th of August, 1873, Elisabeth was born. Tragedy struck this young family twice in one year. On the 25th day of July, 1876, little Edwin passed away at the tender age of 6 months, 2 weeks, a victim supposedly of tuberculosis. Then on the 25th of August, 1877, little Lizzie passed away, only 4 years and 7 days old. The next year, on the 19th of October, 1878, Mathilda (Tillie), the longest lived of the Rehfeldt children, was born. On the 7th of January, 1881 Hattie was born. Charles Rehfeldt Jr. was born in 1883. Nellie Rehfeldt was born on the 3rd of November, 1885. William Rehfeldt was born next, the youngest of the surviving sons.

Charles had two sons, Charles III and John. Only Charles III had children. He also had two daughters, Marge and Eleanor.

William married later in life to Margaret, as he spent his younger years caring for his mother Pauline and her youngest daughter, Lizzie. William and Margaret never had any children.

Tillie had only one child, Helen.

Elisabeth had two children, William and Marie.

Nellie married William Frederick Dahl on September 6, 1906 and had 6 children:

  • Mildred Dahl Stocker was born on the 3rd day of May, 1908.
  • Dorothy, was born on the 27th of December, 1909.
  • Elenore Dahl McKinnin was born on the 12th of February, 1912.
  • Marie Dahl Bender, was born on the 13th of November, 1913
  • William Frederick Dahl Jr. was born on the 17th of February, 1915.
  • Harold Joseph Dahl, born on the 21st of August, 1917.

Charles Rehfeldt never took out citizenship papers and Wilhelm Charles Bruckner, Pauline’s father, was never naturalized. In those times a woman could not by herself become a citizen of the United States, so Pauline and her husband remained aliens, and died as German citizens.


Rehfeldt Family History Links:

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