Wilhelm Besler and Ernestine Hiller

Family Besler - Henkelmann , Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina, Montag, 06.04.2026, 13:52 (vor 11 Stunden, 53 Minuten) @ Matthias

Ah, perfect, yes I think I understood.

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Fritz Besler

Yes, I'm asking about Fritz Besler because it sounds like "Friedrich", who were sometimes called "Gottfried" and I sometimes suspect that the Gottfried Besler born in 1868 is my Wilhelm Besler.

Do you know what town this Fritz lived in and his approximate year of birth?

I ask because my Wilhelm (potentially Gottfried) died, as I said, between 1915 and 1922.

He potentially had 9 children alive in 1916, but only 8 would have been in Siberia since the eldest, Adolf, had already migrated to Canada in 1912, as I mentioned. None of his living children were married, so they probably moved around during the exile as the father (Wilhelm), his third wife, Helene Hein, and their eight children.

It would be something like:
-Wilhelm (Gottfried / Fritz?) Besler (*~1867 - + [1915-1922])
-Helene Hein (*1887)

Potential children alive in 1916:
1st marriage children (Augustine Hiller)
0. Adolf (*~1891 but in Canada since 1912)
1. Mathilde (*1896)
2. Alwine (*~1899)
3. Olga (*1901)

2nd marriage (Karolina Hein)
4. Albert (*1905)

3rd marriage (Helene Hein)
5. Eduard (*1910)
6. Reinhold (*1911)
7. Julius (*1912)
8. Emma (*1913)

Mathilde, Alwine, Olga, and Emma definitely survived exile in Siberia. Reinhold most likely did too. I don't know about the others (Albert, Eduard and Julius); perhaps they died as children and I couldn't find those records.

Nothing, the coincidence just caught my attention; perhaps there was simply some confusion in between.

I didn't find any "Fritz Besler" or similar in Agoff's indexes of Landenteignungslisten, perhaps his name was Gotfried or Friedrich, I don't know.

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Johann Wilhelm Henkelmann

Yes, yes, I looked at the Konin records a little bit and I found:

Reg 59. Baptisms 1839. Konin (ev.)
Name: Jan Wilhelm Henkelmann (Johann Wilhelm Henkelmann)

Father: Johann Henkelmann, 37 years old, okupnik (tennant)
Mother: Anna Dorothea Zelmer, 27 years old.

Birth:
August 30, 1839 (Gregorian)
August 18, 1839 (Julian)

Place: Kolonia Czarków (Nowy Czarków)

Witnesses:
Bogumil Kryger (Gottlieb Krüger), 33 yo
Bogumil Kryger (Gottlieb Krüger), 27 yo
Both okupnik (tennants) from Kolonia Czarków.

If I understand all correctly.

In the index he appears simply as "Wilhelm Henkelmann"; I would say that's how most people referred to him.

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Connections in the Besler family

And here I'm going to close with something perhaps controversial haha.

Honestly, the only place in my family tree where I see this kind of marriages between "not-so-distant" relatives is on my Besler side (Besler-Hiller).

Wilhelm Besler's parents were Gottlieb Martin Besler and Anna Marianna Wetter.

And they were "half cousins" sharing one grandmother: Marianna Fritz.

After Johann Besler's death in 1810, Marianna Fritz married Augner (1812) and then Wetter (1819).
Marianna Wetter is the granddaughter of this Wetter-Fritz marriage, so, as I said, she is a "half cousin" of her husband, Gottlieb Besler.

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Even more controversial I think is the case of Augustine Hiller's grandfather: Friedrich Wilhelm Hiller, who married his half-niece, Wilhelmine Strohschein (Strohscherer / Stroscher).

Wilhelmine was the daughter of Christoph's half-sister: Catherine Hiller.

Christoph Hiller (*1755 -)
1st wife: Christine Zellmer (? - + ~1802)
---Catherine Hiller (*1797 - +1855), married to Andreas Strohscherer / Stroschein
------Wilhelmine (*1818 - +1852)

2nd wife: Catharina Zielke (*~1780)
(∞ 1802, Wladyslawow)
---Friedrich Wilhelm Hiller (*~1813)

It's truly bizarre, in my opinion.
It caught my attention because it's just another story of this kind on that side of my family, haha. Obviously, I want to believe it wasn't the norm, but it's certainly curious and striking.