"We're all in the same boat": The Schmidt & Nicklas Families' US Arrival (Dawley Side)

For this discussion, it is useful to have a more detailed explanation of the family line.

Elaine Dawley's maternal grandparents were Frederick and Emma Nicklas. They were both the children of immigrants, and the first to be born in the United States (in Hadley, MI).

Frederick's parents were Johann (John) and Wilhelmina (Mina) Nicklas, and his paternal grandparents were Johann (Joachim) and Maria Nicklas.  Emma's parents were Frederick and Sophia Schmidt, and her paternal grandparents were Heinr and Sophia Schimidt. All of these people immigrated to the United States aboard the Elida. The two families both hailed from the Mecklinberg area, though the ship departed from Hamburg, Germany. It arrived at Castle Garden (the first immigration center in New York, prior to the opening of Ellis Island) on June 3, 1856. The ship record lists "labourer" under occupation for all of the men in the family.

Though it was not uncommon for immigrants who traveled together to also settle together in one area, I still found it exciting to see all of these family names on one document! Here's a picture of part of the Elida passenger list. Can you spot some family names?

Snapshot of the Elida passenger list.

The gang continued on to Hadley, where Emma and Frederick were born, raised, and married!

I love tracing family lines backwards, but I also love seeing them all come together in one little town. How many people nowadays have one starting point for genealogy research? From Germany, France, Northern Ireland, England, the Isle of Man, and colonial America, everyone found their way to Michigan, and eventually to the little town of Ortonville. This big world is a small one after all!

WHERE TO GO:
The Battery Conservancy (former location of Castle Garden), New York City
http://www.thebattery.org/
For more information on early immigration, visit castlegarden.org.

The Emigration Museum in Hamburg, Germany

The Emigration Museum in Hamburg.

FAMILY LINE @ A GLANCE: Dawley-->Nicklas/ Dawley-->Nicklas-->Smith/Schmidt

Michael Dawley (Dawley Side)

Our Dawley family line has a long history in the United States. Michael Dawley (Elaine Dawley’s 8th Great Grandfather) settled in Rhode Island in the mid 1600s. As my grandmother, Elaine Dawley Teare, has documented:

“He came to America in 1654 by serving an indenture as a yeoman on the ship Barbados Merchant to one Roger Moore, a planter on the island of Barbados. He settled in the colony of Rhode Island, to which he brought his family (a wife and at least two children). He and his wife are buried on the Solomon Sprague Land, southeast of Exeter, RI, on Liberty Road (North of Hog House Hill Rd.).”

Four generations of Dawleys continued to live, marry, and raise their families in Rhode Island, and evidence of their time there can still be seen today (examples include Dawley Tavern and Dawley Memorial Park- documented by the RI Historical Preservation Society). In the mid 1700s our family line moves to New York, bouncing around from Herkimer to Ontario county. Finally, in the middle part of the 1800s, Job Dawley moved his family to Michigan. The connection to Ortonville remains strong since that time.

While the Dawley’s hold deep American roots, it is also interesting to trace the line back to the country of origin, Northern Ireland. The Dawleys were from the decidedly protestant part of the island, and the patriarch of the family (the furthest back we’ve traced)- Michael Dawley- lived in Antrim County, the northeastern tip of Northern Ireland. Interestingly enough, the name "Dawley" is of French Huguenot origin, and the D'Auley family originally fled to England!

The famed Glens of County Antrim. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

WHERE TO GO:
View the "Dawley Lot" in Exeter, RI on Google Maps.

View the Grave Index for the "Michael Dawley Lot".