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Looking for information about William and Henrietta Betcher who lived in Elk Township, Buena Vista County, Iowa. Both of them are buried in the cemetery at Elk Baptist Church. They came to the midwest from Germany in the 1864. Their first son William was born in Illinois (but I don't know where in Illinois) on Dec 28, 1868. Their second son Frank was born in 1873 in Michigan (but again I don't know where in Michigan), their third child Minnie was born in Illinois (don't know where) in 1875, their fourth child Albertina was born in 1879 in Buena Vista County, Iowa, and their fifth child Emma was born in 1882 in Buena Vista County, Iowa. William and Henrietta are in the 1880 federal census in Providence Township, Buena Vista County, and in the year 1900 they are in Elk Township, Buena Vista County, and in the year 1910 they are in Storm Lake, Buena Vista County in the federal censuses. In both of the Iowa state censuses of 1885 and 1895 they are in Elk Township, Buena Vista County. Henrietta's gravestone at Elk Baptist Cemetery states that she was born June 11, 1837 and died January 5, 1911, so that explains why she stops showing up in census records after 1910, but William's gravestone says he was born July 22, 1845 and died August 26, 1926, so I looked and he is still in some census records after 1910. In 1920 he has moved to Sioux City, Woodbury County, Iowa in the federal census and had remarried to a woman named Tracy who is also from Germany. Tracy is from Dresden, and according to the census was born about 1867. Also, in the 1920 census Williams's son Frank and wife Anna (who is also from Germany) have moved to Sioux City. In the 1930 census, William is nowhere to be found (because he died in 1926), but Frank and wife Anna are still in Sioux City and have a Theresa Betcher living right by them and she is just the right age to be Tracy, so she probably is. What I am really trying to figure out is where in Germany (what city) William and Henrietta were from, so that I can do further genealogy on their Germany ancestors. I have found a few clues, but nothing concrete. In one of the censuses Frank doesn't list his parents' birthplace as Germany; he gets more specific and lists it as Pommern. Pommern is German for Pomerania (the province of the German state of Prussia along the Baltic Sea that is between Germany and Poland). Pomerania no longer exists as the eastern half of it became part of Poland after WWII including the capital city of Pomerania, Stettin, which is now called Szczecin since it is part of Poland now. At the time, Pomerania was ethnically entirely a German province, and most of the people were German Lutheran protestants, but after 1945 all the Germans were expelled back to Germany and Poles moved in and converted all of the existing churches over to Catholic churches, which they still are to this day. Luckily many of the Germany protestant church records were sent back to Germany with the expelled Germans, so many of the church records still exist. I wasn't sure if it said Pommern in the Frank's census record or not as the handwriting was really bad, but it did look a lot like Pommern, so I looked at William's 1920 census record where he is married to Tracy, and sure enough, he doesn't list Germany as his place of birth; he lists Pommern (Pomerania) as his place of birth in very clear handwriting. Frank's census record lists both of his parents William and Henrietta as being born in Pommern, so both of them were from Pomerania. Pomerania was still a fairly good sized area though, so what I'm trying to figure out is exactly what city the came from in Pomerania. I looked at ship records from 1864 through 1866 and have not found a thing, and it is very difficult because William (Wilhelm in German) is a very common name, so half the immigrants in the lists are named Wilhelm it seems like. Also, to make things more difficult, they may not have come to America together. I think they came to America separately and than actually got married in America, as their census records state that they were married about 1868 and came to America about 1864, but I have not been able to locate a marriage record in Illinois, Michigan, or Iowa. Another clue I found is that in one of the census records in Elk Township, there was another family of Betchers living very close to them (same page of the census) with a head of houshold named Charles Betcher who had a wife named Caroline (both were from Germany), and they had a son born in Nebraska. They may very likely be related. Does anybody have any ideas as to how I could figure out what city they came from in Pomerania? Are there still any church records for Elk Baptist Church? Since they are buried there, they may have attended Elk Baptist Church, but I am not sure of that. I tried the Betcher forum, but nobody responded. Also, it is very likely that the original surname may have been Böttcher in Germany, not Betcher, as Betcher isn't very common but Böttcher is. If anybody has any ideas, please let me know.
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