Collman IL, WI, NE, CA
Hello: Kollman, Collman, Kollmann, Collmann and perhaps Kolhmann.
I am looking for and willing to share information.
I believe my Collman or Collmann line came to Stephenson County IL from the Schleswig-Holstein region of Germany in the 1830s. I think there were several families.My line seems to have been involved with Insurance and Banking. I am sure some were farmers. Men seemed to have married their brother's widows and things get confused100 years later
FIRST GENERATION: A baptismal certificate dated 1857 in Stephenson County lists the godparents as the grandparents Ontje Collman & Eliana Cramer.Their children were probably Emil, Class and Albertus (b 1835).
SECOND GENERATION: Emil had a son Frank (Felle Ontjes?).The same "Tauf-Schein" certificate says mother was Gette.Albertus married Zetta Gesche Esse Janssen and had Onie (b 1861), Rose (Reiger) , William A. (living in CA 1921), Alice (m Snyder in NE) and George W. (living in NE 1921).Frank is refered to as a brother in some wills but he might have been a first cousinor probably a step brother.
THIRD GENERATION: Frank married Emma R. (Mahany I think) and lived in Madison WI.They had Frederick Albertus b 1882, Milton b 1890, Chester b 1885 and Pearl.Milton and Chester married but had no children to the best of my knowledge. Frederick is my grandfather who ended up in Oakland and San Francisco in the early 1900s.
Onie marriedHarriet (Paddock?) and settled in Lincoln NE. With his family he founded Lincoln Insurance. They had Perry G. and Algeron P..I am in touch with the James, the son of Perry G. and the Albertus Collman line.
Unrelated to me is bunch of Collmann's in Southern IL who I corresponded with around 1990. They came from Osfriesland around 1870.
I have more specifics and lots of questions.