Two Ancestral Homes in the Old Country

I am fortunate to have photos of two of my ancestors’ homes. They are not just photos of old homes on this continent. These photos are special because they are from the Old Country–from Germany. I have a photo of a house on my paternal side and several photos of a house on my maternal side. And the homes were not all that far away from each other.

The Rueck house is on my dad’s side of the family and the Schumm house is on my mom’s side.

Christena Rueck (1858-1945) was my great-grandmother. She married Jacob Miller (1843-1918) in 1882 and they were the parents of my grandfather Carl Miller (1896-1973). Carl was my dad’s father.

Rueck home in Appensee, Wuerttemberg.

The Rueck home shown in the photo above was in Appensee, Baden-Württemberg, and was built in the 1500s, according to what is written on the back of the photo. It was razed in the 1980s. Fortunately all of that information is written on the back of the photo along with the names Louise and Ursula Rossle, Karlsruhe. I am not sure who Louise and Ursula were.

I do not know how many generations of Ruecks lived in this home or if my great-grandmother Christena Rueck ever lived there. Perhaps her father Jacob Rueck lived there before immigrating.

Christena Rueck immigrated to America in about 1880 with her parents Jacob and Regina Rueck and Jacob’s two Rueck nephews. They lived in Ohio for a short time until most of the family moved westward, some to Oregon and some to Oklahoma, but Christena remained in Ohio.

John George Schumm home, Ruppertshofen, Wuerttemberg.

The Schumm home shown in the photo above was in Ruppertshofen, Baden-Württemberg, and was built about 1814. My mother was a Schumm and we descend from immigrant John Georg Schumm (1777-1846) who immigrated with his 4 sons and one daughter in 1833. John Georg’s wife died in Germany about 10 years before some of the family immigrated. The John Georg Schumm family lived in Holmes County, Ohio, for a few years before moving to Van Wert County, Ohio, where they established the village of Schumm and the Lutheran church there. I descend from John Georg’s son Johann “Louis” (1817-1855), his son “Louis” John (1851-1938), and his son Cornelius Louis (1896-1986). Cornelius was my mom’s father.

John George Schumm home, Ruppertshofen, 2002.

John George Schumm home, Ruppertshofen, 2002.

I am not sure if the Schumm home is still standing. Over the years several Schumm descendants have visited our ancestral town of Ruppertshofen and they took these photos.

Both the Rueck and Schumm houses look a lot alike. And they look large. Particularly the Schumm home. Perhaps that was the standard type of house built in Württemberg at that time.

Both Appensee and Ruppertshofen are in Baden-Württemberg and are about 27 miles apart.

Location of Appensee and Ruppertshofen, Wuertemberg. [1]

Yes, I feel very fortunate indeed that my family saved these old photos, giving us a look back into the past.

 

[1] Google.com search, distance between Appensee and Ruppertshofen, Wuertemberg.

8 comments

Skip to comment form

  1. Both beautiful homes!

    1. Yes they are and I am so fortunate to have the photos. Thanks for writing!

    • Shari Sova on March 1, 2019 at 8:12 pm
    • Reply

    I just discovered your website after finding the same picture of the Rueck home in some of my grandmother’s things. It has basically the same writing on the back except instead of Louise ours says Delores (my grandmother’s name). My mother grew up as Ruck.Wondering what the relation is.

    1. Well, that is certainly interesting. I am not sure who Delores would be, but if it is the same house, it is probably the same family. You said Ruck. The Ruecks that moved to Oklahoma changed the spelling of their name to Ruck. Are you from that branch–the Fred Ruck branch? I do not have a Delores Ruck in my database. I am very interested to hear from you. Thanks for writing.

        • Shari Sova on May 9, 2019 at 1:54 pm
        • Reply

        My grandmother was Delores Roeder Ruck, she married Arthur Ruck who was from Oklahoma. His parents are Frank and Lena Ruck.

        1. Your Rucks are from this family, so we are distantly related. The Oklahoma branch changed the spelling of their name from Rueck to Ruck. I don’t have much information about your branch, so I may contact you in the future for information to fill in the blanks. Thanks for writing!

            • Shari Sova on May 10, 2019 at 1:32 pm

            May I ask where you got the photo? We do not know where ours came from! It was quite wild to see the same exact photo with the same writing on the back on your site! We are hoping that perhaps you could help us figure out where these came from. And do you know who Ursula Rossle or Karlsruhe are. Thanks!

            • Karen on May 11, 2019 at 10:44 am
              Author

            As far as I know, this photo came from my great-grandmother Christina (Rueck) Miller. I do not know who Ursula Rossle was but Karlsruhe is a city in Germany, in Baden Wuerttemberg. Thanks for writing!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.