Introduction

Introduction

(This is the Introduction from 1995)

"I Looked in Phone Books"

I have been amused over the last several months as I have made new acquaintances, all be they mostly telephone acquaintances, at the number of times I have heard "When I traveled I would look in the phone book to see if I could find another Schembs." Most of us have had some level of curiosity to take this step in learning about our family history. With few exceptions we have come up dry. There are not many people in the United States with the last name Schembs. The development of unlisted phone numbers has not helped. Perhaps a third of the Schembs living today with phones do not appear in the directories. I have traveled extensively over the years. There were no Schembs in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, or other large cities. I had not heard of Remington, Indiana, or Somers Point, New Jersey, and hence did not know to look there. I was frequently in Kansas City during the 1970's, but I apparently did not check there. Also our practice of matrimony with the female relinquishing her maiden name complicates the task. Many of our relatives are known by a different name than Schembs.

"We Knew We Were the Only Schembs in the United States"

There have been a small number of Schembs who, by coincidence, did make contact with other Schembs but these were the real exceptions. Most of us, after this extensive Ma Bell research that we had conducted became convinced that we were the only ones. In some cases we even decided that our grandfather or his father probably changed his name, and that his ancestors who we understood had lived in Germany must have a different name. There undoubtedly were not Schembs in Germany either. One of the best rationalizations came to my attention three months ago. I was meeting with my half-second cousin Bill Schembs (1933-) for the first time. Previously I did not know that I had second cousins, let alone halves. Bill related a story from 1954. He had just returned from his U.S. Army tour, serving in Germany. His mother, Floretta, told him that she had seen a children's quiz program on the television from Washington State. One of the contestants, said Floretta, was named Schembs. In the course of the conversation Bill convinced his mother that she must have been mistaken --- they knew there were no other Schembs families other than their own. I informed Bill that in 1954 I was on Quizdown, representing Madrona School against another grade school in Seattle. How, in 1954, when commercial television was still in its infancy, his mother could have seen a program of, at most, local interest from Seattle in rural Indiana is a great mystery. I have not been on television since.

I Never Knew Much About My Father's Family's History

I knew my father's ancestors had come from Germany. Period! When I was growing up I learned a great deal about my mother's family. Actually I became aware that the family history had been well documented, in fact back to the 1500's in England through the 1620's when they came to America following William Penn. I did not have the interest or take the time to learn about all of this, but was well aware that the material was available to me if I ever wanted or needed to know it. Perhaps the contrast between the plethora of information on my maternal side and the dearth of information on my paternal side contributed to my initial curiosity. My father was a man of few words. We lived in Seattle and my father's relatives were in New Jersey. I can only recall seeing my grandparents a couple of times in my life, and had not heard a word about their ancestors other than someone had emigrated from Germany. I had a total of two aunts, two uncles, one of each through marriage, and two cousins on the Schembs side. That was it. In 1980 I received a postcard from a genealogy publishing company and decided to invest $30.00 for a copy of the "Schembs Family History" which they said would be published later that year. When it came I was disappointed that the book was generic genealogy, rather than the history of our family, but surprised with the listing of Schembs which the book included. There were 39 Schembs families identified with names and addresses. I only knew of six. Who were the rest? In 1983 our family went to Europe for vacation. By coincidence we had heard from a German that Schembs was a common name in the town of Worms, Germany. We made a point of going there. We looked in the phone book and found a gold mine --- 17 Schembs in Worms. We tried calling several of them from our hotel and were hung up on in each instance. We spoke no German and did not reach someone who spoke English. The next day we went to the Archives (Stadtarchiv Worms) and pored over 18th and 19th Century civil records with an archivist. We found about fifty records of Schembs being christened, marrying or dying. Prior to our trip I had asked my Aunt Ruth what she knew about the family history. She told me that my great grandfather's name was Jacob. We located a record of a Jacob Schembs being born in Herrnsheim (Worms) on October 13, 1852, the son of Jacob III and Anna Maria Göhle (26 years). We thought this must be him. We later realized that we were thirty or so years off, and perhaps an equal number of kilometers. Wrong Jacob Schembs. As we departed Worms we checked phone directories at the post office for several other major cities with the following numbers of Schembs found:

Berlin	0	Hannover	0	Bonn	0
Munich	1	Mannheim	0	Hamburg	0
Essen	0	Dusseldorf	0	Frankfurt	1
Mainz	8	Wiesbaden	2	Heidelburg	0

A Casual Trip to the Family History Center

In 1994 I went to a Mormon Church Family History Center one summer afternoon. The rest is history. If in your next life you might be a private investigator, or work for the CIA, the Family History Center is an undergraduate education. If you like problem solving, genealogy can easily become addictive. You quickly learn that clues are only that. Everything you learn is suspect. Inaccuracies abound. Finding something in black and white doesn't mean that it is right, starting with the U.S. Census. But over time the puzzle starts coming together. After a while the pieces fit together. But just like with an old jigsaw puzzle, when you are done there are several pieces, which you cannot find. At some point you stop looking for the missing pieces and declare it completed --- until you or someone else wishes to continue the quest.

Research Trips

Three cities of particular interest for a Schembs are Kansas City, Peoria and Philadelphia. They all play prominently in the history of the Schembs families in America. As I happened to live in Kansas City, I began my investigations there. While there are more Schembs descendants living in Kansas City than any other city, I had never met any of them and had no idea how we were related. Spending time at the National Archives, Mormon Family History Center, the public library, cemeteries, Historical Society and Courthouse, however, gave me insights in how to approach genealogy research. I also wrote to the 39 Schembs whose names I received in 1980. Some of the letters were returned as non-deliverable, but a number of responses were received. The process had begun. In the past six months I have now made contact with, or otherwise identified, about 220 Schembs descendants in the United States today. Most of you have contributed to building the body of knowledge that underlies this book. I appreciate the assistance and interest that many of you have given. With the experience gained in Kansas City, I ventured out on the first research in Peoria. This also provided the opportunity to meet half-second cousins for the first time --- Frances, Harriette and Lois who came from Indiana out of curiosity to see another Schembs. Many more pieces were put into the puzzle. Finally, in December I packed my woollies and went to Philadelphia for a week. I returned Saturday morning with eyes weary from looking at microfilm and poring over lists, but with a great deal of information that I did not have the previous Monday morning.

Spelling Variations of Schembs

One of the policy decisions one must make when they undertake a project such as this is how to handle spellings which are close to Schembs, but not exact. After you make the rule then you start to compile the exceptions. My approach was fairly simple to begin with. If it ain't spelled S-C-H-E-M-B-S, it ain't Schembs. However, there are a large number of records of real Schembs where the spelling is Schemps, Shimps, and whatever else you want to guess. I assume that if the descendants today spell the name Schembs, and most of the American documentation from the 19th Century is Schembs, then the name is Schembs regardless of an occasional misspelling. One of the unresolved discrepancies, however, deals with Martin Schaembs. He will be discussed in more detail in Chapter D. Another exception to the spelling policy is the name Schems. In our research at the Stadtarchiv Worms we found probably an equal number of records of Schems as Schembs. We made a note of each, in fact the approximately 50 records mentioned earlier included both. Since, in 1980, there were seventeen Schembs in the Worms phone directory and no Schems, for the time being I will assume that perhaps the Schems and Schembs records from past centuries were the same family. As more information is received from Germany the validity of this assumption will become more obvious. Another spelling story deserves relating. On of the addresses that I located and wrote to in 1994 was a Bernhard J. Schembs in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. I received no response and tried unsuccessfully to locate Bernhard through directory information for Louisville. Two months later I received a letter from Bernhard Schrembs. I quote:

"Sorry, better late than never. Originally the correct spelling of my family name was Schreimpff. I was sensitive about it and changed it to Schrembs for obvious reason."

The Origin of the Name "Schembs"

Many surnames have historical meaning. Perhaps ours does as well. I have heard this story from two different German sources. I quote Otto Schembs (1901-1972) who lived in Frankfurt. He wrote in a 1965 letter to William Wayne Schembs (1933-) of Neosha, Missouri USA:

My grandfather (Peter Joseph Schembs) was born July 16th, 1845. His father (my great-grandfather) with the name Caspar Schembs was born May 16th, 1812. And his father (my great great-grandfather) was born around 1764. His name was Johann Peter Schembs, but we believe he wrote his last name Schömbs.

All of our ancestors come from the state of Rheinhessen, which was occupied in the 17th and 18th centuries by the French. In France they had many people named Jean Baptist (in German, Johannes the Taufer). Of the name Jean-Baptist, folks made the name Schambertist, and then Schambes, whereabouts the name Schambs or Schömbs came from. All this information we found out many years ago through hereditary investigators."

The Initial Objective

When I first wandered into the Family History Center I had a well-defined objective in mind. I wanted to learn more about Jacob Schembs, my great grandfather who had emigrated from Germany and settled in Peoria, Illinois, in the 1850's. I would then identify all of his descendants. Since I knew we were the only Schembs in the country, this should not be an insurmountable task. The first problem immediately arose when I found the birth of a Robert Schembs in 1860 in Peoria and then a John Schembs birth in Philadelphia in 1862. Rats!! We were not the only Schembs in the country. Jacob was not the only emigrant!

The Revised Objective

One of the benefits of a genealogy project should be the ability to determine how two Schembs are related, should they happen into one another on the street. I revised the game plan. Why not develop the family histories of all the Schembs in the country? After that, why not still determine how we are all related? In other words, how were the emigrants related? The task became more challenging. In the interest of breaking the project into manageable segments I decided to do it in two phases:

Phase I	Find all the emigrants from Germany who settled in the United States. Then identify all the descendants of those emigrants. Another way of stating this is to identify all Schembs, or descendants of persons named Schembs, who ever lived in the U.S.
Phase II	Determine how the emigrants were related. Oh, and why not also determine how we are related to the Schembs living in Germany today. This is called identifying every Schembs that ever lived in Germany, and how they were related, in order to identify the relationships of us to our German contemporaries.

Phase I is the easier of the tasks for a combination of reasons. First, all the records (or rather almost all) are in English and in this country. Also, since the first immigrant did not come to the United States until about 1850, there is a finite period of time to research. This book is a pause in Phase I. While there is more information to be learned about the Schembs in America, this first edition achieves much of the objective of Phase I. There is certainly more research that can and will be done. Hopefully all of the emigrants have been identified. Regardless, I believe at least 80-90% of the descendants are identified. (I should add that this projection applies to those emigrants who I was able to identify as settling in this country. See Chapter C.) The greatest challenge is cases where female descendants have married and the trail has been lost. There are a few cases of this as identified in each of the Chapters. The emphasis in the book is on the emigrant and the first generations in this country. The reasons for this are several: they are the least known by us; there are fewer of them and therefore the length of the book does not become unreasonable; and the sense of privacy of the reader is least threatened. This last point is important to some. Phase II requires extensive research which, in some cases, can only be done in Germany. Also it requires a great deal of work by people who read German, and can decipher the German script. All the records of interest are written by hand in either German or Latin depending upon whether they were under the jurisdiction of the Church or the state. When Napoleon conquered the Rheinland in the early Nineteenth Century he usurped the responsibility for vital records from the churches and established that as a civil function.

The Ohio Schambs

Very early in the process I came across a record of a Barbara Schembs who, in 1852 in Mansfield, Ohio, married Joseph Schanc. There was not a single other record of a Schembs in Ohio in the 19th Century. I assumed that Barbara's name had been misspelled, as there were numerous census records of people with the names Schambs, Schames, etc.

Index card at the Staatsarchiv Darmstadt
regarding the 1849 emigration of the Mathias Schembs family
from Herrnsheim (Worms) to the United States

Two weeks ago, as I was ready to go to press with this First Edition, I located a reference in the Archives in Darmstadt, Germany, of a Mathias Schembs (age 49) emigrating to the United States in 1849. His eldest daughter was named Barbara.

Next I looked back at another listing of old German records (Appendix K) and found that I had previously located the marriage of Mathes Schembs and Magdalena Fernekes in 1824 in Horchheim, about twenty kilometers west of Worms. The spelling in this record is also Schembs.

Another search of the Ohio census data confirmed that Mathias and Magdalena had immigrated to Mansfield, Ohio. In 1860 they owned their own home in the 3rd Ward. Still living at home were children Mathias Jr, age 22, and Charlotte, age 19. Mathias was 60 years old. In the 1880 Census they give their place of birth as Rheinhessen, another name for the part of Hessen Darmstadt west of the Rhine.

However, in every U.S. record other than the 1852 marriage of Barbara the family name is spelled Schambs.

Finally I went back to the Mormon database (IGI) and searched in 18th and 19th Century Germany for others with the name Schambs. Where I had previously found 160 records for Schembs and Schems, there was only a single Schambs --- Nikolaus Schambs married Merry Görtz in 1744 in Preussen (Prussia). This was probably a misspelling. Today there are no Schambs in Worms or Mainz. (52)

My tentative conclusion is that Mathias and his family were probably Schembs in Germany, and therefore should be a part of this book. However, I have a need to get on with my life and have decided to leave the matter of the Schambs for Phase II. If they prove to be Schembs the research and identifying all the descendants could prove to be as large an undertaking as the entire Phase I. The reason is that, unlike all the other emigrants who came alone and married and began their families later, Mathias and Magdalena arrived in 1849 with seven children all ready to get married and start making descendants (which they did).

The Second Edition

With the completion of Phase II, I hope to publish a second edition of the Schembs In America, or perhaps the Schembs in the World. If it reaches a point of publication, the anticipated date for the second edition is not before 1998. This provides two or three years to complete the research in Germany, during which time numerous loose ends in the United States can simultaneously be pursued. A second edition will also be dependent upon the level of interest in their being one. Should you care to reach me, hopefully to contribute corrections, suggestions, or additional information, you might try the steps listed below. Including growing up and schooling, my life has included stops in New York, Seattle WA, Philadelphia PA (Swarthmore), San Francisco (Palo Alto) CA, Boise ID, St. Louis MO, Portland OR, Kansas City MO, and finally Phoenix AZ. I should be reachable at the following (updated in 2004):

Jim Schembs
7321 N. Mockingbird Lane
Paradise Valley AZ 85253
(480) 905-8821
Email: jimschembs@hotmail.com

Next, my daughter Lyndsay Finn (503-235-3755) or my sister Jean Thomas at (208) 622-7235 will know how to run me down.

Cooperation of our German Cousins

When I was three months into Phase I, I decided to test the water in Germany and begin Phase II. With the help of a German born friend, I wrote a Dear Johann letter. From our trip to Worms in 1983 I had the names and addresses of the 17 Schembs in the phone book. Three additional names were contributed by some of you. Subsequently I have obtained addresses for another 40 and recently written them. I have been encouraged by the response. I expect to hear from about twenty Schembs in Germany and receive their information. Because of their (or their parents) need to document their heritage during the Third Reich, some of them still have records of their ancestors back to the late 18th or early 19th Centuries. These coupled with the records of the Mormon Church and additional research in Germany will, hopefully, enable us to know how we are all related. Ideally a few of the Germans responding will have the combination of interest and time to conduct a significant amount of that research.

2012 Update

Originally the book was published in hardcopy. Starting in 2000 this website was developed. This book as well as the book by Reinhold Schembs and much more content has been added. The website is continually being updated. And there are many people (Germans, Americans, Brazilians, French, etc.) who have made major contributions to its content. But none equaling the assistance that Monika Schoembs (Nürnberg) has and continues to provide. Monika, the wife of Martin Schoembs (*1951 Offenbach), contributes extensive research, translations, and editing. Without her assistance the Schömbs story would not be nearly as far along. Thank you again, Monika!