We had thought that this Claus was our Great Uncle that family history says was a concert violinist, trained by the masters in Europe. Upon arrival in New York he reportedly played a concert and within two days died of Cholera contracted on the ship. He came to U.S. in 1856.It turns out that this is CLAUS CHRISTIAN SCHLOTFELDT, the same age as "our" Claus Fried.We verified this becauseLUELLA SCHLOTFELT, Claus' Granddaughter & BILL GILMORE, the son of RUBY SPENCE GILMORE, Grandniece of this Claus, shared a family history with us. (They are descended from Claus' brother "James" who died with his wife CHRISTINA in a 'Huge Tornado' in Crawford Cnty, Iowa on April 21, 1878. A daughter, badly injured, survived as did a son who was away from the farm when the storm hit.)Their records say that his wife-to-be, MARGARETHE FREESE, sailed with him on the Elida, but they didn't marry until they could join family in New Jersey.An Oct. 2002 review of "German's to America" by Klaus Struve of Kiel shows that Margarethe Freese, age 24, was indeed also on the Elida and Embarked from Marseilles."Our Claus" was not married. Our possibility that we had found the violinist's sailing ship was not correct.We will keep looking.Claus Christian and James' parents were JAMES SCHLOTFELDT (Johann Hinrich)of Roenne and ANNA STRUVE (who married a PRIEN in Germany after James died.)We have found the link between our branches from searching German records. Bill Gilmore is going back to Kiel area roots in July of 2006.We may have Kroeger family links too.Claus Christian's descendant's dropped the ending "d" letter and today spell their names SCHLOTFELT.Old records included the d.Please note the LDS Family Center page references. The top of the page is illegible here, BUT...as of Sept. 2002, we have the information from the actual manifest. It shows CLAUS SCHLOTFELD (note sp.) Age 24; Germany |