Lost Denkes

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Ok, so they aren't really lost. But I keep running across people with the last name Denke that I cannot trace to any others - either individuals or small family units. I am gradually going to list those here, hoping that someday this information may fit together with others to form a more complete picture:

1. There was a woman named Mary (Steiner) Denke who was the widow of a Moravian missionary named Christian Frederick Denke. Christian Frederick Denke was also a musician, botonist, and a translator. Mary Denke was Christian Frederick Denke's second wife. Mary Denke was born in North Carolina in Forsyth County. She was 57 years old when the 1850 census was taken. Others listed in the census for her household are:  Sarah Steiner, 55, born in NC; Elizabeth Steiner 50, born in NC; John A. Friebelly, 33, Born in Germany; and Henry A. Steiner, 27, born in NC. Mary Denke was a teacher who had lived in France and had some fairly prominent students, such as the wife of James K. Polk and the wife of Stonewall Jackson. Here are some internet links with references to her and her husband: http://users.erols.com/fmoran/wiz1.html , http://users.erols.com/fmoran/padgett.html , http://users.erols.com/fmoran/hollanfr.html,

http://www.usgennet.org/alhnncus/ahncfors/pioneer.html,

http://www.execulink.com/~lonconf/divisns/fairfld.htm,

http://www.sscl.uwo.ca/assoc/oas/pubs/kewabib.html,

http://blenheim.webgate.net/~ckcn/history3.html. This book features biographical information about C.F. Denke: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802034527/qid=964540801/sr=1-23/002-8516763-4729605 and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania has a large amount of information on the "Holland Family", which includes some references to Mary Denke: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/hswpbibl-idx.pl?type=fulbib&byte=12647213&rgn1=record 

A biography of C.F. Denke is featured on my Notable Denkes page.

2. This internet link makes mention of a George Christian Denke who lived in Baltimore in the mid 1800s and owned a passenger ship called the "Adolphine": http://jimcal.com/adolphin.htm.

3. This link mentions a Conrad Denke who married a woman named Sarah E. Long. Sarah was born in Knox County, Tennessee in 1842. They had children named Theodore Denke, Alfred Denke, Charles Denke, John Denke and Adel Denke: http://www.my-ged.com/db/surnames/houser/D 

4. This link relates to the Debbie Denke mentioned on the notable Denkes page. It is part of a family tree for her husband: http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/j/o/h/Garold--E-Johnson/GENE2-0006.html.

5. English Denkes? This is a list of some of the earliest references to Denkes that I have found. They are all  individual records on the Mormon http://www.familysearch.com website. None of them seem to be connected to each other, and all of them are in Great Britain in the 1600s. I would be very interested in more information about these people:

Gwenllian Denke born 1645 in Wales, married to Thomas Price

http://www.familysearch.com/Search/IGI/igi_individual_frame.asp?recid=78140441&ldsnn=3

http://www.familysearch.com/Search/IGI/igi_individual_frame.asp?recid=78139972&ldsnn=3

John Denke married to Elizabeth Wood in England 8/6/1621

http://www.familysearch.com/Search/IGI/igi_individual_frame.asp?recid=18674983&ldsnn=3

Roger Denke married to Eleanor Palmer in 1662 in England

http://www.familysearch.com/Search/IGI/igi_individual_frame.asp?recid=77906105&ldsnn=3

Thomas Denke married to Dennis Sheppard in 1616 in London, England

6. Danish Denkes. This is another list of references to Denkes from the http://www.familysearch.com website. All of these are entries in Denmark. Again, I would be interested in any information anyone has on these people:

7. Eduard Denke is listed in Czech Immigration Passenger Lists by Leo Baca. Halletsville, TX: Old Homestead Pub. Co., 1985. Eduard's entry is on page 45. He was 33 years old when he arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1906.

8. Herman Denke is listed in Naturalization and Intentions of Madison County by Jane Shelley and Elsie M. Wasser, comps. Edwardsville, Illinois, the compilers, 1983. Herman arrived in Illinois in 1853. His entry is on page 29.

9. SSDI - Here is the current Social Security Death Index (nice name, huh?) as of 7/7/2000. There are 45 entries for people named Denke. Some are in my family tree, and some are not. SSDI

10. Louise Margaretha Denke, b. Nov. 28,1792, parents unknown, in Hanover, Germany, md. to Frederick William Finke, b. May 13, 1781, d. Jan 29,1862, in Auglaize county Ohio. Louise died Oct. 22, 1864 in same county. They had 7 children. Carol Bennett descended from their eldest son, William, b. 1813. They came to America around 1826. Originally, they were in Mercer co. Ohio, which split and became Auglaize county.

11. Nikolaus Denke married Anna Rosina Jost around 1786 in Baratayevka, Russia. Anna Rosina Jost was the daughter of Johannes Jost. Johannes moved with his family from the colony of Susannetal (Winkelmann) along the Volga river in 1786. His daughter, Anna Rosina then returned later to marry Nikolaus Denke. This is from A Description of the Saratov Colony of Susannetal (Winkelman) from the Russian Economic Census of 1798. This was compiled by a group called the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia - a noble cause if you are looking to make a tax deductible donation. If you are interested in this entry and want to buy the above mentioned publication, go to: http://www.ahsgr.org/census.htm#susannental. 

12. Aloysius Denke, Charles Denke, and  Joseph Denke were all admitted to the St. Francis Orphanage in Tiffin, Ohio in 1883. This website references them. http://www.friendlynet.com/stevehartzell/stfran.htm Unfortunately, there is no reference to who their parents were or what happened to them. If anyone has any information, I know that the website listed above would like to hear from them, as would I.

13. This is a poem called Ode an den Kreativen "Denker", which is about a German fellow named Heinrich Denke. The page is part of the junge medien deutschland  (english: Young Media Germany) website. Denker is meant to be a play on words in the title since his last name is Denke and Denker means thinker or philosopher. Young Media Germany is an organization that helps young Germans in the process of becoming Journalists. I have no idea what Heinrich Denke does or did for Young Media Germany, only that it seems to be related to computers. http://www.junge-medien.de/d/info/veranst/kongress/9501/k_heinri.htm 

14. This website mentions a Patricia Denke who is a researcher at Montana State University's Entomology department. http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/univ/insects.html 

15. This is an obituary for a Jill A. Denke who was married to a Michael D. Denke of Allentown (PA?). http://library.northernlight.com/UU20000317080110166.html?cb=0&sc=0#doc

16. Denke Mayflower Connection? Alright, so this is really obscure, but from the looks of this document, there was a woman named Abia Denkee (two e's listed even though I can't find anyone else with this variation on the name) who was born in the mid 1700s married a man named Russell Freeman who was probably born in Connecticut. Russell Freeman, from the brief look I took at these pages is a descendant of Elder William Brewster who is listed as being "of the Mayflower". This is from a book (which has been scanned in its entirety and is available on-line) called Genealogical and personal history of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania; under the editorial supervision of John W. Jordan. Vol. 1. Here are pages 53 and 54 of the book. Abia is mentioned in the 4th paragraph down on page 54. If for some strange reason you want to read the whole book or see more of it, go to http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/pitttext-idx.pl?notisid=01hc05842m&type=header 

17. Lisa Denke has a Geology and Oilfield web page on the internet. As of this date, I haven't been able to get in touch with her to ask her about how she might fit into the "Big Denke Picture" http://www.angelfire.com/wy/lisadenke/ 

18. If you want to spend some money... There are a large number of entries about Denkes on the FamilyTreeMaker website at: http://www.familytreemaker.com/. Just type in Denke and see what comes up. There are many pages.

19. Robert Stancliff's Genealogy page. This is a defunct website that had some reference to a Denke. I have been unable to contact this person. Here is the all the information that is left: GEORGE HENRY KICE FAMILY GENEALOGY ... A. KICE born Louisville, Jefferson County, KY 1872, died Louisville, Jefferson County, KY Nov. 13, 1931, buried Cave Hill Cemetery, married _____ DENKE. 5. ALVIN KICE born Louisville, Jefferson County, KY 1876 6. HARRY KICE born Louisville, Jefferson County, KY 1881 7. GILFERT READ KICE born Louisville ... http://pages.prodigy.net/robert_stancliff/Kice510.htm 

20. Eisenbrauns in America book. This is a document available throught the Mormon Church which has some references to the many South Dakota Denkes. http://www.familysearch.org/fhlc/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=359980&disp=Eisenbrauns_in_America&columns=*,180,0

21. The book Public opinion and the steel strike; supplementary reports of the investigators to the Commission of Inquiry, by the Interchurch World Movement, Bishop Francis J. McConnell, chairman refers to a Charles "Denkey", who I beleive could likely be the Charles Denke who was the son of Whilhelm Frederick Denke and Bertha Vultz. At any rate, this Charles "Denkey" was the superintendent of Braddock Works of the Carnegie Steel Corp. on Page 13 of the document, it relates a story of Charles Denkey's conflict with a slavic priest named Kaorinski, who was supposedly pro-German during WWI and a communist.

22. Census Records. Here is a list of some of the census records that have been digitally catalogued. This is by no means all of the census records available for Denkes, but it is all I was able to search for electronically at this time. For more information, you can take the information presented here to a regional office of the National Archives, or an LDS (Mormon) Family History Center in order to request the full text of the entry. Census

23. Perianne and Paul Denke of Florida had this birth announcement of a daughter born on 11/23/1999: http://www.n-jcenter.com/1999/Dec/3/VITALS.htm. 

24. F. W. Denke was a Reverand for the German Evangelical Lutheran church in Manistee, Michigan in the late 1860s-early 1870s: http://www.rootsweb.com/~mimanist/Page5.html.

25. A Denker in the works... I originally followed up on this lead because the last name was listed as Denkey, and in the past I have found some "Denke"s that way. In this case, Denkey was a typo for Denker. Around the close of the US-Mexican war (1846-48) there existed several military companies in Chicago. 1st Lieutenant R. P. Denker served under Captain Frederick Schaefer in the German Washington Jaegers. This military company was organized in 1847.  This is from: History of Cook County, Illinois, from the earliest period to the present time. Chicago, A.T. Andreas, 1884, page 219.

26. John Denke was a blacksmith who lived at "h 2331 Tulip" in Philidelphia in 1890. This is from the Philadelphia city directory for 1890.

27. Alvin Denke was a machinist who lived at 1805 Penn Avenue in Pittsburg, PA in 1890. This is from the Pittsburg, PA directory for 1890.

28. Alma R. Denke (maiden name was most likely Alma Ginter) died 12/30/1998 in Brevard County, Florida. She had sons named Alvin Denke and Richard Denke. She was orginally from Pittsburg, PA. Here is the text of her obituary.

29. Jacob Denke was a soldier in the U.S. Civil War. He enlisted at Camp King, KY on December 14, 1861. He was with the C Company of the Kentucky 23rd Infantry Regiment. He was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia on September 19, 1863. I believe that more information can be found in the Civil War Muster Rolls (National Archives?) in Box 386, Extraction 7, Record 2431.

30. Otto Denke appears in Einwohnerbuch für Stadt und Kreis Glogau 1943 (Inhabitant book for city and district of Glogau 1943) Glogau is now Glogow in Poland. His occupation is listed as Bierfahrer (Beer Driver/Delivery person) and he lived at Rüsterstraße 23a. Heide Langenbeck has a copy of this book and has offered to look in it for anyone who thinks they may have had relatives living in Glogau.

31. Denkes in Space... The following Denkes participated in a NASA public outreach project called the Startdust Microchips: ALFRED DENKE, ALFRED M DENKE, ANDREAS DENKE, ANDREAS M DENKE, CHRISTA DENKE, CHRISTA F DENKE, MICHAEL DENKE, MICHAEL M DENKE. Their names were encoded onto two microchips and launched into space on 2/7/1999. Two sets of the microchips were made. One set will remain in space forever, and the second set will return to earth in the year 2006. http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/microchip/

32. Claudia Denke works (or worked) for the Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit with Humboldt University in Berlin. She has done some research on, among other things, phantom limb pain. This is probably a picture of her from their web site. She is mentioned on many of their website pages including this one: http://www.psychologie.hu-berlin.de/klieng/klipub.htm  

33. Paul Herman Denke is mentioned in Who's Who in Finance and Industry. Click here for the text of that entry. He had a sister named Laura G. Denke who was born 10/9/1917 who was also born in San Francisco. His daughter, Claudia Beryl Denke (Tesche) was born in 1945 and has at least two children - Leora Jeanne Tesch, b. 1978 and Mark W Tesch, b. 1971. She is mentioned on this web page: http://www.oreilly.com/people/staff/stevet/fdnc/ch23.html. Paul Herman Denke had two other daughters, Karen Barbara Denke (Mottaz) born in 1942 and Marilyn Elizabeth Denke (Oliver) born in 1949. His father may have been this Edmond H. Denke - born 4/8/1872 in Illinois died 5/19/1944. Taking the logical leap a bit further, his father may have had these two people as relatives - August Denke, b. 10/16/1871 died 2/16/1943 - mother's maiden name SEIB. August was also born in Illinois and Agnes Martha Denke, b. 3/13/1978 in California , died 1/31/1943 - mother's maiden name also SEIB.

34.  This website mentions Pastor Jörg Denke. I have had difficulty deciphering exactly what this website is. I think the quote is in Dutch - but it appears to be a German website relating to a church located in Weddingstedt, which is either in Germany or the Netherlands: http://www.kirche-dithmarschen.de/weddingstedt/denke.htm

35. Denke Fireplace Studio. This is a Hungarian website for a company that makes fireplaces. I don't have any way to contact them, so I don't know if there is a Denke connection here or not: http://www.offers.hu/pages/denke/e_index.htm 

36. This website mentions Bernard Denke, who apparently played basketball in the Spokane Washington area in 1997 and was from Post Falls, Idaho: http://www.spokane.net/library/hoopfest/1997/rosters/4455.htm

37. Ilse (Caroline) Denke was born 31 Oct 1832 in Bergen, Hanover, Germany, and married Wilhelm Meierhoff Sr. sometime before 1854. In 1854, they sailed for the United States, landing in New Orleans and making their way up the Mississippi River to Randolph County, Illinois (a few counties north of St. Louis). Their infant child died while they were crossing the Atlantic, but they had 8 more after arriving and settling in Illinois. Ilse Denke Meierhoff died in Wine Hill, Randolph County, Illinois, on 25 Sept 1904, at the age of 71. Matthew Tiscareno is married to a woman who is a descendant of Ilse Denke, and he would be interested in hearing from anyone with more information about her.

38. This website mentions a Sargeant J. R. Denkee as Mississippian who surrendered at the Appomattox courthouse in Virginia during the civil war. http://www.rootsweb.com/~mscivilw/surrender.htm He was part of the 48th Mississippi regiment. He may be one of the John Denkees listed in the census records on item 22 of this list.

39. Denkes in Guhrau -  Heide Langenbeck  has sent me this information that she has collected from LDS Film. Her great-grandparents were Emilie Denke and Robert Kothe - there is information on bothe the Denke and Kothe surnames in her data. Here is what she has sent to me.

40. St. John's Lutheran Church in Saginaw, Michigan has a book with the record of a marriage in 1856 of an August Denke who was a carpenter. His wife's name was apparently not legible to the translator. The actual book exists still and is located at the church, and a photocopy version exists at the Allen Co. Public Library, Ft. Wayne, Indiana. This is the website I got the information from: http://www.petersenprints.com/stjohnbook.htm .

41. The Owen County, Indiana Index to Birth Records A-Z 1882-1920 by the Indiana Works Progress Administration has record of the birth of a child named (I believe) Walter Denke born on October 11, 1890 to parents W. Denke and Mary Koller. The reference is in book H-3, page 22. It is also possible to interepret the listing (this information is 2nd hand - someone would need to look a the book) as a child with the last name Walter who was the son of W. Denke Walter and Mary Koller. Since this record is from Indiana, it is coincidentally interesting to cross reference this to the descendents of Rosina Mary Denke and Edmond Koelher. 

42. The Moravian church records in Nazareth, Pennsylvania record the marriage of Jeremiah Denke to Elizabeth Leinbach on May 23, 1790. Since this person has the same name as Christian Frederick Denke's (see CF Denke in item one, above, and on the Notable Denkes page) father and they are both Moravian, I am guessing that this either is a second marriage for his father or the marriage of one of his sons. Looking at this entry on the LDS website: http://familysearch.com/Eng/Search/IGI/individual_record.asp?recid=24963566&ldsnn=6, which I believe is an entry for C.F. Denke's father, leads me to believe that this particular Jeremiah Denke is perhaps a brother of C. F. Denke. Here is also a website with a reference to this marriage, and possible a birth and death date for Jeremiah Denke of 1743-1820:  http://www.sunsetridge.com/leinbach/tree/111.htm

43. The Gibson County, Indiana. Indiana Works Progress Administration published an Index to Marriage Transcript Record A-L Book 1 Vol 1. 1880-1920. This has reference to a marriage involving the son or daughter of Carrie Denke. The marriage took place on 9/2/1914 and is found in book H-8 on page 1. Beyond that I am having some trouble interpreting the names, but my best guess is that Carrie Denke was married to a man named Fred Georges and that the entry relates to their son Victor Georges, who was 24 years old at the time. As in number 41 above, this information is second hand so someone might get a better idea by looking at the real book.

44. The book: Michigan Marriages From 1840 to 1899, Surnames Beginning with S contains a rather odd looking entry for a marriage of Henry N. Shegud and Margaet Wa-Qa-Wa-Denke (yes, you read that correctly) on 11/08/1850.

45. The book, Index to Birth Records Marion County 1882-1920 Inclusive Volume I Letters A-F Inclusive (1of 2, 2 of 2) published by the Indiana Works Progress Administration, 1939 contains the following entries. It seems that there is some information missing, such as the first names of the children born, so a closer look at the actual book would be helpful:

46. In the Kirchenbuch for Sulau recording births between 1835 and 1849 there is an entry for a child name Carl Ferdinand Denke. Here is what I have of that entry:

Sulau / now Sulòw belongs to the county Mitlitsch/Milicz and is situated in the East of former Silesia just on the border to the province Poznan county Rawitsch/Rawicz. The nearest well-known Poznan cities are Krotoschin/Krotoszyn (east) Jutroschin/Jutrosin (north) and Rawitsch/Rawicz (west). In Silesa to the west is Trachenberg/Zmigrod and to the Southeast is Trebnitz/Trzebnica. Southwest about 50 km away from Sulau is Breslau/Wroclaw. The parish of Sulau belongs to Mislawitz, Grabofke, Peterkaschuetz, Donkawe, Schlenz, Breschine, Hammer-Sulau, Neudorf-Sulau, Lunke, Ollsche, Paradawe and the Dominions (Vorwerk) of all these villages.