Welcome to the Kolthammer family history website.
The surname Kolthammer is rare - a search of online telephone directories finds only a handful of Kolthammers and Kalthammers in Germany. Anyone with the surname Kolthammer currently living in England, Canada, or the United States is a descendant of Friedrich Wilhelm Kolthammer who emigrated from Germany to London in the early 1880s and his wife Margarete Kathrina Kobold who also emigrated from Germany to London. There is still one branch of the family remaining in Germany. The Kolthammer and Kobold families belonged to the Evangelische Kirche [Lutheran Church].
Friedrich Wilhelm Kolthammer was born in Celle, Hannover, to an unmarried servant from Insel named Hanne Christine Elisabeth. Hanne's family were long established in the Schneverdingen area which is about 70 km from Celle. Friedrich, a journeyman tailor, emigrated to England in the early 1880s and there married Margarete. After a couple of years in Poplar, they moved to Southwark and raised their family. They had ten children in all, eight of whom survived until adulthood. Friedrich, or Fritz as he was known, died from tuberculosis in 1906 at the age of 50.
Margarete continued to raise those children still at home but became trapped while on a visit to Germany when the World War broke out. She was unable to return to England until 1920, more than five years later. After her return, she lived with her daughters until her death in 1935.
Six of their children remained in England, one emigrated to the United States and one to Canada.
I would like to track down photos of Fritz & Margarete and their children and learn more of their stories.
Their offspring were:
Friedrich Wilhelm (Frederick William) 1884-1941
Anna Margaretha (Margreta) 1886-1972
Heinrich Wilhelm (William Henry) 1887-1966
Otto (John) 1889-1959
Karl Robert (Charles Robert) 1891-1929
Bertha Margaretha (Bertha) 1893-1983
Anna Elisa Marie Ida (Eda Christina) 1896-1982
George 1898-1899
Lillian 1899-1948
Harold Claude 1904-1904
A Note about DNA testing
An integral part of doing genealogy these days is DNA testing, which complements the paper trail.
If you or a family member connect with the ancestral families on this website and have had a genealogy DNA test done or are contemplating doing so, I would like to hear from you.
Autosomal tests look at DNA inherited from any of your family tree branches.
Testing companies include Family Tree DNA (FTDNA), Ancestry.com, and 23andMe. Each has their strengths and weaknesses. No matter where you test, it is highly beneficial to upload your results to Gedmatch.com.
Please begin by reading about this website