family names

originally put together on nov 26th of 2005 (4 years ago!), i guess i was just looking to document some of the last names in my family tree. i don’t think every bit of my lineage (on my dad’s side) came over to Texas from germany in 1845/1846, but some/most immigrated around then, with some others coming over in the 1850’s or so. except, as stated below, brandenberger — who arrived in Texas via either california or illinois. his family was in illinois, but he and his brother had gone to california during the gold rush. his brother returned to illinois, but he either went straight from california to Texas or went back to illinois and then came to Texas. outside of that, as far as i know all of my ancestors (on my dad’s side) came straight to Texas from germany.
also, since the time i wrote the below, my mother discovered more information out about her birth mother and family. i’ve written about it elsewhere on here.
———-< originally written 26-nov-2005 >———-
some family names in my ancestry from my dad’s side…
leifeste, jordan, brandenberger, molzberger, bierschwale, theis, wahlenberg, korings, bickenbach, willmann, dammeyer, stahe, wobekind.
pretty much all germans, with a bit of german swiss (brandenberger) for flavor. except for brandenberger, all lines came into Texas in late 1845 and 1846 as part of the “verein zum schutze deutscher einwanderer” as far as i remember.
my mother was adopted by the ator family. her birth mother’s name was rosa lee (rose) wilson. that’s all we know, and that was only learned in the last year or so when my mom got court documents opened.