Kokenge Mayrose Goebel Nemmers Family
My maternal grandmother, Frances Kokenge Klein, was the daughter of Henry and Josephine (Nemmers) Kokenge. She is pictured in her home in Granville, IA (top left). Her younger sister Maureen Kokenge Van Bergen is pictured in her home in Worthington, MN (lower left). Their brother Cyril (Cy) Kokenge and his wife Martha host Frances and Maureen, along with their sister Edna Kokenge McCarthy, and younger family members enjoying a family dinner (top right). To view more family photographs, scroll down this page.
|
|
|
|
|
The Kokenge ancestors came to
the United States from Lohne, Germany, in the mid-1800s, when members of the
family began leaving Germany. Albert Kokenge, his brother John Bernard (J.
B.) Kokenge and J.B.'s wife, Maria Anna Mayrose, immigrated to the U.S. in
the mid-1800s, settling first in Cincinnati and then coming west to New
Vienna, Iowa. Below (left) is the St. Boniface Catholic Church cemetery in
New Vienna, Iowa. Below (right) is the grave of J. B. and Maria Anna
Kokenge in the St. Boniface cemetery.
To learn about the background of the Kokenge family in Germany, please click on "Lohne" at left. If you would like to learn more about the families of Lohne, Germany, please click on this URL: Families of Lohne In June 2000, I was able to visit the old Kokenge farm outside Lohne, Germany, where I met several of my cousins. I returned in August 2003 to attend a reunion of the German Kokenge cousins in Vechta, Germany. I |
|
|
|
On April 14, 2001, approximately 80 descendants of various branches of the prolific Kokenge family met at the O.K. Cafe in Alton, Iowa, for a Kokenge Family Reunion. To view the letter of invitation, click on "Kokenge Reunion" at left." In the coming months, I would like to publish photographs and stories about the Kokenge family on these pages.
J.B. and Maria Kokenge's son Henry Kokenge married Catherine Goebel, and they had four children before her death. Later, Henry Kokenge married Josephine Nemmers, and they had ten children before her death in 1918.