Fuhrwerk/Swinke lines

This (left) is Grammie's fan chart. It's likely not 100% correct because it includes some guesses that I'm making (but to which I am not committed), but this is the part that I've been working on the past few days.

In particular I'm working on the Swinke/Fuhrwerks and trying to figure out who came across on the trip across the Atlantic with Ottelia Swinke Fuhrwerk and her daughter Gertrude. The trip started Feb 15, 1882 and got to NYC on March 1, 1882. They travelled on the Silesia. Listed on the manifest are a "Ferd. Swinke abt 1833 49 männlich (Male) Gnewnau, Westpreußenand "Caroline Swinke born abt 1859, age 23 weiblich (Female) from Gnewnau, Westpreußen."

When I made the fan chart, I thought that perhaps "Ferd" was Ottelia's father and that Caroline would be her sister. Then I found Carol Fleck's genealogy pages. She said that Carolina was a mother to Ottelia and she died here (need to find the death certificate). Ottelia's parents were (according to CF) Herman Swinkie and Carolina Herban. Albert'a she only has the father's name--August Fuhrwerk. So, I probably jumped the gun on the change to the chart. But, Ottelia would have had a twin, or closely timed sister--Caroline, if the Swinke on the ship is a sister (both are listed as 23 years old). It could be that the recorder mixed up the dates of the two, but the ages are the same on the ship's arrival record in NYC.

Here is the manifest from the ship. The party of four is near the bottom on the right hand side page.


I will need to get this film Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths for Gnewau, Westpreußen, Germany; now Gniewowo (Wejherowo), Gdańsk, Poland from the family history library. I'll probably find something there. I believe there are about 10 years of records that I could find there that may be helpful, likely enough to find (1) the marriage of Ottelia & Albert and (2) the birth record of Gertrude, (3) Death record of Ottelia's dad if Carol Fleck's research is correct. Then on the US side I need to find the Ferd and Caroline that are on the manifest. What happened to them once they are off the ship? I should be able to find them in the census.

I also found this, which seems to be a forum for genealogy researchers looking in that area.