Where did we come from?

Are we related? Yup. We are related, all of us–anyone with the last name Gottsacker. Where are we now? How did we get here?

About thirty years ago I decided to try to answer those questions and over many years, I found answers. The answers to those questions and more are found on the pages of this website. The story of the Gottsacker family history begins on the ‘How This Started’ page.

Above is Mayschoss, Germany circa 1830–a very small village in the Ahr river valley. Mayschoss (pronounced ‘My Shoss’) is the ancestral home of the Gottsacker family and is about 20 minutes south of present-day Bonn. The church in the graphic was the source of most of the Gottsacker genealogy on this website prior to the mid-1800s.

Right panel image

If you are viewing this on a desktop, there is a recent photo of Mayschoss in early spring on the right. The photo repeats as you scroll. A silhouette of the Saffenburg castle ruins is in the center of the photo at the top of the mountain/hill. A small portion of the Ahr river is at the base of that mountain/hill on the right. In the foreground is a small view of the many vineyards that surround the village. The Catholic church would be at the left, outside the frame of the photo.

Page top image

The image at the top of each page is a scan of the ship Unicorn manifest listing Jac. Gottsacker, Tailor, from Mayschoss with a destination of Wisconsin. This is actually Jacobis Wilhelm Gottsacker, my great-great grandfather, age 30 or 31. Wilhelm was a shoemaker, not a tailor. The Unicorn sailed from Bremen, Germany and arrived in New York City on August 15, 1853. Wilhelm’s wife Anna Marie Hoemig, age 25, and son, Frank Gottsacker Sr., age 3, arrived two years later on September 15, 1855 on the ship Republic accompanied by another male Gottsacker immigrant.

Above is a sample church record from the Mayschoss Catholic church. This entry records the marriage of immigrants Wilhelm Gottsacker and Anna Marie Hoemig on August 19, 1850.

February 2022 Update Notes

This website was updated in February of 2022 after many, many years of sitting dormant. The original website–gottsacker.net–first appeared in 2004 and had not been updated since 2014. Here is a summary of the updates:

–The site was moved to a different hosting service, WordPress.com.
–The site now uses a WordPress theme, greatly improving the look and feel of the site.
–The theme automatically adjusts to phones, tablets and desktops.
–Many improvements were made, some as corrections, some for clarity and others for new or additional information.
–Some pictures and graphics lost resolution due to three hosting transfers over the approximately 20 years the old site had been active.
–Changes were made regarding updates in people’s lives and livelihoods. Several new photos were added.
–A new page was added covering the devastating Mayschoss floods of July 2021.
–The family tree, which was available by contacting the author, will no longer be available online in the near future. Family tree information will be available by contacting the author at gottsackerj@yahoo.com.
–The old site at gottsacker.net will be turned off in the near future.
–Email addresses listed on the old site will no longer be active.

Tell other Gottsacker relatives

Please tell other Gottsacker family members about this website. To make the site as comprehensive as possible, we need to be in touch with as many Gottsacker family members as possible.

A note about the Schladweiler family

There were a few intermarriages between Schladweilers and Gottsackers that are documented on this website. I’ve had several inquiries about the Schladweiler family and have come into contact with a person working on a genealogy of the Schladweilers. If you are a Schladweiler or relative, please contact me so I can put you in touch with the Schladweiler genealogist.

A note about the quality of photos on this site

Many of the photos on this site are of mediocre quality. Many are old. Many are reproductions of reproductions. For best photo quality, try viewing this site on a mobile phone, Since the images are smaller on a phone, the quality is better.