Fiegenbaums in Brazil

On 13 August 1869, 122 passengers from various locales in the Kingdom of Prussia aboard the Iduna at Hamburg, Germany had their names added to the ship's register. All of them were emigrating to Rio Grande do Sul, in the Empire of Brazil.

Very nearly all of the passengers were agricultural workers travelling in groups which the shipping company recognized as families.

Among the passengers was Ernest Friedrich Wilhelm Fiegenbaum (1838-1911) and Sophia Elisabeth (Berlemann) Fiegenbaum (1830-1907), their five children, ages 15 years to 1 year, and their companion, Friederike Schroer, age 22. The members of this familial group were identified as former residents of Ladbergen, Prussia.

I am not yet familiar with exactly how Friederike Schroer was related to the Fiegenbaums and what became of her when she reached Brazil.

The Fiegenbaums settled in Linha Schmidt, a rural neighborhood in Colônia Teutônia, Rio Grande do Sul. Colônia Teutônia was established in 1858 and settled by Germans from the colony of São Leopoldo in Rio Grande do Sul, and from Germany (mainly Westphalia, Pomerania, Saxony, Bohemia and Silesia). Here a sixth child, Wilhelmine, was born to Ernest and Sophia in 1872.

Both Ernest and Sophia were buried early in the 20^th century in the cemetery of the Linha Schmidt Evangelical Church at Colônia Teutônia.

You can see a photo of Ernest and Sophia on the web site of "Centro de Apoio a Pesquisas e Encontros Familiares" (CAPEF). Most of the genealogical information at CAPEF, a web site devoted to genealogical research in Brazil, is in Portuguese, but should not be too hard to understand even if you do not speak the language.

Teutônia began its journey to municipal independence in 1981 and celebrates 24 May 1981 as its "birthday." In 1996, Linha Schmidt and a number of similar, small rural settlements associated with Teutônia and Imigrante were organized as the town of Westfália, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

In March, 2009, Elmo Fiegenbaum, of Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, very kindly forwarded to me a copy of his genealogical research on the descendants of Ernest and Sophia (Berlemann) Fiegenbaum family in Brazil. I am in the process of adding this new information to our Genealogy Database.

I can also direct you to a photo on our web site of one of the descendants of Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Fiegenbaum, Ernest and Sophia's fifth child:  Carlos Enrique Villasboa Casco and Elisabeth Fiegenbaum Family of Teutônia, Brazil.

Brief Genealogy

Ernest Friedrich Wilhelm Fiegenbaum's family

Sophia Elisabeth Berlemann's family

Fiegenbaum - Berlemann family

Sources

On Line

• Prefeitura Municipal de Teutônia. Histórico   (a brief history in Portuguese; accessed 27 June 2016).
• "Teutônia." Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre.   (a description in Portuguese; accessed 27 June 2016).
• Prefeitura Municipal de Westfália. História   (a brief history in Portuguese on the town web site; accessed 27 June 2016).
• "Westfália." Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre.   (a description in Portuguese; accessed 27 June 2016).
• Centro de Apoio a Pesquisas e Encontros Familiares (CAPEF). Teutônia, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. [Center for Research Support and Family Encounters (CAPEF)].
• Cronologia da Colônia Teutônia. [A Chronology of the Colony of Teutônia; in Portuguese]. Posted on the CAPEF web site on 21 July 2009. Accessed 4 July 2010.

Print Material

• Burns, E. Bradford. A History of Brazil. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.
• Fiegenbaum, Elmo. Família Fiegenbaum. Florianópolis, Brasil: E. Fiegenbaum, 2008.
• Kluck, Patricia Ann. Decision-making Among Descendants of German Immigrant Farmers in Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil. Latin American Studies Program; Dissertation Series, Number 61. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1975.
• Lange, Henry. Südbrasilien: Die Provinzen São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catharina und Paraná, mit Rücksicht auf die Deutsche Kolonisation. Zweite erweiterte Auflage. Leipzig: Verlag von Eduard Baldamus, 1888.
• Luebke, Frederick C. Germans in Brazil: A Comparative History of Cultural Conflict During World War I. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1987.
• Mulhall, Michael George. Rio Grande do Sul and its German Colonies. London, England: Longmans, Green, & Company, 1873.
• Prado Júnior, Caio. The Colonial Background of Modern Brazil. Translated by Suzette Macedo. Berkely: University of California Press, 1969.
• Roche, Jean. La Colonisation Allemande et le Rio Grande do Sul. Paris: Institut des Hautes Études de L'Amérique Latine, 1959.
• Schappelle, Benjamin Franklin. The German Element in Brazil: Colonies and Dialect. America Germanica, No. 26. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Americana Germanica Press, 1917.
• Waibel, Leo. "European Colonization in Southern Brazil." Geographical Review, volume 40, number 4 (October 1950), pages 529-547.
• Willems, Emílio. "Acculturation and the Horse Complex among German-Brazilians." American Anthropologist, New Series, volume 46, number 2, Part 1 (April - June 1944), pages 153-161.