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The Ship Iduna
From Hamburg to Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Passenger List at Hamburg on 13 August 1869
On 13 August 1869 at Hamburg (the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, a state within the North German Confederation) , a passenger list was compiled of the 122 men, women and children who had booked passage on the ship Iduna, captained by H. Schuldt. The 68 males and 54 females were travelling from various places in the Kingdom of Prussia (Königreich Preußen ) to Rio Grande do Sul, Empire of Brazil (Império do Brasil ).
Below, is an image of the top of the first page of the passenger register created that day.
At the very bottom of page two of the passenger register (lines 69-76), one finds the names of seven individuals with the surname of Fiegenbaum and one with the Schroer family name. The names of these eight individuals are enclosed inside a pair of braces. Braces appear frequently throughout the passenger list and seem to have been the method used by the shipping company to indicate that a group of people were traveling together as a "family group." Indeed, the last two names of the "Fiegenbaum group" were written in one row of the printed register - the very last on page two. I think one might well surmise that this was an effort by the shipping clerk to more easily identify everyone in this group. This would have been a more difficult task if one name had to be listed on the next page of the passenger list.
Below are three images of selected portions of page two of the passenger register. Each of these images may be enlarged by clicking on the link 
below the image. The image will open to fill the size of your viewport.
In many cases, it will be possible to enlarge the image even further. This will be possible if, when you move the cursor over the image, you notice a Maximize icon 
appear in the lower right corner of the image. Select that icon to open the image to its maximum size.
Image 1
With the cursor on the image, use the "Maximize" icon if visible in the lower-right corner to view full size.
This image shows the headings of the columns in the printed passenger register.
Column 1 is identified as No. – the number assigned to each person travelling as a passenger on the Iduna to Rio Grande do Sul.
Column 2 is intended to show Zu- und Vorname und Famillie – Surname and Given Name and Family. Passengers who shared a bond and travelled together as a group were identified as a family by the shipping company in the passenger register by the use of a pair of braces . All the members of a "family" did not need to share the same Zuname; they merely had to identify themselves as having a some common tie that bound them together for their time on board the ship.
Column 3 – Geburts- und Wohnort – was were the Birth Place and the Place of Residence of each passenger were recorded.
Column 4 recorded the Landes – Country – where each passenger had lived.
Column 5 was reserved for recording the passenger's Gewerbe – Occupation.
Column 6 was for the passenger's Alter – Age.
Column 7 shows the passenger's Geschlecht – Sex. This column is divided into two sub-columns; the headings are abbreviations for männlich (male) or weiblich (female).
Column 8 shows shows the Total passengers listed in each row of the passenger register.
The remaining columns in the register are a Recapitulation – here the passenger in each row is identified as: Erwachsene und Kinder über 10 Jahr (Adult or Child over the age of 10 years); or as Kinder (a Child) who is either: unter 10 Jahr (under the age of 10 years); or, unter 1 Jahr (under the age of 10 years).
Image 2
With the cursor on the image, use the "Maximize" icon if visible in the lower-right corner to view full size.
Image 2 has been included to show the entries in Line 37 (at the top of page 2 of the passenger register) for the Landes (Country) and Gewerbe (Occupation) columns which are cited for the five other families later on that same page by the use of dito.
Photo Album
Country (2 images)
The quality of the digital images of the passenger register makes it very difficult to decipher the handwritten text. In the case of Landes (Country), a comparison with entries on other pages confirms that all 122 passengers originated from Preussen (Kingdom of Prussia).
Clicking on the thumbnail image to the right will give you a chance to view two other instances of the word identifying the country of origin. These 2 images are more legible that what appears on page 2 of the passenger list.
Figuring out occupations has been more difficult. I have had to rely on the indexing provided with the digital images at Ancestry.com to give me some hints. I hope my reading is correct.
Photo Album
Occupation (6 images)
The Fiegenbaum family, as well as all of other families on board, were identified as Ackerbauer familie [sic], indicating that they came from an agricultural background. In fact, only one of the 122 passengers on board the Iduna did NOT have the word Ackerbauer associated with his occupation
Once again, by clicking on the thumbnail image on the right, you can open a small slide show of 6 additional occupation entries from the register to see if you agree with this interpretation.
Image 3
With the cursor on the image, use the "Maximize" icon if visible in the lower-right corner to view full size.
Image 3 shows lines 69-76 at the very bottom of the page 2 of the passenger list, consisting of seven individuals with the surname of Fiegenbaum and one with the Schroer family name.
The pair of braces enclosing these eight names indicates that these individuals were considered a family group by the shipping company.
You will notice that the last two entries (75 & 76) share a single row at the end of the page. I believe this may have been done to more easily include Friederike Schroer as a member of this familial group. If her name had been moved to the next page, the clerk would not have had a harder time utilizing the pair of braces that was the common method throughout the register for designating a group of individuals travelling together.
Unfortunately, I do not know anything about Friederike Schroer's family or if she was in some way related to the Fiegenbaums by blood or marriage.
Francisco Bülow Fiegenbaum, who resides in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, has reported that his father, Mr. Osvaldo Fiegenbaum, a grandson of Ernst Heinrich and Johanna Wilhelmine Maria (Driemeyer) Fiegenbaum, has heard family stories in which Friederike Schroer was identified as a care-giver for young Wilhelm Fiegenbaum during the voyage from Germany to Brazil. In the passenger register, he was identified as being under the age of 1 year. With three additional children under the age of 10 years, Ernst & Sophie Fiegenbaum may well have felt the need for one other adult to keep an eye on the children.
I am also not able to say whether Friederike was related to other passengers aboard the Iduna named Schroer. On page 3 of the register (lines 89-91) one finds Heinrich Schroer (age 24), Elisabeth Schroer (age 25), and Friederike Schroer (less than 1 year old). Included in this "ship-board family" is Heinrich Kuck (age 33). All four are identified as an agricultural family from Lengerich, a town in the Province of Westphalia, Kingdom of Prussia and not far from Ladbergen, the home of the Fiegenbaums.
Transcription
The following table is a re-creation and translation of the information found in the 3 images (above) from page 2 of the passenger register.
You will notice that I have not reproduced the pair of braces that was used in the passenger register to indicate that the eight people listed in lines 69-76 were travelling as a "family." The right-hand brace clearly indicated that each of the eight individuals shared the single line of information which declared that Birthplace & Residence was "Ladbergen," that Country was "Prussia," and that Occupation was "agricultural family."
| No. | Sur- & Given name & Family. |
Birthplace & Residence. |
Country | Occupation | Age | Sex | Total | Recapitulation | |||
| male | female | Adults & Children over 10 years | Children | ||||||||
| Under 10 years | Under 1 year | ||||||||||
| 37 | d. , Wilhelmine | Leeden 1 | Prussia | agricultural family 2 |
33 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 38 | d. , Dina | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 69 | Fiegenbaum, Ernst | 31 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 70 | d. , Sophie | 39 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 71 | d. , Friederika | 15 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 72 | d. , Elisabeth | Ladbergen | dito | dito | 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 73 | d. , Sophia | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 74 | d. , Heinrich | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 75 76 |
d. , Wilhelm Schroer, Friederike 4 |
|
|
|
*1 3 22 |
1 |
1 |
1 1 |
1 |
|
1 |
Notes
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The quality of the digital images of the passenger register and the handwriting itself has made it diffucult for me to decipher some of the information recorded in the register.
Horst Wiethäuper was kind enough to point out an error I had made with the birthplace and residence of Wilhelmine (in line 37). I had originally copied it as Leiden; it was really Leeden, a village southwest of Osnabrück.
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Deciphering the handwritten text was particularly problematic when occupations were recorded. I hope that my reading of the entry as Ackerbauer familie [sic] and my translation as agricultural family are correct.
All but one of the 122 passengers of the Iduna had his or her occupation listed as Ackerbauer.
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Wilhelm's age (highlighted)
There appears of be some text, probably an abbreviation, before the entry for Wilhelm's age. Unfortunately, I am not able to decipher this information and have not included it in my transcription. I am guessing that it may be related to the fact that in the last column, Wilhelm is identified as being under one year old.
According to information shared with me by Fiegenbaums presently living in Brazil, Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Fiegenbaum was born on 9 April 1868. As the Iduna was preparing to depart Hamburg on 13 August 1869, he would have been 1 year, 4 months, and 4 days old.
I can imagine that beyond the normal concerns which faced the Fiegenbaums before such a momentous voyage to a new and distant land, the safety of such a young family member increased their anxiety.
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The two separate entries for Wilhelm Fiegenbaum and Friederike Schroer were squeezed into a single printed row at the very bottom of page 2 of the passenger register. However, each name was given its own number within that row and treated as separate entries in the register and in the tally of the total number of passengers.
Brief Genealogy
Ernest Friedrich Wilhelm Fiegenbaum's family
Sophia Elisabeth Berlemann's family
Details of Sophia's birth and family in Ladbergen are not known at the present time.