The Hilgendorf-Haag Connection

Both the Hilgendorf and the Haag families arrived in the United States from Germany. They were, however, from very different areas. The Hilgendorfs immigrated from northeast Germany, while the Haags came from southwestern Germany. Until 1871, however, Germany as a nation did not exist. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership. Prior to that time, the area that contains today's Germany was known as the Kingdom of Prussia. The Hilgendorfs appear to have come to America about 1856, while the Haags arrived a bit earlier, about 1841. Exact points of entry into the United States are not known; however, most Germans immigrating at the time the Hilgendorfs did would have come to the Midwest with many going to Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana and Missouri. By 1880, Wisconsin had more German Americans than any other state. And, in fact, the research finds many Hilgendorfs in these areas in the 1850-1880 time-frame. The Hilgendorf family comes from an area of Germany known today as Mecklenburg, or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Nearly every Hilgendorf located during the research was from this area of Germany. Mecklenburg is located in northeast Germany on the Baltic Sea. Traditionally, Mecklenburg has always been one of the poorer German areas. The ancestry of the Haag family begins with Hans Martin Hag born in 1647 in Durlach, Stadt Karlsruhe, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. The western part of this territory bounced back and forth between Germany and France, eventually ending up in Germany. The Haags moved just a bit west from Wuerttemberg to the state of Saarland. This area is contiguous to Alsace-Lorraine, France. The Hilgendorf and Haag families are followed in this genealogy until they come together in 1940 with the marriage of Clarence "Dutch" Hilgendorf and Leatha Haag in La Porte, Indiana. The family history is told with documents, stories and photos following the direct line of descent leading to the union of Clarence and Leatha.