The German steamship "Rugia", which brought the family to America, departed Hamburg on April 30, 1884, and arrived in New York on May 15, 1884. Herman Unke is listed in the Milwaukee City Directory for the first time in 1885 at 620 8th Ave. (old system of street names and house numbers). Herman and Wilhelmina's daughter Emma was born in Milwaukee in late 1885, and died there 3 years later. For 1886 - 1889 Herman's directory address was 607 Pearl (old system - now roughly 1590 S. Pearl); starting in 1888 Herman is no longer listed as a laborer, but rather as a tanner. From 1891 until at least 1898 Herman's address was 824 Pearl.

Herman and Wilhelmina's son Fred married Augusta Neufeldt in Milwaukee in 1897; in 1898 Fred had a separate listing, 741 15th Ave. (old system). Fred and Augusta had 7 children: Clara, Walter, Alfred, Alma, Henrietta, Alvin and Esther. Sometime between Clara's birth in 1898 and Walter's birth in 1900, Fred's family moved to Kildare Township in Juneau County, Wisconsin, and lived in or near Lyndon Station. In 1902 Fred was listed as being back in Milwaukee at 945 33 Street. Alfred was born and died in Milwaukee in 1903, and sometime between Alma's birth in 1905 and Henrietta's birth in 1907 Fred's family returned to Kildare township. In 1908 Fred and Augusta became owners of a farm in Marion Township, Juneau County, where the last 2 children, Alvin and Esther, were born. In 1925 Fred and Augusta became owners of a second farm in Marion Township. Their son Walter owned the first farm from 1929 until 1947, when he sold most of it. After the deaths of Walter and Fred, the remaining properties were transferred to Esther and her husband Arnold Nickels. These properties were all sold between 1966 and 1992. Esther, who died in 1996, was the last person in this line who was surnamed Unke. Fred and Augusta's daughter Alma, who married Arthur Robert Milton Haberstroh in 1927, is my mother.

Herman and Wilhelmina Unke may have made the moves to Kildare Township with Fred's family. In 1910 Herman is listed as dwelling at 639 Union (presumably old system) in Milwaukee, which was also Wilhelmina's address when she died in 1930.

The family was Lutheran. While living in Kildare Township Fred's family attended St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Lyndon Station. After their move to Marion township they in all likelihood attended St. Jacob's Lutheran Church in the Village of Germantown until it closed about 1924.

Augusta Neufeldt sailed with her parents and 3 brothers and sisters from Hamburg to New York just one month before the Unke family did.

Herman Unke's younger brother August Ludwig Theodor also emigrated to the U.S. and, he, too, settled in Milwaukee. With him came his wife, 4 sons and possibly also a daughter. August very probably came to the U.S. before Herman, since an August Unke appears in the Milwaukee City Directory as of 1883.

I've written the following family histories dealing with my maternal ancestors:

A History of the Unke Family
A History of the Neufeldt Family

• the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah,
• the Library of Congress in Washington, DC,
• the New York Public Library,
• the Los Angeles Public Library,
  
• the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadephia,
  and
  
• the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin.

My wife and I have also researched the families of her parents, Friedrich Heinrich Otto Güthenke (1900 - 1982) and Else Güthenke née Krieger (1908 - 2004), families which have lived for centuries in Westphalia, Germany. The Güthenke genealogy goes back to about 1635, that for the Krieger family back to around 1680.

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