St. Mauritien Lutheran Church, Pyritz, Pommern, Prussia our family church. Many of the Sanfts and the Wolfgramms were married and baptised in this church.
The following information is from the Wolfgramm & Sanft Family Reunion Website:
Is Wolfgramm spelled with one 'm' or two? BOTH are right!
Two Wolfgramm brothers signed a document. One did it with one "m" and a line over it, the other with two "mm"s. Full brothers, same parents -they just used different ways of writing their surname -until you remember the Sutterlein grammar rule for the letter "m", you won't understand why they did this and why they both are right.
How did we get our name, Wolfgramm?
Charles [Siale] Ataongo WOLFGRAMM, explained how we got our name. He learned this story from his father, our German immigrant: Emil Otto Friedrich WOLFGRAMM.
There was a Prince who wished to travel through his kingdom. He had to go through a wild forest filled with wolves. While traveling through the forest he and his party were surrounded by a pack of wolves. Our ancestor was a guard to the Prince and knew that if he could kill the leader of the pack the other wolves would scatter. He killed the leader of the wolf pack with his bare hands and when arriving back to the palace safely was granted a new name by the Prince. Our name used to be GRAMM and after this killing of the wolf leader we became known as WOLFGRAMM.
The town of Pyritz, Pomerania, Prussia is now, in our time, post WWII days, listed as Pyrzyce, Sczecin, Poland.
Our family tree starts withFriedrich WOLFGRAMM & Dorothea Sophia HEIDEMANN.
*Friedrich WOLFGRAMM b. 20 Feb 1799 in Altstadt, Pyritz, Pommern, Prussia and becomes a master blacksmith. Later in life he becomes a farmer on a land estate. He marries at age 23 years on 22 April 1822 in Pyritz, Pommern, Prussia to Dorothea Sophia HEIDEMANN. When Friedrich dies 20 Nov 1882 he owns more farmland than anyone in Altstadt. I found agriculture records listing his holdings at the town library in Pyritz. The book had been rescued from a fire at a home in the 1970s where the book was hidden in the wall of the house. I could still smell the smoke from that fire when I turned the pages in 1999 sitting in the small library in our small village that once was called Pyritz.
Dorothea Sophia HEIDEMANN is born on 6 Sep 1804 in Pyritz, Pommern, Prussia which is about a 15 minute walk west from Altstadt. Family tradition has her as daughter of Gottlieb [which means: God dear or God's love] HEIDEMANN [1775-1804] & his wife, Anna Christine WEIHERR [1780-?]. Dorothea Sophia Heidemann WOLFGRAMM dies from the result of a miscarriage at the age of 43 years old. Prior to her marriage to our ancestor, Friedrich WOLFGRAMM, Dorothea Sophia has a little daughter named Christine Wilhelmine HEIDEMANN who was 5 years old when Dorothea becomes Mrs. Friedrich WOLFGRAMM. Christine Wilhelmine HEIDEMANN would later stand as god-mother for all the children born to my ancestor - her half-brother, Friedrich Wilhelm WOLFGRAMM & his wife, Caroline Wilhelmine Julianna SANFT at the Lutheran family church in Pyritz. Christine can be found in German church books recorded as Frau [Mrs.] Gottfried HENZEL.
The 6 children of Friedrich WOLFGRAMM and Dorothea Sophia HEIDEMANN are:
1. Friedrich Wilhelm WOLFGRAMM married Caroline Wilhelmina Julianna SANFT (4 of their sons were sent to Tonga w/ Sanft cousins in 1875)
2. August Ludwig WOLFGRAMM (3 of his sons were sent to Tonga in 1885)
3. Hanna Luise WOLFGRAMM
4. Herman Carl Wilhelm WOLFGRAMM
5. Johann Augustine WOLFGRAMM
6. August Wilhelm WOLFGRAMM
{CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE ONLINE FAMILY TREE}
BE SURE TO GO ATTEND THE WOLFGRAMM FAMILY REUNION HIS YEAR!
