Ernestine und Heinrich

Which Napp Family?

This site was created as a way to celebrate the renewed contact between descendants of Heinrich and Ernestine Napp. Both Ernestine and Heinrich were born and raised in northern Germany, and settled in what is now a suburb of Hamburg. They were married in 1878 and had eight children. This site is about this family and their descendants. These descendants have spread to many places: their son Ernst settled in an area north of the city of Montreal - his descendants are now all over Canada. Two of Martha's sons also emmigrated to this area of North America - one has stayed in Montreal, raising children with children of their own, and another returned to his wife's native France. Martha's other two children remained in Northern Germany, as well as the children of Helene and Gustav. Elisabeth and her husband moved to the west coast of the United States and their descendants are centred there.

There are a number of Napp families in North America and Europe that are not a part of this branch (perhaps descended from Heinrich's ancestors?). If you are searching for other branches I do have some information, so please don't hesitate to contact me.

Motivation

Why would Monica take all this time to hand craft (yes, I am writing it in html) a family history web site? Well, being retired now, I am able to run down the family tree rabbit holes.

When I was young I was surrounded by other children who had easy access to their kin. I only had one surviving grandparent (my mother's mother who passed away in 1989 at the amazing age of 96), and she was on a different continent. I met her when I was seven, as well as all my other German kin. I think this is one of the things that triggered my passion as family historian, and has kept it alight for so many years. Although I do not know all my relatives well, those I have met are great folks I'd like to hear more about. I also believe that sharing your heritage with your children helps anchor them and lets them understand their place in this wide world. (Well that certainly worked for me!)

Nomenclature

In order to keep some understanding of who I am referring to, I will try to keep the descent lines separate so that you know how that individual is descended from Heinrich and Ernestine. I will refer to their generation as "4" and their children's generation as "3", grandchildren as "1", and so on.

So under this scheme I would be Monica (Monica[1] Walter[2] Martha[3]) and Cathy would be (Cathy[1] Bernhard[2] Elisabeth[3]). This makes us 2nd cousins. (for the definition and illustration of the relations of cousins, see Wikipedia's article.

I also want to specify that I always express dates with the year first, the month (numerically), and the day. For instance Ernestine was born on the 1st of December, 1852. This would be 1852-12-01.

Confidentiality

Having had a career in IT, I am very sensitive to what I put on the web. I am not planning to put all the details of living descendants on this site. My thought is to stop at my generation on down (Heinrich & Ernestines great-grandchildren and their descendants). If we want to share photos and info, we need to do it outside the web.

Corrections

While I probably have the biggest collection of family info, I am sure that not all of it is correct. So if you see something that you know is in error, please please send me a note (or call) to have me correct it.