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Hi, DDuck,

I tried to send you a 'personal message' but, appartently, I am not allowed to do so until you have posted 3 times!!!

I am in touch with several descendents of the Baker brothers and thought you might like to join the clan, as it were. To this end I was trying to send you my email address - something that can only be done in a personal message and not on the boards.

If you want to get in touch, please post 2 more messages - they need only say 'hello'! Alternatively, you could try and send a personal message to me but I don't know if you would be allowed. (Just click on my name and then on 'send personal message'.) Either way, your own personal email address and identity will NOT be disclosed.

Kind regards,
Pysie

Hi, Nairobi, Matthew and Neil, (and Ann, Rena and anyone else!),

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you but it is great to know there are other Baker decendents  around. I hope we shall be able to compare notes and build up a comprehensive family tree, and to trace the tree back into Germany.

I must admit I have not done much resarch this year. I have some thoughts about tracing baptismal/marriage/death certificates but the relevant information is not on-line and I can't find anyone who speaks fluent German and who would be willing to write a few letters on our behalf for a modest charge. Professional researchers are so expensive. I shall make it a halloween resolution to crack the German link!

As mentioned, Ann and I are in touch by email with ten other decendents from the 'original' Baker brothers (Phillipp, George and Johannes). They in turn are in touch with many other decendents. One of our relations has written a book about decendents of Joseph (a son of Johannes) who settled in Canada. There are hundreds of Bakers in Canada and the USA now!!! It is hoped we might be able to gather enough information to publish a similar book about the other Bakers. Also, we have several old photos including one of the brothers and their wives and one of the Rhine Band which, I am sure, the owners would be prepared to share with you.


Please can you email me direct at   ^(*)   and I shall give you more information and put you in touch with the other Bakers. Although we haven't had much contact with each other over the past year, we normally email the whole 'family' with any information so we all know what is going on.   

(This message keeps going off the page so I shall sign off now and post another message.)
Cathy


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Hi, Stuart,

Following the messages here, there are now eight descendents of the Baker brothers who are corresponding and sharing information by private group email. I know Johann Lassman was not a Baker, but he was a member of the Rhine Band and must have known the brothers really well.  There were quite a few German musicians living in south Sussex at the time and I am sure they all knew each other.

Did your Johann come from Nassau? We have been trying to trace the Baker family back to their German roots and wonder whether there might have been a mass exodus of musicians from some music school when the Prussian war began.

We have a photo of the Rhine Band members which we can share with you. You may be able to pick out your Johann.

Can you please send me a personal message and I will let you have my email address. (Click on my name and then click 'send a personal message'.) I am sure the other 'Bakers' would be happy for you to be included in our group.

I was going to buy a copy of 'A Town's Pride' but I was told there was no real information about the Rhine Band in it. Do let me know if it is worth purchasing.

Look forward to hearing from you. Best wishes,
Cathy

Thanks for trying, everyone. I've had no luck tracing natrulaisation papers, and no luck on the sites you all mentioned.

I think I shall have to contact the Catholic archives, or get a German-speaking friend to help out. I think I remember a web-site which listed the correct offices to contact for Frickhofen RC and Dornburg births. (Familysearch? Rootsweb? Cindy's List?- I'll let you know when I find it again.)


RENA -

 I note you have Pye, Munford and Smith in your list of names. So do I!!!Have you seen my names? Munford is not there - yet - but my daughter recently married a Munford!!!! Which part of the country do your Pyes, Smiths and Munfords come from?

Cathy

Hi, Darin and Bob,

Thanks for all the tips.

Sorry to be a damp squid, Darin, but Christian disappeared completely from all British censuses and BMD records after 1871. I can only assume that, being 'the baby', he went back to Germany. I'm not too worried about his story as it is his brother, Johannes, who is my ancestor. There is no evidence that Christian was Christian 'W' Baker, and certainly no evidence he had any contact with Wales. But who knows?

I checked out 'Ebbecke' on familysearch but it seems there is no obvious connection.

I have searched all the British records over seven years and can discount any similar names of Bakers born in Germany who lived in London or anywhere else outside of Sussex. Sorry, but my brothers are not on your list.

The names of the four brothers are quite specific - as listed in my original message - and, as far as I know, they only ever lived in the Worthing/Brighton area of Sussex. I am sure their address at the time of naturalisation would have been 'Worthing' or 'Sussex'.

Johannes, Phillipp and George all married shortly after their arrival in England and raised families in the Worthing/Brighton area. I can find no other conection with any other part of Britain.

I have trawled throught he websites you sent, Bob, (very frustrating!!!) and I have not found any trace of the brothers. (If only I spoke German!!!)

Wilsenthrop might be a red herring but it is all I have to go on. It is a name of a village in Nassau mentioned just once in a census return by Christian (or Phillipp? - I can't remember which without checking). Of course, if Christian/Phillipp was born in Wisenthrop, there is no guarantee the other brothers were born there, too. But it may be a start so I shall contact the registry and the Catholic church in Dornburg (the RC parich church of Wilsenthriop?).

I had hoped to find the brothers recorded together on a ship or something so I might learn their original German surname. But, whatever. I shall keep searching ..... .

Of course, I suppose it its just possible they were born in Gernamy of British parents with the name Baker ..... ? But even then, I can find no trace.

Thanks for your help,
Cathy