Family lives

Carl F. Falkenrath

1836 – 1901

Ida’s father and Milly’s maternal grandfather, a file maker who brought his family from Germany to Racine.

Children
Ida · Herman · Charles · Albert Otto · Hulda · Ernst Emil · Peter Ernst · Emilie Augusta; two unnamed children were stillborn.

Places in a Life

Follow recorded birthplaces and homes through the years. Numbers connect the map to dated records; gold marks a birthplace. Markers show approximate towns or regions, not exact houses. A recorded year does not establish an uninterrupted stay.

Carl F. Falkenrath

Recorded birth and home locations for Carl F. FalkenrathNORWAYSWEDENDENMARKFINLANDCANADAATLANTIC OCEANAugust 27, 1836 · Birth — Remscheid area, Germany1Remscheid areaAbout 1881–1882 · Home — Racine, Wisconsin, United States2Racine

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  1. Family histories explicitly place Carl’s birth in Remscheid. Marker precision: city area.

    Source for this place

  2. Profile says the family made their home in Racine following the immigration associated with Hohenstaufen in 1881. Sources disagree on precise immigration dates and travel arrangements; retain approximate range.

    Source for this place

Present-day coastline: Natural Earth. Historical place names are retained in the records. The map and dated list also remain available without JavaScript.

A skilled tradesman

The family histories place Carl’s birth in Remscheid, Germany, on August 27, 1836. Also called Charles, he worked as a file maker. Peter Dortzbach remembered his father-in-law as hardworking, honest, thrifty and affectionate, with enough savings to establish a comfortable home in America.

The family’s move to Wisconsin

Carl and Emilie Pleis raised six children who survived to adulthood: Ida, Herman, Charles, Albert, Hulda and Ernst. The 2010 compilation says the family wished to spare their sons military conscription. It associates their journey with the steamship Hohenstaufen in 1881. They made their home in Racine, Wisconsin, where Carl became a citizen on November 24, 1890, according to the genealogy’s naturalization summary.

Remembered in Racine

The family home on Villa Street became a gathering place across generations. A transcribed obituary remembers Carl as a respected parent and neighbor and names all six surviving children, including Ida in Cripple Creek and Charles in Milwaukee. He died in Racine in 1901 and was buried in Mound Cemetery.

A note on the records

The sources disagree on the precise immigration dates and Carl’s August 1901 death date. His wife’s arrival is also described differently. These details need comparison with the original passenger and death records.

Sources for this biography

Based on the family’s written histories. Recollections and compiled records are identified here so they can be revisited as the archive grows.

  • Peter P. Dortzbach’s biography — Peter’s recollections, recorded by his granddaughter Eileen Townsend; Word transcript and scanned versions RB010–RB015 and RB022–RB025B.
  • The Falkenrath Family: Germany to America — Compiled by Dawn Kelm, September 7, 2010, including genealogical notes, photographs and family recollections. Her husband, Wayne Kelm, is a grandson of Ernest (Ernst) Falkenrath, Ida’s brother.
  • Descendants of Carl F. “Charles” Falkenrath — Family genealogy, scans RB046–RB053; includes census summaries and transcribed obituaries.
  • Family tree supplied by the family — Relationship chart provided by the owner in October 2026. Used alongside the written histories.