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Ernestine Caroline Friedericke was born on 2 May 1845 in Borntin, Kreis
Greifenberg, Pommern, Prussia, (now Borzecin, Poland). Her birth date was
recorded in the parish register of the Goerke Evangelische Church serving
Borntin. She was baptized 4 May 1845 in Borntin with sponsors Dorothea
Sophia Conrad Broitzmann, Jungfrau (young woman) Wilhelmine Kurth, and
Friedrich Zimdars. Ernestine was the fifth child and second daughter of
Johann Friedrich and Catharina Sophia Ruhnke Heuer. The Heuer family had
been living in Borntin since 1836, having moved there from Tressin. Before
that, the family had lived in Kahlen but was originally from Neides, where they had lived for more than 100 years. When Ernestine was born she had one older sister, Wilhelmine Caroline Rosaline, eleven years old, who was the oldest daughter of the Heuer children, and three brothers: August Ferdinand, nearly nine years old; Ferdinand Carl, five; and Johann Friedrich, two and one-half years old. Ernestine also had a half-brother, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Heuer, born in 1829, who was the only child of her father’s first marriage to Friederike Louise Ruhnke, her mother’s sister. He also lived with the family in Borntin. Ernestine would have been much too young to remember her paternal grandparents, Martin and Louise Heuer, also living with, or near, Johann Friedrich and Catharina Sophia in Borntin. Grandfather Martin died on 3 April 1847, and Grandmother Louise died the following year on 24 August 1848. Her maternal grandfather, Christian Ruhnke, also lived with the Heuers in Borntin, to be cared for by Catharina Sophia and the Heuer family until his death on 7 July 1850. All three grandparents were buried in the Goerke church cemetery. On 25 September 1849, another daughter was born to Johann Friedrich and Catharina Sophia. She was given the name Bertha Friedericke Sophie. A year later, when Ernestine was only five, her half-brother, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Heuer, died on 20 December 1850 at the age of twenty-one. He was also buried in the Goerke cemetery near his grandparents on 23 December. Ernestine’s youngest sister, Augusta Marie Elizabeth, was born on 7 January 1855. Later that same year, her oldest sister, Wilhelmine, married Peter Bergin in the Goerke Evangelische Church on 16 November. In 1856, the Heuer family had decided to emigrate to America. Peter Bergin, the husband of her older sister, Wilhelmine, departed alone in early January 1857 for New York City, and then on to Buffalo where he established a temporary residence. The Heuer family followed in early April when they left Borntin and traveled first to Hamburg where Wilhelmine boarded the ship Weser. She was carrying her first child, due in June, so there was concern that she leave immediately to enable her to reach New York City or Buffalo before giving birth. The remaining family members went on to Bremen where they embarked on the ship Laura, about five days later. The voyage has been described in the story of her parents. For Ernestine, and the whole family, the voyage could hardly have been very enjoyable. Suffering from seasickness was common for most passengers and could last the entire journey, spanning a four-to-six-week period depending on the weather and the ship. Ernestine, at age twelve, must have helped care for her sisters: Bertha, who was seven and little Augusta, only two-and-one-half years old. The family persevered, surviving the hardships and indignities of the forty-five-day voyage. They arrived at Castle Garden, the in-processing center on an island in the harbor of New York City, on 5 June 1857 |