Sophia (Riedesel) Reimer (1819)

This Sophia Riedesel was born in October, 1819. Several things point to the village of Glewitz on the island of Rügen in western Pomerania as her place of birth. If not there, she was certainly born in the area. She and her brother, Friedrich, married a brother and sister (Friedrich and Maria Reimer). Sophia and Friedrich/Fritz Reimer were married about 1842. Their German immigration record gives their previous domicile as Sülz; there is spa town today of Bad Sülze in western Pomerania. The Reimers were from the neighboring district of Nossendorf.

The couple left Hamburg aboard the ship Suevia on April 14, 1880, bound for New York.  With them was a nine-month old Emma Riedesel whose identity is not at all clear. As of the 1900 Census, Sophia reported having borne five children of whom none were still alive. What brought them to America at a relatively old age is a good question. While they had siblings in Kane County, they were not exactly wealthy.

I wish I knew more of their origins and offspring who died young.