The full illustrated story, with maps, photographs, his obituaries and all the records, is on its own page: Joseph Sharmer I: From Elmshorn to Sidney.
The man Sidney, Nebraska knew as Joseph “Uncle Joe” Sharmer (1829–1898), Joe’s father and the first of the four Josephs, was born in the Duchy of Holstein. Until now the family did not know where, or under what name. The answer turned up in two records that fit together exactly: his own marriage record from Sidney, and a baptism in the Lutheran church at Elmshorn, Holstein.
The two records
Sidney, Nebraska, 10 November 1884. The county marriage record gives the groom as “Joseph Sharmer,” aged 52, born in Holstein, Germany, son of John Sharmer and Annie Pearson. His bride was “Kate Conner,” 19, born in Quincy, Massachusetts, daughter of Peter Conner and Kate Caldwell (record).
Elmshorn, Holstein, 1829. The baptism register of the Hauptpastorat (the main Lutheran parish) of Elmshorn, entry no. 63 for 1829, reads:
Scharmer, Jochim. Born 25.5.1829, baptized 31.5.1829. Father: Johann Scharmer, am Bauerwege. Mother: Anna, geb. Peters. Godparents: Johann Grewe, bei der Kirche; Timm Boldt, auf Spitzerdorf; Margaretha Lau, in Langeloh.
From the typed copy of the Elmshorn church book (Kirchenbuchabschrift), via FamilySearch (index). In English: born 25 May 1829, baptized 31 May 1829; his father Johann Scharmer lived on the Bauerweg; his mother was Anna, née Peters; the godparents came from the church quarter of Elmshorn and from the nearby hamlets of Spitzerdorf and Langelohe.
The two records agree on everything that can be checked. The birth date, 25 May 1829, is the one carved on his headstone in Sidney and printed in his obituary. The place is Holstein. His father was Johann (John). And “Annie Pearson” is how a Nebraska clerk would hear and write Anna Peters.
Jochim becomes Joseph
Jochim is the North German form of Joachim, a common name in Holstein; in everyday speech it was “Jochen.” In America he became Joseph, and in Sidney “Uncle Joe.” He was named, in the Holstein way, after both his grandfathers, who were each called Jochim. Every Joseph Sharmer since, down to Joseph IV, carries his name.
Elmshorn
Elmshorn lies on the little river Krückau, a few miles above where it meets the Elbe and about twenty miles northwest of Hamburg. In 1829 Holstein was a German duchy ruled by the King of Denmark; it became part of Prussia, and so of Germany, only in 1867. Elmshorn was a town of shipyards, river barges and seafaring families, and the Scharmers had been there a long time: the Elmshorn church books record Scharmers from the 1600s onward.
His family
Jochim’s father, Johann Scharmer, had been married before. His first wife, Magdalena Peters, married him in 1823 and died in November 1825; of their two children, Catharina died as a baby in 1824 and Hinrich died in 1840 at fifteen. Johann married Anna Peters, daughter of Jochim Peters and Catharina Margaretha Kock, in Elmshorn on 8 February 1829. Johann’s own parents were Jochim Scharmer and Elsabe Timmermann.
Jochim was the first child of the second marriage. His brother and sisters were:
- Anna Magdalena, born 18 November 1831. She married Johann Thede in Elmshorn in 1859, and later Georg Heinrich Hoffmann, in 1871.
- Anna, born 9 November 1834. She died in Elmshorn on 17 December 1874.
- Johann, born 29 July 1837.
1847: the year he left
Joseph’s obituary says he came to America in 1847 and “followed the sea for several years” as a ship’s carpenter. In that same year the Elmshorn burial register records a terrible loss. The ship of the Elmshorn skipper Hans Hinrich Münster went down in a storm on the Watt, the tidal flats at the mouth of the Elbe, with everyone aboard. Among the drowned was the ship’s hand Johann Scharmer, am Sandberge, “who leaves a widow and several children.”
That Johann Scharmer was very likely Jochim’s father. Jochim, the eldest, was eighteen, with a mother and three younger brothers and sisters at home. Whether his father’s death sent him to sea, or he was already at sea when it happened, he left Holstein that year and never went back.
What we still don’t know
- When and where Jochim first landed in America, and when he became a citizen. His naturalization papers may survive in California or Nebraska.
- Whether he ever saw his mother and sisters again, and what became of his brother Johann.
- The exact date of the 1847 shipwreck, which is on the first of the three burial cards (Münster’s).
Sources: Nebraska, Marriages, 1855–1995 (Cheyenne County, 1884); Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages and Burials (Elmshorn, Hauptpastorat), via FamilySearch; the Sidney Telegraph obituaries of June 1898 (Uncle Joe and Katie). The link between Jochim Scharmer of Elmshorn and Joseph Sharmer of Sidney rests on the matching birth date, birthplace and parents’ names; it is as strong as a match gets without a single document that names both.
