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Old St. Mary's
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Bunkers Reunion 2000

BUNKERS   BUENKER   BUNKER   FAMILY   REUNION    2002:

Dear Cousins,
The 2002 Every-Other-Year Bunkers Reunion was held in Granville, Iowa, on Sunday, July 7, 2002. Photographs will be posted in August 2002.  To view photos taken at the Bunkers Family Reunion 2000, click on this URL:  http://krypton.mankato.msus.edu/~susanna/bunkersreunion2000.htm   Please forward this message and pass the word to other cousins. 
Best wishes,
Suzanne (Suzy) Bunkers                

Visit Tami Bunkers Dolan's Genealogy Pages:  http://www.bunkers-dolan.com/    Tami is adding information on many branches of the family and would be happy to hear from you.  You can e-mail her at this address: tami@bunkers-dolan.com   

See "Genealogy Puzzle of the Month" below:

 Are these ancestors part of your Bunker lineage?  Their name was spelled Buhnker on the manifest of the Ship New England when they came to the U.S. from Germany in December 1853.  Have a look below and at this URL:  http://istg.rootsweb.com/1800/newengland18531227.html   

* Passengers 12, 13, 61, 67, 68, 86, 92, 112, 113, 124-126, 165, 168, 177, 361 have umlauted "u".

Ship New England   From Bremerhaven to New Orleans, arriving 27 December 1853

Passenger #12    Heinrich Buhnker* 46 male farmer going from Hannover to Cincinnati
Passenger #13    Wessel Buhnker* 26 male farmer going from Hannover to Cincinnati

List of all Passengers taken on board the Ship New England whereof Isaac Orr is Master, at the Port of Bremenhaven and bound for New-Orleans, including letters from surviving 
passengers and an account of their mistreatment.

IF you're curious about the "Bon Coeur" (French and French Canadian) group, please contact: Lori Lehman at heritage@pcpros.net  

CHABRIER dit VERBONCOUER>>BUNKER. This line was found in Louiseville, Masinonge Quebec as well as in Wisconsin and Illinois. MIRABEN dit VERBONCOUER>>BUNKER. This line was found in La Baie-de-Febvre, Yamaska, Quebec as well as in Wisconsin and Michigan.

These pages tell the story of the Bunkers Family:

Herman Dietrich [Theodore] and Elizabeth Niegengert Heitmeyer Buenker and their four sons: Herman, Henry, Theodore, and Bernard Bunkers.  

 

Bunker Family Association e-mail listings are available at this URL:  http://www.bunkerfamilyassn.org/email.html  

 Scroll down to see selected  photographs from the summer 2001 visit made by the American Bunkers cousins to meet our German and Dutch cousins.

As the result of intensive research efforts by our cousin, Michael Buenker, whom we met during our June 2000 visit to Germany, we have been able to locate the ancestral home of our family at the Feldmann farm in Elbergen, Germany.  The Buenker (now Bunker or Bunkers) family had its origins hundreds of years ago in several small villages near Oldenburg, Germany.  My great-great-grandfather, Herman Dietrich [Theodore] Buenker, was born on January 15, 1815.  His family members were "Heuerleute" (hired hands) at the Feldmann farm near Elbergen, where life was hard because the hired hands were able to keep only a small portion of what they harvested off the land.  To see a photograph of a typical "Heuerleute" dwelling, click on http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~susanna/germanytrip.htm  and scroll down to the photograph of the peasant dwelling.

In July 2001, several of the American Bunkers cousins went to Germany to visit again with Michael Buenker, his wife Maria, and his parents and siblings.  Michael and Maria took us to Elbergen, Germany, where we met Leo Monnich, who has studied the history of the area. With Mr. Monnich as our guide, we visited the parish church and the old Feldmann farm, where our ancestors once lived.  Photographs of our visit are below.

You can visit Michael Buenker's architectural firm's home page if you click on this URL:  http://www.ideeartisten.de/   

 

 
The American Bunkers cousins meet the German Buenker cousins at the Theodor & Jeannette Buenker farm in Helschen, just a few kilometers from Emsburen. Here is a view of the front side of the Buenker family home in Helschen.  The old farmhouse/barn has been remodeled into a two-family home. The mutual ancestor of the German and American Buenker/Bunkers cousins was Wessel Dirting, born in Elbergen/Emsburen in the early 1600s.
Pictured above is the Catholic Church in Elbergen, where our ancestors worshipped.  Our immigrant ancestor, Herman Dietrich (known as Theodore) Bunkers, was baptized in this church in 1815. Pictured above are several of the American Bunkers cousins just after visiting the old Heuerleute (hired hands') house at the Feldmann Farm in Elbergen.  This house is where our Bunkers ancestors lived for several centuries before H. Theodore Bunkers left for the United States in the 1840s.  Our guide, Leo Monnich, researched and published the history of the village.
Above are several of the youngest generation of Buenker cousins, wearing hats sent by Dale and Mary Bunkers of Bunkers Feed and Supply in Granville, Iowa.  At right are Theodor Buenker and his sons The original farm of Herman Theodore Bunkers´ great-grandfather in located near the village of Helschen. This farm still exists and is the property of a distant cousin named Theo(dor) Buenker.  We visited these cousins in July 2001 and toured the area, learning more about ancestral villages, immigration patterns, and life today.  To learn more about the villages of Helschen and Elbergen, please click on the URLs below: http://www3.calle.com/info.cgi?kind=topo&zoom=&lat=52.4167&long=7.3500&name=Helschen&cty=Germany&alt=108 

http://www3.calle.com/info.cgi?lat=52.4500&long=7.3000&name=Elbergen&cty=Germany&alt=82
Pictured above are the Dutch and American Bunkers cousins when they met over dinner in Amsterdam.  Left to right:  Verna Bunkers, Hanneke Bunkers, Denny & Barb Bunkers, Marcel Bunkers, Annelies de Koning &Chantal Bunkers.   In front: Iris and Marc Bunkers.   Photograph: July 2001. Above: Maria, Norbert, Michael, and Luise Buenker

Below: Luise, Verna, and Norbert Bunker(s)
If you'd like to contact our Bunkers cousins in the Netherlands, whom we met during our visit to Amsterdam in July 2001, you can send an e-mail message to Marcel and Hanneke Bunkers at this address: marcel.bunkers@wolmail.nl    

If you'd like to contact Michael and Maria Buenker of Dinklage, you can send a message to them at this address: MuM.buenker@t-online.de 

To contact the American Bunkers cousins, use these e-mail addresses:     DBunk58@aol.com   (Dale)  DFBunkers@aol.com   (Denny & Barb Bunkers)  DKenn78659@aol.com  (Linda & Dan)  JBunkers@home.com  (Dan and Julie)  suzanne.bunkers@mnsu.edu    (Suzy)

  
Hallo Suzanne, Ich hoffe, Ihr seid alle wieder wohlbehalten in die Staaten zurückgekehrt und habt den Europatrip genossen! Die Begegnung mit so entfernten Verwandten war faszinierend! Ich denke seitdem oft über meine Vorfahren nach.  Meine Geschwister und ich überlegen übrigens ernsthaft, zum Bunkers Reunion im  nächsten Jahr zu reisen. Wenn möglich maile uns doch noch mehr Informationen zu Hotels, Anfahrt u.s.w.  Seit einigen Tagen sind meine Skulpturen im Internet zusehen. Du kannst dir unter www.sandstein-skulpturen.de  einige Arbeiten anschauen. Da meine Objekte und ich International noch relativ unbekannt sind, habe ich die Texte zur Zeit nur in deutsch verfasst (ha,ha). Ich hoffe die Homepage gefällt dir und den anderen Bunkers. Ist deine Tasche inzwischen bei dir eingetroffen? Hoffentlich hat sie den weiten Weg gut überstanden.  Grüßse aus Emsbüren und Helschen an dich, alle Verwandten und ihre Familien. Und viel Spass beim übersetzen!!     --Hermann Bünker One of our present-day cousins, Hermann Buenker of Helschen, is a sculptor, and his home page (with examples of his work) can be found at this URL:  www.sandstein-skulpturen.de   You can send him an e-mail message at this address:  Hermann.Buenker@t-online.de   At left is the message that Hermann e-mailed to me after our visit with him and his family at the Helschen farm in July 2001.  Hermann's brother, Markus Buenker, also wrote to me, and his e-mail is below:  

Dear Suzanne, 
Thanks for your letter to our family.  My name is Markus Buenker, the son of Theodor Buenker. Let me introduce myself:  name: Markus Buenker, age : 32 ( 23.08.1969 ).   We will be happy to welcome you and your family here in Emsbüren / Helschen. With this mail I send you our generation plan, but sorry not translate into  english.  Okay, please , let us here from you, when you will be staying in Germany, for welcome you. You can mail to this e-mail address.
Sincerely yours,  Markus Buenker   MBuenker@t-online.de 

 
In the 1840s, Hermann Dietrich [Theodore] Buenker immigrated to the United States, first settling in Cincinnati, where he married Elizabeth Niegengert Heitmeyer on 1 June 1845.   Elizabeth, born on March 15, 1815, was the widow of Carl Heitmeyer, whom she married in November 1843 and who died in June 1844.  Like Theodore, Elizabeth was a German emigree.  The first child of Elizabeth and Theodore Buenker, Hermann, was born in Cincinnati on June 7, 1846.   The family of Theodore and Elizabeth Bunkers soon went west to Guttenberg, Iowa, where their second son, Henry, was born in 1848. From Guttenberg, the Buenker family went west to the New Vienna/Luxemburg, Iowa, where their sons Theodore and Bernard (Barney) were born.   Eventually, Theodore and Elizabeth Bunkers and their sons, Herman and Henry, went to the northwest Iowa towns of Remsen and Granville.  Their sons, Theodore, Jr., and Bernard (Barney) went to Texas.  Their surname was anglicized to Bunker or Bunkers.
barbara.jpg (27399 bytes) Members of the Henry and Barbara (Simmerl) Bunkers Family of Granville, IA (circa 1910).  Henry and Barbara had 12 children. My grandfather, Frank Bunkers, is at the left in the back row.

Click on each photograph to see an enlarged version.  And check the URL below!
herman.jpg (24528 bytes) Would you like to view the very large relationship in the family?  Would you like to add information about your branch?  To view genealogical charts for many generations of the Theodore and Elizabeth Buenkers Family, go to this URL: http://www.bunkers-dolan.com/    This is the web site of the extensive Bunkers-Dolan Family Genealogical Homepage, created by Tami Bunkers Dolan. You can e-mail Tami at Tami@bunkers-dolan.com   

To the left: a portrait of the Herman and Christina (Koppert) Bunkers Family of Remsen, IA (circa 1910). Herman and Christina had 16 children, 14 of whom survived.
(Below)  Photographs of the Susanna (Simmerl) and Frank Youngblut Family of Gilbertville, IA.  Susanna was the mother of Barbara (Simmerl) Bunkers.   Barbara was the mother of twelve children, including Frank Bunkers.  My great-great- grandmother Susanna Simmerl Youngblut is pictured on the photograph at the bottom right of the collage.
youngbluks.jpg (33111 bytes) On the other side of my paternal ancestry,  Anna Linster's family came to the U.S. from Hondelange (Hondelingen), Belgium (formerly part of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) in the 1860s.  Matthias Welter's mother's family (the Grethens) came from Waldbredimus, Luxembourg.  The Welter family settled near Holy Cross, Wisconsin.  Matthias Welter and Anna Linster came west and married in 1880 in Alton, Iowa.  They moved to Grafton, ND, for a time.
welters.jpg (84292 bytes)  My grandmother, Roseline Lillian Welter, was born there on August 7, 1888. The family moved back to Granville, Iowa, where they ran the Welter Saloon and Pool Hall.  At left: Seated in this family portrait are Silverius (Sil) Welter, Matthias Welter, and Therese Welter (later O'Connor, then Lieb).   Standing are Anna (Linster) Welter, Mary (May) Welter (later Schwebach), and Roseline Lillian Welter (later Bunkers, then Thorman).
franksilliox.jpg (24744 bytes) Photographs of my paternal grandparents, Lillian (Welter) and Frank Bunkers of Granville, IA.  Lillian and Frank married in June 1908.  They were the parents of eight children (Larry, Dick, Ray, Vincent, Cletus, Bernice, Jerome, and Viola).   Frank Bunkers died on November 26, 1926; Lillian Bunkers died on August 4, 1968.   Their son, Jerome (Tony) Bunkers (November 16, 1921 - July 27, 1978), was the father of Suzanne Lillian Bunkers (born on April 20, 1950).
bunkersreunion.jpg (44277 bytes) It's Bunkers Reunion Time!   Here are 29 of the Bunkers cousins--all grandchildren and great- grandchildren of Lillian (Welter) and Frank Bunkers.  This photograph was taken at the Bunkers Every-Other-Year Reunion in Remsen, IA, on July 18, 1998.  The next bi-annual Bunkers Reunion was in Remsen, IA, on Sunday, July 2, 2000.  One feature: Suzanne, Dale, and Rachel Bunkers' report on their June 2000 trip to meet  Bunker (Buenker) cousins in Germany. To see reunion photos, go to this URL: http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~susanna/bunkersreunion2000.htm 
Helen, Clara, and Agnes--our "Texas Bunkers Cousins"--are descended from Elizabeth, the daughter of Theodore and Catherine Bunkers.  In 1996, Helen Abston "found" all of the Bunkers cousins "up North" in Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, and elsewhere.  You can contact Helen Abston at this address:  aorhabston@juno.com   Since then, we've been working to link the Theodore Bunkers line to those of his brothers, Herman and Henry Bunkers.  We are still searching for the descendants of the fourth brother, Bernard (Barney) Bunkers, who went to Texas with his brother Theodore in the 1880s.