The Moehnke Family Moves to the New World

By Mildred Wallace and Mariam Bluhm Martensen 

Gottfried and Anna Dorothea (Malnososki or Mollofskie) Moehnke came to the Sullivan area of Grey County, Ontario, Canada, with their family to find a better life in April 1858. Family records list several towns where they lived in Freidrichstein, Prussia, now in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (Province), Poland. They are all within a short distance of each other and east of Hamburg. They sailed from Hamburg and the passenger record includes the following people: Gottfried age 46, Dorothea, wife, age 45, Carl (Charles) age 17, Michael age 14, Justine age 12, Gottfried age 9, Christine age 7, Frederich age 5, Florentine age 2, and Christian 4 months. The place of origin is Friedrichstein, Prussia and his occupation is Landmann (probably farmer).1 The baptismal record of Justine, created at her baptism on June 3, 1872 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church by Pastor Zu Brank, while they were living in Sullivan, also confirms this information.2