#172--#12--Louis Eitelbach

Louis Eitelbach

     The theme for this week is #12.  If you look at a family tree and start with you, the 12th person listed is your maternal great grandfather. Louis Eitelbach is my great grandfather on my mother's side.   So, he is the focus of this blog.  Louis was born in Hagen Hamm, Germany in July 1864, one of seven children of Nicholaus Augustus and Helena (Agatz) Eitelbach.  In 1885 he married Maria Berta Huelster.  While in Germany they had four children:  Walter, Louis, Maxmillian and William.

     On May 25, 1895 Louis arrived in New York with his wife and four children.  They sailed from Antwerp on the Red Line ship, Rhyland.  According to the ship manifest, their destination was Brooklyn, New York.  Louis age was listed as thirty and his occupation as a locksmith.  

Louis and his sons

The 1900 census indicates that they were living at 1287 Greene Street, Brooklyn and two additional boys, Harry and Frank, had been added to the family.   By 1910 the family had moved to 152 Napier Street, Queens, New York and in 1920 lived at 8766 109th Street, Richmond Hill, Queens, New York.  While it appears that the family had moved, actually Napier Street was renamed 109th Street.    In all three censuses his occupation is given as a machinist in a tool shop.   The 1920 census indicates that he had filed for naturalization.  I have not been able to find those records.  


Louis died on December 26, 1926.

Louis with my mother