Caroline Sophie Dorothee Leesch was the 8th of 9 children born to Johann Friedrich Heinrich Leesch and Ilsabe Louise Johanne Zarnkow. The Leesch family lived in the village of Pastin, near Sternberg, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Schwerin (now part of the province of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany). Caroline's father passed away in 1880, shortly after her 13th birthday.
In 1883, Caroline emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City on November 5th aboard the SS Fresia from Hamburg, Germany. She was just 16 years old at the time, and was traveling alone. She was also the only one of her siblings to come to the United States.
Caroline was going to join her aunt Caroline Leesch Harning and her Engel cousins - people whom she had never met, because they had traveled together to the US in 1854, before she was even born. Caroline's grandmother Sophia Friederica Johanna Schindler Leesch(b. 1790) was the older sister of Sophia Dorothea Carolina Schindler Engel (b. 1793) - the matriarch of the Engel family in the United States.
In 1897, when she was 29 years old, Caroline married her second cousin Herman Wilhelm Heinrich Louis Engel, and together they had 2 daughters - Isabella E. (Engel) Gillard & Margaret K. (Engel) Kuhn. Caroline died in 1951 at the age of 84.
Caroline Sophie Dorothee Leesch was the 8th of 9 children born to Johann Friedrich Heinrich Leesch and Ilsabe Louise Johanne Zarnkow. The Leesch family lived in the village of Pastin, near Sternberg, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Schwerin (now part of the province of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany). Caroline's father passed away in 1880, shortly after her 13th birthday.
In 1883, Caroline emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City on November 5th aboard the SS Fresia from Hamburg, Germany. She was just 16 years old at the time, and was traveling alone. She was also the only one of her siblings to come to the United States.
Caroline was going to join her aunt Caroline Leesch Harning and her Engel cousins - people whom she had never met, because they had traveled together to the US in 1854, before she was even born. Caroline's grandmother Sophia Friederica Johanna Schindler Leesch(b. 1790) was the older sister of Sophia Dorothea Carolina Schindler Engel (b. 1793) - the matriarch of the Engel family in the United States.
In 1897, when she was 29 years old, Caroline married her second cousin Herman Wilhelm Heinrich Louis Engel, and together they had 2 daughters - Isabella E. (Engel) Gillard & Margaret K. (Engel) Kuhn. Caroline died in 1951 at the age of 84.
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