Family History

Hailing from what is now north-west Germany, our family can trace our roots in the region back to the first half of the first millenium A.D.

Our direct lineage still lives on and works the land in Germany, and our American contingent settled in the greater Cincinnati area over 150 years ago.

 

David Wenstrup has translated and compiled a ten chapter overview of our history, which can be downloaded or read online here as .PDFs:

• Chapter 01
• Chapter 02
• Chapter 03
• Chapter 04
• Chapter 05
• Chapter 06
• Chapter 07
• Chapter 08
• Chapter 09
• Chapter 10

Some Individual Articles, Anecdotes, and Stories:

• A Description of our Family Crest
• The Wenstrup Haus in Nellinghog, c. 1656-1910
  (JPG photo of the Haus)
• The Wenstrup-Peerless Garage Company of 1915-1920
  (from Steve Wenstrup of Cincinnati)
• A letter from Jack Wenstrup to his brother Lee sent 12/28/1944
  Page 1 | Page 2
  A Photograph of Jack Wenstrup in Uniform

Other resources and reading:

• Cincinnati Germans in the Civil War, by Don Heinrich Tolzmann
  (Little Miami Books link, $)
• Cincinnati's Germans Before World War I, by Don Heinrich Tolzmann
  (Little Miami Books link, $)