Starting my Homepage I can state that, now 44 years old, my genealogical interest started at a young age. My basic research I did in my hometown Amsterdam, Holland when I was 18 to 20 years old into my, for the Dutch ear, both rather strange and funny sounding familyname Witschge (later it became a "common" name because my far cousins Robert and Richard played for major soccer teams in Holland and abroad) and my grandmother's equally strange and (for the Dutch ear) funny sounding Italian familyname "Margaroli". I wanted to find out for myself, beyond the family legends where these names came from and if possible what they ment. I found out that the first "Witschge" in Amsterdam and the Netherlands was my grandfather's great grandfather, Johann Georg Jacob Witschge, who was born in Ludwigsburg, Wurttemberg in Southern Germany in 1776 and married Sopia Louisa Kohler in Amsterdam, 1804. In 1986 I spent one week in Ludwigsburg to drink beer and dig up more family history in the Lutheran Church "Pfarramt", right on the old and beautiful market square as well as the municipal Archive and even the State Archive in Stuttgart. I copied a lot of stuff, which made it easier to work it all out much later on my computer.It turned out Ludwigsburg was only founded in the early 18th century, and my direct ancestor Melchior Witschge even was one of the first civilians who built himself a house there in 1712. In the Burial Books of 1730 I found that he was born in Kempten, Bayern,in 1672. When I was set to go there with my two elder brothers, later that year, I was struck by fever and my brothers went there a couple of days, returning with a lot of copies from the local "Pfarramt". It seemed in Kempten Melchior's name was Witsch or Witschin, and some of his relatives named themselves Witschi; "Witschge" was first used when Melchior had moved to Ludwigsburg. "Witschge" was the way the name was written since, also after emigration to Amsterdam and beyond, apart from a branch of Karel "Witsche" which died out when his two sons died without children.As for Margaroli I found out in the Amsterdam Archives that my grandmother's grandfather, Carlo Giovanni Antonio Margaroli was born 1831 in Northern Italy in a small village named Druogno-even in a smaller part of that, a hamlet lying a bit higher in the mountains named Sagrogno-which is located in the Vigezzo valley between Domodossola and Swiss Locarno. Like many boys of his region that time he traveled to Northern Europe to become a chimny sweeper. He came to Amsterdam in 1843, married my grandmother's grandmother in 1863 and founded a family and one of the Margaroli-branches in Holland. I did also research my mother's South Holland familynames "van Hoek" and on her mother's side "van der Moor" in the archives of Delft, Rotterdam and the national archive of The Hague. I did have some results, but only in the last few years, having started to put all my findings in writing in my PC and combining it whith other people's findings and official sources on the internet I was able to extend my family file to many more ancestors and relatives. Surely I also spent and will spend some time in Archives again and bought some helpfull CD's.My main interest to start publishing my findings on the internet is the idea to create a more complete familyhistory of the Witschge's in Holland and their offspring around the world-I know there's branches in Australia and for instance my great uncle Pieter Hermanus Witschge emigrated to Spokane, Washington in the USA in 1907-so every Witschge or relative is invited to contact me through email to help each other get a more complete picture of the family history. The same goes for Margaroli; The name is mainly based in Piemonte, Italy and neighbouring Switzerland, but there's USA, UK, Frech, Argentine and Dutch branches, so contact me if there's any connection. That goes for every name in this file!

• Frank Witschge family file (141 KB)
  This "Frank Witschge family file" was the first one I uploaded to the internet; It's a "shortlist" compared tot the file I have in Geneanet now and I probably won't update this one anymore.

• Pieter Hermanus Witschge (1886-1953) and family (23 KB)
  This is a picture of Pieter Hermanus Witschge (Amsterdam 1886-Spokane USA 1953), his wife Jannet (Holland ca 1886-??),and their daughters Nancy (Spokane 1909-Seattle 1984, married name Gollihur)and Nellie (Spokane 1911-Seattle 1976, married name Ingham). Pieter, my grandfather's only and elder brother left Amsterdam in 1907, when he was 21 years old and emigrated to America. In Amsterdam he was registered as a "bankwerker" (fitter or bench hand). In the 1930 Washington Census he was registered as a machinist for the "General Machinery co" and he owned a 3000 dollar house in Spokane. On the Ellis Island page he is wrongly registered as "Puter Witschgen" as a passenger of the ship "Cedric" from Liverpool to NY in 1907. He is registered a second time with his wife and children in 1921 when they returned home after a visit to Amsterdam, this time on the "Adriatic" from Southampton.They had no sons, so from our family there's no Witschge USA citizens anymore. There are quite a few Witschger's though, but that's an other tribe!
• Carlo Giovanni Antonio Margaroli's Mortuary Card (89 KB)
  1900 Mortuary Card (in Dutch "bidprentje", in Italian "Santino") at the death of my closest Italian ancestor in Amsterdam.
• Carlo Giovanni Antonio Margaroli 1831-1900 (66 KB)
  This picture I got from Gio(vanni) Margaroli, showing both his and my great-grandfather's father, Carlo Giovanni Antonio Margaroli, dressed in his professional outfit as a chimneysweeper. It was taken in Amsterdam at the neighbouring photographer's studio "Kuijer and son", Westermarkt 19; our ancestor lived at Westermarkt 5 at that time!
• 1730 Ludwigsburg Death Notice of Melchior Witschge (33 KB)
  From the printed Burial books of the Lutheran Church in Ludwigsburg, Wurttemberg, Germany I copied the 1730 Death Notice of Melchior Witschge from wich I concluded that he was born in Kempten and that, when he died, he was the oldest remaining of the first civilians to populate Ludwigsburg in the early 18th century.
• My grandfather Antoon Witschge (1898-1978) (47 KB)
  A picture of my grandfather Antoon (Antonius Bernardus) Witschge (1898-1978) at young age. In his last years he taught me the basics of pianoplaying, for which I am still grateful today.
• 1804 marriage Johann Jacob Witschge, Sophia Kohler (141 KB)
  This is a copy of the 1804 Amsterdam marriagedocument of my ancestors Johann (Georg) Jacob Witschge and Sophia Louisa Kohler in Amsterdam. In this act it is stated that mr. Witschge came from "Lodewichsburg" = Ludwigsburg. At his death it was only stated that he was born in Wurtenburg = Wurttemberg, which is a state. The fitting combination of the two made it possible to follow the track to Ludwigsburg, Wurttemberg.
• 1911 Photo of the other Witschge Branch (113 KB)
  All living "Amsterdam" Witschge's are descendants of my greatgrandfather Pieter Hermanus Witschge (1851-1928) or his elder brother Johan Jacob Witschge (1845-1927), both of them grandsons of Johann Georg Jacob Witschge and Sophia Louisa Kohler. This picture shows Johan Jacob Witschge, his wife, children, grandchildren and relatives, probably in 1911 at the 12,5 years wedding anniversary of their son Antoon Witschge (1875-1952)and his wife Henriette Sophia Gulien.
• Willem Steelink 1826-1913, collection CBG Den Haag (32 KB)
  Willem Steelink, born in Amsterdam in 1826 married my great grandfather's cousin Maria Lizette Schulmaijer, daughter of Johannes Schulmaijer and Barendina Witschge. He was an engraver and artistic painter, like their son Wilm Steelink (1856-1928). On the internet you can search for some of their work!
• Carl Fr. Witschge's ship to Philadelphia in 1816 (13 KB)
  On the HMS Amphitrite, Carl Friedrich Witschge from Ludwigsburg reached Philadelphia, USA on november 4th 1816. The ship had sailed from Amsterdam! This is the information I got from Family Tree Maker's CD#501 "Immigration Records:Immigrants to Pennsylvania, 1600s-1800s" which also confirms that he was from Ludwigsburg and states that he was a butcher. I don't have a clue what became of him! Who can tell me more?? I know he was the younger brother of my ancestor Johann Georg Jacob Witschge, who also emigrated form Ludwigsburg, but stayed in Amsterdam. In the Ludwigsburg "Familienbuch" there's a notice that both of them were abroad or "im Ausland"!
• Carl Friedrich Witschge Philadelphia 1816 (85 KB)
  This is a copy of the information on the arrival of "Carle Fr Witschge" in Philadelphia in 1816. In the years 1816 and 1817, known as the hungeryears or years without summer, Europe and indeed the whole world was struck by hunger caused by crop failure because of the ongoing rain, because of the dramatic influence on the weather of the Tambora volcano outburst in 1815 on the Indonesian island Sumbawa. Tens of thousands of hungry southern Germans flooded the ports of Western Europe to make a go for America; maybe Carl Friedrich Witschge was just one of them. It would have been difficult for him to make a living as a butcher in those days!
• Pieter Hermanus Witschge (1851-1928) (17 KB)
  This is one of the few photographs I have from my greatgrandfather Pieter Hermanus Witschge who was a warehouseman (pakhuisknecht/ magazijnbediende) in the Amsterdam harbour.(Amsterdam 1851-1928)

• Pedigree chart/Kwartierstaat FCM Witschge 10-2006 (1176 KB)
  Here's all my now known ancestry in Holland, Germany, Italy and Flanders in a Dutch textversion, made with free Dutch genealogysoftware named "Aldfaer", after building it up in a worddocument, in Familytreemaker and online in Geneanet. The information you'll find is still very similar to my geneanetlink. Both of them will have updates form time to time! This is an october 7th, 2006 update. Hier mijn bijgewerkte kwartierstaat in Aldfaer 3.4 versie 7-10-2006.

• My familyfile on Geneanet; many options and 20 languages!
• Margaroli, descendants in Amsterdam, Holland
• My link to Charlemagne(Dutch)-
• Nazaten Italiaanse schoorsteenvegers: fam.Ravelli
• Nazaten Italiaanse schoorsteenvegers Vit(t)ali
• Italian chimneysweepers from Druogno, immigrated to Holland

Frank Witschge
f.witschge@chello.nl

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