Remembering Our Ancestors: Antonie Lingemann

Today we remember our (great-) grandmother on my paternal side, Antonie Lingemann.

Antonie was born on 5 March 1882 in Haaren, North-Rhine Westphalia, the home-town of the Cappius-Clan back in the day.  Haaren is where the family farm was located, but in the late 1880s, farm and land had already been lost to a large extent and the family had moved to a different house in Haaren, where one of the Cappius-brothers ran a wheelwright shop.  Other Cappius brothers had left Haaren and settled in nearby Bochum for the obvious work opportunites.

Antonie was one of three daughters of Josef Lingemann, first teacher at the local school in Haaren, and his wife.  When she was grown, she married Josef Cappius Sr., probably around 1900.  Chances are good that Josef Sr. met Antonie while he was apprenticed at his uncle’s wheelwright shop.  The two had three children together, two daughters, Gertrud and Elizabeth, and a son, my father Jupp Kappius.  The spelling of the last name – Cappius or Kappius – seems to have changed back and forth during that time.

The young family lived together in Bochum, in the house of Josef’s parents Johannes and Gertrud (Haselhorst) Kappius, wher Antonie took care of the children while Josef’s salesman’s job took him far and wide, primarily into eastern Europe.

Antonie Lingemann (1882 – 1924).  Quite obviously, this photo is a cut-out from a larger picture, but we do not know who else was in the photo.

While my father was still a child, Antonie left the family and ended up moving to Schwanbeck near Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where she had another daughter named Hanni.  But unfortunately, Antonie died relatively young, on 8 December 1924, at the age of 42.  Her youngest daughter was raised by her sisters in a small community in the High Sauerland called Schmallenberg where the Lingemanns seem to have settled after leaving Haaren.  There are many Lingemann’s living in that town to this day.  Her three older children, my father included, grew up with their father and grandparents in Bochum.

My father kept the above photo of his mother in loving memory of her.

Rest in Peace, Antonie.

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