My Trails into the Past

Four children born to Christoph Siewert and Anna Marianna Ewald immigrated to the United States in early 1850s and settled in Joliet, Will County, Illinois. They were born in Schneidemühl in Prüssia before heading to the U.S. My ancestor, Vincent, left Hamburg aboard the Johanna Elise on 15 May 1852. [1] He, his wife, and a young son, arrived in New York on 23 June 1852. [2] Two years later on 22 May 1854, his sister, Eva, and her husband Christoph Wienke, and their three children, arrived in New York on the bark Alida from Hamburg. [3] Another brother, Johan Sievert, his wife and two children, and a sister, Henrietta, her husband, Joseph Freitag, and their daughter, were also on the ship. Further down on the passenger list page was Wilhelmine Radenz, the sister of Vincent’s wife, Susanna. [4] By 1860, all four families, as well as Wilhelmine Raduntz Hartung, were living in Joliet. What I want to know: what are their origins? A distant cousin hired someone to do research in the...