Their American records, Helena Angela’s Herzlake family, and the separately qualified immigration and naturalization candidates.
The Holy Trinity marriage register in St. Louis records Bernhard Heinrich Bange and Helena Angela Bruggen marrying on March 1, 1859. A civil return records the same couple and wedding date and was filed and recorded on April 28, 1859. The parish register names Joseph Bange and Maria Catharina Bruggen as witnesses without stating their relationships. Neither marriage record names the spouses’ parents or a German home town. The civil return and church entry record the same ceremony and should not automatically be counted as independent testimony.
Helena Angela’s Brüggen family
The maternal Brüggen branch reaches back to Herzlake parish and Groß Dohren in present-day Lower Saxony. Gerhard Wilhelm Brüggen and Euphemie Adelheid Feld married at Herzlake on April 24, 1833. The 1837 baptism records their daughter Helena Angela, born February 10 and baptized February 12, with her parents’ residence written as Gr. Dohren. Together with the later family and American records, these entries strongly support identifying her with Helena Angela Bruggen, Henry Bange’s wife. This family link is cumulative.
Parish records and source notes
The 1833 Herzlake marriage register, St. Nikolaus D2_202, manuscript page 14, annual entry 9, abbreviates the groom’s names as Gerd./Gerhard Wilh.; related baptisms support Gerhard Wilhelm. The bride’s name is best read Euphemie Adelheid Feld, with Euphemia a possible final-vowel reading. The marriage took place in Herzlake parish; Groß Dohren is the separately reported residence.
The 1837 baptism register, D1_102_2, handwritten page 98, entry 15, names Helena Angela’s father as Gerhard Wilhelm Brüggen. Her mother’s entry has an unclear leading word followed by Adelheid Feld. Gr. Dohren appears in the parental-residence column, rather than a separately labeled birthplace column. A parish certified extract issued November 13, 1977 explicitly gives Groß Dohren as Helena Angela’s birthplace. That later extract and its family-held copies are distinct from the contemporary register; handwritten immigration, marriage and descent annotations are outside the certification.
These records concern the maternal Brüggen line within the Bange family. They do not establish the Bange surname at Herzlake or Groß Dohren in 1833, and they do not resolve the separate Helte/Bokeloh Bange identification discussed below.
Henry Bange’s original Illinois death certificate records his death in Edwardsville on April 4, 1919, and reports his father as Henry Bange and his mother’s maiden name as Mary Brun[c/e], with the final letter uncertain. Both parents were reported born in Germany. The certificate gives September 8 as his birthday, leaves the birth year blank, and records his age as 91. The family record instead gives September 8, 1828 and an April 3 death. These differences remain unresolved. The certificate’s parentage information was reported retrospectively. The family record’s fields for Henry’s and his wife’s parents are blank; its note identifies Bernard as Henry’s brother.
People, places, and stories
A later transcription of Henry Bange’s 1919 obituary reports an 1850 arrival with his brother Bernard and a visit to Germany in 1856. A separate 1857 D. H. Watjen passenger-list transcription lists Hein Bange, age 30, a Hanoverian farmer bound for Illinois. This passenger is a candidate for Henry’s reported return journey; the identity and voyage connection remain unproved. No ship has been established for the family’s reported first arrival.
Madison County originals record a Henry Bange declaring his intention to become a citizen on June 4, 1855 and being admitted on October 20, 1863. The declaration reports arrival at New Orleans about December 1850. His age, Hanover origin and Madison County residence make him a strong comparison candidate for the family’s Henry, but the papers name no wife, children, parents or German town. His identity with the family remains to be established.
The family named in Henry’s estate
When Henry died in April 1919, his wife Angela had already died. He had left his estate to her, so the court found that his will could no longer take effect and handled the estate as one without an effective will. His sons Joseph and Frank J. asked that their sister Elizabeth McCormick administer it.
The court’s record brings the wider family together on one page. Alongside the two sons, it names daughters Katherine Sido, Helena Epping and Elizabeth McCormick, followed by seven grandchildren. It is a firm record of the relationships reported to the court. It does not tell us which deceased child was the parent of the grandchildren, or settle Henry’s German birthplace and parents.
Read the estate record and family names
Madison County probate register, volume 9, page 363, April 9, 1919, FamilySearch image 221. The order describes Henry’s death at Edwardsville on or about April 4. It names Angela as his sole legatee, devisee and executrix and says she predeceased him. The filed testament itself has not yet been located.
Heirs named: sons Joseph Bange and Frank J. Bange; daughters Katherine Sido, Helena Epping and Elizabeth McCormick; grandsons Henry, August, Leo J. and Edward Schmidt; granddaughters Helena Langwisch, Eleanoro Kriger and Rosa Schmidt. The spellings follow the register. It supplies no parent-child link between the grandchildren and a particular deceased child. Bond surety Joseph Schmidt is not assigned a relationship.
The petition estimated real estate at $1,500 and personal property at $5,500; the bond was $11,000. These are different figures for different purposes, not three competing estate valuations. FamilySearch access may require sign-in or an authorized location. The original court register is more specific about the family than the April 29 newspaper summary.