I’ve been looking for information on my 2nd great-grandfather Diebold Sohnlen (d. 1870). What I hope to find, as a goal, is the actual commune, or village, in France from which he and his family called home.
I have a naturalization certificate for a “Theobald Schmidlin” dated Nov 1, 1853. Although it says “New York, State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1929 for Theobald Schmidlin”, the text refers to Hamilton County Ohio, which is where Cincinnati is located. Ancestry has it marked as “Hamilton, New York” although it the doc clearly says Hamilton County, Ohio!
Anyway, 1853 is about the time my ancestor Diebold Soehnlen came to Ohio, based on his death note. And there is no record of any Theobald Schmidlin in Ohio at that time.
He settled in Dayton, and probably would have had to pass through Cincinnati on his way from New Orleans.
At the bottom of the doc, it says “signed Theobald Schmidlin” but it’s in the same hand as the rest of the document. Could be somebody signed for him and mis-read his written name. I see that a lot. The entire document may be a (flawed) copy from the get-go.
It says he departed from “Havre” Nov 1, 1853, arriving at New Orleans on Dec 29, 1853 and he was aged about 22 years at the time, making his birth year around 1833, which matches some of our estimates.
So I want to look at list of passengers on ships that went from Le Havre, France to New Orleans on 1853. First, I want to find a Schmidlin so I can eliminate that possibility.
Here are the ships arriving at New Orleans in 1853. Keep in mind, a journey from New Orleans to Ohio would take some time, so the exact dates may not line up.
The Sunlin story 