Did You Know
Did you know that there is a town in Germany by the name of Reher??
That there is also one by the name of Stoltenberg??
Do you know where our Reher and Stoltenberg ancestors came from in Germany??
Johann Reher came from the town of Bebensee.
His father Casper came from Dreggers which was 6 miles east of there. Bad Segeberg is also associated with the family. It is about 7 miles north and the closest large town.
Since the town of Reher is 40 miles west of Bebensee and Dreggers I'm not sure if there is any connection to our name and family. Forty miles in the mid 1800's was quite a distance to travel.
Claus Stoltenberg came from Brodersdorf which is 46 miles north of Bebensee and about 10 miles northeast of Kiel, a major city on the Baltic Sea. Brodersdorf is two to three miles south of the Baltic Sea. Other towns associated with the Stoltenberg side of the family are all located in close proximity. They are LaBoe, Stein, Fahren, Probsteierhagen and Wentdorf.
The town of Stoltenberg is only seven miles to the southeast of Brodersdorf.
The above map of northern Germany will show you where the towns Reher, Stoltenberg, Bebensee, Dreggers, and Brodersdorf are located. I've marked these towns with a dark asterisk * to make them easier to find.
Click on the map to make it bigger and easier to see the towns marked with an asterisk. After the larger map comes up, click on that again to zoom in.
It is about 60 miles from Kiel at the top of the map to Hamburg which is towards the bottom of this map. From Reher to Bebensee it is 40 miles, to Brodersdorf it is 46 miles which is also the distance from Bebensee to Brodersdorf and Stoltenberg... almost a perfect equilateral triangle. See the map below... Reher is in the bottom left corner or the triangle, Bebensee in the bottom right and Brodersdorf in the top.
Hamburg is the port that our Johann & Sophia Reher sailed out of with their two small children, Emma and Ernest when they came to America in 1872.
The map above shows a closer view of the area where Bebensee & Dreggers are located... where Johann Reher and his father were born.
Once again, click on the map to make it larger.
The map above shows a closer view of the area where the Stoltenberg side of the family came from. You'll see all of the towns: Brodersdorf, LaBoe, Stein, Fahren, Probsteierhagen and Wentdorf. I've added the Stoltenberg name myself as the town didn't show up on this map.
So Now You Know