My great-grandfather, Christian Friedrich Rohlfing, was born in Espelkamp, Germany, about 4:00pm on December 6, 1867, the illegitimate son of 29-year-old Marie Louise Schwettmann named Rohlfing, who was a tenant at Espelkamp Nr. 298 (her oldest brother’s house). His father is unknown.  His christening was witnessed by his uncles, Heinrich Rohlfing and Christian Loehr.

Like most children his age at that time, Christian Friedrich attended school through the 8th grade.  Then at age 13, he worked as a clerk in Brockschmidt's dry goods store in Oppenwehe. According to his grandson, Heinz Rackien, CF got that job through family connections (his grandfather's family, the Schwettmann's, were shopkeepers in Rahden).  He lived with and worked for the Brockschmidts for eleven years, including the three years that he served as an infantryman in the German army from the age of 18 through 20.

On September 24, 1897, at age 29, Christian Friedrich married 21-year-old Sophie Marie Rosenbohm, born June 17, 1876, the daughter of Franz Heinrich Wilhelm and Dorothee Louise (Sander) Rosenbohm. The newlyweds subsequently lived in Rahden in Marie's parents' house on Stellerloh. Oddly enough, this was now Christian Friedrich's mother's house as well. Marie's mother died in 1892, and her widowed father remarried in 1894 to Christian Friedrich's mother. So technically, Christian Friedrich and Marie were step-brother and step-sister at the time of their marriage.

From age 24 to 29, it isn’t currently clear where CF lived and worked.  But in 1898 at age 30, he began working for the local railroad.  He helped build the first tracks from Lübbecke to (Bausum?), which is a section of the Bremen line.  Later he became a brakeman based out of Rahden.  He would ride the trains between Rahden and Gütersloh.

Christian Friedrich and Marie had six children: Wilhelm, Minna, Fritz, Heinrich (Henry), Hermann, and August. The social convention of referring to people by their property still existed in that part of Germany, so his children, though legally Rohlfing, were typically referred to as Rosenbohm, especially in school.

Christian Friedrich continued to work for the railroad and on his father-in-law's farm. He worked long hours, six days a week, so his youngest children typically only saw their father on Sundays.

On November 6, 1907, while coupling and uncoupling rail cars in a fog at Guetersloh, a moving train struck the standing rail cars and Christian Friedrich got caught between two of the rail cars and was crushed between the couplings. He was quickly brought home where he died of internal injuries, one-month short of his fortieth birthday. His mother, Marie Louise, had died six years earlier, in 1901.

Christian Friedrich had worked for the railroad for nine years — one year short of what he needed to receive a full pension.  His wife, Marie, did receive a small pension from the railroad as a death benefit (3 marks per month per child), but it was not enough for her, her six children, and her twice-widowed father to live on. Her father received some pension as well from his fifty years as a cigar roller. So the family struggled financially through the years that followed.  

Marie would write to the railroad office each year asking for a donation and would receive 50 marks for the family at Christmas.  Prior to her marriage, Marie had worked for a time in Minden as a nanny for a Colonel’s family at Nr. 44 Stiftstrasse.  After CF’s death, that family would ask Marie what her family would like for Christmas.  They then sent a package for the orphaned Rohlfing children that arrived before each Christmas.

My grandfather was only three years old when his father, Christian Friedrich died. He only had four recollections of his father: 1) watching his father shave one Sunday morning; 2) watching his father digging in a ditch behind their house; 3) watching his father climbing up into a tree and dropping pears for the ladies to catch in their aprons; and 4) the night his father died. My grandfather only spoke once about that night, and he merely said, "And, I remember the night they brought him home . . . . . . . . yeah, . . . I'll never forget that." 

DNA evidence of CF’s descendants includes matches whose ancestors are from Oppenwehe, but not Rahden or its surrounding villages.  This suggests an Oppenwehe connection for CF’s unknown father, since CF’s mother has 100% Rahden Parish ancestry (as does CF’s wife, Marie).  This is consistent with the theory that CF’s father may have been a Brockschmidt (or closely related to them).  Further DNA testing of descendants from both families is needed to help confirm or refute that theory.