from Ray Winkler

Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 00:19:24 EST

Hi Karen,
My name is Ray, I read your posting on the Winkler Forum today and read your email.
I would be interested in any information about the Winklers that you have.

Do you have any idea what town or village in Germany where your family may have come from? On most of the birth & marriage certificates my grand father said he came from Breslau. He told family members that he came from a village not far from Breslau called Falkenau and that it was not far from the Austrian border. I have found the village on an old map and it still exists today but under another Polish name with about 100 or so residents.

I have been contacted by a German with Winkler connections to that area. My grand mother used to write to a part of family in NY but I am not sure when but it would have been between the 1920s and 1960s. The family story goes that Josef brother went to the USA to and started a Piano making business, but I am not sure when or where. From what I have been able to find out the Trenton piano business or the people who started it were in the US a long time before my grand father was born so I am at a loss. I find it frustrating to be so far from it

Regards - Ray

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I was told from a young man at a piano dealership that this atlas of piano people (so to speak) tells of the Winkler Piano in NJ being started in the mid 1870's. Sure, it could have been started by ANOTHER family member who already came over the water, but since my family was in it so long, I can't help but think 'we' had something to do with it as well.

As I said, I have part of a work invoice from the San Francisco location. It was in one of my grandmother's cookbooks, I'm pretty sure with a recipe written on the back. As far as I can tell, it fizzeled out with my great grandfather in 1933 because he had developed arthritis and a bad back. He retired that year and died the following year.

Henry Edward is the one I think may be your grand uncle (?) On his death certificate it says he had lived in California for 50 years, putting him here in 1864. This is probably rounded off, because his son Phillip was born in New York in 1872. He lived specifically in San Francisco for 29 years, bumping it to 1875. He was in the Piano Manufacturing business, although HIS certificate doesn't say how long. Phillip also was in the business, and his certificate says he'd been at it 45 years. He started working in 1888 or so... He'd been here in Cali 55 years. it seems.
Here's more, though. At the cemetery where these individuals are buried, I found MORE Winklers. Under one headstone with only the surname engraved on it are 8 or 9 family members.

Grave 3 is Henry Edward, b 9-5-1843 in Germany, d 6-30-1914
Grave 4 is Caroline, his wife, b 12-02-1855 in NY, d 8-9-1918
Grave 5 is Phillip, their son, b 10-10-1872 in NY, d 11-7-1934
Grave 8 is Edward, d 7-10-1929
Grave 9 is William, b 6-19-1878 in NY, d 2-24-1908
Grave 10 is Fredrick, d 11-29-1907

There are 3 or 4 other individuals whose identities I'm trying to discover, as well as the relationships of these.
They all died in or around San Francisco, CA. We have stayed around these parts for about 5 generations now.
Want more? I can fill you in as per your request and as I get informed myself.
Thank you for the information you gave. I'm sure you're just scratching the surface as well. So where did the wind carry your family?

K