HERMANN AND PETRONELLA SCHOPEN

Hermann and Adam Schopen were the sons of Johann Mathias Schopen, who himself was the brother of the Capt J W T Schopen whose Will generated the "1858 St Croix Correspondence". (The Will also contains the only reference we have to two "cousins", Diederich and Martin Schopen).  Hermann married Petronella Melkers in 1747; they were our great-great-great-grandparents.

According to the manuscript family tree put together by Joseph Delbrouck (see below) they had two children:

  Leonhard (1749-1800), who married Agnes Tollhausen (1751-1840) in about 1770. (One of their children was another Petronella (1774-) who married Franz Delbrouck; one of the Delbrouck children was the Joseph Delbrouck referred to above, born in 1800); and

  Maria Barbara (1752-), who married Joseph Bergrath; they were our great-great-grandparents.

Petronella Melkers is described by Joseph Delbrouck in his manuscript family tree as being "aus Frelenberg" and "Wohnhaft auf dem Hause Ticheln", and in his letter to Ludwig Andreas of 23 April 1858 he refers to "Ticheln bei Geilenkirchen". According to an internet reference, Ticheln appears to be a village near Geilenkirchen, which itself is a town close to the Dutch border about 25 km N of Aachen; and in another reference Frelenberg is described as a "Gartenbauverein", i.e. a horticultural society, which "on Saturday 5th May [2001] will open its flower market at 8 a.m. in the Schützenstrasse, Übach-Palenberg" [itself a small town about 5 km S of Geilenkirchen]. Susanna Seifloh's letter of 13 April 1858 to her brother Ludwig Andreas (see the "1858   St Croix Correspondence") refers to the visit of a "Herr Schopen, Gutsbesitzer [landowner] aus Frelenberg", suggesting that it was then a large estate, and possibly originally the property of Petronella Melkers..