Lilienthal Surname

Our earliest known Lilienthal family members came from what is now Germany, but some researchers believe that the family is actually Swedish. According to one family history, in about 1650 three Lilienthal brothers (Liljendahl in Swedish) left Sweden and settled in three different parts of Germany. They are supposed to be the ancestors of all the German Lilienthals. (Unless the supposed date was much earlier than 1650, this theory is probably incorrect).

Hans Henning Lilienthal was born in Germany circa 1730s or 1740s. He died before 1792 in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Hans is the earliest known member of the family. Hans was a gardener. He died prior to 1792, probably in the village of Darry, Schleswig-Holstein.

They had at least one child:

1	Carl Detlev Lilienthal

Carl Detlev Lilienthal was baptized on October 7, 1762 at Hohenfelde, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany ¹. He died on July 1, 1833 in Darry, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany ¹.

Father: Hans Henning Lilienthal
Mother: Lucia Dormann

Carl was baptized on October 7, 1762, and his Godparents were Count von Hessenstein, Hans Schoening and Hedewig Benedicta Hamanns. In his youth he moved to the village of Darry, where he and Engel Margarethe Kahl had an illegitimate son in 1790. They were married in 1792. Carl was a farmer in Darry where he spent the rest of his life. He was buried on July 4, 1833.

Engel was the daughter of Hans Kahl and Catharina Dose. She was buried on December 30, 1826.

They had the following children:

1	Hans Detlef Lilienthal
2	Friedrich Wilhelm Lilienthal was born circa 1795 in Darry, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany 3. He died after 1833. Friedrich was never married (at least not in 1833).

Hans Detlef Lilienthal was born on September 4, 1790 in Darry, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein ¹. He died on December 28, 1835 in Darry, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany ¹.

Father: Carl Detlev Lilienthal
Mother: Engel Margaretha Kahl

Hans was an illegitimate child of Carl Lilienthal and Engel Kahl and was baptized on September 7, 1790 ¹. His parents were married two years after he was born. Hans was raised in the village of Darry, where his father worked as a laborer. It would have been in this context that Hans did not develop any specific trade and also worked his adult life as a laborer. Hans died of unknown causes in 1835, at the age of 45. He was buried on January 2, 1836 ¹. Hans' widow later remarried.

They had the following children:

1	Detlev Friedrich Lilienthal was born circa 1823 in Darry, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany 4. He died after 1874. In 1845, Detlev was still living in Darry where he was working as a servant and living in his employers' household. This is the last known reference to him; but he was apparently still alive when his mother died in 1874. In 1855, in the household of his mother and stepfather are Maria Elisabeth Lilienthal, aged 30 (married, but husband not present), and her son Heinrich Friedrich Lilienthal, aged 2. These people were either the wife and child of Detlev, or his brother Carl.
2	Carl Friedrich Lilienthal was born circa 1826 in Darry, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany 4. He died after 1874. Carl was living with his mother and stepfather in 1845 in Darry, but afterwards disappeared from any known records. He was apparently still alive when his mother died in 1874.
3	Catharina Margaretha Elisabeth Lilienthal was born on October 10, 1828 in Darry, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany 4. She died on June 2, 1914 in Brunde, Rise, Åbenrå, Denmark. She married Carl Friedrich Lilienthal on March 16, 1851 in Lütjenburg, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. He was born on October 30, 1823 Darry, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and died on December 14, 1899 Brunde, Rise, Åbenrå, Denmark. They had at least the following children: "William" Friedrich Wilhelm Lilienthal (1851-1933) md. Voldborg Hansen Jepsen "Frederick" Fritz Ferdinand Wilhelm Lilienthal (1854-1927) md. Elizabeth Celestine Purcell Christian Heinrich Lilienthal (1856-1925) md. Hansine Vonsel Henriette Elise Lilienthal (1858-1888) md. Hans C. Olsen Heinrich Carl Lilienthal (1860-1942) Elise Sophie Lilienthal (1863-aft. 1900) md. Hans Frederik Henriksen infant male Lilienthal (1865-1865) Hans Nissen Lilienthal (1866-1922) md. 1st Anne Marie Iwers md. 2nd Juliane Jakobine Mortensen Carl Christian Lilienthal (1869-1896) Carolina Anna Bertha Lilienthal (1871-1962) md. Mogens C. Jensen Ferdinand Johannes Lilienthal (1875-1922) md. Christine Sidsel Jensen Catharina went by her middle name Margaretha. She married to a man named Carl Friedrich Lilienthal, who happened to have the same name as her brother and who must have been a distant cousin. After their marriage in 1851, they lived briefly in Darry, Germany. They moved to Rise, Denmark sometime between 1851 and 1854, apparently with Catharina's younger sister Christina. Between 1874 and 1902, eight of their children moved to America (most to California). Each child made the trip by themselves, at different times (Frederick in 1874, Christian and Henriette in 1878, William in 1880, Heinrich in 1882, Carl and Carolina in 1888 and Ferdinand in 1902). Only son Hans and daughter Elise remained behind in Europe.
4	Christina Margaretha Dorothea Lilienthal

4th Generation: "Dora" Christina Margaretha Dorothea Lilienthal was born on February 24, 1834 in Darry, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany 1,6. She died on July 4, 1921 in Brainerd, Crow Wing Co., Minnesota 6,7. She is buried in the Decoria Cemetery, Decoria Twp., Blue Earth Co., Minnesota. Father: Hans Detlev Lilienthal Mother: Friederika Elisabeth Sophia Möller She was baptized on March 16, 1834 and her godparents were: Catharina Margaretha Dittmann, Christina Dorothea Dohrmann, and Jochen Albrecht Dohrmann 1. Although her first name was Christina, she usually went by her middle name Dorothea during her youth. Apparently her pet name while living in Europe was "Doris". Her father died when she was a toddler and she was raised in the village of Darry with her mother, stepfather and siblings. In 1855 (when she was 21), she was not enumerated with her family in Darry in the census of that year as she had apparently moved elsewhere. She had probably gone north to the parish of Ries (now Rise, Denmark), where her sister Catharina had moved sometime before 1854. There, she lived in the village of Brunde. In 1856, she was a godmother (along with her future husband Christian Kling) to the baptism of her nephew Christian Lilienthal. On May 13, 1859 she married Christian Kling, who also lived in Brunde. Christian was a farmer and a carpenter and the couple continued to live in Ries/Rise and had seven children there, including two that died in infancy. They moved relatively frequently and between 1859 and 1870 they lived in the villages of Brunde, Rise, Mjols and Rise-Hjarup. Eventually, Christina and her family decided to move to America. It appears that the reason for their departure was because Christian wanted to escape conscription in to the Prussian Army (which had recently conquered that part of Denmark). On December 30, 1870, Christina’s husband registered to immigrate to America. He fled to Danish territory and likely went to America by himself sometime in 1871. In 1872, Christina and her five children left their home in Denmark and traveled to Liverpool, England where they boarded the ship "City of New York" and arrived in New York City on October 12, 1872. The family reunited in New York and then went out west and settled at Webster City, Iowa. In Iowa, Christina had two more children. They did not remain in Iowa long and in about 1878, they moved to Blue Earth County, Minnesota, where her husband was naturalized in October 1879. Besides her seven surviving children, Dora also raised Fred Kling, the illegitimate son of her daughter Mary Kling. The first several years in America would have been difficult for Christina and her family. It must have been hard for them to learn the English language and adapt to American lifestyles. They eventually conformed to standards and went by more English sounding versions of their names. Christina always used the name “Dora” (an English diminutive of her preferred middle name, Dorothea). In about 1889, they moved to a farm in Decoria Township, just south of Mankato, in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. It was there that her husband Christian died in 1894 at the age of 60. Afterwards, Dora lived with her son Hans and his family, also in Decoria Township. Then in 1900, Dora moved with her daughter Elizabeth Kling Alexander moved to Brainerd, Crow Wing County, Minnesota. Dora resided in Brainerd, Minnesota for the duration of her life, where they family lived at 1311 (later 1307) Rosewood Street. Dora died in Brainerd, Minnesota, on July 4, 1921 at the age of 87. Her body was sent back to Mankato, Minnesota and she was buried beside her husband in the Decoria Cemetery, Decoria, Minnesota.

For further information on their children, see his page.