Richard Robert Max Menzel is my wife’s grandfather.
The Menzel Family line is proving to be one of the most challenging family lines. Richard Irving Menzel (born 1922) is my wife, Lynn’s, father.
He was the first generation of his Menzel line to be born in America. His father, Richard Robert Max Menzel (born 1885), immigrated from Germany (a region now part of Poland) in 1907 and seems to have intentionally eschewed all contact with his family in Germany. I have been able to document the identity of his parents, Kurt Gustav Julius Menzel and Christiane Marie Karoline Peters. And I have identified possible grandparents, though I am still uncertain about how reliable those names are. Part of the challenge is my lack of familiarity with the German language, along with my lack of knowledge and experience with doing research in German records. Part of the challenge, however, is that Richard Robert Max intentionally cut himself off from his German family. He did not speak of them to his children or grandchildren. He did not share information about them. It even seems as if he may have intentionally misled them about some of his German roots because the information given to his children about his German home and birth does not match the information he provided to the U.S. government on his immigration and naturalization records (the latter having been proved to be accurate).
He arrived in America in 1907. Family lore reports that he basically “jumped ship” to remain in America, and that appears to be supported by available documentation. He settled in New Haven, Connecticut, and took up residence in a boarding house operated by Hedwig (“Hattie”) Eggert Behn. One of Hattie’s children was Lillian. Lillian and Richard Robert Max were married in 1918. They had two children, Mildred and Richard, my wife’s father.
Related surnames:
Eichinger
Eggert