"Thank you"

My heartfelt thanks go to my 5th cousin, Alfhard Kowallek (deceased), for sending the wonderful portraits of our ancestors, Carl and Caroline Steffens. They are my great great great great grandparents - their daughter having married William Pickering.

According to Alfhard, Emilie Steffens was an accomplished artist and is very likely the artist who painted the portraits of her parents.

I would also like to thank my 6th cousin, Andreas Shultz for his work on the Steffens family tree. He has provided us with details of the family line and how the Steffens and Pickering families are related. Please visit his website by CLICKING HERE.


Letter from Steffens cousin?

From: Michael Steffens
by accident I found your Pickering/Steffens website. With great interest I learn that your chronology of this family stopped at the end of the 18th century. You mentioned the "Steffens-House" in Danzig. My father and my grandpa, Walter Steffens sen., his first son Walter Steffens jun. and my father Karl-Heinz Steffens, were residents of Danzig until the end of second world war. They escaped to West Germany. There are any further connections of the Pickering/Steffens family perhaps leading to my grandpa Walter Steffens? My father told me, that the Steffens family were in former times succesful merchants.


"Lange Market"

Lang Market
The Steffens lived in a very famous house in Danzig (which is now Gdansk in Poland) is referred to as the "Steffens-House".

Ninety percent of Danzig was destroyed in 1945 during WWII but the house's front side with it's golden plated decorations survived and the building was restored. The house is now called the "Golden House" and one of the handfull mayor sights to be seen in Gdansk near the "Lange Market".

CLICK HERE for more information and photos

Translated from: Encyklopedia Gdanska
CARL GOTTLIEB STEFFENS (15 November 1749 Prabuty - 8 November 1825 Gdańsk), a merchant. Bookbinder's son Jacob (9 VIII 1715 Prabuty - 9 X 1797 Gd). Initially, a partner in the firm of Johann Wilhelm Uphagen q, et seq. owner of the wholesale trade in cereals [grains] Carl Steffens und Söhne. In 1808, the ship had mor. grain of capacity. 180 lasts (about 400 tons). Since 1792 the owner of the house at Langer Markt 41 (Long Market) - Golden House, where he was for 150 years the family business currency. During the great fire destroyed Granaries q 5 of its granaries. He was the owner of the village Przywidz (Mariensee) and the surrounding estates. Survived by sons Carl Gustav Wilhelm (1790-1861), Ferdinand Eduard Ludwig and Friedrich Adolph Eugen (1798-1832).

pedigree  The Steffens / Pickering connection from Prussia. Follow our family tree here.
Lang Market The remarkable existence of these portraits of my Steffens ancestors brings to life my 5th Great Grandparents!.
Lang Market Read more about the famous home the Steffens lived in Danzig Prussia. It remains today has an historic site.
Peter Pickering William and Peter Pickering married two Steffens sisters with the blessings of both sets of wealthy merchant families!
Peter Pickering Our German cousins offer a wealth of family photos and valuable information about our ancestors and the descendants of Peter Pickering
Peters Journal Read this incredible journal written by Peter Pickering telling, in part, of his connection to the Steffens family ca. 1810!
wedding sash Read a wedding poem written as a wedding gift by William Pickering to his bride Frederica Steffens
poembook This book contains a little poem written by Paul Heinrich Weichbrodt for his sister Caroline on her wedding day. (pdf)