The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 242

Hook Reiews
RUDOLPH L. BIESELE, Editor
The Von Rosenberg Family of Texas. By Alma von Rosenberg-
Tomlinson (comp.). Boerne, Texas (The Toepperwein Pub-
lishing Company), 1949. Pp. vii+ 165. Illustrations.
Most people are interested in their family origins, but few
take pains to trace the genealogical history of their forebears
and carry the story up to the immediate present. To Mrs. Alma
von Rosenberg-Tomlinson, the compiler of this book, who served
as general chairman, to the seven branch chairmen, and to the
others who assisted in compiling the book must go the thanks
and gratitude not only of the living descendants of Peter Carl
Johann von Rosenberg and his first and second wives but also of
the many people who in some way or other have known or have
been interested in the von Rosenberg family.
This genealogical history traces the von Rosenberg family back
to the Ur Adel by one of the five legends listed in the book to
the tenth century when, with other Italian adventurers, Ursini
Rosa landed on the coast of the East (Baltic) Sea. Ursini, indeed,
to this day appears in the given names of the von Rosenbergs.
Two coats of arms are shown and explained, the one used by the
family in Kurland and the other in Esthland. The von Rosen-
bergs continued to live in this eastern part of Prussia, near
Memel, and in 1819 Peter Carl Johann von Rosenberg, the pro-
genitor of the Texas line, inherited Eckitten Estate near Memel,
from where he immigrated to Texas in 1849 after being "severely
criticized for his political views" because "in the disturbing days
of 1848" he had stood for democracy.
The story of this book appears in two parts. Part I traces the
descendants of Peter Carl Johann von Rosenberg and Johanna
Dorothea Froelich, his first wife, who died in 1826 near Memel.
There were four children, of whom the first-born died at the age
of seven the year after his mother's death. This part of the family
became connected by marriage and occupation with such families
as Anders, Sutor, Holland, Lungkwitz, Porter (O. Henry), Groos,
Giesen, Achilles, Hornberger, Bissell, Johns, Kirby, Doom, Hell-