The New York Ditti

One of my avocations is researching the genealogy of the Dittus family in New York City. My ancestors came to New York from a small town in Germany. It is called Schömberg, and is in Neuenbürg Oberampt, in Württemberg. It is a lovely little spa town in the Black Forest that I visited in the summer of 1999. The Michael and Christina (nee Kling) Dittus family emigrated to the US around 1846.

My ancestor in this little family was Jacob - Johann Jacob Friederich Dittus. He married Barbara Frey, also from Germany, and they had 7 kids before he was killed in a wagon accident near 59th Street in 1867. Jake and Babs lived around 7/8th Aves at 117th Street intersection. Babs subsequently remarried, Anton Rieger, and the family moved to (the former) Newtown in Queens where several Rieger children were also produced.

The Ditti were fairly prolific. The original Michael and Christina family had 5 kids. Babs and Jake had 7. Jake's sibling, Michael had 6. (I think that they are the group that moved to Brooklyn and later on to Roundout and Kingston, NY.) A lot of Babs' and Jake's descendants stayed in the Middle Village area, especially through the mid 20th century. It is very hard sorting through all of the various descendants to figure out who married who and to which family line they belonged. The families were fairly large and they used a lot of the same names.

I spent a lot of time a number of years ago when I was actively researching, at the New York City Archives. I went through the marriage, birth and death indices searching for possible relatives with various spellings (or mispellings) of the surname Dittus. I may not know where all of these individuals fit in to my family but I've got their information just in case they do. Here is a link to my spreadsheet in Google Docs for anyone to use.

The State of the Dittus Family of NY Research

I am also researching the Dittus family from WUE,DEU>Queens Co,NY. My great-great-great grandfather, Michael Dittus emigrated from Schömberg in Württemberg, Germany with his wife (Christina Kling Dittus) and five childen (Johann Jacob Friederich, Michael, Cristine Katharine, Gottliebe George, and Elisabethe). They aplied for permission to emigrate in 1846 as per my newly translated Application for Permission To Emigrate in 1846. I have definitely connected them as being the Dittus family in Manhattan (Ward 2) in the 1850 census. I have the Manhattan marriage certificate for my direct ancestor, the oldest son, Johann Jacob Friederich Dittus, born July 25, 1824 to Barbara Frey from September 3, 1854 which matches the birth date given in the Application for Permission to Emigrate.
I have gotten sidetracked recently from pursuing this further with all of the Hooper research that is proving to be so fruitful. However, I have just ordered the films for Schömberg from the local LDS library and will hope to have more to report shortly.