Franz was born on Jun 20, 1841, in Prussia. I have found the names "Studroer" and "Loebnick" as possible place names.
He appears to have emigrated to Western New York in 1860; I do not know if this was with other members of his family, with his wife, Wilhelmina "Minnie" Zimmerman, or by himself.
I believe he settled in Niagara County, possibly in the town of Royalton. His oldest son, Charles, listed his birthplace as "Wolkertsville" on his marriage license application, and the next oldest, Albert, listed it as "Holbertsville" on his marriage license application and as "Valkertsville" on his Buffalo Police Department information card. It is possible that all of these are misspellings of "Wolcottsville", a Prussian community in the Niagara County town of Royalton. The 1880 Federal Census shows the family living in the town of Wheatfield, also in Niagara County.
Franz died on February 28, 1886, and was buried on March 3rd in lot 3R of Concordia Cemetery, on Walden Avenue in Buffalo, NY (the next few paragraphs explain how I found this information).
On August 15, 1993, while searching through the Vital Index of WNY Families cards at the Western New York Genealogical Society, I found a card for Franz Gierke that read as follows:
Gierke, Franz 53
3 March 1886
Concordia Cemetery Lot 3R
St. Stephen's - P. 313
The "53" in the corner refers to a book of burial records for the St. Stephen's section of Concordia Cemetery. St. Stephen's Evangelical Church was located on the corner of Adams & Peckham in Buffalo. The congregation relocated to Amherst as St. Stephen's United Church of Christ in 1958.
Given this information, I went to St. Stephen's-Bethlehem United Church of Christ on September 7, 1993, and the secretary graciously allowed me to look through their library in the basement. In a book containing records of deaths from 1800 to 1894, I found an entry on page 47, number 16 for the year 1886, that contained the information I needed. This is a scan of that record, showing information about his death and burial. I have received several translations so far, thanks to the help of Jillaine Smith; here is the most complete one, courtesy of Lisa Petersen, to whom I am grateful:
16, 3. Marz, Franz Gierke aus Studroer (Preußen), Ehemann v. Wilhelmine geb. Zimmermann aus Mamegen (Preußen), geb 20. Juni 1841, gest. 28 Febr. am Lungenleiden, alt 44 Jahr 8 M. 8 Tg.
Translated:
entry #16, 3rd of March, Franz Gierke from Studroer (Prussia), [legal] husband of Wilhelmine nee Zimmermann from Mamegen (Prussia), born 20th of June 1841, died 28 February of pulmonary disease, age 44 years, 8 months, 8 days.
For a larger (2.78 MB) version, click here. (Note: Microsoft Internet Explorer will shrink images so they fit in the browser window. To make them appear full size, hover the mouse over the image, then click on the icon that appears in the lower-right corner, which looks like a picture with arrows radiating from the corners.)
Some later records refer to him as "Frank Yearke", an apparent attempt to make his name consistent with his children's, posthumously. For more on this surname change, please visit my Yearke Family Information page.
If anyone has any additional information on Franz Gierke, or the Gierke family, or if my conjectures are totally off-base, I'd appreciate it if you'd send me e-mail. Thanks in advance!
A group sheet for this individual can be viewed by clicking on this link.
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