John Adams

1. Last name: Westhoff: Recorded in several spellings including Westhof, Westhoff, Westhofer, and cognates such as Westfal, Westhaus, Westheim, and Westheimer, this is a surname of Germanic origins. It is residential and translates either as the occupier of a house or probably a farm to the west (of the town or village), or it describes somebody who works at such a place, or it is locational from a place called Westhaus, Westhoff or similar, of which there are a number of examples in the German speaking countries. Locational surnames are usually 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original home to move somewhere else. In so doing they took or more often were given, as their surname, the name of their former home. Spelling over the centuries being at best indifferent, and local accents very strong, often lead to the development of variant forms. In this case early examples of the name recording include Peter Westofer of the city of Worms in the charters of that place in 1356, and Heinrich Westhaus of Munster, in 1576.

2. The third, largest wave of Germanic-speaking immigrants into Hungary occurred due to a deliberate settlement policy of the Habsburg government after the expulsion of the Ottoman Empire from Hungarian territory. Between 1711 and 1780, German-speaking settlers from Southern Germany, Austria, and Saxony immigrated to the regions of Southwest Hungary, Buda, Banat and Szatmár County. This influx of immigrants helped to bring economic recovery and cultural distinction to these regions. At the end of the 18th century, the Kingdom of Hungary contained over one million German-speaking residents. During this time, a flourishing German-speaking culture could be found in the kingdom, with German-language literary works, newspapers, and magazines being produced. A German language theater also operated in the kingdom's capital, Budapest. Throughout the 19th century, a strong German industrial community developed, with glass-blowing, foundries, and masonry being particularly important. In response to this, the second half of the century saw the rise of a strong Hungarian nationalist political movement, whose purpose was to retain German economic power by assimilating the German-speaking citizens into Hungarian culture. As a mean toward this end, the German language was slowly replaced with the Hungarian language. By 1918, at the end of World War I, almost 2 million Danube Swabians and other German-speaking peoples lived in what is now present-day Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia and the former Yugoslav republics. Between 1918 and 1945 several factors greatly reduced the number of German-speaking residents in the kingdom so much that only thirty percent of the original German-speaking population was left after World War II. The number of Germans in the Hungarian kingdom was more than halved by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, as the kingdom was forced to make large cessions of its territory to neighboring countries.

3. At this point (20/08/2015) I have 3 generations of Westhoffs living in what is now southern Hungary (Segedin) & Northern Serbia (Topolya), going back to the mid-1800’s. Ignatz J. (or Ignatius Joseph) Westhoff (B. 28/11/1869 Hungary D. 03/12/1948 Ohio and his wife Rosina (or Rosa) Pavle (or Pavla) (B. 1876 Hungary) arrived in New York on the ship "Kaiser Wilhelm 1" after departing Bremen in Germany on 22/02/1909. They were from Topolya (or Topola) in what is now northern Serbia, but then in Hungary. It is close to Segedin where their son Joseph Louis Westhoff was born. They arrived in the US with the Bodwin family from the same town. There are many generations on the male side with “Joseph” as the forename and “Rosa/Rosina” on the female side. Joseph L Westhoff and his brother Nicklos came to the US in 1912 with their Grandmother Eva on the ship “Breslau”.

4. The Trapp family originate from Germany with Margaret Trapp (her married surname) born there around 1838. Her son Nicholas Trapp (Joan Westhoff’s Grandfather) was born in Ohio around 1858, so they probably immigrated to the US just prior. Nicholas married a German lady in Ohio with the very English name of Elizabeth Brown!

5. Joseph Louis Westhoff registered for the Draft near the end of WW1 in 1918 (note his father, Ignatz Westhoff, is listed as his closest relative). Also he states he is a citizen of “Austria Hungary” which is another term for the Austro-Hungarian Empire which was just about to be dissolved. In the 1940 US Census, it states he was born in Yugoslavia. He was actually born in the town of Segedin, in southern Hungary. This town is immediately adjacent to the current northern border of Serbia. European borders certainly moved around! His father, Ignatz, appears to have been born in the Serbian side of the border.

6. Flora Joan Trapp (Jaclyn’s Grandma) was the youngest of 4 sisters. Her Father, Alfred J Trapp died 2 months after she was born in 1929. He was a Coal Dealer, which his wife Mary is listed as in the 1940 US Census. Presumably they had established a business and she took over the running of it whilst raising her 4 daughters. I haven’t been able to trace it yet, so this is just an assumption (19/08/2015).

7. Joseph (Joe) John Westhoff co-founded Atlantic Concrete with Jack Ditcher in 1969. It is based in Tullytown, Pennsylvania. His eldest son, Joseph Alfred Westhoff is the current President.