Descendants of (Unknown) Pergande

At this point, we have traced the Pergande branch of our family back to Friedrich August "Fred" Pergande, who was born in Pommern (Pomerania), Prussia (now part of Poland), in 1818.

The name of his parents and paternal grandparents are not known, but this report begins with his grandparents because Gottlieb Gotthilf Pergande (1787-1847) is believed to have been a brother of Friedrich's father. (Unknown) Pergande would have been the father of Gottlieb and grandfather of Friedrich August.

Friedrich (whose surname was originally "Pergander") arrived with his wife, Wilhelmine Brehmer, and their son and daughter in Ridgeville Township, south of Tomah in Monroe County, WI, in 1857. He was one of the first settlers of Ridgeville Township, as well as one of the charter members of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, the first Lutheran church in the area.

Friedrich's son, Franz Friedrich August, changed the spelling of the family name from Pergander to Pergande in the 1880's, but the reason for the change is not known. The Pergander spelling was used on the gravestone of Friedrich and his wife.

The maternal grandfather of Franz Friedrich August Pergande's wife, Wilhelmine Louisa Wilde, was Gottlieb Pergande. So, a descendant of one Pergande family eventually married a descendant of another Pergande family.

The Pergande and Griggs families came together with the marriage of Bernice Gertrude Pergande and James LaVerne Griggs in November 1939.