The Merck, Sharp & Dohme Connection
There are probably just as many stories of different branches of the Dohme family claiming to be connected to the largest Pharmaceutical firm in the world as there are branches of the Dohme family. Each story is a little different. What I was told years ago was that my great-great-grandfather, Ferdinand Dohme, immigrated from Germany with his brother, and his brother supposedly entered the wrong line at their port of entry and they never saw each other again. Ferdinand settled in Cincinnati, Hamilton Co., Ohio, and his brother supposedly settled out east somewhere and started this company. This is actually not true, and I don't know where this story came from.
My great-great-grandfather, Ferdinand Dohme, immigrated with his parents, Ludwig and Henrietta Dohme, at the age of 16 in 1843. Two of his siblings, Louis and Charlotte, were with them. They arrived in Cincinnati, Hamilton Co., Ohio by 1846 where many of their descendants still reside today.
The company, Sharp & Dohme, was founded by two brothers, Carl Friedrich Louis Dohme and Charles Emil Dohme. Charles Emil Dohme was the grandfather of Frances Dohme Cockey, who wrote the book The Dohme Family 1244-1986 which was published in 1989. This branch of the Dohme family immigrated in 1852 with their parents, Carl Heinrich Ludwig Dohme and Sophie Wilhelmine Grebe, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. This branch of the Dohme family came from Obernkirchen, Germany, the same town my family came from. I believe there is a connection to this family, but we are not connected in the way I was lead to believe.
The bad thing about the book by Frances Dohme Cockey is she doesn't mention all of her sources. That was one of the reasons I wanted her book. I was hoping to find information regarding where she found the records to substantiate her research. It would have been so much more helpful. The Dohme name is so hard to research. It took over 10 years just to get past my great-great-grandfather, Ferdinand Dohme, and now I'm stuck on his father, Ludwig Dohme.
If there is a connection between my branch of the Dohme family and the Sharp & Dohme branch, I believe that connection is through my 3rd great-grandfather, Ludwig Dohme. I think it is very possible Ludwig could have been a brother of Carl Heinrich Ludwig Dohme, who would have been the great-grandfather of Frances Dohme Cockey. The parents of Carl Heinrich Ludwig Dohme were Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Dohme and Phillipine Charlotte Farlemann. Johann was a baker by trade, and his father, Jurgen Friedrich Dohme, was a baker as well. My 3rd great-grandfather was a baker prior to immigrating to America, and continued this profession until 1850 when he worked as a stonecutter in Cincinnati, Ohio. My great-great-grandfather, Ferdinand, and his brother, Louis, were also bakers, and they worked at this profession between 1846 and 1864. I believe it's very possible that baker was a trade passed from father to son.
Church records have got to be somewhere. If Frances Dohme Cockey can find her family line, then why can't I?