Ursula K. Le Guin's roots in Poland!

[Update from 22 August 2019: I have made a deeper investigation of the genealogical data and the results are different than in the original post. See that we have now Michael Friedrich Krakau in place of Augustus Philemon Krakau...

Krakau Family, the Protestants in Poland [?]

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Pastor Michael Friedrich Krakau
(b. in Poland, fled to Altenburg, Germany?)

(1744, Poland? - 1819, Altenburg)
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Pastor August (Leberecht) Krakau Sr.
(1794, Altenburg - 1836, Ohio, USA)
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Austin L. Kracaw
(Augustus Leberecht Kracaw Jr.)
(1832 - 1886)
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Charles Emmett Kracaw
(1857 - 1918)
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Theodora (Kracaw) Kroeber
(1897 - 1979)
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Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

(1929 - 2018)

The original post from 21 August 2019 is as follows...]

Ursula K. Le Guin on the knees of Alfred Louis Kroeber;
sitting Theodora Kroeber-Quinn with Karl, Cliffton and Theodore

Usually I study the #TolkienAncestry. Today I want to make a big jump into the #LeGuinAncestry! This Polish ancestry of Ursula K. Le Guin seems to be very alike J. R. R. Tolkien's ancestry in Poland. Why? Both writers among their ancestors have Lutheran, German-speaking citizens of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who fled Poland in circa 1770 partly because of the religious reasons!

Census 1910: in one document Charles Emmett Kracaw, his daughter Theodora and his father
Spis ludności 1910: w jednym dokumencie dziadek Ursuli Le Guin, Charles Emmett,
jego córka Theodora i jego ojciec [Ancestry.com]

According to the material found on the Ancestry.com (here) the oldest known ancestor of Charles Emmett Kracaw, the father of Ursula K. Le Guin's mother, Theodora Kroeber, neé Kracaw, was an Augustus Krakau born in Poland in c. 1754 (very much like J. R. R. Tolkien's great-great-grandfather, Johann Benjamin Tolkien who was born in Polish Danzig/Gdańsk in 1752). Krakau is a German form of the Polish place-name Kraków (Kraków is a historical capital city of the Kingdom of Poland, but also a place-name near Gdańsk - today's Krakowiec). Augustus Krakau fled Poland to Altenburg, Saxony Germany for religious freedom (in the 18th century Poland there was a pressure on the Protestants, see eg. here). He married and had two children, a son Augustus Krakau (b. ca 1774 in Altenburg, Saxony, Germany) and a daughter. [We know this all from the following sources: (1) letter to Cecelia Colaw from Kathryn Kracaw (Duttweiler) 7 Feb 1961, (2) letter to Nora Kracaw (Said) from Ida May Kracaw (Converse) Nov 1937, (3) Augustus Krakau History, Lola Higby.] 

Wikipedia tells such a story:

Theodora Covel Kracaw was born on March 24, 1897, in Denver, Colorado, and lived there for her first four years. She grew up in the mining town of Telluride, where her parents, Phebe Jane Kracaw (née Johnston) and Charles Emmett Kracaw, were owners of a general store.^[1][2][3] According to her family, Charles' family were recent Polish migrants who had come to the US via Germany and England, while Phebe had grown up in Wyoming. Theodora was the youngest of three Kracaw children; she had two brothers, five and ten years years older than she was.^[1] All of the children attended schools in Telluride. Theodora's brothers would go on to become physicians. Theodora, who described herself as a shy and introverted person, would later say that her childhood was a happy one.^[1] Her family name "Kracaw" led to her being nicknamed "Krakie" by her friends.^[4]

Augustus Philemon Krakau

We know something about Augustus Krakau descendants. Augustus Krakau fled Poland to Altenburg in Saxony-Anhalt (Germany). One of his sons was Augustus Philemon Krakau (b. 1774 in Altenburg, date of death is not known; see his photo on the left). Here are some known name spelling variations for this surname: Krakaw, Krackau, Krakow, Kracau, Cracow, or Kracaw.

Philemon was married and had 12 children. He was well educated and he was a minister in the Lutheran Church (it seems that the family belonged to the Moravian Brothers or Herrnhuters; as you remember I suspect the Tolkiens from Danzig/Gdańsk were the Moravian Brothers too). Augustus Philemon Krakau arrived on the ship "Virginia" to Baltimore, Maryland from Bremen, Germany on September 4, 1834. He arrived to the USA with two sons and their families. His sons were Augustus Leberecht Krakau Sr. (Lutheran minister) and Ernest Krakau (farmer). They went to Ohio with their families and are buried there. The following family members were listed on the passenger list for the ship "Virginia" which sailed from Bremen and arrived in Baltimore, Maryland on 4 September 1834:

"Virginia" passenger list from 1834 with "Phileven Krakrau" and "Augst Krakrau"
(Ancestry.com)

Report and Manifest of the cargo laden on board of the ship Virginia ___ James M. Michaels is Master which cargo may taken on board at Brenen____390 46 tons built at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania and owned by Wm S. Greinen merchant at Philadelphia as per register granted at Philadelphia the ninth day of April 1834 and bound for Baltimore.
August L. Krakau age 40 (b. 1794) Preacher
Christiana Krakau age 39 (b. 1795)
Teresa Krakau age 14 (b. 1820)
Julius Krakau age 13 (b. 1821)
John (August Johannes Barhart) Krakau age 11 (b. 1823)
Otto Krakau age 10 (b. 1824)
Reinholt Krakau age 8 (b. 1826)
Mary (Maria) Krakau age 7 (b. 1827)
August Krakau age 2 (b. 1832)
Phileven Krakau age 62 (b. 1772)
Earnest (Maritz) Krakau age 34 (b. 1800) Farmer
(Mary) Rosener Rhoades Krakau age 32 (b. 1802)
(Earnest) Adolphus Kakau age 7 (b. 1827)
Eliza Krakau age 5 (b. 1829)
Julia Krakau age 3 (b. 1831)

A user Sewerd from Ancestry.com has recorded an account about the arrival of the Krakau to the United States (source):

Augustus Leberecht Krakau and his brother Ernest M. Krakau were the first Krakau families to come to America. The account of Augustus's and Ernest's family coming to the United States is taken from the passenger list on board the ship "Virginia". The ship arrived in Baltimore Sept 4, 1834. The passenger list shows that Augustus, his wife and seven children boarded the ship Virginia.

(...)

He married 15/18 Oct 1817 (1819), Germany, Christianna Johnna Pance [Pausin] (b. 5 Feb 1786, (1797) Wolmerstedt, Prussia, d. 6 (8) Jan 1864, Sharon, Ohio). Augustus took his father’s place in the Lutheran ministry, preaching to his father's congregation. They expected to remain in Baltimore, Maryland for a while. But the first day they were there, Christianna [Christina] saw some slaves being sold from the block and she begged Augustus to take her to Ohio. This he did, buying a farm in the Tuscarawas river valley. Augustus was a musician and he brought with him from Germany what was said to be one of the finest pianos of that time. He played a number of musical instruments, and because of his musical ability, he had been exempt from the army. He spoke a number of different languages (seven). For his day he had an unusually fine education. Because of his own feelings about war, he brought his family to the States that they might be reared in a free country. They had lived in a large stone house, high on a hill, in Saxony.

The family were all sick much of the time when they came to the river valley in Ohio. Augustus had a fever and sought medical attention. This was his fatal mistake. The practice in those days was to bleed patients for many ailments. It may have been due to this practice that he died on 24 Aug 1836, a year after moving to OH, at the age of 44. He was buried at Sharon, Moravian Church Cemetery, Tuscarawas Co., OH. Christianna called the children together for a council, presenting their financial condition and asked them if they were willing to give up the things they had considered luxuries at that time (piano, solid silver, fine linens) so that they might keep their home. In that way, she kept the family together and finished the payments on the farm. Because of financial difficulties the younger children had limited advantages to an education. The most they received was from Christianna. The winter after Augustus died, two sons, one 24 years old and the other 21 years of age, died within less than a week of each other with pneumonia. A little girl died soon afterwards. One child had died earlier in Saxony. According to some records, Christianna married (2nd) 24 Apr 1837, Tuscarawas Co. OH, William Derry. The 1850 Warwick Twsp, Tuscarawas Co. OH census shows Christiana (age 53), Amelia (age 15), and Agustus (age 18) living there. What had happened to William? If she had married in 1837, her name would have been Derry rather than Krakau. Christianna died 6 Jan 1864 at the age of 78. Both Augustus and Christianna are buried at Sharon Moravian Church Cemetery, Tuscarawas Co., Ohio.

Source:
(1) Letter from Ida Converse Franktown, CO, Nov 1937 to Nora Kracaw.
(2) Smith, Mary F. , Tibbetts, Pearle W. , Pike, Minnie, There Was One Anna, Brown-White- Lowell Press, Kansas City 1948.
(3) Letter to Cecelia Colaw from Kathryn Kracaw (Duttweiler) 7 Feb 1961.
(4) Sharon Moravian Church Records, Tuscarawas Co., OH.
(5) Passenger list aboard the ship Virginia April 1934.
(6) Agnes Kracaw from church Records of Gnadenhutten
(7) Norwick Twsp, Tuscarawas Co., OH census of 1850.
(8) Augustus Krakau History Book, Lola Higby

Augustus Leberecht Krakau Sr. (Pietist name Leberecht means 'live rightly': from German lebe 'live' and recht 'right'; this name was created in the 17th century) was born on 15 February 1795. Family trees on Ancestry.com have him born in Sieglitz, Achsen, Altenburg. In fact we should estimate if it is Altenberg, Altenburg or Oldenburg (in my opinion it was Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg region). He was probably baptised and confirmed there. He was also a Lutheran pastor there. He married Johanna Christina Pausin. In the United States he lived in Tuscarawas in Ohio and he was probably a member of its Moravian Brothers community. He died on 24 August 1836 and is buried at Sharon Moravian Cemetery, Tuscarawas. 

One of his sons was August Leberecht Krakaw (spelled Austin L. Krakaw in the US). He was born on 14 September 1832 in Saxony and he died on 8 September 1886 in, Elbert, Colorado. In 1856 he married Lucinda Baltzly in Sharon Moravian Church. He was a merchant in Tuscarawas and then in Frankstown in Colorado.

Among his children we find Charles Emmett Krakaw who was born on 8 March 1857 in New Philadelphia, Ohio. He married Phoebe Jane Johnson on 26 November 1885 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. They had three children in 10 years. He died on 23 June 1918 in Davis, California, at the age of 61.

One of his daughters was Theodora Covel Krakaw, born on 24 March 1897 in Denver. She died on 4 July 1979 in Alameda, California. Her life is well known. You can read about her and her work on Wikipedia (here).

Protestant dissenters in Poland [?]
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Augustus Krakau
(b. ca. 1754 in Poland, fled to Altenburg, Germany)

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Augustus Philemon Krakau

(b. 1774 in Altenburg, emigrated to the USA in 1834)
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Augustus Leberecht Kracaw Sr.
(1795 - 1836)
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Augustus Leberecht Kracaw Jr.
(1832 - 1886)
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Charles Emmett Kracaw
(1857 - 1918)
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Theodora (Kracaw) Kroeber
(1897 - 1979)
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Ursula Kroeber Le Guin

(1929 - 2018)

The oldest known Kroebers (the family of Ursula Le Guin's father) were: Konrad Kroeber born in Cologne, Germany and Wilhelmine Laube, born in Munster, Germany. They were ethnic Germans, Lutherans.

#LeGuinAncestry