My great grandmother Sophie Wilhelmine Amalie (nee Struve) Stradtman was born in Kathrinhagen. She told my grandfather that she was related to the Struves who originated in Altona, Schleswig-Holstein, but who became famous as a result of their founding and operation of the Russian observatory at Pulkovo near St. Petersburg. After over 40 years of research, I still have found nothing to verify such a relationship. I'm always looking for new clues and for any information in regard to living relatives through the siblings of "Grandma Wilhelmina" who settled in the American Midwest.
The attached photo is the only one that I have of my great grandma. Despite her forbidding appearance, I'm told that she was extraordinarily gentle and kind. She loved to read and compose poetry, some of which has been passed down through the family to me. Her father Heinrich Christian Struve (b. btwn 1803 & 1810, d. aft 1859) was a singer in the theatre choir of the electoral prince of Hesse-Kassel. Her grandfather Carl Ludwig Struve was a church sexton in Kathrinhagen.