One more letter was included in the old documents. This one is dated January 27, 1883 and is from Ch. L. Heiden from Christianstad, Sweden. It turns out that this is August Heiden’s uncle, Christoph Ludwig Friedrich Heiden, who was born March 19, 1825. He is the younger brother of August’s mother, Maria.

Following is a copy of one page of this letter. All of the letters from Germany where written in a similar handwriting and, as you can see, would be impossible to translate except by a person with first hand knowledge of German of that era.
 

Ch. L. Heiden
Christianstad, Sweden

January 27, 1883

Dear August,

You are surely surprised to get a letter from your Uncle Ludwig! After many years of silence, I have finally corresponded with our dear relatives in Germany. The reason for my silence was that I had to struggle a great deal with my (indecipherable). They were not to hear from me until I was financially secure. As soon as I achieved this, I wrote to my dear sister and brother about my condition and let them know that I was all set for my old-age.

The answer I received was not pleasant. This is because my dear sister, Maria, had died and many of the children in the family had emigrated to America, which made a big impression on me since America disgusts me.

I have been married to a Swede for 20 years, and have been happy in this marriage. I have two promising sons. The oldest, Georg, has been in business for four years already and the youngest, Oskar, wants to study law. He is 15 years old and has already reached a rather high level in the Latin School.

You know my children from my first marriage. Luise is married to a tailor in Denmark. Ferdinand is a Catholic priest in Copenhagen. Wilhelm is a tailor and lives in Gorlitz, Silesia. And the youngest, whose mother died when he was 18 months old, is a blacksmith. He is strong and good natured. He also got the inclination to go to America and left here on May 4th. He is in Boston, but has a poor paying job -- only $5 or $6 a week. He doesn’t understand the language well. The same for German. He wants so much to meet his cousins. He thinks he should make contact with them. In the event you do get this letter, would you write to him and give him your address.?

(Unfortunately, the letter ends here in mid-sentence.)
 

Ludwig was the brother of August Heiden's mother, Maria Heiden. In 1883, he would have been 57 years old. Georg, Oskar, Luise, Ferdinand, Wilhelm and the unnamed son would have been August's first cousins.

$5 or $6 per week in 1883 would have been typical wages for a working man in the U.S. Uncle Ludwig seemed to be more of a man of means in Sweden who might have expected more from his sons.

The authors of these letters where primarily Marie Dohmstritch and her daughter, Emilie Dahme. Marie was the daughter of August Heiden's half-sister, Fredericke (Heiden) Schmidt. So, Marie was August's half-niece and Emilie would have been a grand half-niece. At the time of the first letter in 1923, Marie was 57 years old and Emilie about 30. August Heiden died in 1922.

Two letters are signed by "Hella Schmidt" and we are not 100% certain who this represents. Fredericke Schmidt died in 1900 at the age of 67. Since the letters come from the town of Klaber, this is most likely the daughter of August Schmidt who would have been Marie's brother and a half-nephew of August Heiden.

One letter is from Christoph Heiden who was August's uncle, the brother of his mother, Maria.