Joachim Carl Friedrich Rietesel was born February 21, 1851 in Muucks, Vorpommern. His parents were Johann Joachim Rietesel and Maria Dorothea Holfreter. The parents evidently went to America first but by the time young Friedrich (as he was known) was married, only his father was reported as being alive in Chicago.
His wife was Amalia Johanna Voss and they were married in Stralsund, Vorpommern on February 20, 1876. She was born May 15, 1854 in the village of Gutglück in the same general area.
Almost certainly the party that arrived in Baltimore on the ship Leipzig out of Bremen on July 7, 1880 consisted of Friedrich, his wife (whose name is obliterated) and the child, Carl age 2 1/2 years. Friedrich’s age and that of Carl/Charles perfectly matches a “Rietzel” household in Chicago in 1900. Friedrich/Fritz was a carpenter. His marriage license back in Germany gives his occupation as that of a ship’s carpenter. The spelling is ‘Riedesel’ in many documents but it appears that the descendants preferred ‘Rietesel.’
He died between 1910 and 1920. They appear to have had eleven children in total but I have the names of only seven. All but the first were born in Chicago. Molly was still alive in 1940, having been widowed a second time.