I have found that there are definite links to the Hilker name, which is mine, and Hilke. My great grandfather was recorded as Henry Hilke in one census even though many other records records have the spelling correct. Therre was a family of Christian Hilke in Wisconsin and a Hilke family in Minnesota during the mid to late 1800s. My Hilker family moved from Cincinnati in the late 1850s to Buffalo County Wisconsin as part of the German/Swiss group called The Colonization Society of Cincinnati. Henry Hilker came over from Hannover Prussia at the age of 19 in 1838 according to census data. I have no record of him from 1838 until the 1860 census in Belvidere Wisconsin, which indicates he moved from Hamilton County in 1859, where his daughter Elizabeth was born a year earlier to him and his wife Louise Heitmeyer Hilker. Any connections? Other names of research include Heilker, Hilker, Schultz, Boehme, Westerkamp, Baumann, Heitmeyer, Stutlien, Studlien and Stutlean.

Elmer Hilker