Charles Frederick Gartling was born in 1858 or 1859, probably in Baltimore. He is the documented son of Johann Michael Gärtling and his wife, Mary, who emigrated to Maryland from Dürrn, in Baden, Germany in 1838. Their first child, Mary, was born "At Sea" in 1838. Other children in this family are Henry (1840), John F. (1843), Julia A. (1845), Rosanna (1848), Louisa (1850), Annie (1854), and Michael (1855). This family is found in the 1850 and 1860 US Censuses for Maryland, but the parents disappear after that, and, by 1870, the children are scattered. Charles Frederick appears in California in the 1880s, and he married Agnes Lockley in San Francisco in 1893. Any documented information on this family is greatly appreciated.