The Anneke family (usually spelled "Annecke"; Fritz changed the spelling of his name while still in Germany) originates from a small village called Schadeleben close to Quedlinburg in what is today Saxony-Anhalt.
Schadeleben is a village and a former municipality in the district of Salzlandkreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
Like the family of Martin Luther, whose birthplace, Eisleben, is only a few kilometers away from Schadeleben, many of Anneke's ancestors had worked in mining, which is why the family moved to Dortmund in the early 19th century, when industrial coal mining was beginning in the Ruhr district.