The Children of Anton & Mary (Reuter) Karbach / Koerbach

Anton & Mary (Reuter) Karbach (or Koerbach), my third great grandparents, immigrated from Germany to Ohio in about 1853. Although a passenger list has not been located, they probably arrived with their three oldest daughters: Mary Magdalena "Lena," Margaret, and Katherina. In Ohio, Mary gave birth to at least four more children: Theresa, Christina, Karl/Charles, and Mary. According to the 1900 U.S. census, Mary Karbach had a total of 10 children, so 3 of them probably died as infants or young children and their names and dates/places of birth are not known.

Photo of Anton & Mary (Reuter) KOERBACH/KARBACH with their granddaughter,
Mary Ann (March) LORETZ who was born in 1871. Photo circa 1876 when Mary
March,  Margaret's daughter, was about 5, Anton was 53, and Mary was 46.
Photo from Charles Wilke; used with permission.

Of the seven known children, Charles (1863-1871) died as an 8-year-old boy and Katherina (1852-1879), who died at the age of 27, appears to not have married or had any children. Five daughters married and had children. But, as daughters, their children did not carry the Karbach/Koerbach.

The five daughters who married and had offspring were:

• Mary Magdalena "Lena" (1848-1938) who married (1) Reinhard KAECHLE and (2) John Henry SPRINGER. Lena & Reinhard are my second great grandparents.
• Margaret (1849-1939) who married Madardus "John" MARCH.
• Theresa (1854-1925) who married Charlie KOLLMORGAN.
• Christina (1859-1942) who married Joseph Byron GAHAGAN.
• Mary (1865-1939) who married Benjamin Bernard WIDMAN and possibly a second husband with the surname of Fredrickson. 

Photo labeled "Christina, Margaret, Theresa, & Mary" and are probably
positioned in that order.  Photo shared by Charles Wilke & used with permission.

Four years ago, I was thrilled to find a tree by a cousin, Charles Wilke, who had shared photos and documents on MyHeritage regarding our Koerbach family. I had never seen any photos of these family members! At the beginning of this post, you can see the only photo I've seen of my third great grandparents: Anton and Mary Koerbach. Charles also had this photo of 4 of the 5 sisters who had children; unfortunately, the sister missing is "my" Lena (Koerbach) Kaechle. 

Are you related to the Koerbach family? I'd love to talk! Please leave a message or email me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net 

How I Discovered the Origins of 6 of My German Immigrant Families

With a lot of help, I now know the German villages of six of my ancestral families. I "discovered" their origins in a variety of ways.

Map showing the origins of six of my "German" families created by Jon R Stewart, Sr.

In Order of Discovery:

March 2014
Kaechle/Köchle family, maternal side, immigrated from Grißheim, Baden, July 1851

Germany, Select Marriages, 1558-1929 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: Germany, Marriages, 1558-1929. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. 

This breakthrough came with Ancestry's "Germany, Select Marriages" index which showed that Thaddae Koechle married Katharina Kern on August 22nd, 1836, in a catholic church in Grissheim, Freiburg, Baden. I ordered FHL film #873353, and discovered many other records for both sides of the family going back to a baptism in 1616. An online site, Ortsfamilienbuch-Datenbank Grissheim, which had transcribed the church records proved invaluable as these old German records were very difficult to read.

May 2014
Karbach/Körbach family, maternal side, immigrated from Ediger, Rhineland-Palatinate, circa 1853

Anton Koerbach and Mary Reuter Marriage Certificate, attached to Anton Koerbach (1818-1886) on Hiltz Web Site on MyHeritage Family Trees, Charles Willke site manager, www.myheritage.com (accessed 20 December 2016).

Finding a marriage record for "Antonius Kehrbach" and Maria Anna Reuter on a distant cousin's My Heritage tree led to discovering the family had once lived in Ediger. It appears the church records for Ediger have only been micofilmed through the late 1700's, so I need to contact this church in writing and ask if they have additional records.

Nov 2015
Franceska Holthoefer, maternal side, immigrated from Serkenrode, Westphalia, September 1856

Five Holthoefer Siblings, circa 1900, Detroit, Michigan
(back row left to right) Franceska (Holthoefer) Adam, Caspar J. Holthoefer, Marianna (Holthoefer) Petri 
(front row left to right) Elisabeth (Holthoefer) Keine, Anna (Holthoefer) Rolf
(Photo courtesy of Mildred Hunt Collection, by Robert Yagley)

In March of 2015, a distant cousin, Robert "Bob" Yagley, contacted me with a correction to my Ancestry tree. In July of that year, he asked me to join him and three other cousins who were writing a book about our Holthoefer family. The cousins were descendants of Franceska's siblings who had also immigrated to America. Bob had traced our Holthoefer's back to Germany and kept their origin a secret until the book was published last November. It was exciting to see not only the information about where the family had come from, but to also see this photo of Franceska and four of her five siblings who had immigrated to America.

Nov 2015
Frank Adam, maternal side, immigrated from Olpe, Westphalia, circa 1845

Michigan, County Marriages, 1822-1940 (Lehi: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016), online database, marriage record of Frank Adam and Francisca Holdhofer [Holthoefer], 4 November 1858, St. Mary's Church, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, page 636 (accessed 20 December 2016).

Bob Yagley had also discovered the village of origin for Franceska Holthoefer's future husband, Frank Adam, my direct line. Located only about 30 km from Serkenrode, Frank's baptismal record was found in Olpe, Westphalia. [pg 343]

Oct 2016
Peters family, paternal side, immigrated from Bellin, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, July 1859

Evangelisch Kirche [Evangelical Church] Bellin, Kirchenbuch [Church Book], 1650-1873, page 154, item 10, taufen [baptism] of Friedchen Elise Johanna Peters; FamilySearch mircofilm #68993. Cropped. [See original post for the other page of this baptismal record.]

I only recently realized the Peters' family's Hamburg passenger list indicated they came from Bellin. Using Meyers Gazetteer to locate Bellin, I then ordered an FHL microfilm and found the baptismal record of the family's youngest child. Although the family moved around quite a bit, it appears they immigrated to America from Bellin.

Nov 2016
Werther family, paternal side, immigrated from Berka, Thuringia (or Schwarzburg-Sondershausen), May 1869

Although the Hamburg passenger list appeared to say Bergau or Bergan, I couldn't find an appropriate location in Meyers Gazetteer. But, then I realized my great aunt had actually written the church in Berka in the 1990's and had baptismal records from Berka!

CONCLUSION

There are many ways to trace your immigrant ancestors back to their country of origin. I believe I have now traced all of my ancestors who came over in the mid-1800's - these six from Germany plus the Eastwood family from England. While writing this post, I realized there is still a lot I need to do on several of these lines. I am currently awaiting several FHL microfilms, and I need to write to two churches!

Do we share common ancestors? Do you have any additional information on any of these families? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment or email me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net.

My Top 10 Genealogy Finds in 2014

2014 has been an amazing year for me and my genealogy research. With increased knowledge, time, and resources available, I've uncovered some amazing discoveries! I had thought about making a "top 10" booklet for my family as Christmas gifts, but didn't get around to it. Maybe I will still do that but give it to them for Valentine's Day. But, for now, I thought I'd highlight my top 10 finds of the year.

1839 Marriage Record - Parish of Prestwich, Lancaster County, England from Ancestry.com

#10 - I didn't start blogging until March of this year, so my first "find" is actually from the end of 2013. It was huge! In November, I made my first "jump across the pond" when I found my 3rd great grandparent's (James Eastwood & Sarah Hall) 1839 marriage record from Lancaster, England! After finding this location, I was able to find birth, marriage, and death records and go back another generation.

Gov. LaFollette of Wisconsin addressing Chautauqua assembly, Decatur, Ill. c.1905
(image from Wikipedia)

#9 - This is a more distant relative and I didn't blog about it, but I found out my 2nd cousin, 5 times removed was Bishop John Heyl Vincent. Bishop J. H. Vincent was one of the two founders of Chautauqua - an adult education movement in the late 1800's & early 1900's. I found many newspaper articles about him including one that starts with this... "General Grant once introduced Bishop J. H. Vincent to President Lincoln and said: 'Dr. Vincent was my pastor at Galena, Ill., and I do not think that I missed one of his sermons while I lived there.'" The next paragraph said, "This same Bishop Vincent, of good old Pennsylvania stock and for many years a resident of Pennsylvania, was the founder of the Chautauqua assembly, next only to the public school system in bringing to the masses of the people some share of their inheritance in the world's great creations in art and literature." [Today in Pennsylvania History, Altoona Mirror, Altoona, Pennsylvania, 09 May 1924, page 11, column 1, digital image newspapers.com, accessed 08 Dec 2014.]

Barbara Grozinger's 1616 baptism record found on FHL film

#8 - After finding my English ancestors, I made another huge discovery when I found the place of origin of one of my German families: the Kaechle's. I first found a marriage record (index only) of my 3rd great grandparents (Thaddeus Kaechle & Katharina Kern) which gave the names of Thaddeus' parents (Anton Koechle/Kaechle & Anna Diringer). From there, I found a site where someone had indexed hundreds of years of church records (Ortsfamilienbuch fur Grissheim) at the church where Thaddeus was born! His ancestors had attended that church for centuries. The oldest record I found was the 1616 baptism of my 8th great grandmother, Barbara Grozinger. That's almost 400 years old! (The location was Grissheim in Baden-Wurttemberg.)

U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records from Selected States, 1660-1926
Marriage record; date: Aug 12, 1710
found on ancestry.com

#7 - Several years ago I discovered I had French Huguenot ancestors (surnames Doremus & Vincent/Van Sant) who had escaped to The Netherlands before coming to America in the late 1600's. But, just recently I found my first document that shows my 8th great grandfather, Cornelis Cornelisse Doremus, was born in The Netherlands! The record is his 1710 marriage record to my 8th great grandmother, Rachel Pietersen. It says he was born in Middleburg, Zeeland, which is part of The Netherlands!

1847 marriage record of Anton Kehrbach & Maria Anna Reuter

#6 - I traced another family back to Germany this year (so, my 3rd location in Europe!) when I located a distant cousin on My Heritage. He had an 1847 marriage record for my 3rd great grandparents, Anton Kehrbach (Korback) & Maria Anna Reuter. Not only did this record show where this family had come from (Ediger which is a small village in present-day Rhineland-Palatinate), but it also gave the names of both of their parents!

#5 - I busted through a brick wall by uncovering my 4th great grandfather's father! Andrew McClintock/McClintic was born in August of 1804 in Pennsylvania. I'd been stuck at this generation for many years. This information came from a researcher I'd hired in Pennsylvania. (The same one who helped me with the Stiver's in #9.) She had transcribed some church records and had the baptism of Andrew McClintock listing his father, John McClintock.

Headstone of Jacob T Dickson, Confederate soldier

#4 - The Civil War Questionnaire of Jacob Tipton Dickson, my great, great grandfather's younger brother. The questionnaire was sent out to Civil War soldiers who were still alive in 1920.  Besides verifying their mother's maiden name, Sally McCage, I love the language of this man from Tennessee and can only imagine that my great, great grandfather would have talked (& spelled words!) the same way. Here are a few of the questions:

...Remarks on Ancestry... my grate parance was from Orolan [?]  and they Died while I were small and I dident never know them

...If you owned land... Now I diden owen any thing I were stayen at home

...Did you parents own slaves?... My father Owen 6 Slaves

I will definitely blog more about this document as I think it is priceless and a wonderful 'find'!

Her Death is Cause for Four Being Held, Springfield Republican, Springfield, Missouri, 01 Nov 1911,
page 1, column 4, digital image newspapers.com, (http://www.newspapers.com: accessed 30 Oct 2014

#3 - I uncovered not one, but two MURDERS in my family this year! That's just crazy! This first one was the murder of my 3rd great grandfather's granddaughter. Her name was Ollie Werther and she married Roy Crockett in about 1909 or 1910. The marriage lasted maybe a year and then, after quarreling, Ollie went home to her dad and told him she had proof that her husband had committed arson on one of their houses to collect the insurance money. They turned this information over to the authorities and Roy was arrested. Allegedly, Roy's sister, brother, cousin & a friend poisoned Ollie with morphine to keep her from testifying against Roy! I found articles acquitting the two females of their murder charges, but have yet to find anything about the two males. As for Roy, he was "surrendered to his bondsman" a few years later, but also started another family, an oil business, and became both a judge and  mayor in Texas!

Ephraim P Bennett's Missouri State Penitentiary Records from the Missouri State Archives

#2 - The other murder I uncovered was actually one that had been passed down in my family, though I hadn't heard the story. I first discovered it after finding my great, great grandmother's brother in the state penitentiary in the 1900 census. From there, I ordered prison records and then found newspaper articles about the murder. 

Ephraim Bennett's brother-in-law, Nathan L Buchanan, was physically abusing his wife, Louisa Jane, Ephraim's sister. At one point, Nathan hit her on the head with a log from the fire and she ended up having to go to an asylum for awhile. Ephraim loaned Nathan the money he needed to commit her, but then one day came out into the field where Nathan was working and shot and killed him. He then turned himself in to the authorities. There most be more to the story as, that night, a lynch mob of somewhere between 50 to 200 men came to hang Ephraim! The family story that was passed down made Ephraim sound like a hero. But, the lynch mob makes me wonder what really happened. I hope to find out more! (I wrote quite a few posts about this murder as I uncovered the story.)

My grandmother & her best friend, circa 1925 (original at my aunt & uncle's in Kansas)

#1 - My biggest "find" of 2014 was the absolutely amazing amount of family photos & memorabilia that my aunt & uncle have at their house. Not only do they have at least 100 old photos, they have baby books, report cards, journals, poems written by family members, land records, newspaper clippings, and so much more! They inherited the work of my Grand Aunt, Beulah Brewer, who started me on this journey back in 1998. Their friend, Cheryl, is a retired librarian who has spent several years putting all of the records both in binders and in a genealogy program. I visited them in Kansas back in October and came home with over 900 images! Wow!!! Some of my favorite photos are those of my grandmother as a young girl.

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

Genealogy Fun - 16 Great-Great-Grands

Carrie at Under the Nut Tree Genealogy participated in an 'old' Saturday Night Genealogy Fun posted at Genea-Musings by Randy. The title is "Your 16 Great-Great-Grands." I thought it sounded like a great activity, so I'm going to participate, too.

Here are the steps:

1. List your 16 great-great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.
2. Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.
3. Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).
4. If you don't know all 16 of your great-great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.
5. Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.

My results:

1. Alexander STEWART (1852-1922) born in Pennsylvania - mixture of German/Irish/French
2. Catharine Jane McCLINTOCK/McCLINTICK (1852-1929) born in Pennsylvania - some German
3. Augustus L MERRILL (1848-1920) born in Pennsylvania - unknown
4. Sarah Jane EASTWOOD (1848-1923) born in England - English
5. Charles PETERS (1847-1910) born in Germany - German
6. Guntherine Fredericka WERTHER (1847-1888) born in Germany - German
7. Josiah Randolph COPPENBARGER (1844-1934) born in Illinois - primarily German
8. Elizabeth BENNETT (1849-1914) born in Missouri - unknown
9. Rheinhard KAECHLE (1844-1900) born in Germany - German
10. Mary Magdalena "Lena" KARBACH/KOERBACH (1848-1938) born in Germany - German
11. Francis "Frank" ADAM (1826-1902) born in Germany - German
12. Francesca "Frances" HOLTHOEFER (1833-1907) born in Germany - German
13. James B DICKSON (1840-1902) born in Tennessee - unknown
14. Elizabeth Ann BOYERS (1842-1882) born in Mississippi - unknown
15. Reuben Houston WARD (1859-1906) born in Tennessee - unknown
16. Sallie Harried DICKSON (1860-1960) born in Tennessee - unknown

My "nationalities" from my great-great-grandparent are:
7 German
1 English
8 unknown (with a little more German, Irish & French thrown in).

My calculated percentages are:
44% German
6% English
50 % unknown (with a small portion of that being Irish & French)

Strangely, my DNA results show:
35% Scandinavian (which could include German)
30% Irish (which could include French & English)
20% Western European (which could include German & English)
10% Italy/Greece (which could include French)

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

"Aged Woman Answers Summons"

Lately, I've been having a lot of success in researching my Karbach/Koerbach family. They came from Germany around 1850 or 1853 and settled in Norwalk, Huron County, Ohio. One of the wonderful resources I have discovered is the Rutherford B Hayes Presidential Center which has an index of obituaries in several area newspapers. I've now ordered about 15 obituaries for only $3 each.

One of the obituaries I ordered was for my great, great, great grandmother, Mary Ann (Reuter) Koerbach. I received the 'obituary' with this wonderful title: "Aged Woman Answers Summons." In it, I found two clues: one saying that she was married in 1847 and "came to America three years later". And, the other saying she "was born in Koblentz, Prussia, May 4, 1825..." Here's the article:

Norwalk Reflector Herald -  May 22, 1914 - page 1, column 22

I did some research on Koblentz, Prussia mainly using Wikipedia. It is also spelled Coblenz (English), Koblenz (German) & Coblence (French). The word means "confluence" and it is at the confluence of two rivers: the Rhine and the Moselle. Koblenz, the preferred spelling today is located in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, which is one of 16 German states.

Remember: you can't always believe everything you read! For many years I thought my Eastwood ancestors had come from Leeds, England as I found that in an obituary. But, as I learned this year, they actually came from LEES!!! (No "d" and a very different place.) So, this is just a 'hint'. After all, we don't know who gave the information to the newspaper and Mary was 89 years old!

P.S. I have found out that they came from a smaller, nearby village of Ediger. You can read more about that on my "Translating Latin" post.

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

An Attempt at Translating Latin: Any Help?

Last night I had a wonderful find: I found a family tree that a distant cousin had posted on My Heritage. On that tree was posted a marriage certificate for my third great grandparents in Germany! This gave me the actual village my ancestors were from! Also, he had posted PHOTOS of this couple with one of their children! I have asked permission to post these photos and hope to be able to do that soon!

In the meantime, I've been working on the marriage record. It is written in Latin and I used about five different websites to help me translate the document. Besides the fact that it is in Latin, the handwriting is also difficult to read. So, I'm not sure how the words are even spelled.

I'd love help if anyone has any ideas where I'm struggling!

My attempt at what the document actually says:

1847 Novembris vigesima querta - Faites sine opporitione proclamationis tribus legitimus Michailis Kehrbach et Elizabethae Barbz en conjugium ex Ediger et Maria Anna Reuter filia legitima Joannes Reuter et Anna Barbarae Andre conjugium ex Ediger sacromectaliter copulati suet. Festes averant Adolphus Seiters et Valentinas Veranz ex Ediger. (signed)
My attempt at a translation:


1847 November twenty-fourth- Was without convenience of banns. Clan(?) Anton (Anthony) Kehrbach the legitimate son of Michailis (Michael) Kehrbach and Elizabeth Barbz in marriage (a married couple?) from Ediger and Maria (Mary) Anna Reuter the legitimate daughter of Joannes (John) Reuter and Anna Barbara Andre in marriage (a married couple?) from Ediger the sacrament of marriage (?suet?). Wedding (?averant?) (note: I think this has to do with witnesses) Adolph Seiters and Valentine Veranz of Ediger. (unknown signature)

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net