Heinrich Mühlensieb 1743-1810

Heinrich Mühlensieb was my paternal 4th Great Grandfather. He was baptized 7 February 1743 in the Sankt Martinus catholic church in Düsseldorf Bilk, Germany. His parents were Joannes Josephus Mühlensieb and Anna Catharina Schäfers. The following image shows a copy of the baptismal entry in the church book.

Heinrich married my 4th Great Grandmother, Anna Catharina Kauertz, 30 November 1769 in the Sankt Dreifaltigkeit catholic church in Düsseldorf Derendorf.

The last name is spelled Meulensiep instead of Mühlensiep. In Düsseldorf we speak lower German. The groom probably pronounced it that way and the pastor wrote what he heard. I found on old image of the Sankt Dreifaltigkeits church from the 1920’s.

The church is still there. The street and the houses were destroyed during WW2 air raids by the British.

Heinrich and Katharina had eight children, all of them born in Düsseldorf Derendorf.

• 1. Anna Catharina born 20 April 1771
• 2. Maria Elisabeth born 3 August 1772
• 3. Henricus Josephus born 4 July 1773
• 4. Anna Catharina Frederica born 20 June 1774
• 5. Petrus Conradus 6 October 1775
• 6. Peter Joseph Cornelius 10 February 1777, died 17 May 1841 in Düsseldorf Bilk. He was married to Anna Helen Coenenberg. They had seven children together. After Anna’s death, he got married to Anna Catharina Steffen. The couple had three children together. After Anna’s death, he got married to Catharina Gertrud Fischer. They had no children.
• 7. Joannes Leopoldus 9 December 1779
• 8. Helene Catharina, my 3rd Great Grandmother, born 8 April 1783, died 30 August 1827 in Düsseldorf Lörrick. She was married to Joannes Petrus Wilhelmus Goetzen. They had three children together. After Joanne’s death, she got married to Joannes Mathias Glasmacher. They also had three children together.

Heinrich Mühlensieb died 16 August 1810 in Düsseldorf-Derendorf. The church book for that death year has not been published yet.

So, where does the last name Mühlensieb come from? If you translate the name into English it would become mill sieve. In Germany family names emerged about 800 years ago, first among citizens and much later for farmers. The name Mühlensieb originated in Westphalia which is next to the Rhineland. May be my ancestors were were mill owners or worked at one. I don’t know what Heinrich’s profession was.

I have a book called “Deutsches Namenlexikon” or translated “German name dictionary”.

I have used this book many times to look up the meaning of German last names. It only contains about 15,000 of them. There also websites covering this topic, however they are sometimes hard to find, so it’s nice to have an actual book to look up names.

I only have two more generation for my Mühlensieb ancestors. My 5th Great Grandfather, Johannes Josephus, born in Düsseldorf-Gerresheim in 1714 and my 6th Great Grandfather , Everhardus, who died before 1729. Most church books in Germany started anywhere between the 16th and 18th century.

As always in my blog I like to include a map and sources.

Derendorf is north of Bilk. You can walk or take the subway and or the trams. It’s only about 5 miles. In Germany most people walk everywhere. It’s hard to find a parking spot in the cities and the traffic is bad. Everything is much smaller over there. It’s very comparable to driving in San Francisco.

Sources I used for writing this article:

• 1. Deutsches Namenslexikon (see above)
• 2. Ancestry
• 3. Google Maps
• 4. Sankt Dreifaltigkeit Catholic Church Book Marriages 1742-1770
• 5. Sankt Martinus Catholic Church Book Baptisms 1722-1769

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