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  • Caroline Francisca Amelie Büttner 1816-?

    Caroline Francisca Amelie was my maternal second Great Grandmother. She was born 5 January 1816 in Berlin, Germany and a few days later was baptized in the Lutheran church. Her parents were the the sugar boiler, Franz Xavier Büttner and his wife Charlotte Friedericke Deutsch. Below are her birth certificate and baptismal entry.

    I don’t know if Amelia had any siblings. She got married 4 July 1841 in the Sankt Georgen church inBerlin, to the master armorer, Martin August Eduard Schneider, my two times Great Grandfather. The marriage record from the church book is below.

    Amelia and Martin had ten children all born in Berlin. 1. Emilie Ernestine Amalie born 18 April 1841 2. Auguste Wilhelmine Emilie born 13 March 1843 and died 18 July 1844 in Berlin 3. Wilhelmine Luise Friedericke Amalie born 5 May 1845 and died 7 March 1893 in Berlin. She was a seamstress. 4. Louise Emilie Marie born 24 January 1847 and died 26 September 1893 in Berlin. She was married to Emil Albert Gustav Hermann. They had two children. Gertrud Elisabeth Minna Emilie born 1870 and died 1871 in Berlin. Walter Erich Conrad Hermann born 9 Dec 1873 in Berlin and died 1 May 1952 in District Federal, Mexico. 5. Friedrich August Alexander born 11 December 1848 6. Carl Gottfried August Alexander born 17 March 1850 and died 25 September 1850 in Berlin 7. Emilie Francisca Auguste Amalie born 13 June 1851 and died 27 December 1852 in Berlin. 8. Auguste Francisca Amalie born 20 Jan 1854 and died 10 March 1856 in Berlin. 9. My Great Grandfather, Emil August Ferdinand born 13 September 1855 and died 12 July 1935 in Wuppertal Germany. He was married to my Great Grandmother, Sophia Hermina Ontrup. They had nine children. 10. Emil August Eduard born 17 November 1857 and died 27 June 1914 in Berlin. He was married to Elise Auguste Wilhelmine Zaspel. They had two children.

    Less than two years after Caroline’s last child was born, her husband Martin died 10 February 1859 of pneumonia.

    From this record we learn that my two times Great Grandfather’s calling name was August and not Martin. I just wanted to have more proof that he had died. One great thing about Berlin genealogy research is that the address books are online from about 1799-1970. It is a free website which is always a plus in my book. You can research them here .

    First I started looking for August, however he has been hard to find. I found the last name Schneider in the Berlin address book, but after the last name only comes the first letter of the first name and then the profession. What I did find helpful was that the women were mentioned including their maiden names. August had died in 1859 so I looked in the 1861 directory and found a Schneider widow with the maiden name Büttner.

    – nee Büttner, widow of a blacksmith, Alte Schönhauserstr. 35 (street)

    Front Page of the 1861 Berlin directory

    Now I have proof that Ausust did die in 1859. I hope that eventually I will find her death date as well.

  • Maria Anna Bastian Bortscheller Päbst 1845-1913

    Maria was a maternal second Great Grandmother of my husband and she was the illegitimate daughter of Maria Eva Bastian. Maria was baptized 31 January 1845 in the Sankt Jakobus catholic church in Germersheim and died 21 October 1913 in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Just today I found her baptism in the church book.

    I always thought that Maria’s maiden name was Bortscheller, that’s what was stated on the marriage certificate. I do not have her parents marriage date. At least now I know to look after her birth date. Once again, looking at original records is so important for accuracy. Maria had several siblings whose parents are also Maria Eva Bastian and Michael Bortscheller. The other children born were, Catharina in 1841 and 1846, Regina in 1850, Eva in 1851, Elisabeth in 1854, Maria Eva in 1856, Susanna in 1857 and Petrus in 1860. Eventually I will look for all them in the baptismal book and find out when their parents got married.

    Maria Anna got married to my husband’s second Great Grandfather, Christoph Päbst, 29 June 1878 in Ludwigshafen. Christoph was also born in Germersheim and an illegitimate child. I wrote about Christoph in a previous blog. Below is the marriage certificate.

    On the top page of the certificate I circled two side notes or Randvermerke in German. They were the death years of each spouse. Always try to figure what these notes mean. On the back page I circled the name Maria Anna Päbst nee Bortscheller. She should have signed it Bastian, however she might have not ever known her original maiden name. Each document tells a story! In genealogy the more copies of original records you can obtain, the better off you are.

    Maria Anna and Christoph had four children together, all born in Ludwigshafen. Anton in 1872, Hans, my husband’s Great Grandfather, in 1874, Maria Eva in 1881 and Magdalena in 1888.

    Maria Anna died 21 Oct 1913 in Ludwigshafen. Her death certificate is below.

    A few unusual facts about this blog, both Anna Maria and her husband were illegitimate children. Also they didn’t marry in their hometown of Germersheim. As always below you will find a map of where Anna Maria lived. The map shows Manheim which is across the river Rhein from Ludwigshafen. On the left side you see the famous towns of Bad Dürkheim, Neustadt an der Weinstraße, Landau in der Pfalz and on the right side you can see Heidelberg, all well known cities in this famous wine region.

    I visited Heidelberg in October. Here are few pictures I took.

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  • Overlooked

    Once again I am participating in Amy Johnson’s Crow 52 ancestors in 52 weeks. This weeks title is ” Overlooked”.

    Have you ever overlooked something in your family tree? It’s easily done by not checking facts or looking at original records. Let’s get right to it. My two times paternal Great Grandparent Johann and Franziska Müller had at least seven children together. For all them I had their birth and or baptism dates and for some I had the marriage and death dates. In 2018 I had a second and third cousin match on “My Heritage” for that line and I was able to fill in a lot of dates and received copies of marriage and death certificates. One of the children was Helena Müller born and died November 1852 in Düsseldorf. Helena would have been my Great Grandaunt. From what it looked like the infant was still born and or died right after birth. I didn’t have a source for the death. My third cousin gave me this information and I thought may be she had already checked the church books. I didn’t pay anymore attention to this person.

    Fast forward to the spring of 2024. I had a new third cousin match at “Ancesty.com”. Most people in the USA have lots of first and second cousin matches. I have neither. I grew up in Germany and lots of people don’t get tested in European countries. So a third cousin match is a big deal for me, in fact this is the best one I have on ancestry. There was no tree associated with the match, so I contacted the owner hoping for an answer. She was living in South Carolina and her first name was Bettina. That first name is quite common in Germany. So I thought may be that there was a chance that she might be from my home country.

    Bingo! Bettina answered a couple of weeks later and yes, she was not just from Germany, but also from my hometown in Düsseldorf. Emails went back and forth. I told her that I probably would be able to figure out our common ancestors. She gave me as much information as she had and I got to work. It took me less than two days to figure it out. As soon as I saw the name “Müller” as one of her ancestor, I knew I had the answer. Her direct ancestor was as you guessed it “Helena Müller” who came back from the dead.

    Helena Müller was born 9 November 1852, got married 1 January 1877 to Reinhold Gossen and died 20 August 1909 in Düsseldorf. I have her marriage and death certificate as well. Her marriage certificate has her birth date, so I know now had proof that I had the correct name.

    Marriage Certificate

    Death Certificate

    The moral of the story is, only enter a death date if you have proof. I was pretty lucky to have the DNA match with my new found cousin and she was willing to give me the information she had. I have been able to add a new branch to my family tree and that’s always very exciting. Below all the children of Bettina and my common ancestral couple Johann and Franziska Müller.

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  • Edith Martha Burgess Hickman 1885-1928

    Edith Martha Burgess Hickman was my husband’s paternal Great Grandmother. She was born 28 January 1885 in Springfield, Oregon. Her parents were the farmer, Charles Burgess and his wife Rachel Lucinda Williams. In 1892 we find Edith in the Washington State and Territorial Census together with her parents and her siblings. They lived in Stevens County, Washington.

    Her father, Charles, is 47 years old, he is a farmer and he was born in Kentucky. Her mother, Rachel, is 39 years old, a housekeeper and she was born in Missouri. Her brother S. H. was 20 years old, a farmer and he was born in Kansas. Her sister Rettie was 16 years old and she was born in Iowa. Her sister Annie was 14 years old and she was also born in Iowa. Her sister F. was 12 years old and she was also born in Iowa. Her brother Charles was 10 years old and he was the last child born in Iowa. Next came Edith at 7 years old and she was born in Oregon. The last child, a sister, M., was only 1 year old and she was born in Washington.

    Eight years later in the 1900 Federal Census, Edith was the oldest of her sibling living at home and going to school.

    Her father Charles was now 56, her mother Rachel was 46, Edith was 15, her sister Myrtle was 9, her brother Lee was 8, and her youngest sister, Pearl, was now 6 years old. The family lived in Lake Creek, Stevens County, Washington. Six years later, on 11 July 1906, Edith got married to my husband’s Great Grandfather Ed Hickman near Colfax, Whitman County, Washington.

    Edith and her husband Ed received a generous gift from her father in law, Henry Hickman. Henry was a very successful farmer and business man in Whitman County. I will write about him in another post.

    Ed and Edith are in the 1910 Federal Census. They lived in the city of Almota, which is nowadays a ghost town. Back in the day Almota was an important wheat shipping point during the days of river navigation.

    Census records can be a great genealogical source, however one always has to be careful to double check facts and dates. According to this census, Edith’s parents were born in Oregon which we know is incorrect. Her father was born in Kentucky and her mother in Missouri. You never know who gave the information to the census taker.

    Ed and Edith had two children together, a son, Lloyd born in 1912 and my husband’s Grandmother, Lucille born in 1916. A picture of the children below.

    Edith Burgess Hickman died 7 May 1928 in the St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax, Washington. She was only 43 years old. She is buried in the Onecho Cemetery.

  • Peter Jacob Gather 1809-1883

    Peter Jacob Gather, my maternal third Great Grandfather, a farmer, was born exactly 216 years ago in Büderich near Neuß, Germany and died 27 May 1883 nearby in Niederdonk. Peter’s parents were Johann Mathias Gather and Sybilla Catharina Nesges. Peter married my third Great Grandmother, Anna Catharina Unterdenbäumen, 7 October 1832 in Büderich. Below is the marriage entry from the church book.

    I also have a copy of the marriage certificate.

    Peter and Anna Catharina had nine children together, all born in Büderich. 1. Anna Catharina was born 8 August 1833, married Franz Jacob Tups 8 November1861 in Büderich and died 17 February 1901 in Fischeln near Krefeld. They had at least 5 children. 2. Johann Mathias Gather was born 4 May 1835, married Maria Catharina Schaefer 5 June 1868 in Büderich and died nearby in Lank 24 January 1907. They had at least three children together. 3. Hubert Paul Gather was born 4 February 1837. 4. Anna Gertrud Gather was born 23 September 1838, married Johann Peter Junkers 29 October 1864 in Kaarst. They had at least 2 children together. 5. Johann Heinrich Gather was born 14 November 1870, married Anna Barbara Leven 6 February 1873 in Büderich and died 30 November 1904 in Heerdt. They had at least 4 children together. 6. Anna Christina Gather, my 2nd Great-Grandmother, was born 16 October 1842, married my second Great-Grandfather, Balthasar Hubert Steinhaus, 18 November 1869 in Büderich and died13 May 1906 in Heerdt. They had 2 children together. 7. Peter Wilhelm Gather was born 9 February 1846. 8. Peter Wilhelm Hubert Gather was born 25 May 1847. He was first married to Sibilla Gertrud Robertz and then to Judith Sartorius. He died 3 October 1917 in Büderich. 9. Maria Catharina Gather was the last child. She was born 13 June 1849.

    Only a few month after the last child was born, my third Great Grandmother, Anna Catharina Unterdenbäumen died 3 February 1850 in Büderich. My third Great Grandfather, Peter Jacob Gather got married to his second wife, Catharina Wanders, 3 November 1851 and they had four children, also all born in Büderich. 1. Johann Peter Josef Gather was born 11 September 1852. He married Christina Anna Speck and died 14 September 1934 in Büderich. They had at least three children together. 2. Johann Hubert Gather was born 17 November 1854 and he was married to Gertrud Koppen. He died 18 May 1900 in Mönchengladbach. They had at least one child together. 3. Peter Jacob Hubert Gather was born 24 July 1856. 4. Peter Anton Gather was born 6 April 1858 and he was married to Helena Hochhausen 4 February 1887 in Heerdt.

    Peter Jacob Gather died 27 May 1883 in Niederdonk. His death certificate is below. It mentions his parents and that he was widowed twice.

    Peter didn’t die far from where he was born, only about three kilometers.

  • Favorite Photo

    I am participating once again in Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 ancestors in 52 week challenge. This week’s theme is about a favorite photo.

    The photo shows my two times Great Grandparents Peter Johann Sevenich and Josephine Odilia Gröbbels with their young family. The family lived in Heerdt, Germany nowadays is a part of Düsseldorf.

    Peter Johann and Josephine were both born and married in Brachelen. A picture below shows the church.

    His birth date was 13 September 1838 and hers 24 March 1842. They were married 8 November 1867. He died 10 July 1910 in Heerdt and she passed away 27 April 1920 in Neuss.

    The oldest daughter, I believe is on the right side of the picture. Her name was Josefine. She was born in Brachelen 29 June 1868 and died 8 October 1945 in Neuss. Josefine was married to Michael Bolton. They had 7 children.

    The oldest son, my Great Grandfather, Franz, is the handsome young man standing behind his Father. Franz was born 4 Jan 1870 in Brachelen, died 26 August 1950 in Heerdt and he was married 9 June 1893 to my Great Grandmother, Anna Catharina Steinhaus. They had nine children together, including my Grandmother, Adelheid. A picture below of my Great Grandparent on their 50th anniversary in 1943.

    Johann, Josefine and their young family moved around 1870 to Heerdt. There Johann worked for the rail road. The first child born in Heerdt was Adelheid, on the left side of the picture. Her birth date was 16 September 1871 and she died 17 May 1943. Adelheid was married to Stefan Lenzen. They had a bakery in Heerdt. According to her obituary below, they had four sons and five daughters.

    Adelheid Lenzen was also the Godmother to my Grandmother Adelheid Sevenich, born 1899 in Heerdt. Below is the baptismal entry.

    The next child is Gerhard Sevenich. He was born 9 March 1873 and died 16 December 1948 in Heerdt. Gerhard was married to Gertrud von Mertz. They had eight children together.

    Next comes Wilhelm Sevenich. He was born 1 October 1874 in Heerdt and died 8 February 1964 in Battersea, London. The death location and date was a total surprise find on Ancestry’s England and Wales Death Index.

    I found this information in 2014 and was easily able to order the actual death certificate from London.

    The question now presented itself why he was in London to begin with. I found out that he had a daughter Katharina Sevenich who was married to Thomas Baldwin whom I also found in a marriage index. I will write about all these finding in a later post. Back To Wilhelm and his sibling.

    We know where Wilhelm was born and where he died. Wilhelm was married 4 February 1902 to Clara Franzisca Derendorf. They had seven children, one of them was Katharina mentioned above.

    Next up was Andreas Josef Sevenich born 4 July 1877 in Heerdt. He was missing in action in France in 1915 during WW1. Below is the notification that he was missing. I do not have a death certificate.

    He was a corporal when he went missing. Josef was married to Anna Welbers. They had four children, lived in Büderich and had a milk delivery service. I do have a picture of Josef delivering the milk.

    After Josef came Sibilla Sevenich. Sibilla was born 22 May 1879 in Heerdt and died 17 September 1954 in Neuss. She was married to Lorenz Moor. They had no children

    Then came Heinrich Sevenich born 28 February 1881 in Heerdt and died 1 February 1940 in Meerbusch. He was married to Luise Vogel. They had one child.

    After Heinrich came Fredericus Adamus also known as Fritz Sevenich, born 7 February 1883 and died 1 February 1969 in Heerdt. He was married to Elisabeth Struth. They had four children.

    The youngest child was Mathilde Sevenich born 6 December 1885 in Heerdt and died 28 Februray 1863 in Neuss. She was married to Michael Klasen. They had four children.

    So why is this a favorite picture of mine. When I first starting doing genealogy, I didn’t even have the names of my Great Grandparents or my two times Great Great Grandparents. To have this picture and being able to tell a few stories about their lives is so awesome. The icing on the cake is that I have the same picture taken about 25 years later.

    My two times Great Grandfather, Johann Peter Sevenich, died in 1910, so this picture must have been taken before that date.

    I want to thank and give credit to my second and third cousins, Gabi, Annemarie, Hermi and Ursula for their continued support, as this post would have not been possible without their help.

  • In The Beginning

    I am participating in Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. This week’s title is “In The Beginning”. I will be writing on how I got started in genealogy. Today is also my first blog anniversary! I can’t believe that I have been writing these posts for a year now. Time flies when you are having fun.

    When I grew up in Germany no one ever really talked about the past and a family tree was never mentioned. My Dad would talk a little bit about WW2, he had lived through it after all. He was also a soldier for a little while, however he kept getting sick and so he was released from his duties early on. His two older brothers Hans and Josef weren’t so lucky. They both perished in that horrible war.

    My maternal Grandfather or Opa would talk a little bit about WW1. He talked about how he learnt a little English and French during the war. The first English and French words I actually learnt from him. Opa would make extra money in the war by entertaining the other soldiers. He would then send the money home to his Mother. He never talked about his Father. I know Opa served in France but when and where I don’t know. The records were destroyed during air raids on Wuppertal in WW2. Below a picture of Opa in his WW1 uniform.

    At one point in the 1990’s I wanted to start a family tree. I had bought some genealogy software to install on our first computer. I entered some information about my parents and had made a mistake and wasn’t able to correct it. I pretty much just gave up. I was working full time and then my children were both born in the mid 1990’s and my life got very busy.

    In the back of my mind I always wanted to create a family tree, however I didn’t have the time or the knowledge on how to do it until the year 2003. We were visiting my husband’s paternal Grandfather in the state of Washington. Grandpa was 96 at the time and was still farming. A picture below of him getting ready to plant some onions.

    Grandpa would always tell lots of stories. He himself was a child of immigrant parents. They came from Austria. Over the years I had listened to these stories and they always had fascinated me. This time it was different. Grandpa had asked us we had the Scholz book. We had never heard of it. So he gave us a copy to keep.

    I was mesmerized and hooked at the same time. It was the beginning of my genealogical journey. One hundred years of dates, pictures and stories. As I looked through the pages I couldn’t believe my eyes. To my surprise I was in the book. Life is funny sometimes. How can you be in a book you didn’t even know existed. The picture on the front cover was taken in 1938 for the 50th anniversary of Grandpa’s parents, Adolf Scholz and Rosina Muecke, together with all their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Adolf and Rosina were both born in Austria and married in Tennessee in 1888. They had nine children in that state and moved west in 1905. Grandpa was the youngest and only one born in Washington in 1906.

    Adolf Scholz died in 1939, less than a year after their 50th anniversary. Rosina lived until 1960. She was asked to write down her life story. It was included in the back of the book in her original hand writing and also a typed transcript. I have read this story a million times and all of it starting making sense over time. I have been able to verify most names and locations.

    When we first received the Scholz book, I had really no idea about my own family history. I didn’t even know the names of my own Great Grandparent until few years later when my research started.

    The author of the Scholz Book was my husband’s first cousin once removed, Virginia Scholz Burger. Unfortunately we never met her. Sie died in 2004. I do have a couple of photos and articles I found about her during my research. First of all on her wedding day

    She served in WW2 as a WAVE officer.

    An her book was mentioned in the newspaper

    I think she would be happy to know that her work is being continued in a slightly different form via my research. May be one day, I will publish a second book on the Scholz Family and continue the saga from 1988 on.

    Starting my genealogy in 2006 I didn’t know much about our ancestors, except for the book we were given by my husband’s Grandpa. During almost 20 years of my research, I have accumulated massive amounts of documents, pictures, articles, books and so much more. I currently have 22,280 people in my tree. I work on extended lines as well. I have found second and third cousins via DNA testing and through research. My husband is the lucky one, he has all the famous cousins. Stuntman Yakima Canutt, President Herbert Hoover and actor James Dean. By the way, all three and my husband have the same ancestor. My husband is also an eighth cousin of the former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. We both have ancestors going back all the way to the 15th century.

    My journey continues, let’s see where it will take me in the next 12 months. May be finding another second or third cousin. May be a trip to an ancestral place. May be a surprise of some sort.

  • Heinrich Wippel 1846-?

    Heinrich Wippel was my husband’s maternal second Great Grandfather. He was born 21 December 1846 in Maudach, Bavaria and he was baptized two days later in the St. Michael Catholic Church in the same town.

    Heinrich’s parents were Markus Wippel and Maria Josepha Firmery. Heinrich had several siblings. Barbara 1837-1893, Elisabetha 1840-1868, Jakob 1844-1868, Anna Maria 1849-1849, Adam 1851-1851 and Johann Adam 1853-1875. None of the siblings were very old when they died. I have yet to find Heinrich’s death date.

    Heinrich got married 31 August 1871 in Nußdorf to Elisabetha Hochdörfer.

    In the old days it was customary to get married where the bride was from. The couple had several children. One of them was my husband’s Great Grandmother, Barbara Wippel.

    Heinrich’s wife died 16 September 1905 in Ludwigshafen, Germany. On her death certificate is a death year of 1917 penciled in next to his name. My guess is that he died that year, however the death certificates for Ludwigshafen are online until the 1950’s on ancestry, but I can’t find Heinrich’s. He must have died somewhere other than Ludwigshafen. It was during WW1, may be Heinrich was visiting relatives. We might never know. Below is his wife’s death certificate. I circled the year 1917. I might manually look at the 1917 death certificates. May be I can find him in Ludwigshafen after all.

    Heinrich was born in Maudach, got married in Nußdorf and probably died somewhere near Ludwigshafen.

    Sources:

    Ancestry , Archion, Google Maps

  • Rachel Lucinda Williams 1851 -1931

    Rachel Lucinda William was my husband’s paternal second Great Grandmother. She was born 25 December 1853 in Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri. Her Father was the farmer, A.J. Williams and his wife, Nancy Lucinda Pruitt or Prewitt. The first time we can find Rachel, is in the 1860 census in Missouri together with her parents and her siblings. She and her siblings were attending school, except for the youngest.

    We find Rachel and her family also in the 1870 census. At that time they were living in Sycamore, Montgomery County, Kansas. Rachel is now the oldest of her siblings.

    A year later, Rachel married my husband’s second Great Grandfather, Charles Burgess, 30 July 1871 in Montgomery County, Kansas.

    Nine years later the couple lived with their children in Waveland, Pottawattamie County, Iowa. He was a farmer, she a housekeeper and their older children attended school.

    The Burgess family went west and they settled in Lake Creek, Stevens County, Washington. In the 1900 census we find them living with their children, Edith, Myrtle, Lee and Pearl. Edith was my husband’s Great Grandmother.

    In the 1910 census we learn that the couple had been married for 40 years and they lived together with their youngest three children. We also learn that they had ten children together and that eight of them were alive at the time.

    In 1920 Lucinda, her husband and their youngest son lived in Lincoln, Lincoln County, Washington.

    In the 1930 census, Rachel is a widow and lives together with her son in law, R W Heber, and her daughter, Anna Heber, in Hunters, Stevens County, Washington. Rachels’ parents birth places are given as Indiana and Illinois, which is incorrect. They were both born in Kentucky.

    Rachel Lucinda Williams died 7 September 1931 in Hunters, Stevens County, Washington. From the obituary below we learn that her husband was a Civil War Veteran. It also states that they first settled in Roseburg, Oregon before coming to Stevens County, Washington. It makes a lot of sense, as one of their daughters and my husband’s Great Grandmother, Editha Martha Burgess was born in Oregon in 1885.

    On her death certificate we learn that her Father’s calling name was Jack instead of Andrew Jackson. Her daughter whom she had lived with, was the informant on the certificate.

    I use Family Tree Maker to create family group sheets.

    Rachel Lucinda William had a long, but probably a hard life. She had 13 children and moved around a lot with her husband and her children to make a better life for themselves. Her birth date was in 1853, however I switched to 1851 because it was on the death certificate. Her first child was born in 1866. She would have been only 15 years old. Girls back in the middle of the 19th century had to grow up fast. Despite having 13 children and moving several times, she made it almost to 80. Rachel must have been a strong and healthy woman to do all the things she did her in her life.

    A map below shows where Rachel came from and where she died. She covered a lot of territory in her life. Almost 3000 miles!

  • Johann Heinrich Becker 1861-1945

    Johann Heinrich Becker, my paternal Great Grandfather, was born 6 December 1861 in Hamminkeln and baptized in the Sankt Martini Church in Wesel, Germany. The church was destroyed during WW2. Pictures below were shared with me by the city archive in Wesel.

    Martinikirche

    Johann’s parents were the railroad worker, Franz Joseph Egidius Becker (1827-1907) and his wife Maria Sickel (1823-1908). Johann was also a rail road worker and later became a police officer.

    He married my Great Grandmother, Gertruda Johanna Görtzen (1861-?), 6 May 1884 in the same church. A picture of their marriage certificate is below.

    If you have followed my blog for a while, you know that I always talk about the side notes on birth, marriage and death certificates. They are called Randvermerke in German. They can be of utmost importance for further research. This particular side note explained that my Great Grandfather died 17 February 1945, however he was not declared dead until 1953. Wesel was attacked by the British Royal Airforce with impact and air burst weapons February 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th, 1945. The city was pretty much destroyed after these attacks. I can’t even imagine what that was like. My Great Grandfather was killed during one of these attacks and his body probably was never identified.

    December 6th is a special day in our family. It’s my brother’s and my wedding anniversary, and no it was not intended that way. My husband and I had planned on getting married the end of November. A winter storm got in the way and we couldn’t get over the mountains, so we ended up getting married December 6th. That’s the only day my husband had off from work. On the drive back, I realized that it was also my brother’s wedding anniversary. My brother’s Granddaughter was also born on December 6th.

    In Germany Sankt Nicolaus is also celebrated that day. Children will put their shoes outside their room the night before. In the morning of the 6th, they will find them filled with chocolates, nuts and other goodies.

    Sankt Nicolaus very often will also visit preschools and elementary schools. The children will sing, recite poems and receive small gifts. You can read about Nicolaus here.

    I always include a map. Johann was born in Hamminkeln and he died in Wesel, Germany. Please see below.

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