Genealogy Is An Adventure

Tag: kauertz

  • Anna Margarethe Mertzenich 1671-?

    Anna Margarethe Mertzenich was my paternal 6th Great Grandmother. She was baptized 11 March 1671 in the Sankt Blasius catholic church in Düsseldorf-Hamm. Her parents were Hermann Mertzenich and Elisabeth von Collen. The baptismal entry you can find here and below.

    The baptism book was only recently made available online, for me that was very exciting to see the original entry from 1671. You can read about the church on Wikepedia.

    Anna Margarethe married my 6th Great Grandfather, Cornelius Kauertz, 12 November 1702 in the Sankt Dreifaltigkeit Catholic Church in Düsseldorf-Derendorf.

    The wedding church book also was also recently published online. An old postcard of the church is below.

    Ann Margarethe and Cornelius had the following children, all baptized in the same church as above.

    • 1. Henricus Wilhelmus Kauertz baptized 19 March 1704, godparents were Henricus Mertzenich, probably a brother of Margarethe, Wilhelmus Eickel and Elisabeth Nullmanns.
    • 2. Joannes Jacobus Kauertz, my 5th Great Grandfather, baptized 23 September 1705, married to my 5th Great Grandmother, Maria Magdalena Elsen, died 29 August 1781 in Derendorf. They had eight children together. Below is his baptism. Godparents are Joannes Wilhelmus Mertzenich, Jacobus? and Elisabetha?
    • 3. Anna Catharina Kauertz baptized 30 November 1706. The writing is hard to read.
    • 4. Elisabeth Gertrud Kauertz baptized 20 February 1708. Married to Antonius Cremer. The couple had 3 children. Her baptism is below.
    • 5. Maria Gertrudis Kauertz baptized 19 December 1709.
    • 6. Winandus Leornardus Kauertz baptized 25 October 1711, married to Anna Helen Maria Magdalena Gast. They had 4 children. He was also married to Anna Margareth Butzong. They had 1 child. Winandus died 17 May 1745. His baptism is below.
    • 7. Maria Catharina Kauertz, the last child, baptized 3 December 1713.

    I was able to find copies of all of the children’s baptisms. I do not know when Anna Margarethe died. She was born in Hamm and died probably in Derendorf. A map shows the distance between the two locations. It’s only about 6.4 km or 3.9 miles.

    Sources I used for this article:

  • 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:

    If you like reading my blog, please make a comment and/or subscribe!

  • Helene Catharina Mühlensieb 1783-1827

    Helene was my maternal 3rd Great Grandmother. She was born 8 April 1783 in Derendorf and died 30 August 1827 in Oberlörick, Germany. Her parents were Heinrich Mühlensieb and Anna Catharina Kauertz. Helene was baptized in the Heilige Dreifaltigkeit church. This is her baptismal record.

    Look at the beautiful penmanship! Here you can learn a little Latin. Parentes are her parents, infans is the infant and patrina are the witnesses. Helena married my 3rd Great Grandfather, Joannes Petrus Wilhelmus Goetzen, 13 April 1809 in Düsseldorf. They had only three children together, one of them was my 2nd Great Grandmother, Maria Agnes Götzen 1813-1863. Helena got married again 5 Oct 1817 in Heerdt to Joannes Mathias Glassmacher.

    Above is the marriage record from the church in Heerdt. It shows the name of the groom, the bride and their parents. It also states that Helene was a widow. Helene and Mathias had four children together. I didn’t know about the last child, Anna Maria Glasmacher 1827-1827, until I found Helene’s death entry in the church book in Heerdt.

    Helene died 31 August 1827. Right above her on August 25th is her stillborn daughter Anna Maria Glasmacher. It is so important during your research to get copies of the original records. You just never know what you might find. Helene was only 44 years old when she died.

    I always like to include a map. Helene was born and baptized in Derendorf. She also lived in Lörick and got married in the church in Heerdt. Derendorf, Lörick and Heerdt are nowadays all part of Düsseldorf.