Genealogy Is An Adventure

Tag: Neuss

  • Records That Add Color

    I am participating once again in Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks challenge. This week’s headline is A Record That Adds Color.

    I do have lots of birth, marriage and death records for my ancestors and their extended families. Each record is unique and it is nice to have a copy of the original ones. Indexed records for example on the Family Search Website, will only give you dates, however you won’t find witnesses, signatures and professions. So I decided to look at all the jobs my ancestors and their extended families had starting with my paternal line.

    My Dad had his own flower wholesale business. He would pick the cut flowers up in the early morning at the auction house and then deliver them all over Düsseldorf.

    My Grandfather also had his own business. He had an upholsterer and decoration shop. His business was advertised in the 1926 Düsseldorf directory.

    My Great Grandfather was a gardener. All those beautiful parks in Düsseldorf had to be maintained.

    His name and profession were in the 1881 Düsseldorf directory. It is the second Wilhelm.

    My 2x Great Grandfather was a shoemaker and his wife, my 2x Great Grandmother had her own grocery shop. They were both in the 1855 Düsseldorf directory.

    Moving on to my parternal maternal line, my Great Grandfather, Becker, first worked for the railroad station in Hamminkeln outside of Wesel in Prussia.

    Later on he moved to Wesel and became a police officer. My 2x Grandfather Becker also worked at the rail road station in Hamminkeln. My 3x Great Grandfather Becker was a farmer in a tiny village called Messinghausen.

    Moving onto my maternal line. My Great Grandfather Sevenich also worked for the railroad, most likely in Heerdt and Neuss. Great Grandfather Schneider was a locksmith and he moved around a lot. One of my research friends had suggested that he might have helped built the world famous suspension railway in Wuppertal where he had lived.

    My 2x Great Grandfather Schneider lived in Berlin and was a master goldsmith. My 3x Great Grandfather Büttner was a sugar boiler from Steinwitz living in Berlin.

    My 2x Great Grandfather Ontrup was a damask weaver from Sandhagen living in Gadderbaum near Bielefeld and my 3rd Great Grandfather Hagemann was a shoemaker in Gütersloh.

    How do you like the variety of my ancestors professions? I absolutely love it. What jobs did your ancestors have?

    Please leave a comment below!

  • Happy Mother’s Day

    Clipart

    This Sunday, May 10th, we celebrate once again Mother’s Day here in the United States and in Germany as well. Today I will introduce you to my direct maternal line, meaning my Mother, her mother and so on.

    • 1. My Mother, Katharina Josefine Schneider, was born 4 November 1927 in Düsseldorf-Heerdt and died 12 November 1982 in Düsseldorf, Germany. She married my Dad in 1946. She loved flowers, lucky for her, my Dad owned a wholesale flower business, so there was an endless supply. I inherited all her vases. I love this particular picture of her, it was taken in 1943.
    • 2. Her Mother and My Grandmother, Adelheid Katharina Sevenich, born 24 September 1899 and died 17 October 1982 in Düsseldorf-Heerdt. She married my Grandfather in 1922. Oma was a seamstress and made cloths for all my dolls. She made the best paprika chicken and pudding desserts.
    • 3. Her Mother and my Great Grandmother, Anna Catharina Steinhaus, born 18 November 1870 and died 10 March 1958 in Düsseldorf Heerdt. She married my Great Grandfather in 1893. Anna died before I was born, so I didn’t get to meet her. She had a large family of nine children. Her picture was taken on her 25th wedding anniversary in 1918.
    • 4. Her Mother and my 2x Great Grandmother, Anna Christina Gather, was born 16 October 1842 in Büderich and died 13 May 1906 in Düsseldorf-Heerdt. She married my 2x Great Grandfather, in 1869. Her baptims is below.

    Her marriage:

    Her death certificate:

    • 5. Her Mother and my 3rd Great Grandmother, Anna Catharina Underdenbäumen (the last name literally translated means “under the trees”), was born 23 February 1808 in Neuss and died 3 February 1850 in Büderich. She married my 3rd Great Grandfather in 1832. She had a large family of 9 children.

    Her marriage:

    Her death:

    • 6. Her Mother and my 4th Great Grandmother, Maria Sibilla Gather, born 9 January 1767 in Büderich and died 4 December 1827 in Neuss. She married my 4th Great Grandfather in 1790. She had 4 children. Here is the marriage from the church book.
    • 7. Her Mother and my 5th Great Grandmother, Sibille Gertrud Korschgens (also spelled Körschgens), born 15 January 1736 and died 8 April 1817 in Büderich. She married my 5th Great Grandfather in 1758. She had 11 children.
    • 8. Her Mother and my 6th Great Grandmother, Helena Maria Kreitzen, born about 1710 and died 13 September 1757 in Büderich. She married my 6th Great Grandfather in 1732. She had 9 children.
    • 9. Her Mother and my 7th Great Grandmother was Maria Leven. I do not have any dates for her yet. Hopefully in the future I will be able to find some.

    I was able to go back nine generation for my direct maternal line. That’s pretty awesome, don’t you think?

    The first Mother’s Day in the United States was celebrated in 1908, in Germany not until 1922.

    If you like this article, please leave a comment and/or subscribe. Thank You!

  • 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.

  • Anna Catharina Unterdenbäumen 1808-1850

    Anna was my maternal third Great Grandmother. She was born 23 February 1808 in Neuß and died 3 February 1850 in Büderich, Germany. Her parents were the farmer Johann Unterdenbäumen and Maria Sibilla Gather. Anna had three sibling, two of them died in infancy before she was born, and her sister Anna Gertrud was born after her and lived to adulthood.

    Anna Catharina was married to my third Great Grandfather, Peter Jacob Gather, 7 October 1832, in Büderich which is not far from Neuß.

    Above is the marriage certificate from the registry office in Büderich. I also have the marriage record from the church. Underbäumen Anna Catharina 1850 Death

    Anna Catharina Unterdenbäumen and Peter Jacob Gather had eight children together. One of them is my second Great Grandmother, Anna Christina Gather, who was born 1842 in Büderich and died in 1906 in Heerdt. At least two more sibling lived to adulthood.

    Anna Catharina died 3 February 1850 in Büderich. She was only 41 years old. This is her death certificate. It does not give a cause of death.

    The name Unterdenbäumen literally translates into “Under The Trees”. I have not found an explanation where the name comes from. Most likely that someone had a house under the trees and started using that name once church records were being created. According to google and I cite: “Family names, or surnames, came into use in Germany during the 1500s and became a legal requirement in the 1800s. Most German surnames reflect characteristics such as these: Family, such as Ahrends (or son of Ahrend) Occupation, such as Schmidt and Mueller (or Smith and Miller)”.

    I like to include a map in my postings. Here is a modern map of where Büderich is in relation to Neuß. One has to be careful while doing research. There is another Büderich near the city of Wesel.