We now have accommodations in Bad Hersfeld for the nights of May 14 and 15 at Hotel Jägerhof-Bad Hersfeld.

While there, we will have the opportunity to meet several descendants of Johann Tobias Rödiger.

Jürgen Schmidt is the great grandson of Johann Tobias Rödiger's son, Justus. He and his wife, Edith will be our guides when we visit.

Liesel (Eichenauer) Schmitt is the great granddaughter of Johann Tobias Rödiger's daughter, Anna Katharina.

Jürgen's first cousin, Marion Scherer and Liesel's grand nephew, Jan Hebborn will also be there.

Interestingly, our plans to visit have caused Liesel and (Marion and Jürgen) to realize that they are related. They didn't realize it until now, even though they lived so close to one another.

Marion knows Liesel quite well because she is a nurse and took care of Liesel's husband in their home, when Liesel wasn't able to manage it. And Liesel remembers Jürgen when he was a small boy living just across the Rohrbach creek. She moved away from Tann in 1950, when Jürgen was 6 years old so he did not remember her. (She currently lives in Beenhausen, about 5 miles northwest of Tann).

There is also a possibility that we will meet Walter Rödiger, Jürgen's mother's brother, age 86 and the oldest living descendant of Johann Tobias Rödiger, there in Germany. But he is currently in the hospital, and I am unsure of the seriousness of his condition.

Fun stuff! And thank goodness that Jürgen and Jan speak English well so we will be able to have a meaningful conversation with our new found relatives.

Yes, it has been over a year since I last posted. Not because I lost interest, just have been busy on the Kantner side of things.
The news is that my mother and I will be in Germany/Switzerland from May 12 to June 2. For roughly the first week we will be staying with my 3rd cousin, Jürgen Schmidt and his wife Edith. Jürgen's mother was a Rödiger, and he was born in Tann, where Conrad Tobias Roediger was born. He will be taking us there for 2 or 3 days so that we can see the area and get all of my questions answered. Well, maybe, not all.

A couple of important developments have occurred as I have prepared for this trip.
1) Upon a closer inspection of Johann Tobias Rödiger and Anna Margaretha Eichenauer's marriage record, I noticed that there was a note at the bottom that hadn't been included in the translation that had been done earlier. There is a symbol of a cross and then the date 10 Oct 1883 (or 1885) under Anna Margaretha's name. When we get to the church records I will try to verify that I am reading the date correctly.
Previous family researchers have given her date of death as 1863, which if true would mean that she was not Conrad Tobias Roediger's mother. And because her name was given on Conrad's death certificate as "Gretchen Eichenauer" it was thought that Conrad's mother was his father's third wife (his first being Anna Geiger). As a matter of fact, Gretchen is a pet name for Margaretha, and if the death date that appears on Anna Margaretha's marriage record holds up, then there was no third wife. When Conrad Tobias said that he waved goodbye to his mother from a hill as he left to immigrate to America in 1881 and never saw her again, it would have been Anna Margaretha he was speaking of. And as she died within 5 years of that occasion, he would have had little opportunity to have seen her again.

2) The Eichenauers have always been a puzzle to me. A number of Eichenauers arrived from Germany and settled in Mercer Co, Ohio, and Conrad Tobias Roediger is said to have stayed with an Eichenauer relative when he first arrived here.
Anna Margaretha Eichenauer was his mother. She died in Germany. According to her marriage record, her father was Konrad, the Miller.
Anna Katharina Rödiger was his sister who married a Friedrich Eichenauer. But we do not know who his parents or siblings are. They also remained in Germany. But five of their 8 children emigrated and settled in Mercer County.
So my first order of business was to discover how this Friedrich Eichenauer who married Conrad Tobias' sister, Katharina, is related to Conrad's mother, Anna Margaretha Eichenauer.
In an attempt to learn more while we visit Germany I looked for Eichenauers in the Tann phone book. Lo and Behold there was a Friedrich Eichenauer listed (not THE Friedrich Eichenauer you understand, as he has been dead, lo these many years). So I wrote to him, and received an email from his grandson Jan, who informed me that his grandfather had died in 2012, and that he had inherited the house. Jan also informed me that his grandfather's sister Liesel Eichenauer was still living and might be able to help.
Yesterday I received a copy of a 4 generation Ahnentafel that Liesel prepared when she was 10 years old (1939). I discovered that her great grandparents were Friedrich Eichenauer and Anna Katharina Rödiger. BINGO! Except for one problem. Her Katharina was born in 1829. But Johann Tobias Rödiger and Anna Margaretha Eichenauer, as I supposed her parents to be were not married until 1847. And Anna Margaretha was only 8 years older than Katharina. Conclusion: Either Liesel's great grandmother was not the same Katharina as in our family, or our Katharina was a child of Johann Tobias' first marriage to Anna Geiger. The latter has merit on three counts. a) Both Katharinas married a Friedrich Eichenauer. That would not be impossible, given the number of Friedrichs and Katharinas in that neck of the world. b) Johann Tobias was born in 1797, so even if he married the first time at age 30, Liesel's great grand mother could have been his daughter. c) Of the births of Friedrich Eichenauer and Anna Katharina Rödiger which I have in my records, the three oldest were Tobias, born in 1850; Conrad, born in 1853; Margaret, born in 1861. According to Liesel's Ahnentafel, her grandfather, son of Friedrich and Katharina was Johann, born in 1857. See how neatly he fits into the family. In addition to the age fit, I also had a son Johann/John listed as one of their children but with no birthdate, or death date and the knowledge that he had not emigrated with his siblings.

For a probationary period during which I will attempt to verify the above "discoveries," I have placed my great grandfather as the son of Johann Tobias Rödiger and Anna Margaretha Eichenauer, and tossed Gretchen in the trash (so to speak). Actually, I will note that Anna Margaretha was aka Gretchen. On the other hand, I will take Anna Katharina away from Anna Margaretha and give her to Anna Geiger. So, in essence, Anna Margaretha lost a daughter and gained a son in this exchange. And Johann Tobias lost a wife he never really had.

Oh, and by the way, I still haven't figured out how Anna Katharina's husband, Friedrich Eichenauer fits into the rest of the Eichenauer clan, so stay tuned for more on this exciting topic.