Quick Update

Sadly, I have been unable to do any meaningful research for about two weeks now. I just wanted to let you know why. First, I was having second thoughts about retirement and I had a deadline to turn in papers by 5/1. So I was debating with myself about that. Then, the hard drive on my laptop died and I had to replace it. Then the Lacie external hard drive, which had all my genealogical documents, all of my photos since the beginning of photography in our family and all of my music, also failed before I could copy them onto my new, improved, spacious laptop hard drive. I thought that I had been backing it up on Time Machine as well. But I was wrong. So now I have the added expense of seeing if the files can be recovered. If not, then I have lost an undetermined amount of research. On the bright side, I found a copy of my photo library and music library that I had backed up at the end of February on another computer. So only about two months of photos and music are actually missing. The music was not a big deal. Most of that was on CDs and just needed to be put back on the computer. And I don’t think I took any really important photos during that time period. But the bad thing was that I had research that had not been indexed nor added to my genealogy software and have no way to reconstruct that without having the files on the external drive recovered. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.

Anyway, I have been pretty busy trying to straighten all this out as best as can be. I have determined that the laptop hard drive failure was simply due to aging and the failure of the  Lacie external drive (which is considered a very dependable drive) was due to a loose connection at the USB hub that was interrupted one too many times before I realized it, not the drive’s fault.

As to my retirement decision, I have determined that I should wait about three more years before attempting to jump ship again.

So, I think I can start thinking about researching and indexing the German records again and hopefully I will soon have something worth posting to the blog.

In closing, let me just share some advice: BACK IT UP OFTEN. :)

Heinrich Nicolaus Roediger, Reprise

In the Blog Post "George Roediger, pt 2--In America" I introduced the information that I knew about George's oldest son, Heinrich Nicolaus, who went by "Henry" here in America. At that time I had not been able to access specific information about his death other than the date and place. Since then I have been to the Auglaize County Library and Probate Office in Wapakoneta and want to present what I found.
First, in the Probate Office, the County Record of Deaths revealed the following:
Roettinger, Henry N., Male, died 23 Dec 1905. He was single, age 32Y 8M 6D. He was born in Tamgreis, and died in St. Marys. He was a laborer, white and died of a contusion. His residence at the time of death was in Washington Twp, Auglaize Co, OH. Vital Statistics: Class 5, Sub-Class 1, No. 5.

As you can see, his last name was mangled, as was the place of his birth. I believe that what the recorder meant to write for his place of birth was Tann Kreis. Kreis being the German word for circle or in geographical terms, "district" and is often used in describing an area surrounding a particular location. According to his baptismal record, found in the church records of the Lutheran Church in Tann, He was born in House #52 in Tann on 17 April 1873 at 2 in the afternoon. He was baptized in the home on 4 May 1873. He is described as a child born out of wedlock, and named in the baptismal document as Nikolaus Scheuch. His parents are described as Anna Martha Scheuch, daughter of the Bürgermeister, Nikolaus Scheuch; and George Rödiger, son of the farmer, Tobias Rödiger. A month and a half after his birth, his parents were married in the Lutheran Church in Rohrbach on 1 June 1873. (Rohrbach is just .7 miles SE of Tann, both being situated on Rohrbacher Straße, which runs along the Rohrbach Brook).

After locating the newspaper accounts of Henry Roediger's death, I found the cause of death listed in the county records rather strange, if not totally inaccurate. I found three newspaper articles describing his death. The first two are from the Auglaize County Republican and the third from the Auglaize County Democrat. All were issued on December 28, 1905.

First, the clippings from the Republican:

As you can see, these newspaper reports chronicle the accident, and attribute Henry's death to a broken neck which was the result of his horse and buggy being struck by a passenger train engine. He was a hired hand on John Arnett's farm, and as is known from the 1900 census which was cited in the Blog Post "George Roediger, pt 2--In America", he had also been living with the Arnett family.The article from the Auglaize County Democrat provides mostly the same story but is more gruesome in detailing the accident. Just warning you! The Democrat also misspells Henry's surname and provides information about his family which seems suspect to me:

There are Roettgers in the area, but it is unfortunate that the reporter was unable to distinguish between the two families. And so the line about his parents living in southern Indiana is also suspicious. Maybe I am wrong, but as far as I know, George and Augusta never lived in Indiana, even for a short while. I do know that in 1900 (Census) George was renting land in Washington Twp, Auglaize County; at the time of his marriage to Augusta (1902) he was living in St. Marys, his son George Harry was born in 1903 in Washington Twp (county birth records), Auglaize Co; his daughter, Hulda Alice was born in June, 1905 in Hopewell Twp, Mercer Co (county birth records); and in 1910 (census) he owned land in Section 30 of Hopewell Twp, Mercer Co. adjacent to William Weir. It is possible that George went to southern Indiana and was there at the time of his son, Henry's death in 1905, but if so, he had been there less than 6 months before Henry was killed and stayed no longer than 5 years afterwards according to the records I have. Some of you who have researched this more thoroughly may have deed records or other documents which would narrow this down even further. If there is any info that substantiates or refutes the Democrat's claim I am all ears.

Thus it was, by the close of 1905, George Roediger was bereft of all of his first family, save one (Anna Margaretha Agnesa), and had begun a new family with Anna Augusta Grosse-Schmidt. Together they had two children, George Harry born 24 Aug 1903, and Hulda Alice born 5 June 1905.

George Roediger, pt 3a--The Elusive Albert Schmidt

This is an addendum to my previous post "George Roediger, pt. 3"

Albert Schmidt was the first husband of Anna Augusta Grosse, who later married George Roediger in Columbus on 30 October 1902. Their marriage record states that Anna (Grosse) Schmidt was a widow.
I have been trying to find a death record for Albert. I have been able to narrow down the time of his death to the period between 2 June 1900 and 30 October 1902. The first date is from the 1900 census which was enumerated on that date in Montgomery Twp, Franklin Co, OH, and the second date is from Anna Augusta Grosse's second marriage.
It seems that this should be a simple search now that the images of Franklin Co, Ohio's Death Records are now available on FamilySearch.org. But I have not only done an automated search, but when that failed to produce results, I looked at every line of every page of death records between these two dates and came up empty.

In the last Post, I highlighted newspaper articles about an Albert Schmidt who died by his own hand in 1903. But this death took place outside of the known time frame, and took place after Anna Augusta remarried. And even though there are a number of similarities between the Albert Schmidt who Anna Augusta married and the Albert Schmidt found in the haystack in 1903, there are also several dissimilarities which I believe would rule him out. And I believe that the facts presented below positively rule out "Haystack Albert Schmidt."

The portion in purple is an addition I made after the initial post:
But for those of you who are interested, I found the death record for "Haystack Albert" on line 26 of page 350 of the Franklin Co, Ohio Record of Deaths (1890-1899, vol. 3):
Albert Schmidt, white male, age 56 years, born in Germany, married, death was sudden on 6 July 1903. Ruled a suicide by morphine poisoning. His occupation was carpenter. He lived at the corner of 9th and Sycamore. He had lived in Columbus for 14 years. The names of his parents were unknown. 

To just point out the dissimilarities from this record to what was known about our Albert Schmidt:
1) Obviously, and most compelling is that he died over 9 months after the widow and Anna Augusta and George Roediger were married, and, as you will see below, at least 2 years after her husband Albert stopped showing up as the head of household in the City Directory and Anna began showing up as the head of the household.
2) This Albert was living at a different address than what is found in any of the records pertaining to Albert and Anna.
3) This Albert was 56 years of age, which makes him 3 years older than our Albert as portrayed by the 1900 census and 14 years older than portrayed by his marriage record. (See further down for details)
4) Finally, this Albert is listed as "married" at the time of his death. But, if he was, then it wasn't to Anna Augusta Grosse, who had by that time remarried and moved to Mercer Co.

The odd part of all this is that although this Albert Schmidt had lived in Columbus for the previous 14 years, he is not to be found in the City Directory, nor the 1900 Census. Stranger and Stranger.
For added mystery, I noticed that the person listed directly above this Albert Schmidt also died from suicide by morphine poisoning on the very same day. Katie Myers was 26 (30 years younger than Albert), had only lived in Columbus for 2 weeks, and had previously lived in Zanesville, Ohio. Curiouser and curiouser.

So when, where and how did OUR Albert Schmidt meet his demise?

I am hoping that by presenting the facts that are known about Albert Schmidt, Anna Augusta's husband, one of their descendants will see this post. And maybe, just maybe someone will have a story or some hard evidence about Albert's demise.

So here are the facts that I have been able to learn:

*Name: Albert Schmidt or Schmitt (from his marriage record, and the 1900 census)
*Date and place of birth: A major discrepancy is found when comparing the marriage record and the 1900 census. The marriage record says that he was 26 years old when he was married on 14 August 1890. That would make his birth ca. 1864. However, in the 1900 census, he is listed as 49 years old with his birthdate given as July 1850. That is a huge discrepancy, and only serves to muddy the waters. But both records agree that he was born in Germany.
*Occupation: Marriage record says "carpenter" and the 1900 census says "house carpenter"
*Residence: at the time of his marriage (1890) he was living on Mohler St. or Ave., Columbus (Apparently this street's name has been changed or no longer exists)
At the time of their first daughter, Johannah's death (7/28/1891), they were living at 439 E. Deshler, Columbus.
At the time of Gertude's birth (3/3/1892), they were still living at 439 E. Deshler, Columbus.
The Columbus City Directory of 1891 and 1892 also shows Albert Schmidt living at 439 E. Deshler, Columbus.
By the time of Ervin's birth (11/23/1893), they had moved to 395 Forest, Columbus.
At the time of Gertrude's death (1/2/1900) they were living at 395 Forest, Columbus.
At the time of the 1900 census they were living at 395 Forest, Columbus.
According to the 1900 Columbus City Directory, Albert is listed as a carpenter, living at 395 Forest St, Columbus.

According to the 1901 Columbus City Directory, Anna Schmidt is listed as living at 395 Forest, Columbus. This would indicate that Albert had died by the time this year's publication had been updated.
According to the 1902 Columbus City Directory, Anna Schmidt is listed as living at 395 Forest, Columbus, and doing laundry.

The timeline created above from various records, especially the Columbus City Directory, helps us narrow down when Albert died. We now know he was still living on 6/2/1900 (1900 Census) and he had died by the time of the 1901 City Directory. So, it appears that he died sometime during the second half of 1900.

Since his death does not appear in the Franklin County Death Records, it is possible that Albert was working away from home when he died. Makes me wonder about the possibility of him working in Mercer County at the time of his death. That might explain how George Roediger met his widow. But all of this is just grasping at straws.

If any of you have access to Newspaper Archives, maybe you could be persuaded to search the Columbus paper for the death of an Albert Schmidt in either 1900 or 1901. If you are a descendant of Ervin Ernest Schmidt, I am sure you are interested in this subject, and if you have already found the answer, please speak up. This kind of unsolved mystery drives me crazy!

George Roediger, pt. 4--The Line Endures

I am going to start off with a photo from the archives which would have been more appropriate to the pt. 3 post. But, that post was long enough.

1st Row--Irvin Aufderhaar, Walter Aufderhaar, Dorothy Aufderhaar, Martha Aufderhaar

2nd Row--Anna Augusta (Grosse) Schmidt-Roediger, Margaret (Roediger) Aufderhaar, Anna Christina (Weifenbach) Roediger, Mamie (Roediger) Horn, Alfred Roediger, Bertha (Roediger) Smith

3rd Row--William Aufderhaar, Conrad Roediger, George Roediger

(ca. 1919)

Conrad and George are brothers (red line), Anna Augusta is George's second wife (blue line)
and Margaret is George's sole surviving daughter from his first marriage (green line)

The four children in front belong to William Wesley and Margaret (Roediger) Aufderhaar

The older children on the right belong to Conrad and Anna Christina (Weifenbach) Roediger

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I find it interesting that the children from George and Anna Augusta (Grosse) Schmidt-Roediger's marriage are not in the above photograph.

But they did have two children, Harry George, and Hulda Alice. And they are the main subjects of today's post.

Harry George was born on 24 August 1903. On 4 October 1925, in Mercer County, he married Louetta Margaret Fetters. Harry George and Louetta Margaret had three sons. Since this generation has members who are still with us, in order to protect their privacy, I won't go into further detail, but their names are mentioned in their mother's obit below. But, in case there are other children, I would appreciate getting filled in by members of this portion of the family. :) Harry George died on 13 January 1999 in Beavercreek, OH and was buried at Riverside Cemetery, Troy, OH.

His wife of 66 years, Louetta Margaret Fetters was born on 28 March 1904 in Hopewell Twp, Mercer Co, OH. She was the daughter of Walter E Fetters and Olive L. "Ollie" Miller. Louetta died on 25 January 1992 and is also buried in Riverside Cemetery. What is somewhat disconcerting to me is that they have no memorial page on FindAGrave.com linked to Riverside Cemetery. Harry has a Memorial page (#23207845) but it list his place of burial as "unknown". FindAGrave.com is a great resource and I have contacted Mike Dearbaugh, the creator of Harry George's Memorial to advise him of the cemetery that he is buried in. I have also created a Memorial page for Louetta (#188483280) and linked her to Harry, as well as to her parents, who already have Memorial pages.

I would like to know more about Louetta's progenitors. Comment to this post if you would be willing to help me flesh that out.

Hulda Alice was born on 5 June 1905. On 12 November 1924 she married George Edward Luth (9/5/1901-1/9/1970) son of John H. Luth and Anna L. Frahm. They had 6 children (that I know of). In this case, I do not have obits or death notices for the parents that might reveal the identities of their children. But I am certain that four of the six children have died. Three died before the age of 10.

*Helen Pauline was born 9 July 1925 and died 23 January 1937 of pneumonia.

*Alice Marie was born 5 August 1927 and died just one day before her sister, also of pneumonia.

*Grace Irene was born 6 April 1933 and died on 19 February 1937 from a sore throat and heart condition. All three are buried in Buck Cemetery, Mercer Co, OH

*Florence Eileen was born 19 August 1929, married Donald Lee Bollenbacher on 18 June 1950. They had four children. Eileen died 26 July 2017. Donald was born on 17 April 1929 in Jay County, IN and died on 18 December 2016 in Van Wert (Inpatient Hospice Care), Van Wert Co, OH. They resided in the Rockford area, Mercer Co. They are both buried in Saint Pauls United Church of Christ Cemetery, Rockford.

It was Eileen who shared with me, in 2012, the picture of Anna (Grosse) Schmidt with two of her children in front of their house in German Village. --See the previous Post--

She shared a number of other photos with me at that time that pertain to her father's side of her family. She also had this clipping that I am sure you will find interesting, so I include it here:

The Singing Roedigers--Kenneth Earl Roediger, son of John Henry and Anna Christina (Eschmeyer) Roediger,
his wife, Magdaline Grewe and their four children, Shirley, Connie, Joann and Gary

I would certainly like to have a copy of that 45 rpm record. I don't suppose there any still out there? I have the means to digitize it, in case anybody has one residing in a box in the closet. Just sayin'

Before I conclude this series on George Roediger, I should provide you with the facts concerning the conclusion of his sojourn here on earth. I still have work to do to come up with the supporting documents. What I know, I received from my mom's research, and the research of Margaret (Henkener) Aufderhaar, which I have misplaced. I know it is within 10 feet of me, so it isn't really lost. And again I am indebted to Eileen (Luth) Bollenbacher, who supplied me with George's obit. *George Roediger died on 5 March 1934 in Mercer Co, OH at the age of 79 years. *His wife of 31 years, Anna Augusta died on 1 March 1940 in Celina. They are buried in Row 8, Section C, on the West side of Swamp College Cemetery, Rt. 29, west of Celina. If you notice in Anna's obit, there is more that can be learned about her family. She had a sister, Mrs. Agnes Oche living in Columbus. I am also aware of a brother, Emil (buggyseat maker) and August. But all of this is fodder for another post.

Well, I think I have finally wrapped up my series on George Roediger. I hope that you have found some useful information. And please be sure to let me know if I have mis-stated anything, or if you would like to provide additional information.

The formatting engine for this Blog is weird. So was unable to put George's obit directly under this. Check below Anna's Obit.

George Roediger, pt. 3--A New Wife (and Her Previous Marriage)

Frankly, I am posting this with some fear and trepidation. I feel like I am crawling out on a weak limb to grab the cat stuck up a tree, or skating on thin ice.
"Why?" you ask. I'm glad you asked. I have two main reasons.
First, I'm dealing with a part of the family that others reading this blog are more closely connected to than I am and who have done more research than I have. Some also have had direct contact with George and his second family, so stories may have been told that I am not aware of.
Second, the research I have done has left me with more questions than answers, and has left me to speculate on the validity of certain information that I have found. I don't want to draw the wrong conclusions and misrepresent the facts.

As always, I appreciate your feedback. But in this case I am begging for it. Help me to separate fact from speculation so we can all get a clear picture of George and his second family.

With that disclaimer and begging out of the way, let's begin.

On 30 October 1902, George Rödiger married Anna Augusta (Grosse) Schmidt. Their marriage record was recorded in Franklin County, Ohio.

Facts:

George was a farmer, living in St. Marys, Ohio, widower, 44 years old--the rest is old news, but verifies his identity.

Anna Augusta was living in Columbus, Ohio. She was born 18 October 1864, in Germany to August Grosse and Wilhelmina Buttner. She was previously married to man with the last name Schmidt,

 who is now deceased.

Their marriage was solemnized by Rev. Richard Plüddermann.

Questions which arise:
1) How did a farmer from St. Marys meet his bride who lived 90 miles away in Columbus, Ohio?
2) Did their families know each other in Germany?
3) What church were they married in? Does the name of the minister provide a clue?
4) What was Anna Augusta's first husband's given name?
5) When did she immigrate, and did she come alone or with her parents?
6) Why were their ages given in terms of the year following their marriage? This is highly unusual, since they had already had birthdays in the current year of 1902. Was one or the other of these dates a mistake?

Of the above questions, I have only found answers to #4 and #6. I'll address #6 first.
Q #6) Upon further review of the other three marriage records on this page solemnized in October of 1902, two of them also gave ages in terms of a birthdate in 1903. So that does not appear to be unusual in Franklin Co. Still odd though. I know from George's birth record in Tann that his correct date of birth is 24 May 1854. So, the record is already two days off. So, by adding 44 years (which is given as his age) to 1854, I get 1898. Since according to the record he would have been 44 on his birthdate in 1903, there is a 5 year discrepancy. This makes the age info for both spouses suspect.

Q #4--What was Augusta's first husband's given name? Page 468 of the Franklin County, Ohio Marriage Record Index provides the answer (left and right sides of the record have been copied separately to make it almost legible to the naked eye):

Bride's portion first, last line:

Augusta Grosse, age 24, native German, not previously married, resides on S. 5th,
marriage solemnized by Carl Ackermann, St. Johns

Bridegroom's portion, last line:

Marriage: 14 August 1890, Albert Schmitt, age 26, native German, carpenter by trade,
not previously married, resides on Mohler

From this record I learned that the first husband of Anna Augusta Grosse was Albert Schmitt. I learned his age, ergo his approximate birth date (1864), where he was born, where he resided and what he did for a living. I learned when, where and by whom Albert and Augusta were married, as well as where she was living at the time.
It was from George's marriage to Augusta that I derived her birth date of 18 October 1864. Since I am now suspicious of that information, it does not surprise me to learn that Albert and Augusta's marriage record tells a different tale. According to her marriage to Albert, she was 24 years old when they married on 14 August 1890. Math wizards out there may want to check out my calculations, but I think this works out to mean that her birth date was between 15 August 1865 and 14 August 1866. And of course this isn't consistent with the 18 October 1864 from her marriage with George Rödiger.

Questions:
1) When was Anna Augusta Grosse really born?
2) When did Albert Schmitt/Schmidt die?
3) Did Albert and Augusta have any children?

Let me address Q #3, Did Albert and Augusta have children. The answer is, yes. Three that I'm aware of.
Their first child was Johannah. My source for this FamilySearch.org, Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001, Franklin, Death Records 1890-1899, pp. 98-99. I have the image for this but, in this case I think it would be simpler for me to just give you the data found in this record:
Name: Schmitt, Johannah
Color: W
Sex: F
Age: 6 months
Place of Birth: City
Marital Status: --
Duration of Illness: 3 days
Date of Death: 28 July 1891
Cause of Death: convulsions from acute gastro-enteritis
Physician: W. B. Schueller
Occupation: --
Residence: 439 E. Deshler
Tenement or Private Residence: Private
Time of Residence in Columbus: 6 months
Place of Previous Residence: --
Name of Father: Albert Schmitt
Name of Mother: Augusta Schmitt
Nativity of Father: German
Nativity of Mother: German
Place of Intended Interment: Green Lawn
Date of Intended Interment: 1 August 1891
Name of Undertaker: George G Schoedinger

In addition to this record, there is also a Memorial page for Johannah on FindAGrave.com, memorial # 62298404. If you take time to look it up, you will find a photo of the location of her grave. There is no stone, but someone has very thoughtfully made a sign and posted it at the grave site.
In addition to the photo, there is a burial card, which probably is from the Green Lawn Cemetery records. Don't confuse this cemetery with the one in Wapak. The Green Lawn referred to here is in Columbus, just south of I-70 and adjacent to German Village. I was hoping to post a digital image of that card here but am awaiting permission from the one who posted it. It is available on the FindAGrave.com website. I will tell you that the info on the card differs slightly (sigh) from the death record cited above. It gives her date of death as July 30, rather than July 28, and her cause of death as "Summer Complaint." I'm no doctor, so maybe Summer Complaint is another term for acute gastro-enteritis. However, the burial card does give a birth date of 24 January 1891 which is consistent with the age of 6 months given in the county death record.

Their second child was Gertrude. My sources for this child are Franklin County Record of Births vol. 5, p 172-173, Entry #238 and FindAGrave Memorial #62298515.
The former tells us that Gertude Schmith was born on 3 March 1892 in Columbus. Her parents are given as Albert Schmith and Anna Grosse, who lived at 439 E. Deshler.
The latter has another burial card, which gives Gertrude's birth as 15 March 1892, death from Scarlet Fever on 2 January 1900, and burial in Green Lawn Cemetery on 3 January 1900. Need I point out the birth date inconsistency? Anywho, the parents names are given as Albert and Anna Schmidt.

Their third child was Ervin Earnest. His birth record was recorded in vol 6, pp. 22-23 of the Franklin County Records, Entry #920 and tells us that Ervin Schmidt was born 25 November 1893, his parents were Albert Schmidt and Anna Grosse, who were now living at 395 Forrest. (I actually have visited both locations and have the photos to prove it--however, the one on Deshler has large trees and shrubbery obscuring the view. But here is a photo of their house on Forest St. It is quite small, and was a step down from the house on Deshler.

395 Forest St, Columbus, OH

After I had taken this picture in July, 2012, I visited Eileen (Luth) Bollenbacher in October, She had an old photo of Augusta (Grosse) Schmidt-Roediger. But she could not identify where it was taken. I had one of those spine-tingling moments and said, "I know exactly where that was taken," and showed her my photo. And now I will show you hers:

Anna Augusta Schmidt, with children, Gertrude and Ervin Schmidt (ca. 1896)

And a close up of Augusta and the kids:

After his mother and George Roediger married, Ervin moved with them to Hopewell Twp, Mercer County, OH. He married Martha Clara Etta Now in 1915, had four children that I have identified, died 22 February 1963 in Celina and is buried in Buck Cemetery, Mercer Co.

I have a pretty extensive collection of photos of headstones from Buck Cemetery, but not Ervin and Martha's. So, if anyone "happens" to go headstone hunting, would you snap a picture of theirs for me? :)

Now I will return to an earlier question that I posited: When did Augusta's first husband, Albert Schmidt die? Frankly, this has been stumping me for a long, long time. I may have I found some articles about his death, but there are a couple of things that bother me about this particular Albert Schmidt. Unfortunately, I can't find any other Albert Schmidt who died in Franklin Co who fits the profile. This Albert Schmidt does in part, although some of the dates are problems.

Is this Anna Grosse's husband, mentioned in the German Language Newspaper in Columbus?:

Westbote Zeitung, 8 July 1903
"Sought rest in death and found it too. By means of morphine he shook off the burden of life from himself
--Albert Schmidt, a German ..."

And an article in an English Language Newspaper:

Columbus Dispatch, 8 July 1903

I hope you can read this, because it is too late in the day to transcribe it. Note the similarities between the Albert we know, and that of the man in this article. Same name, German, middle-aged (about 40), was found in the German Village area (Central Ave and Mound St--there ain't no farms there anymore, I can tell ya) and "it is said he was a carpenter." All of that fits. What doesn't fit is that he died 8 months after George and Augusta were married. But their marriage record states that she was a widow. If this is the right guy, then, well, you can see why I was a little nervous about this subject. Not that I'm saying he is. I just don't have any other candidates at this point. And it is an interesting story to end this segment on. There was another short article in the Columbus Citizen on the same day about the mysterious Albert Schmidt and his suicide note.

Another thing that bothers me about this Albert Schmidt: There is nothing in these articles that indicates that he was currently married, or ever had been. That goes for his suicide note as well. There is some ranting about property, but nothing about a wife or children. So, help me out here. Has anyone found another Albert Schmidt that would fit the bill? If so, please step forward.

There are, of course, two more children in George and Augusta's future. So, stay tuned for "pt. 4, the George Roediger Line Endures"

Johannes August Rödiger (7/9/1889-?)

New info on Johannes August Rödiger that I have recently found.

I stumbled across his marriage while researching records in the village of Liedersdorf (AKA Lüdersdorf) near Bebra.

So, first off, let me orient you on how Johannes August fits into the family tree. He was the son of Justus Rödiger, the older brother of George and Conrad Tobias, all three being the children of Johann Tobias Rödiger and Anna Margaretha Eichenauer. George and Tobias emigrated to Ohio, but Justus stayed in Germany, and became Bürgermeister (mayor) of the village of Tann from 1880-1887.

Justus was born on 10 September 1850. He married twice. First, to Anna Margaretha Lotz on 27 April 1773 at the Lutheran Church in Tann. They had seven children. The oldest was Johannes Heinrich (AKA John Henry) who emigrated to Ohio in 1893 and married Anna Christina Eschmeyer. After his first wife died (8 April 1886), Justus married Anna Katharina Ernestine Hornickel on 17 October 1886. John Henry later related to his own children that one of the reasons that he left home and came to America was the treatment he and his siblings received at the hand of his new stepmother. She fed them less and poorer quality food than her own children received and they were forced to sleep in the barn which was attached to the house.

Justus and Anna Katharina Ernestine Hornickel, his second wife (the “wicked step-mother”) had two children that I have been able to identify. The first was Barbara Katharina Ernestine (7/30/1887-12/18/1940). And the second was the subject of this blog post, Johannes August. He was born in Tann on 9 July 1889, and baptized in the Evangelische Kirche on 4 August 1889. That was all I had been able to discover about him before I recently discovered his marriage record:

To summarize what is found in this record, the second column reveals that Johann August Rödiger was a Landwirt (farmer, cultivator of the soil), son of Justus Rödiger (also a Landwirt) and his wife, Katharine Ernestine, whose maiden name was Hornickel. Johann(es) August was born 9. July 1889, reformed confession (Lutheran) in Tann.

The third column gives the particulars concerning his bride: Anna Katharina Brehm was the daughter of Konrad Brehm and Anna Maria, whose maiden name was Claus. Anna Katharina was born on 15 April 1889, reformed confession in Lüdersdorf.

The fourth column records the place and date of the required registration to marry (like a marriage license here in the US. They registered to marry in the village of Breitenbach on 16 October 1920. They were both 31 years old. While we, here in the USA, are used to marriages taking place at much younger ages, based on my research, this was a relatively "normal" age to marry during this period of time in Hesse. And though it does not specify in this record, it does appear that this was the first marriage for both. I was going to go through all the reasons for this conclusion, but after writing it all out it got rather verbose, so I scratched it.

The fifth column is the Kirchliche Aufgebote, which we might know as "Banns" in which the couple's intention to marry are proclaimed before the congregation on two or three separate occasions prior to the marriage. In this case the Aufgebot was proclaimed on 26 September and again on 3 October.

Finally in the sixth column, is the date and place of the wedding. The wedding of Johann(es) August Rödiger and Anna Katharina Brehm took place on 17 October 1920 in the church [of Lüdersdorf].

Below is a Google Map showing the proximity of Lüdersdorf to Tann, just a nice 4 mile hike through the woods and fields:

I have been searching for children of J. August and A. Katharina, but have been stymied in that attempt, because the last Lüdersdorf Church Book, which covers the years 1830-1937, only has baptismal records up through 1920, the year they were married.

I also have not found a death record for J. August yet. However, I did find his wife's government issued death record on Ancestry.com. She died 13 June 1956 in House #16, Lüdersdorf (the same house she was born in). And according to the record, J. August appears to still be living. So, for now, the date of his death is unknown, but placed some time later than 6/13/1956.

So, now you know all that I know about John Henry Roediger's half-brother, Johann August Rödiger. Just another piece of Eichenauer-Roediger puzzle I am putting together.

George Rödiger, pt 2-- "in America"

This post is a continuation of the last post, so if you haven't already, you might want to read it first. It may have been better to put one of George's descendants to work on this subject because I have just the bare bones facts to relate. But I shall supply what I know, and hope for comments to help flesh it out.

If you have photos or newspaper clippings that relate to this, let me know so we can post something more complete in the future.

When George arrived in Ohio in 1888, he was reunited with his brother, Conrad Tobias (my great-grandfather) and his first cousins (who were also his half-nephews), Tobias, Conrad, Adam and Justus (Gus) Eichenauer who had preceded him to Ohio. I found a file card pertaining to his naturalization in the Auglaize County Courthouse, Probate Office, in Wapakoneta which says that George arrived at Baltimore on December 4, 1888, and was became a naturalized citizen on 24 October 1896.

The ship record itself says, Dec. 3, and his obituary says Dec. 6, so there is a bit of a discrepancy but nothing critical at all.

As you may remember from pt. 1, George arrived in Baltimore with his five surviving children, Nicolaus, age 15; Conrad, age 11; Elisabeth, age 9 and Margaretha, age 4.
Since the Census Record of 1890 was almost completely destroyed in a fire in Washington DC, we do not have the first census record that George and his family would have been found in. Twelve years after their arrival, George appears in the 1900 Census of Washington Twp, Auglaize County, Ohio. I have reproduced just the first half of the page, otherwise it would be too small for you to read. However, the right half of the page does inform us that the Roedigers were born in Germany, immigrated in 1888 and had lived in the US for 12 years, and that George was a naturalized citizen.
What I want you to see from this census is that the only child still living at home is the youngest daughter, Margaret, who is now 16. This should not be too surprising since her elder siblings would have all been old enough to have "left the nest."

According to the Auglaize County Death records, two of George's children died in 1895 of "brain fever" just a little over a month apart: Conrad George on 25 September 1895, age 18 years and 1 day; and Anna Katharina Elisabeth on 28 October 1895, age 16 years and 8 days. I know the graphic is difficult to read. I can send you a copy of this page if you request it.

This left George's oldest child, Heinrich Nicolaus and Margaretha. Heinrich Nicolaus went by "Henry" and I found him in Washington Twp, Auglaize County, Ohio in the 1900 Census listed as Henry N. Roediger:

Again, I have cut off the righthand side of the page to make this more legible. What I discovered is that Henry was single, working as a servant (right side of page specifies "farmhand") and living with the John M. Arnett family. What is unusual is that his age is listed as unknown and no birth date info is provided. It may be that Henry was away or out on the "back 40" when the enumerator arrived, and the Arnett's didn't know Henry's birthdate or year, so it was left blank. According to the righthand side of the record, Henry could read, write and speak English and was born in Germany, as were his parents.

Sadly, Henry did not live until the 1910 census. His headstone can be found in Arnett Cemetery, located on the Moulton-New Knoxville Rd, between Washington Pike and Weifenbach Rd. south of Moulton in Auglaize Co.

"Henry Roediger died Dec. 23, 1905, aged 32y, 8m 6d"
"We shall meet again dear brother in a brighter clime than this,
where the anguish of this world of ours is lost in deathless bliss."

While attempting to discover  Henry's cause of death, through the Auglaize county death records, I discovered that the death records for those who died between 1899 and 1909 are completely missing.  This is very mysterious and of course, leaves us in the dark as to Henry's cause of death. I feel obligated to investigate the cause for this, and determine if these records were stashed in a separate book that was never digitized or if they are gone forever.

So, I have had to fall back on the recollections of my Dad, who at one time said that he thought that Nicolaus Heinrich Roediger had been hit and killed by a train. I would appreciate hearing from any of you that might be able to shed some light on this. If nothing is forthcoming, I will try to peruse the Wapak newspaper collection the next time I get to Wapak to see if I can find an obituary or an article concerning his death.

In any case, out of the 9 children from George's first marriage, 5 died under age 6, before he came to America. Of the remaining 4, two died in their teens from "brain fever" and 1 died at age 32 without marrying, from a cause yet to be discovered.

That leaves Anna Margaretha Agnesa "Margaret", whom I am happy to say survived her childhood, married William Wesley Aufderhaar and they had 9 children of their own and numerous descendants.

I can only imagine the sadness that must have been in George Roediger's heart, to lose his wife and five children in their childhood and his house and barn to a fire; to come to America for a fresh start and within a relatively short time lose three more children in the prime of their lives. I do not know how this affected his outlook on life, but he did not give up on life, of that I am sure.

And that story will be part of an upcoming post, "George Roediger, pt. 3--A New Family".

Stay Tuned!

George Rödiger, Immigrant (to Ohio), pt. 1--Life in Germany

I have changed the name of the post, because I made a silly blunder in entitling it "George Rödiger, Last Rödiger-Eichenauer Immigrant to Ohio." Thankfully, a reader connected with John Henry Roediger's line corrected me in the comments. For an explanation of the change see the comments at the bottom of the post. I ALWAYS appreciate feedback and corrections. I have been known to make mistakes. Sometimes I catch them and sometimes I don't. And while catching that mistake, I realized that I had been twice wrong. Not only was George not the last, he was also not the next to last. So to recap the order in which our ancestors arrived:

Tobias Eichenauer arrived in 1867
Conrad and Adam Eichenauer in 1880
Conrad Tobias Rödiger in 1881
Justus (Gus) Eichenauer in 1883
George Rödiger in 1888
Johann Heinrich Rödiger in 1893
Lizzie Eichenauer in 1896.

So George was in fact, the third to last to emigrate!

Now that I have set the record straight, I will just write about George, and about his family prior to emigrating.

If you have been following this blog, you will wonder why I am not following up with "The Eichenauer Geography, pt. 2"? It ain't ready yet. And I just spent all morning looking for George Rödiger's passenger list record--so it is fresh in my mind. So just bear with me. I shall do the follow-up on the Eichenauer Geography. Soon. Hopefully.

George Rödiger, the subject of this blog post, was an older brother of my great grandfather, Conrad Roediger. George was the next to last of the Eichenauer-Roediger clan (that I know of) to immigrate to the USA, George's nephew, Johann Heinrich (John Henry) Rödiger being the last. This George did in 1888 with four of his children. I made a brief mention of George when I wrote a post about his first wife, Anna Martha Scheuch, on May 29, 2017 entitled "The Baptismal Record of Anna Martha Scheuch".

George Roediger (clipped from his second marriage wedding photo)

George Rödiger was born in the village of Tann, in the District of Hersfeld-Rotenburg on 24 May 1854. He was the third child of Johann Tobias Rödiger and his second wife, Anna Margaretha Eichenauer. He had an older stepsister (25 years older), Anna Katharina Rödiger, who married his mother's brother, Johann Friedrich Eichenauer. That makes his stepsister his aunt as well. (I'll wait while you work that one out . . . Got it? OK good!)
He also had a four full siblings, two older and two younger than himself: Katharina Elisabeth (5 years older), Gustav (Justus) (3 years older), Katharina Elisabeth II (3 years younger) and Conrad Tobias (11 years younger).
All of his siblings reached adulthood and married, which I must tell you from my experience indexing records in Tann and neighboring villages during this time period, was rather unusual. Unfortunately, as you will soon learn, George's own family more or less followed the normal pattern.

Evangelische Kirche von Rohrbach

George married Anna Martha Scheuch on 1 June 1873 at the Lutheran Church of Rohrbach, just a few kilometers up the road from Tann.
Over the next 13 years, Anna Martha gave birth to 9 children. Sadly, as often happened, three of their children died less than three months old, another at age two, and a fifth child at age six. To add to George and Martha's sadness, on 1 May 1886, their house and barn burned to the ground. And even after much investigation, the cause of the fire was never discovered. (An account of this event was recorded in the book, 650 Jahre Tann, Geschichte und Brauchtum, p. 375)
Then, on 5 June, just a month after the fire, Martha gave birth to her last child, Anna Katharina, and on the 6th, Martha died during "Wochenbett" a period of 6-8 weeks following delivery. Usually this means that there were complications resulting from childbirth (from what I have been able to learn from the good old internet) probably due to unsanitary conditions. Their last child, Anna Katharina died just 2 months later, leaving George with four children, ages 13, 9, 5 and 2 and no home for himself, nor his livestock. The book, does say that within a year a new abode was built. The German text is unclear to me. Perhaps Regina could weigh in on this. The text reads, "Der durch diesen Brand erforderlich gewordene Neubau würde in den folgenden Jahren nachhaltig mit dem Schulneubau in Verbindung gebracht." My reading of this might mean that his new house was built in conjunction with the building of a new schoolhouse, or that his new house was attached to the new schoolhousel.
There was a story in our family that George Rödiger helped build the schoolhouse in Tann. The article in the book about the fire and the subsequent rebuilding lends credence to that story. When mom and I visited there in 2014, we saw the schoolhouse, which today is a community center. And ironically, the fire department is now attached to this building.

Yep. That is me, touching the former schoolhouse. The Fire Department is attached to the far end, but out of the frame

Nevertheless, George soon decided to join his younger brother, Conrad Tobias (my great-grandfather) and his cousins in Ohio.

So, in November of 1888, he packed up his belongings and headed for the port of Bremen. In the Subsequent Remarks column of George's baptismal record someone wrote (and I roughly translate): "On June 1, 1873 George married Anna Martha Scheuch, who died in 1886 on the 8th of June. In November 1888 he emigrated to America with four children."

And according to his obituary, George and his children arrived in America on December 6, 1888. When searching for the passenger list, I relied on Ancestry.com to provide the image just by entering a few of the known factors into the search parameters. I got nothing. Well, not exactly nothing, but nothing that had anything to do with this George Rödiger. There is a George Rödiger who immigrated in 1878. That has me curious, but I have forced myself to ignore that record for the time being.

So, I did it the hard way. And by the way, sometimes it takes some heavy lifting or pure luck to find a record. In this case it took me about 4 hours. This is the process I used (just so you know I am actually WORKING on this stuff).

Originally, I did not know which port they departed from, nor did I know which port they arrived in, Stateside. Since all of the New York and Baltimore Arrivals are indexed, and George did not appear to be in them, I decided to go start with the possible ports of departure. Usually, our German immigrants either left from Hamburg or Bremen and occasionally from Amsterdam or Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Since all of the Bremen Passenger Lists from that time period were systematically destroyed after 3 years to make room for new ones--I'd like to have a heart-to-heart chat with the bureaucrat who made that policy. Grrrr--I started with the records from Hamburg. They are also indexed on ancestry.com, but a search did not return any correct records. So, I began going through each passenger list of each ship bound for the US during the month of November. Then, since I got no satisfaction, I continued on until the end of 1888. Nada, Nichts, Zilch. Grrrr again.

So, I turned my attention back to the arrival passenger lists. Eenie, meenie, miney, mo. How come spell check is going crazy all of a sudden? Anyway, I had to choose between the two most obvious ports of arrival, New York and Baltimore, and just hope George didn't decide to do the New Orleans route. That would really make me growl. Still, it was a toss up, and fortunately for me I chose Baltimore. On December 3, 1888, the SS Hermann out of Bremen docked at Baltimore Harbor and listed the passengers that disembarked. On page 10, the Rödigers were indexed as the Pridiger family, passengers #549-553. I have offered a correction to the Index Committee, so maybe in the future it won't be like pulling teeth for others to find this record.

There is more to the right of this image, but to provide the entire record would make the important stuff too small to read. So, I will summarize what you can't see. The Rödigers, who were housed in Steerage, left Germany and were arriving in Maryland as "protracted sojourners" with one, count them, 1 piece of luggage among them. Talk about starting over from scratch.

In case the above script is still a bit illegible, I will transcribe:

#549--Georg Rödiger, age 34, male, occupation: Blacksmith

#550--Nicolaus Rödiger, age 15, male, occupation: none

#551--Conrad Rödiger, age 11, male, child

#552--Elisabeth Rödiger, age 9, female, child

#553--Margaretha Rödiger, age 4, female, child

I was surprised to learn that George was a blacksmith. I hadn't seen that occupation associated with him before. And everyone arrived safely. That didn't always happen, and with their recent difficulties, well ...

And the date of arrival was three days earlier than the date given in George's obit. But close enough to make it findable.

We will probably never know the actual departure date since the records from Bremen are gone, but a the arrival link in the chain serves us pretty well.

I was planning on continuing on with their saga in Ohio, but since this is already lengthy, another "Pt. 2" is in order. I'll get back to it, I promise. George's woes are not over (sort of like "A Series of Unfortunate Events" in real life, sad to say). So, until next time, or maybe the time after that ...

The Eichenauer Geography (pt. 1)

The Eichenauers of Mercer County, Ohio and the Roedigers of Auglaize County, Ohio have an intertwined family history which begins in a small village of about 300 inhabitants in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg District of the German State of Hesse called Tann. While the Rödigers had lived in this village for generations (Henn Rödiger was listed in one document from 1627 as one of 12 farmers in Tann, most of whom had 1 horse and oxen), the Eichenauers were relative newcomers.

It appears that Johann Konrad Eichenauer and his wife, Anna Katharina Jacob moved to Tann after their eleventh child was born on 21 September of 1833 and before their twelfth child was born on 10 September 1836.

My intention in this blog is to show via modified Google Earth Maps (since I can't take you on a personal bus tour) where the Eichenauers came from before moving to Tann and about how long they lived in those locations. Since my research has only been able to learn the birthplaces of Johann Konrad Eichenauer's ancestors back to his grandfather, this shall be a fairly short "lesson." But hopefully you will get a spacial concept that will serve you in further research forays. And, of course, if you have access to Google Earth or even Google Maps, you can follow along in one of those programs and enhance your experience by zooming in on whatever floats your boat.

First, let me show you a map of Germany in relation to her neighbors in Europe:


The individual States of Germany are outlined in blue. Hesse is located almost in the geographical center of Germany. Frankfurt is the largest city of Hesse, so if you find the blue line that surrounds Frankfurt, you have found Hesse.
Sadly, I have been stymied in my attempts to show all of Hesse and and also have Google Earth show some of the midsize cities in Hesse that you might be familiar with. So this next map does show Frankfurt in the south and Kassel in the north, surrounded by the blue line indicating the borders of Hesse. After you have studied it for a few moments you can move on to the next map which will zoom in on the northern area of Hesse indicated by the area outlined in red.

 

The map below is semi-sort-of the area framed in red on the map above, and begins to show some of the smaller towns. Again, I have framed an area in red that will be enlarged on the following map.



Zooming a little closer on the area framed in red above, we can now find Tann on the map below, which is about 4 miles north of Bad Hersfeld.



I am now going to enlarge the area around Hof Trunsbach so that you can see the locality a bit better before I explain it's significance.



As I wrote earlier in this blog, Johann Konrad and Anna Katharina Eichenauer moved to Tann between 1833 and 1836. But before coming to Tann, they had been residents of Niederthalhausen, about 3 miles up the road. Johann Konrad and Anna Katharina were married in the Niederthalhausen church, their first 11 children had been born in Haus 18 in Niederthalhausen and baptized the this church. When I visited Tann, I wasn't aware of the significance of Niederthalhausen to our family history, so never visited there. However, thanks to Youtube I was able to lasso a photo of the church there. If you search for "Evangelische Kirche von Niederthalhausen" on Youtube, you can watch a short video that shows several views of the church and captures the tolling of the bells in the church tower. The link is Niederthalhausen ev. Dorfkirche

The church is located just below the yellow pushpin

Although Johann Konrad lived in Niederthalhausen with his family from 1815 to about 1835 when they moved to Tann, he wasn't born there. He and his 7 siblings were born at the Hof Trunsbach, which I wrote about in a previous blog. If you refer back to the map image just before that of the Evangelische Kirche, you will see that the Hof was located about 3/4 mile SE of Niederthalhausen. Johann Konrad Eichenauer's grandfather, Johann George (1727-1822) had come to the Hof Trunsbach with his family to become its "Conductor" in 1794. Succeeding generations of Eichenauers held that position for almost 100 years (until 1888).

But of course, only one person could hold that position, so other members of the family found it necessary to find other positions either on the Hof or elsewhere. In a future blog, I intend to show where some of the children and grandchildren went from the Hof and what occupations they pursued.

[On 1 Feb 2020, I reviewed this post and was startled to discover several factual errors in this paragraph. Please see my post from 2/1/2020 for corrections and additions to this paragraph--SRR] I now know that Johann George Eichenauer, the first Eichenauer who held the position of Hof Trunsbach Conductor had at least three sons by his wife, Anna Catharina Schäfer who was born in Angersbach. The first two sons were born in Grebenau, where their father was born. 1. Johann Heinrich (1764-1813) was Johann Konrad's father. It appears that Johann Heinrich inherited the Conductor position when his father died, but about this I am not 100% sure. 2. Johannes  Eichenauer (1773-1836) married Barbara Elisabeth Sunkel from Reilos and had 9 children, two sons and seven daughters. 3. Konrad Eichenauer, about whom I have learned very little because the church records from Grebenau are not yet available online. I do know that he was living in Angersbach in 1823 (his mother's hometown) because of the baptismal record of a niece who was named after his wife, Anna Margaretha Möller. It may be that Konrad was already married and settled in a career in Angersbach when his father moved to Hof Trunsbach with the other two sons. Hopefully, sometime soon those records will be available to solve this little mystery.

From the above paragraph, I revealed where this branch of the Eichenauer clan lived prior to 1794. But look at the map below to gain some perspective:



First note the distance between Grebenau (where Johann George Eichenauer was born) and Angersbach (where his wife was born). [I subsequently have learned that Johann George Eichenauer, his wife and four of their five children were born in Angersbach. They moved to Grebenau between 1770 and 1772 where their fifth child was born--SRR] It looks to be about 10-12 miles as the crow flies. These two towns are located in a different district from Tann and Niederthalhausen which are in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg District. The District that Grebenau and Angersbach is in is called Vogelsbergkreis which is outlined in light green.

Now note the distance between Hof Trunsbach and Grebenau. It calculates out to be about 24-25 miles. I am not sure how to measure the significance of the distance between these two locations, but if they left family behind in Grebenau or Angersbach, it would certainly limit the number of times they would visit one another. Perhaps we will never learn the reasons behind making such a move but it prompts me to ask myself questions: Was the opportunity of being the manager of the Hof just too good to pass up? Were there limited economic opportunities in the Vogelbergkreis that forced them to seek work further from home?

Hopefully the following diagram will be legible. It provides the basic information that I have been able to learn about Johann George Eichenauer and Anna Catharina Schäfer's children and grandchildren. I believe this is all included in my ancestry.com tree "Rödiger Family Tree" and there, where possible, I have provided citations in the descriptions of each event. As a reminder, the NW Ohio Eichenauers descend from Johann Konrad Eichenauer, son of Johann Heinrich Eichenauer, son of Joann George Eichenauer.
And finally, just to ramp up your curiosity, I would draw your attention to the second son of Johannes Eichenauer (second column), Heinrich Eichenauer who died in 1899 in Lancaster Twp, Butler County, PA. Had you heard of Pennsylvania cousins?

Frohes Neues Jahr!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROHES NEUES JAHR!

I am so behind on everything. I managed to buy Christmas cards but didn't get them sent out. So, don't feel snubbed if you didn't get one. I guess this means I have a head start on Christmas 2018, if I don't lose them between now and then.
I also don't usually do New Years Resolutions, but there are a few things on my list to accomplish. Here in the blog, I will just mention a few pertaining to my research on the Rödigers and Eichenauers.

But first, I would like to give a quick shout-out to the Big 10 football teams, who thus far have captured 7 of 7 Bowl games this season.
Iowa over Boston College 27-10
Purdue over Arizona 38-35
Michigan State over Washington State 42-17
Ohio State over USC 24-7
Northwestern over Kentucky 24-23
Wisconsin over Miami 34-24
Penn State over Washington 35-28

and now that we are in post season play I can even bring myself to root for that team up north, so
GO BIG BLUE, beat SC  (Today at noon on ESPN2)

Here are my New Years Resolutions for my Genealogical Research:

1. to be more consistent in blogging
2. to complete my indexing of the Niederthalhausen Church books between 1686 and 1890. (I am about 2/3 of the way through them now)
2. to figure out the connection between the Eichenauers in Niederthalhausen and Oberthalhausen and the Eichenauers in Mühlbach, Breitenbach and Lüdersdorf
3. to upload the myriad of facts that are on my personal genealogy program to ancestry.com, where they will be available to all

4. And if, perchance, Archion.de manages to digitize the records from Tann, Rohrbach, Meckbach and Mecklar, I plan on diving back into the Rödiger side of things again

And if you have questions or clarification on any of this research, please, please, please be sure to ask. It is my joy to educate my extended family on our common roots.

Got to go. The MU/SC game is on in 5 minutes

Mit freundlichen Grüßen (best regards),
Stephen Rödiger