Lost Weifenbach Years Accounted For

In my last post I lamented the fact that "I have been unable to determine where the Weifenbachs lived between 1846 (when they arrived in New York) and 13 August 1866 (when Anna Gela, the oldest daughter married Johann Conrad Eichenauer in Auglaize Co). That is 20 years unaccounted for!"

I am very happy to report, thanks to my mother's astute observation that the Berlet family may hold the key, that I have discovered where the Weifenbachs were living at the time of the 1850 and 1860 US censuses.

The Berlet family is connected to the Diegel family as well as to the Weifenbach family.
Here is the pertinent connection:
The mother of Conrad Weifenbach (my great-great grandfather) was Katharina Elisabetha Berlet from Niederaula, Germany. Katharina's brother, Henrich Berlet married Anna Maria Diegel. Anna Maria is my 1st cousin 4 generations removed in that her grandparents are also my great-great-great-great grandparents, Johann Heinrich Diegel and Martha Elisabeth Pfiel from Schwarzenhasel, Germany.

The Berlet connection between the Diegels and Weifenbachs helped because I already knew that when the Diegels and Berlets first came to America, they lived in Black River Township, Lorain County, Ohio and eventually moved to Washington Township, Auglaize County, Ohio.
Since I had scoured the area around Washington Township in the 1850 and 1860 census and found neither hide nor hair of the Weifenbachs, I thought that a closer look at Lorain County censuses might be worthwhile, though I confess I wasn't very hopeful. Since the Berlets and Diegels had lived in Black River Township, I began there.

In the 1850 census of Black River Twp. I found:

At first blush this record would be easily overlooked for a couple of reasons. The most obvious is that the surname here was written as Vaginburgh and pertains to the first four members of the family. And it was written as Vagenbaugh and indexed as Vagerbangh by ancestry.com for the fifth member of the family on the following page of the census. No wonder a search for Weifenbach turned up no hits in Lorain Co in 1850.
The second problem is that of the "Vaginburgh" named Hannah. There was never a Hannah Weifenbach in our Weifenbach family. The fact that Hannah's age is listed as being the same age as Elizabeth's is also disconcerting. For even if the name was incorrectly recorded, I know of no female Weifenbach in that immediate age range in our family other than Katharina Elisabetha (Berlet) Weifenbach.

Other than the problem concerning the identity of "Hannah, age 39", the other members of this family match up perfectly with Johannes, Katharina Elisabetha and two of their children, Conrad and Anna Catharina Weifenbach.
The one child that apparently is not represented on this page is the eldest daughter, Angelica (AKA Anna Gela or Abbie) who was born in 1842 and would have been 8 years old at the time of this census. As you will see when I add the record from the 1860 census, Hannah disappears and "Abigail" appears. So saying--

1860 Census, Black River Twp:

I believe that this record is Johannes Weifenbach, his wife and three children who appear in the 1870 Census in Washington Twp, Auglaize Co, OH. The names are right, the ages are right and their place of birth is right. Of course, the biggest difficulty is that the surname does not match. And it is certainly not the fault of the Indexers at ancestry.com this time. I would have indexed this surname the same way. I can only hazard a guess or two about why the surname is so far out in left field in both censuses here. Perhaps the census taker was deaf, or perhaps the family member who provided the information had a speech impediment. In any case, the problem of the misspelled surname has been a royal pain to solve.

The 1870 census in Washington Twp, Auglaize Co. was not much better. In case I haven't shown this one before:

In this record, I have already made the suggestion that the surname should be indexed as "Weifenbach". The original indexed name was consistent with what was written by the census taker as "Viepenback". The only reason I found this record was because I knew the Weifenbachs lived in Washington Twp and I had gone through the 1870 records with a fine-tooth comb. As you can see, at this time, Abbie Weifenbach (Appie according to the census taker) was married to Conrad Eichenauer (line 15 and 16) and had an adopted son, John Evans (line 17). Abbie's parents show up on lines 18 and 19, and her brother, Conrad Weifenbach was married to Christina [Diegel] and had a daughter, Catharina Weifenbach (lines 20-22).
As you can see from the 1860 Census above, Conrad and Abbie Weifenbach had a sister, Catharina that does not show up in the 1870 census. After further research, I discovered that she was married to John Eiesle/Eissle in Auglaize Co on 20 January 1870:

One would think that this couple would have shown up in the 1870 census as a married couple, but once again a Weifenbach has escaped me. However, I am hot on the trail of Anna Catharina Weifenbach and her husband.

So, it is now clear that the Weifenbachs arrived in New York in 1846 and lived in Black River Twp, Lorain Co, OH at the time of the 1850 and 1860 Census. Then sometime before 1866 the family relocated to Washington Twp, Auglaize Co. where most of the family remained.
Johannes and Katharina Elisabetha Weifenbach had two daughters and just one son, Conrad, to carry on the Weifenbach name. Conrad Weifenbach and his wife, Christena Diegel had five children, three daughters and two sons, Frederic and Jacob. Frederic died at age six. Jacob Weifenbach became the last male to bear the Weifenbach name from that line. He married Mary Vordermark, and their daughter, Lillian Matilda "Lillie", the very last Weifenbach, was born in 1897, married Eugene Byron Slattery in 1916 and died in Wapakoneta in 1983. Today, the only reminder of the Weifenbach family in Auglaize Co is in the form of a road name, which ironically was also misspelled as Wiefenbach.


I am currently researching what happened to Anna Catharina Weifenbach after her marriage to John "Eisle." Hopefully, I will be able to resolve that question very soon.

Stephen Roediger