Recap of Research from 2020-2022, pt. 1

I note with some frustration that I have not posted a blog in over two years. Believe you me, it is not because I have set the research aside. Rather, it is because I have been deluged with information since the big bad COVID struck.

This is in the main due to new collaborators appearing in my life. In 2020, I  received a message from Natalie Apel. She was born in Rohrbach, just 3/4 mile from Tann but now lives close to Hamburg. She had an interest in learning about her ancestors, so we began corresponding. We quickly discovered that we are related at least 3 different ways. Her father's father is my 7th cousin. And her father's mother is my double 5th cousin. I will spare you the details, but suffice it to say that we have had a lot of ancestry to discuss and have kept in close contact.

Natalie, and her father, Helmut Apel

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In November, 2021 I contacted Scott in Tennessee. He is a descendant of Emil Grosse, the  brother of George Roediger's second wife, Anna Augusta Grosse. He had posted some very helpful documents about the Grosse family on Ancestry.com. With his help, I was able to learn more about the Grosse family. That, in turn, helped me solve the riddle about how George Roediger, living in Auglaize Co. and Mercer Co. Ohio met his wife, a German immigrant residing in German Village in Columbus, Ohio.

Scott and Kay Dawson

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In May of 2022, I came in contact with Dawn, a researcher from Albany, NY, who answered a query I made about Rixfeld, the earliest known location of our Eichenauer ancestors. She answered and said she didn't know about Eichenauers, but her family came from Rixfeld. After a little collaborating we discovered that she is my 9th cousin, twice removed (specifically, her maternal grandmother is my 9th cousin, and the connection goes all the way back to the tippy top of my Eichenauer tree when the Eichenauers lived in Rixfeld.

Dawn Maynus

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Also in May, or early June, I was contacted by Birgit, who was originally from Schwarzenhasel, but now lives close to Kassel. She was searching online for research pertaining to her home town and discovered my Blogposts on the Diegels of  Schwarzenhasel. After corresponding with her, I learned that her father, Heinrich, is my double 8th cousin. 

Heinrich, Irmtraud and Birgit Marth

It was Birgit’s mother, Irmtraud, who provided the key to unlock the door to completing my research of the Rödigers in Tann. I soon learned that Irmtraud had extensively researched the Schwarzenhasel community and was a major contributor to a book that I already had in my possession, Chronik Schwarzenhasel: Ein Dorf im Wandel der Zeit. But her knowledge goes way beyond the bounds of Schwarzenhasel. I told her that I had exhausted the records in Tann searching for the connection between Henn Rödiger, who is listed in the book 650 Jahre Tann as a farmer with at least 1 horse or ox in 1627 and my 6th great-grandfather, Jost Rödiger, who was born about 1657 and married in 1679. She asked if I had ever heard of the Kopialbuch of 1659. She explained that it was like a census taken of more than thirty villages in the Rohbachtal. The head of each household is listed along with the name of his wife, children and other relatives living in his home. Tann was among these villages, and only one Rödiger family lived in Tann in 1659:

According to the Kopialbuch, the Rödiger household included:

Conrad, head
Margretha, his wife
Johannes (listed as confirmed in the church, so at least 12 or 13 years old)
Justus*
Elisabeth
Catharina
as well as a “Hausgenoßin” (houseguest) also named Catharina.

*Note that “Justus” is synonymous with the name “Jost”. Suddenly, everything clicked, and the Rödigers that I hadn’t been able to connect to the family were included in this list and were Jost/Justus’s siblings.

Once I knew that the “loose ends” were Jost Rödiger’s siblings, then, based on their ages at death, I was able to deduce that their father, Conrad must be the son of Henn Rödiger, the owner of livestock in Tann in 1727.

Every last Rödiger in the Tann church records has now been accounted for.

Prior to any knowledge of the Kopialbuch, I had traced back another part of my ancestry to a Jeorg Büttner who married an Elisabeth Rödiger in 1670. They were my 7th great-grandparents. But without the Kopialbuch, I could not have been certain how Elisabeth Rödiger fit into the family. Now, because of the Kopialbuch, I know that Elisabeth is not only my 7th great-grandmother, she is also the sister of my 6th great-grandfather, Jost Rödiger.

Here is a diagram of the first 4 generations of the Rödigers of Tann:

The Rödiger siblings, Elisabeth and Johannes, were married in a double wedding to Büttner siblings, Jeorg and Catharina.

Johannes Rödiger had only one son, Johann Conrad. And Johann Conrad had 4 children, all girls. So along Johannes’ line the Rödiger name died out and was only continued on through our common ancestor, Jost/Justus.

There is one other significant breakthrough to report, but I will save that for a subsequent Blogpost. Until then …