Life was Fragile in 18th Century Tann

 Life in Hessen in the 18th century was hard for the common people. The healthcare that we take for granted was unknown and people did not understand the effect of unsanitary conditions on their health. As I was transcribing the death records from Tann, the circumstances of one individual seemed to epitomize the difficulties faced by every family in Tann. This is her story:

Anna Christina Vockerod was born in Tann and baptized in the Lutheran Church on 21 January 1703.

When Anna Christina was 23 years of age, she was married to Henrich Bold, who was 7 years her senior. 

Marriage record of Henrich Bold and Anna Christina Vockerod

In due course, they had two sons born to them: Johannes, born on 29 April 1727 and died 6 days later; and Johann Andreas, born on 5 April 1728 and died 27 days later. Her husband, Henrich Bold, died later that same year, on 15 October 1728, at age 32, leaving Anna Christina bereft — a widow at age 25 after just 2 years of marriage.

Two years later, on 10 January 1731, Anna Christina married Johann George Knebel, who was just 7 days her senior. Their births are recorded consecutively. on this page.

Birth records of Johann George Knebel and Anna Christina Vockerod

Marriage Record of Johann Georg Knebel and Anna Christina, widow of Henrich Bold

Together, she and George also had 2 children, Anna Martha, born 26 October 1731 and Johann Tobias, born 18 July 1734.

[Sidebar: Her daughter from this second marriage, Anna Martha Knebell, married Johann David Hoßfeld and had 3 children. One son, Johann Tobias Hoßfeld, married my 4th great-aunt, Anna Dorothea Rödiger (daughter of my 4th great-grandparents, Johann Adam Rödiger and Barbara Elisabetha Bettenhausen). So, this is how I became aware of Anna Christina Vockerod’s story.]

But, Anna Christina Knebell and her second family suffered another series of deaths that typifies the difficult living conditions of 18th century Hessen: On 30 December 1760, Anna Christina died at age 57.

Death Record of Anna Christina Bold-Knebel, neé Vockerod

Three weeks later, on 20 January 1761, her second husband, Johann George Knebell died.

Death record of Johann George Knebel (aka Knöbel)

Four days after that, on 24 January, their son, Johann Tobias died, age 26.

Death record of Johann Tobias Knebel (aka Knöbel)

Three weeks after her brother’s death, on 17 February, Anna Martha, age 29, was also struck down, leaving her husband with two children, ages 4 years old, and 11 months old.

Death record of Anna Martha Hoßfeld, neé Knebel

To put all of this into perspective, Anna Christina lost her first husband and both of their children within 2 years and 4 months of their marriage. Her second husband, and their two children all died less than a month and a half after her own death. And within that 45 day period, 27 other residents of the tiny villages of Tann and Rohrbach also died.

In the church records, there is no mention of the nature of their deaths, nor is there any expression of surprise at the closeness of the times of their deaths to one another. Death was a familiar face in Tann, often the result of disease which could run rampant through a family or even through a village.

As the life of Anna Christina Vockerod illustrates, our ancestors in Hessen often fought a losing battle when it came to raising families. Death by disease ate away at every family. Hopefully, this peek into one woman’s family has given you an idea of the circumstances faced by our 18th century ancestors.

--Stephen

Where Did You Come From 3G Grandpa Diegel?

Time to get the Diegels off the back burner. I started this blog about six months ago and had a lot of difficulty figuring out hot how to present it. I'm afraid this is as good as it is going to get, so let's get it off the back burner and into the oven.

George and Anna Martha (Schubert) Diegel are my 3G Grandparents. Here is how:
They were both born in Germany. They were married in Lorain County, Ohio in 1839 and shortly afterwards moved to Washington Twp, Auglaize County, Ohio. In the US Census of 1840, they are listed as residing in Washington Twp, Auglaize County.

Their daughter, Christena, married Conrad Weifenbach in 1866 in Auglaize County, Ohio. And one of their daughters, Anna Christina Weifenbach married my great-grandfather, Conrad Tobias Roediger in 1889, eight years after he arrived in America. All of this is very clear and well documented.

WARNING: IF YOU HAVE RESEARCHED GEORGE DIEGEL AND GOTTEN INFORMATION FROM HIS FINDAGRAVE.COM MEMORIAL PAGE, THROW IT AWAY! Concerning his full name, his birth place and the identity of his parents IT IS FALSE AND MISLEADING.

OK, I got that off my chest. And believe me, that Memorial page caused me many many hours of wasted research time. So, on to the revelation of where the Diegels of Auglaize County, Ohio actually did come from.

In my attempt to discover where George Diegel came from in Germany, I worked from a 7 page typewritten family history, written primarily by Linna Diegel Klinefelter Ratcliff about 1968 and edited by Donna (Diegel) Roberts in 1981 which I will refer to as the Diegel Family History or DFH to save my fingers.

There is a significant portion of this document that I will not present in this blog post, as much of it pertains to George's brother Jacob and his descendants and is not germane to this topic. However, this paragraph is particularly useful.

Armed with the birth date of 7 March 1811 in "Hassel Greis, Rothenburg, Herhessen, Germany" I opened up archion.de and began what I knew could turn into an arduous search. And so it proved.

According to this account, George Diegel and his brother were from Hassel Greis, Rothenberg, Hurhessen, Germany. I can find no evidence that such a place exists, but what struck me about this was how similar it looks to Kreis Rotenburg, Kassel, Kurhessen, which not only exists, but is in fact the very same area from which the Eichenauers came from. Rotenburg is a town, known more specifically as Rotenburg an der Fulda, which means that it is the Rotenburg situated on the Fulda River. Kreis refers to a local district within a larger government district known as a Regierungsbezirk. Rotenburg is a small district within the larger district of Kassel which is one of the administrative districts of the state of Hesse(n). During the time that the Prussians held sway over this region, it was known as Kurhessen.

So, I am theorizing that this family history was orally communicated to someone unfamiliar with the place names in Germany who either wrote it down by hand or typed it and who simply misread the capital letters or misheard the actual names while typing them. If this is true, then George and Jacob were from one of the villages within the district of Rotenburg. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a full list of the towns and villages in this district. But, not only does the government break down the villages and towns into districts, so does the Evangelische Kirche which includes, to the best of my understand, what is known in English as the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church--distinct but similar. The Evangelische Kirche's break down does not exactly mirror the government's, but it does give me a list of 65 village churches within the ecclesiastical district of Rotenburg whose records have been partially or completely digitized.

I need to insert a note here that I later found two documents which which would have saved me countless hours of searching, but did not know of their existence at the time.

After searching through the Rotenburg churches, which are arranged alphabetically, I discovered an interesting birth record in the 56th church, Schwarzenhasel:

1811--März 12, George der Sohn des Bauers Henrich Diegel et ux. Elisab geb. Pfiel, nat. 7ten Abends 5 Uhr.
Gevatter. George Diegel Geschirrmeister? in Kaßel

Translated, baptized 12 March 1811, George, the son of the farmer Henrich Diegel and his wife Elisabeth née Pfiel, born on the 7th at 5 pm. Baptismal sponsor was George Diegel, Master craftsman of Tableware? in Kassel.

This sounds very promising. Same name (surname even spelled the same), born on the same date, and occurring in the same district which I theorized was the equivalent of "Hassel Greis, Rothenburg, Herhessen, Germany". But, I have fallen down enough rabbit holes to not get overly excited quite yet. There are several other tests that need to be made to determine the possibility of this being a match.

The first would be whether this George Diegel married or died in Schwarzenhasel. He could have married, but couldn't have died there if he was my GGG Grandfather.

So, I looked for a George Diegel who married in Schwarzenhasel between 1830 and 1937 and there are none. There also no George Diegels who died in Schwarzenhasel between 1830 and 1937. Keep in mind that he could have married or died elsewhere in Germany, but at least the possibility he is my GGG Grandfather remains a possibility.

Another test involves George's older brother, Jacob. Keep in mind that in the first paragraph of this document, no mention of George's parents names are made, but a brother, Jacob, is mentioned:

I will mention, that according to the paragraph which followed the one above, the "old man" mentioned here did not survive the voyage. So we are left with the two Diegel brothers who arrived in America about 1836. A subsequent paragraph reveals the following information:

(keep in mind that these are the words of Linna Diegel Klinefelter Ratcliff, not me). Later portions of the DFH document reveal that the three daughters were Anna who married Christopher Clay in Lorain County; Mary, who married Henry Berlet in 1857 in Lorain County; and Eliza, born 30 April 1834 in "Hassel Greis, Rothenburg, Herhessen, Germany", married "Mr. Reynolds" in Lorain County (married and divorced before she was 18). So, still without the two crucial documents which verified that the Diegels were indeed from Schwarzenhasel, I searched for George's brother Jacob, his wife Mary Christena Schwarz and their three daughters in the Schwarzenhasel records.

After a search in Schwarzenhasel, I found a birth record fo a Jacob Diegel born to the same parents as our subject, George Diegel:

[1798] Nov. 28, Jacob, Henrich Diegels et uxor Martha Elisabeth Pfielin, ehel. Sohnl. nat. am 25ten, ejusd. h. antemerid 9
gehatten, Jacob Diegel

Basically the translation from German and Latin is that Jacob, legitimate son of Henrich Diegel and his wife Martha Elisabeth Pfiel, was born on the 25 November 1798 at 9 in the morning and baptized on the 28th; Baptismal sponsor was Jacob Diegel.

This led to a search for a marriage record for Jacob, son of Henrich Diegel and Martha Elisabeth Pfiel. I actually found two, for two distinct Jacob Diegels, but this would ultimately prove to be the correct one:

27 März 1826, Jacob Diegel, Schneider, Henrich Diegel Sohn dahier,
mit Christina Maria, Nicolaus Kirchners Tochter dahier

Jacob Diegel, Tailor, son of Henrich Diegel from here married Christina Maria, daughter of Nicolaus Kirchner, on 27 March 1826.

Note that Jacob Diegel's wife's birth surname is not Schwartz as is indicated in the DFH, but Kirschner. But, since the bride in this marriage record has a first and middle name consistent with the DFH source, I chose to research children born to Jacob Diegel and Christina Maria (Kirschner) Diegel. I found 3 and only 3:

1) Anna Catharina, b. 21 January 1827

1827, Januar 21 -- Anna Catharina, die Tochter des Schneiders, Jacob Diegel et ux Christine Maria, geb. Kirchner, nat. 13ten ejusd. merid. 1; Gevatten: Anna Catharina, Henrich Diegel Tochter, des Kindes Vaters Schwester dahier

Anna Catharina, the daughter of the tailor, Jacob Diegel and his wife, Christina Maria Kirchner was born on 13 January 1827 and baptized on 21 January. Her baptismal sponsor was Anna Catharina, daughter of Henrich Diegel, and sister of her father.

This record confirms that her grandfather's name was Henrich Diegel as we saw from her father's baptismal  and marriage record. A new bit of information is that her father had a sister, also named Anna Catharina Diegel. Also, her mother's first and middle name, Christina Maria matches that given in the DFH, except there it is Mary Christena. It is not unusual for first and middle names to be used interchangeably so I would not immediately discount this record. The similarity may prove significant at some point in this research.

2) Anna Maria, b. 15 October 1830

Schwarzenhasel, Geburt: Haus 54, fünfzehnte Oktober [1830], 10 Uhr Abends / Tauf: Schwarzenhasel, 24tn Oktober /
Kind: Anna Maria, eheliche Tochter / Eltern: Jacob Diegel, Schneider und Christine Kirchner /
Taufpaten: Anna Maria, das Zimmermeisters Kirchners Ehefrau, geboren Kuch

Sorry the writing on this one is so small. It is spread across two pages. But it basically says that Jacob and Christina (Kirchner) Diegel had a daughter, Anna Maria, born in House number 54, Schwarzenhasel on 15 October 1830, baptized on 24 October 1830; baptismal sponsor was Anna Maria Kuch, wife of the master carpenter, Kirchner.

3) Anna Elisabeth, b. 31 April 1833

Schwarzenhasel, Geburt: Haus 54, ein und dreißigsten [1833] / Tauf: Schwarzenhasel 5ten Maÿ /
Kind: Anna Elisabeth, eheliche Tochter / Eltern: Jacob Diegel, Schneider und Christina Maria Kirchner /
Taufpaten: Anna Elisabeth Sauer, Jungfrau

This is very curious. This record says that Anna Elisabeth was born on 31 (ein und dreißigsten) April 1833 in Haus 54, and was baptized on 5 May. Her parents were Jacob Diegel, a tailor and Christina Maria Kirschner. The baptismal sponsor was the unmarried woman, Anna Elisabeth Sauer. Is there something I don't know about German calendars? From what I remember April does not have 31 days. ("30 days has September, April, June and November" etc.)

Again, these are the only children I found born to Jacob and Christina Maria (Kirchner) Diegel, and a very thorough search of the Schwarzenhasel records did not reveal any confirmation or marriage records pertaining to these daughters, nor any death records for any one of this family group. This means that they must have relocated, but to where? The Schwarzenhasel records did not divulge a single clue. But what seems clear is that George, his brother Jacob, his wife and children all left Schwarzenhasel between 1833 (when the youngest daughter, Anna Elisabeth was born) and 1841 (when the eldest daughter, Anna Katharina would have been confirmed in the Lutheran Church had they still been there). So it seems very plausible that they are the same as those who arrived in Lorain County, Ohio and subsequently established themselves near New Knoxvlle, Auglaize County, Ohio.

To summarize this last section, I found in the Schwarzenhasel records information which correlates with the information revealed in the DFH pertaining to George and Jacob Diegel and Jacob Diegel's wife and 3 daughters--except for his wife's maiden name.

Now let me present the two documents which pretty much seal the deal concerning the validity of my Diegel family being from Schwarzenhasel. According to the DFH, George's brother, Jacob and his wife, Mary Christena Diegel had two sons after arriving in Lorain Co., Jacob, born 4 May 1841 in Lorain County who came to Auglaize County with his parents and married Sarah Cornelia Roberts and Adam. Nothing is said further about Adam in this DFH, other than the fact that his "history is in the book with the Smith Family". That makes me wonder where THAT history has gone to, but that would be fodder for a separate Blog.

But not to get sidetracked, I have found Jacob Jr.'s death certificate--check it out:

As you can clearly see, this Jacob Diegel was born in Lorain Co, OH on 4 May 1844. His parents were Jacob Diegel and Mary Christina KIRSCHNER. This lines up with all of the information known about Jacob Diegel Jr. from the DFH except his mother's maiden name. But KIRSCHNER is the maiden name of the woman whom I have theorized from the Schwarzenhasel records to be his mother and both the Schwarzenhasel records and the DFH agree that her first and middle names were a variation of Christina Maria. Can you see that I am jumping up and down in excitement? Well, I AM!

The second source which confirms that Schwarzenhasel is the ancestral home of the Diegels in my family comes from the obituary of Anna Elisabeth Diegel, daughter of Jacob and Mary Christina (Kirschner) Diegel posted on 11 Jan. 1906. This was found in the Auglaize Co. Library's extensive Obituary collection. Unfortunately, the clipping does not state which newspaper it was clipped from, but was probably the Wapakoneta Daily News. The whole obit is quite a bit longer, but this portion reveals all I needed to know:

SCHWARTZEN HASSEL GREIS, ROTHENBERG,  KURHESSEN, GERMANY

Of course, it really means "Schwarzenhasel, Kreis Rotenburg, Kurhessen, Germany" but hey, what more do we really need? If you put these two documents into the mix, the certainty that George Diegel and his brother, Jacob and his family were from the little village of Schwarzenhasel becomes 100% in my book.

So, now that I have established that, maybe you are curious about where Schwarzenhasel is located in Germany. I can help with that, but first let me pose the question, "If Jacob Diegel's wife's maiden name was Kirchner, why did the DFH think it was Schwartzen?" Well, I can only guess, but I think it probably has something to do with the name of the village she was from. Perhaps the source of this error misread notes in the German language and confused her maiden name with the name of the village. Maybe they thought she was a Schwartzin from Hassel Greis, or something of that nature.

About that location. Ain't Google Earth grand?! They even helped me save the image so I could post it here:

Schwarzenhasel is less than ten miles as the crow flies from Tann, or about 13 miles by car. The Diegels lived very close to the Roedigers though they may never have met. But it does make me wonder if my great grandfather, Conrad Tobias Roediger, who was born in Tann, ever knew just how close he lived to his wife's grandfather back in Germany. Maybe they didn't, but now we do!

Stephen Roediger

The Diegels Hometown in Germany Has Been Found!

BACKGROUND: George and Anna Martha (Schubert) Diegel are my 3G Grandparents. They were both born in Germany.

Their daughter, Christena, married Conrad Weifenbach in 1866 in Auglaize County, Ohio. And one of their daughters, Anna Christina Weifenbach married my great-grandfather, Conrad Tobias Roediger in 1889, eight years after he arrived in America. All of this is very clear and well documented from documents here in the US.

What has been a mystery to me up until recently is where the Diegel's were from in Germany. The first clue I found was in a 7 page typewritten family history, written primarily by Linna Diegel Klinefelter Ratcliff about 1968 and edited by Donna (Diegel) Roberts in 1981 which I will refer to as the Diegel Family History or DFH to save my fingers.

I will begin with the first paragraph from the Family History document:

According to this account, George Diegel (my 3G Grandfather) and his brother, Jacob were from Hassel Greis, Rothenberg, Hurhessen, Germany. I can find no evidence that such a place exists, but what struck me about this was how similar it looks to Kreis Rotenburg, Kassel, Kurhessen, which not only exists, but is in fact the very same area from which the Eichenauers came from. Rotenburg is a town, known more specifically as Rotenburg an der Fulda, which means that it is the Rotenburg situated on the Fulda River. Kreis refers to a local district within a larger government district known as a Regierungsbezirk. Rotenburg is a small district within the larger district of Kassel which is one of the administrative districts of the state of Hesse(n). During the time that the Prussians held sway over this region, it was known as Kurhessen.

So, I am theorizing that this family history was orally communicated to someone unfamiliar with the place names in Germany who either wrote it down by hand or typed it and who simply misread the capital letters or misheard the actual names while typing them. If this is true, then George and Jacob were from one of the villages within the district of Rotenburg. I have not been able to find a full list of the towns and villages in this administrative district. But, not only does the government break down the villages and towns into districts, so does the Lutheran Church. The Lutheran Church's break down does not exactly mirror the government's, but it does give me a list of 65 village churches within the ecclesiastical district of Rotenburg whose records have been partially or completely digitized. 

So I spent hours and hours over several days looking for Diegels in the villages of the Rotenburg District looking for the two brothers--which I discovered much later had been largely unnecessary.

According to the DFH, George Diegel was born 7 March 1811 in "Hassel Greis, Rothenburg, Herhessen, Germany". Unfortunately, his brother, Jacob's birthdate is not provided in this document, however, it does state that he was married and had three daughters when he emigrated. According to the DFH, Jacob married Mary Christena Schwarzen. The three daughters born in Germany were Anna, who married Christopher Clay in Loraine Co., Mary, who married Henry Berlet Sr. in Loraine Co., and Eliza, who married a "Mr. Reynolds" before she was 18, and subsequently divorced, also in Loraine Co.

From census records, I learned that George and his wife moved to Washington Twp, Auglaize Co, OH before 1840, and that his brother Jacob's family (which had grown with the addition of two sons born in Loraine Co, Jacob and Adam, plus the husbands of two of his daughters and their children) also moved to Washington Twp, Auglaize Co. before 1870.

Armed with this information, I searched obituaries for clues as to where they had come from in Germany.

This paid off when I found the obituary of Eliza Diegel, Jacob's daughter. There is a lot of useful information in this obituary, but for now just notice that she was born in Schwartzen Hassel Greis, Rothenberg on 30 April 1834. Of course, you can read the rest, just meet me at the end of the obit for a continuation of this discussion:

As soon as I found this, I knew that what I had hypothesized from my study of the 65 churches in Rotenburg District was right on target. Schwartzen Hassel had to be a corruption of Schwarzenhasel, which is one of the 65 churches I had been trolling.

 I had already learned the birth date of Eliza's uncle George Diegel (my 3G Grandfather), from both the DFH and from FindAGrave.com, to be 7 March 1811, and when I looked in the Schwarzenhasel Church records I found his baptismal record:

1811--März 12, George der Sohn des Bauers Henrich Diegel et ux. Elisab geb. Pfiel, nat. 7ten Abends 5 Uhr.
Gevatter. George Diegel Geschirrmeister? in Kaßel

Translated, baptized 12 March 1811, George, the son of the farmer Henrich Diegel and his wife Elisabeth née Pfiel, born on the 7th at 5 pm. Baptismal sponsor was George Diegel, Master craftsman of Tableware? in Kassel.

This led me to his Confirmation record. His is Number 3:

This confirms what was previously known about George Diegel: He is the son of the farmer, Henrich Diegel and Elisabeth Pfiel and was born on 7 May 1811, and adds the info that he was 14 years, 2 months and 14 days old when he was confirmed in the Lutheran Church of Schwarzenhasel on 22 May 1825.

Another test to ensure that I hadn't fallen down another rabbit hole involved George's older brother, Jacob and his wife and three daughters who were born in Germany, Eliza being the one whose obit confirmed that they were from this particular village.

So, I will continue with Eliza, who according to the obit (and agreed with in the DFH), was born 30 April 1834. So, opening the Schwarzenhasel Baptismal Book 1830-1937, I searched for a corresponding record. I did not find a baptismal record for her on that date, but I did find one for an Anna Elisabeth Diegel, daughter of Jacob Diegel almost exactly one year earlier. Because the entry covers two pages width, I will present the two pages as two separate images so it is more legible. Fortunately, it is the first record on the page, so I can retain the header:

In this first half, I learned from the second column that Anna Elisabeth Diegel was born in Schwarzenhasel in House #54

From the second column I learned that there were 31 days in April in 1833. At least that is what this record gives as her birth date. Obviously that is an error because we all know that "30 days has September, April, June and November". Be that as it may, she was born between 11-12 at night.

According to the third column she was baptized in Schwarzenhasel on May 5th.

Fourth column: her given name was Anna Elisabeth, a legitimate daughter. Jump to the bottom of the next image for an explanation of columns 5-6.

Column five lists her parents as Jacob Diegel, Schneider [tailor], and Christina Maria Kirchner.

Column six provides the name of her baptismal sponsor as Anna Elisabeth Sauer, Jungfrau [unmarried young woman].

This record made me wonder if I had not indeed fallen down a rabbit hole, as there is a year's difference between the American records and this German record concerning her birth. Then add this bit of information about Eliza Diegel's parents gleaned from the DFH:

According to this, her mother's name was Schwarzen, rather than Kirchner, as the German record states.

However, I again was saved from disbanding the Schwarzenhasel records when I found the death certificate of Eliza's younger brother Jacob who had been born in Loraine Co, OH about 5 years after their arrival in the US:

The VERY IMPORTANT thing to note about this death certificate is that Edward Diegel, Jacob's son, states that Jacob's father was also Jacob Diegel and his mother was Mary Christina Kirchner. This lines up with the German record, with the minor flip-flopping of the first and middle name and the anglicizing of Maria to Mary.

I will skip over the other two daughter's baptismal records in Germany, and the birth records of Jacob Diegel and his wife, Christina Maria Kirchner. But I assure you that they are all there and they all correspond neatly with the records of the Jacob Diegel family found on FindAGrave, leaving no doubt that my Diegel ancestors were indeed from Schwarzenhasel.

I have pondered on how the DFH mistakenly assigned the maiden name of "Schwarzen" to Jacob's wife. Her birth record in Schwarzenhasel confirms that her father was Nicolaus Kirchner, and there is no marriage record in Schwarzenhasel to suggest she was married to someone named Schwarz before she married Jacob Diegel. So, my guess is that someone who didn't know much German, trying to make sense of information written in German, thought that the place name, "Schwarzen hassel", referred to her maiden name. Just my theory.

Finally, since the Diegel, Weifenbach, Eichenauer and Rödiger families are so intertwined, I was curious to know where each of their hometowns were to each other in Germany.

Rödigers were from Tann

Eichenauers were also from Tann, but prior to that, they were from Niederthalhausen

Weifenbachs were from Niederaula

and the Diegel's from Schwarzenhasel

Thank you Google Earth for helping me illustrate the proximity of these four villages:

Something to ponder--the distance between the Schwarzenhasel and Niederaula is 22 miles, with Niederthalhausen and Tann lying roughly halfway between them.

Congratulations if you have managed to read this entire Blog. There will be more on the Diegels later to be sure. Not only do I have information of the rest of Jacob and Maria Christina (Kirchner) Diegel's children, but George and Jacob also had 7 siblings, one of whom died in Schwarzenhasel, but her husband and three of their children also emigrated to Auglaize Co. So, stay tuned for more Diegel adventures!

--Stephen Rödiger

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 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!