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

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 …

George Roediger, pt 3b--The German origins of his second wife, Anna Große-Schmidt

Where was Anna Grosse, second wife of George Roediger, born? That is the subject of this Post.

I received an email from a second cousin once removed, this past week. For those in Germany, you would say he was my "Onkel 3. Grades". Thanks once again to Regina for showing me an easy way to learn the German equivalents to our American system of designating relationships. But, I digress. The email my cousin sent me was in response to my series on George Roediger, elder brother of my great-grandfather, Conrad Tobias Roediger.
He sent me digital copies of his parents' obituaries as well as the obits for three of his sisters who died in 1937, ages 11, 9 and 3.

In addition he sent me digital copies of two postcards that had been sent to his parents in the 1920s with this note, "I came across a couple cards that may of be of interest.  The cards are addressed to Hulda and Harry and are from Neundorf b. Pirna which is near Leipzig.  I remember my mother, Hulda, saying her mother was from near Leipzig.  In reviewing your excellent four part review of the history of George Roediger, my grandfather, I did not see a connection of Anna to Leipzig.  Maybe this information can help provide a clue to the many puzzles you are working on solving."

Thank you, dear Onkel 3. Grades, for responding to my request for more information about your family!!!

Here are the two postcards:

The color card was addressed to Harry and Hulda at Christmas time and had nothing more than a Christmas greeting "Merry Christmas" and the address  of Harry and Hulda Rödiger in "Nord=Amerika" on the back. It is not clear who sent this card.
The black and white card, however has a note attached which is written in the old German script. Most of it I have not yet deciphered, but it also appears to have been sent at Christmas time, as it contains the word "Christbaum" (Christmas tree). The note begins, "Lieber Erwin!" (dear Erwin) and includes greetings to Georg Harry and Hulda [Luth] and to Heinrich Roediger and wife. It is signed "Mit Grüß, Onkel Emil".

This card may contain other helpful information and will be submitted to my Genealogy Angel, Regina, for review, but for now, what I have been able to decipher has provided the clues necessary for me to locate to the relative birthplace of Anna Augusta Große.

The first clue is in the identity of the writer, "Onkel Emil" (Uncle Emil) and the addressee, "Erwin". Keep in mind that the Hulda who is mentioned here is George Roediger and Anna Augusta Große-Schmidt''s daughter. Anna Augusta had a son from her previous marriage, Ervin (or Erwin) Earnest Schmidt.

After further research I discovered that Anna Augusta was the daughter of August Große and Wilhelmina Buttner (or maybe Büttner) and that she had at least three siblings who had emigrated from Germany and ended up in "German Village", Columbus, Ohio.

The chart above is designed to show multiple marriages. I have circled Anna Augusta's name so you can see both marriages clearly. And I created a red rectangle around her brother, August's two wives. The reason for that will become clear a few paragraphs from now. I have also circled her brother, Emil's name. It was he who wrote the postcard to Erwin. And as you can see from the chart, Emil is indeed the uncle of Ervin Earnest Schmidt.

Having established these relationships, one naturally would want to know where Neundorf b. Pirna is located. The "b." stands for "bei", meaning that Neundorf is near Pirna.

Neundorf is represented by the Red marker. Pirna is to the NW. I have included Dresden to make finding Neundorf easier

If you wish to take a look at Neundorf bei Pirna on Google Maps, here is the link.

Before I received the postcards from my cousin I had stumbled across a passport application that Emil Große had made in June of 1920 with the intention of traveling to Switzerland for his health.

According to this document, Emil's father was born in Gerstdorf, where he still lived in 1920; and Emil was born in Friedrichswalde. When initially looked for these places on Google maps I found several possibilities for each, but none were close to the other. So I was undecided about which Gerstdorf and which Friedrichswalde were meant. But thanks to the postcards, I took another look and found that these two villages were located within an area called Bahretal, and part of a larger area known as Sächsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland). This takes me on a trip down memory lane. Mom and I took a river cruise on the Elbe River in 2016 and went right through this area. Too bad we were unaware of the significance to the family :(

The locations named in the postcards and passport application are circled. The locations where I took photos while on our cruise show as photo icons.

Even with all of this information, I do not know the significance of Neundorf to the Große family yet.  It may be that Emil was visiting his nativity of Friedrichswalde and picked up the postcards from a nearby village and sent them to two different family members. But perhaps the village has more significance than I now know. Perhaps other members of the Große family lived there. And perhaps the Christmas postcard without an Addressor came, not from Emil, but from a resident relative. One of the ways I have been able to solve these mysteries in the past has been to look up church records on Archion.de. But after searching Archion's archive, I discovered that this area has not yet had their records digitized. So, a search of the records of Friedrichswalde, Gersdorf and Neundorf bei Pirna will just have to wait a while longer. In either case, I should point out that Leipzig is only relatively close to this area, being 83 miles from Neundorf. However, it is the most populated city in the state of Saxony, in which Friedrichswalde, Gersdorf and Neundorf bei Pirna are situated.
And unless some record appears that pinpoints Anna Augusta Große's specific place of birth, we will have to content ourselves with knowing that it is in Bahretal, Saxon Switzerland for now. The photo below will give you an idea of the geography of this area. [After posting this, I discovered that Margaret (Henkener) Aufderhaar, in her work "The Family of Tobias Roediger and Margaret Eichenauer" (2002) p. 11 “Anna Grosse Schmidt  b. 11/18/1863 in Fredericckwalder/Saxony, Germany, d. 3/1/1940, m. 10/20/1902”. So, I think this independent family sketch confirms what I suspected based on her brother, Emil's passport information--Anna Augusta Grosse was born in Friedrichswalde, Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, Sachsen, Deutschland]

Mom took this photo from a high point in the Saxon Switzerland National Park across the Elbe River with a portion of the village of Rathen in the background. Rathen is about 8 miles east of Pirna.

Now, before I close out this blog post, I want to address a long time question of mine: How did a man (George Roediger) who lived in Mercer County, Ohio in 1902 meet a woman (Anna Augusta Große), who lived in Columbus, Ohio at that time?
I have pondered this question ever since I learned of their marriage.
However, a theory has emerged out of my research on the Grosse family. Remember this chart from earlier in this post?

I believe that this chart holds the key to how George and Anna Augusta met. See the two women within the red rectangles. These were the two wives of Anna Augusta's older brother, August. After Elisabeth Mausehund died in 1900, August married Elisabeth's much younger sister, Katharina Mausehund. Two things to note here is where they were born: Rohrbach, and when they were born, especially when Elisabeth was born (1859).

If you have read previous blogs about George Roediger, you are aware that George was born in Tann in 1854, making him just a little over 4 years Elisabeth Mausehund's senior. And Tann is just 7/10 of a mile from Rohrbach (an easy 15 minute walk along the Rohrbach creek). Could George Roediger have known the Mausehund family before emigrating? I think it is very likely that he did. And if so he may have been aware that Elisabeth and her younger sister, Katharina had emigrated and settled in German Village (Columbus, Ohio). Therefore, he may also have visited Elisabeth and her husband, August Grosse, before her death in 1900. And might even have attended her funeral on 4 August 1900. He might have had occasion to attend the wedding of August Grosse and Elisabeth's younger sister on 17 January 1901. During any one of these visits he could surely have met August's sister, Anna Augusta who was widowed about 1900-1901.
I know it is just a theory, but to me it is compelling. And if you happen to be a descendant of George Harry Roediger or his sister, Hulda Alice, maybe you know "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say. If you do, I need to hear from you. :)

Your Rödiger-Eichenauer Correspondant--Stephen Roediger

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!