Anna Eva Heÿer's Father, Nicolaus Heÿer

From the Back Burner:
This post probably should have preceded my last post about Anna Eva Heÿer's mother. In that post I alluded to the fact that the records of the village of Kalkobes, where the Heÿer family resided were hidden in the much larger Bad Hersfeld Church records. In this post I am concentrating on Anna Eva's father, Nicolaus Heÿer.

This an example from the KB of Bad Hersfeld (1765-1779). It shows that the birth (symbolized by the "*"), death (†), marriage (∞) and Confirmation records of Bad Hersfeld, Allmershausen, Heenes and Kalkobes are found in this book.

At first the task was daunting, because the records from each village are not separated into different sections but are all just listed chronologically. And Bad Hersfeld is a city with many entries to wade through to find one from Kalkobes. I had to search through 46 pages of baptismal records in the aforementioned Church book before I found the first reference to Kalkobes. It took me a while (like 8 hours, but I finally realized that some kind soul had thoughtfully and consistently written the village names of Allmershausen, Heenes and Kalkobes into the margins when appropriate. Below, in an example,  you can see Kalkobes and Allmershausen underlined in red (by me):

Once I had figured that out, I saved a lot of time searching records. I had learned that, at the time of their son, Dietrich's birth in 1786, Nicolaus Heÿer was a Gerichtschöpf (still trying to nail down the exact meaning, but appears to be an unpaid lawyer or judge in a village). The point is, with several Nicolaus Heÿers living at the same time in Kalkobes, only one appears to have held this position. This eventually helped me determine which Nicolaus Heÿer who died in Kalkobes was the correct one:

Kalkobes: am 24ten Novbr. Ist der Gerichts schöpfe, Nicolaus Heÿer von Kalkobes † am 22ten Nach. um 12 Uhr alt 50 Jahr weniger 2 Wochen"

Translated, "on the 24th of November [1791], the Gerichtsschöpfe, Nicolaus Heÿer from Kalkobes [was buried]. He died on the 22nd at (I am not sure of the time--but doesn't really matter. Usually Nach. would be the abbreviation for Nachmittag which means afternoon. And I believe 12 Uhr would be twelve hours after noon. However, I need a German, familiar with these terms to help me out here); age: 2 weeks short of 50 years old". Doing a little calculating, Nicolaus would have been born about December 6, 1741.
Thus, I turned my attention to the Church Book in Bad Hersfeld, covering the years 1726-1748 to see if I could find Nicolaus Heÿer's birth record. There was no record of him in December of 1741, but on September 3rd of that same year, the baptism of Johann Nicolaus, son of Johann Geörg Haÿer of Kalkobes was recorded. And his baptismal sponsor was his father's brother--Nicolaus:

I realize that the birth date indicated in the death record is not an exact match with the baptismal record, but I have searched for a year on either side of the December 6, 1741 date and did not find any other Heÿer baptisms. So, I have accepted this baptism as the correct one and adjusted his date of birth to "about" September 3, 1741 in Kalkobes, and his father, then, would be Johann Geörg Heÿer.

And, it appears that this same Nicolaus Heÿer was confirmed in the church in 1755:

Not much new information, but since children were usually confirmed between 12-14 years of age, this is just a confirmation (no pun intended) of what has already been ascertained.

Once I had established the above facts, I continued back in the records and learned that:
1) Nicolaus' parents were Johann Georg Heÿer and Anna Gehela Deiseroth, married 28 October 1738 in Kalkobes.
2) Nicolaus had at least two siblings, Anna Margretha, baptized 7 June 1739; and Johann Simon, baptized 26 May 1744, both in Kalkobes.
3) Nicolaus' father, Johann Georg Heÿer was baptized in Kalkobes on 5 January 1721.
4) Nicolaus' mother, Anna Gehela Deiseroth was from Hilmes, in the same district, and her father was Johannes Deiseroth.
5) Nicolaus' paternal grandparents were Johannes Heÿer and Anna Elisabeth Kehlen (daughter of Nicolaus Kehlen), married 4 February 1712 in Kalkobes.

The records from which I have captured this information go back to 1611 and encompass another 3 church books. That is another 100 years from the time that Nicolaus's grandparents were married. So there is definitely more ground that can be covered here, but information tends to get sketchier and sketchier the further back one goes. And it is entirely possible that I will loose traction soon. But for now, this is what I've found.

In summary, I will leave you with a diagram that incorporates the info shared today--enjoy meeting your newly discovered ancestors!:

Found, At Last--The Birth Record of Anna Eva Heÿer

In case you don't recognize the name, Anna Eva Heÿer, and haven't read the preceding blog about my search for her birth/baptismal record see my Blog Post from 4/14/2019, "The Siblings of Anna Eva Heÿer (or How to Create Chaos in Your Family Tree)".
Briefly, Anna Eva Heÿer was my great-great-grandfather, Johann Tobias Rödiger's first wife, and mother of Anna Katharina Rödiger, who married Johann Friedrich Eichenauer, and who, together had 10 children, 5 of whom emigrated to Ohio. So. hopefully, this Blog Post would be of interest to all Eichenauer as well as Rödiger descendants in Ohio.

First, a big round of applause👏 for my German Research Geru, Regina Hiller, who told me that the church records for the tiny village of Kalkobes were hidden in the Bad Hersfeld Church Records. Regina, you have my undying gratitude. It could have taken years to learn that on my own.

As a result, I have found Anna Eva's birth/baptism record as well as that of 3 more of Anna Eva's siblings that were previously unknown to me.

Here is the digital image of Anna Eva's birth/baptism. The header on the page makes it clear that this record pertains to May of 1789:

Kalkobes No. -- Anna Eva, des Nicolaus Heÿer, Gerichtshof, und Anna Catharina eine geborene Lehn, gebürtig aus Reilos, ? Töchterlein ist geboren 28ten Morgens zwischen 8 und 9 Uhr; Getauft 31ten
die Gottel ist gewesen des Schneidermeister Justus Seelig, deßen Ehefrau Namens Anna Eva
(Kalkobes -- Anna Eva, daughter of the "judge", Nicolaus Heÿer and his wife, Anna Catharina Lehn (born in Reilos), was born on the 28th between 8 and 9 am and baptized on the 31st.
The baptismal sponsor was Anna Eva, wife of the master tailor, Justus Seelig

The information provided in this record confirms much of what was already known. But from this record we also learn the time of her birth, the date of her baptism and whom she was named after. Plus, it confirms, that her husband, Johann Tobias Rödiger, had the correct date when he provided the information for her death record.

As I stated earlier, in the process of looking for Anna Eva's birth/baptism record, I discovered 3 more of her older siblings. These were Johannes, born in 1767; Anna Gela, born in 1769 and Simon, born in 1771. Of the ten children, I have now found all of the baptismal records except for that of Anna Katharina. I only know of her existence because she was named as the Gottel (baptismal sponsor) of Anna Eva's daughter, Anna Katharina (mentioned in the opening paragraph of this blog as the wife of Johann Friedrich Eichenauer). So, my family tree, showing the children of Nicolaus Heÿer and Anna Catharina Lehn, including Anna Eva and the three newly discovered children looks like this:

For those who are updating their own family trees based on info in my Blog, I will provide the baptism dates because they do not show up on this illustration:
Johannes, 7/15/1767
Anna Gela, 4/2/1769
Simon, 5/20/1771
Anna Martha Elisabeth, 3/31/1776
Johann Conrad, 8/30/1778
Catharina Elisabeth (1), 12/31/1780
Catharina Elisabeth (2), 7/7/1783
Dietrich, 1/1/1786
Anna Eva, 5/31/1789

All were born in Kalkobes and either baptized there or in Bad Hersfeld.
For a description of the location of Kalkobes, see my Blog Post from 4/14/2019, "The Siblings of Anna Eva Heÿer (or How to Create Chaos in Your Family Tree)".

The hunt continues for Anna Katharina's baptismal record, and for all of her sibling's marriage and death records.

Stephen Roediger

The Siblings of Anna Eva Heÿer (or How to Create Chaos in Your Family Tree)

Today I made a classic mistake. I made an assumption and let that assumption lead me out onto a false limb of the family tree. I am very thankful that I caught it within a few hours and corrective action won't be too severe. And I thought, maybe, if I share this with you, it will serve as a caution when doing family research, as well inform you of what I have learned.

It all started when I started looking for Anna Eva Heÿer's baptismal record. Anna Eva was the first wife of my great-great grandfather, Johann Tobias Rödiger, and the mother of Anna Katharina Rödiger who married Johann Friedrich Eichenauer. Five of Anna Katharina and Johann Friedrich Eichenauer's ten children emigrated to Ohio. So, now you should be able to figure out Anna Eva Heyer's relationship to you.

From the marriage record of Johann Tobias Rödiger and Anna Eva Heÿer, I have gleaned a number of facts that would help me to learn more about her family:

The top half of this record gives us some facts about the groom, but I want to focus on the bride, found in the second paragraph. It reads "Anna Eva Heÿer von Kalkobes, des deselbst gestorbenen Gerichtsschöpfen, Nicolaus Heÿer, hinterl. ehel. Tochter. Copuliert am 7ten April [1828]".

This roughly translates to Anna Eva Heÿer from Kalkobes, the surviving daughter of the deceased "volunteer judge", Nicolaus Heÿer, from the same place. Married on 4/7/1828."

From this, I learned her father's name and occupation (I am trying to learn exactly what a volunteer judge's role in the community was and how much legal training he would have had). And I learned that her family was from Kalkobes. I have had trouble finding Kalkobes on a map. I think it must have been absorbed into Bad Hersfeld at some point. I did find a reference to it being located southeast of Heenes, which is, itself, less than 3 miles northwest of Bad Hersfeld. Here is a Google Map showing Tann in the north and directions from Heenes to Bad Hersfeld.

This Google map does not show Kalkobes, but I found a map from about 1858 which clearly shows Kalkobes.

So, this gives you the placement of Kalkobes in relation to Bad Hersfeld and Tann, our ancestral home.

Once I had satisfied my curiosity about the location of Kalkobes, I went looking for the church records. There is a church book which has records from 1830 to about 1945 and another which covers 1773-1789. Which means that I have nothing previous to 1773 and nothing between 1789 and 1830. There is a slight chance that Kalkobes might have been part of a group of churches during the gap years, but if it was, I haven't found the records. They may turn up later.

I have also learned some important facts from Anna Eva Heÿer's death record in Tann:

Her father as I have already learned was Nicolaus Heÿer, her mother was Anna Katharina Lehn and she was married to Tobias Rödiger at the time of her death. Her birth date is given as 28 May 1789 in Kalkobes and it is noted that her birth information was provided by the widower. She died on 26 March 1847 in House #8 at 5 am. She was 57 years, 9 months and 26 days old. The arithmetic is spot on here. She was buried in Tann at 2 pm on 28 March 1847. There is info in the column reserved for remarks that I have yet to decipher (this is where my limited knowledge of the old German script and vocabulary becomes glaringly apparent). It probably is a description of the cause of death, but I can't be sure.
However, the information I did glean from this record should help me find her baptismal record. So, I turned the Kalkobes church book (KB 1773-1789). She was born in 1789 and the book runs through 1789 so it looks like I will find her baptismal record. I found that the baptismal records actually  ran only until the end of September in 1789. But since she was born in May that was good news. However, when I searched the page for May, 1789, her record was not found.

Remember that her husband provided her birth date and place. So, maybe he got it wrong. Maybe she was born before, and there was still hope of finding her baptismal record. So, I began page by page looking for children of Nicolaus Heÿer and Anna Katharina Lehn from 1773 until 1789. And I found 9 children born to Nicolaus Heÿer and Catharina Lehn plus children born to a Nicolaus Heÿer and a woman with the maiden name of Koch. I was soon able to determine that this Nicolaus Heÿer was a different person. So I concentrated of the other nine entries and entered them into my database and family tree. It then looked like this:

As you can see, I actually have 11 children listed. The next to the last is my step-great-great grandmother whose actual record I haven't found, and the last is known because she was the godparent of her sister, Anna Eva's daughter, Anna Katharina Rödiger (future wife of Friedrich Eichenauer).

This is where I jumped the rails and headed off in the wrong direction. And I should have had a clue of this problem when Nicolaus and Katharina had two children in 1776, just 6 months apart. It niggled, but checking all of the other gaps between children, I didn't find any other problems. So I ignored it.
What I didn't realize at the time--although it was right in front of me--was that the mother of some of the children was given as Catharina Elisabeth Lehn and some of them as Anna Catharina Lehn.
This is my worst nightmare. Well not really. I've had worse. But, I normally take every precaution to avoid making a mistake like this. I admit, I got a little carried away. It is unprofessional and if placed in a public tree, would #1, lead the lemming-researchers off the rails with me (mixed metaphor--duly noted) and #2, blemish my reputation with those who are careful to document each fact.

Enough with the self flagellation, already. Once I realized that there were three different Nicolaus Heÿers inhabiting the same space-time continuum, two of which had married women with the maiden name of Lehn, I was able to quickly sort it out. Now my corrected family chart looks like:

I feel much better, but I still haven't found Anna Eva's baptismal record, nor that of her sister, Anna Katharina. That is frustrating. And there is no marriage record for their parents in this church book either. So, I will have to consider the options:

1) If Anna Eva's birth date and the place is correct, then it was accidentally left out of the Kalkobes church book.

2) If the date is incorrect but the place is correct, then her birth may yet be found, but not until the rest of the Kalkobes church books are located. This is the option which seems most likely to me because her husband was born in 1797 which would have made him almost 11 years her junior. That would be very unlikely and I don't believe that I have seen that scenario in any of the German church records I have researched. That being especially true of a first marriage, which theirs appears to be. My hypothesis is that the last two numbers of her birth year were transposed, turning 1798 into 1789 and then her age at death was calculated. Where-oh-where are those missing church books?

3) If the date is correct but the place is incorrect (and just because a family lived in a certain village, it doesn't necessarily follow that the record would be recorded in that village's records) then a look at the records in the surrounding villages would be a logical approach.

4) And if neither the date nor the place is correct then ... well, it doesn't bear thinking about.

5) Oh yes, there is a fifth option, and I only mention it because you might think I never considered it, but I have. What if she wasn't baptized Lutheran. Maybe she was Catholic or Jewish? My answer is that since at least five of her siblings were baptized Lutheran, if she had been baptized into some other "religion", no doubt that would have been made crystal clear in her marriage or death record, because switching religions was a HUGE deal in that time and place. So, yes, I did consider it, for like a nanosecond.

Yep, that about summarizes my day and where I stand in my attempt to verify Johann Tobias Rödiger's knowledge about his wife's birthday. The search will continue. Since option #2 is not currently possible, I will try option #3. Next stops, Wehneberg and Heenes. Wish me luck and "drück mir die Daumen" (That means "keep your fingers crossed for me" but literally "press your thumbs for me". I'm getting of an age when it is hard to cross my fingers, so pressing my thumbs works better these days. Anybody have an emoticon for this?

Steve