Anna Eva Heyer's Mother--Anna Catharina Lehn

My back burner is getting a little crowded as I work to tie up loose ends. So, from the back burner, I think I have discovered enough information to present some information about Anna Catharina Lehn.

In two previous post, I shared my research on Anna Eva Heÿer and her siblings, children of Nicolaus Heÿer and Anna Catharina Lehn. See The Siblings of Anna Eva Heÿer and Found at Last. These two posts will get you caught up with where Anna Eva Heÿer fits in the family tree and why she is important to both the Roediger and Eichenauer clans.
Today, I am climbing higher up the family tree to share what I have learned about Anna Eva's mother, Anna Catharina Lehn:
Armed with the fact that the last child that I knew her to bear was born in 1789 in Kalkobes, I started with that date in mind and began working forward through the church records, looking for a death record. Found:

"#73/Kalkobes, 13. [Juni 1822], Anna Catharina, Witwe des verst. Landbauer Nicolaus Heÿer zu Kalkobes, geb. Lehn, starb 11. [Juni 1822] Abends 8 Uhr, alt 78 Jahr"

Translated: Anna Catharina, maiden name Lehn, widow of the deceased farmer, Nicolaus Heÿer from Kalkobes died on 11. June 1822 at 10 pm, age 78 years, and was buried in Kalkobes on June 13. This would put her date of birth about 1744.

I had learned from her son, Johann Conrad Heÿer's baptismal record that she was from Reilos. On the Google Map below, you can get an idea of the locations of Tann, Reilos and Kalkobes:

Reilos is about 2 1/2 miles down the Rohrbach stream from Tann. Reilos is about 6 miles by road from Kalkobes.

So, I searched for her baptismal record in Reilos. I found it in the Friedlos-Reilos Church Book. Fortunately, this church book kept the two village's records in separate sections and they are both fairly small villages This saved me from wading through hundreds of records (as I had to do when looking for Kalkobes records). As you can see from the map above, these two villages are very close together and it may be that one church served both villages. Indeed, this is what Wikipedia suggests. Here is a link to a photo of the church in Reilos.

I have been able to get the gist of this record, though the actual wording is difficult so I won't attempt a transliteration here, but just give you the rough translation. Anna Catharina, daughter of David Lehn was born on the 28th of December 1743 [in Reilos] and was baptized on the 29th. (the first part of the date is hidden in the binding but I am guessing that it is a 2). The baptismal witness was the child's mother's sister, Anna Catharina, Niclas Jacob's daughter.

This is good stuff. Not only do I learn her birth and baptismal date, but also her father's name (David Lehn) and her mother's father's name (Nicolaus Jacob and the name of her mother's sister (Anna Catharina Jacob). It is the fodder for possible future research.

At this point I could and should point out the apparent disrespect for the one who labored to bring this child into the world. As so often happens in the older records, the name of her mother is absent. This is frustrating to me as a genealogist who is trying to connect all the dots, and mysterious to me as a husband and father. It seems that a basic principle of keeping birth records would be that the parent's names would BOTH be provided. And I am totally stunned that even in a male dominate culture, this fact would be omitted.

So, instead of the mother's name, I am left with clues as to her identity, but for now she will have to remain known as ? Jacob, daughter of Nicolaus Jacob and sister of Anna Catharina Jacob.

To summarize, the subject of this post is Anna Catharina Lehn, mother of Anna Eva Heÿer.
She was:
*born 11 March 1745 in Reilos
*baptized 15 March 1745 in Reilos
*[married to Nicolaus Heÿer on 20 June 1766, Lutheran Church in Kalkobes]
*[gave birth to 10 children, 4 boys and 6 girls]
*died 11 June 1822 in Kalkobes
*buried 13 June 1822 in Kalkobes.
*Her father was Johann Conrad Lehn
*Her mother's maiden name was Jacob, but her mother's given name was not revealed
*Her mother's father was Niclas Jacob
*Her mother had a sister, Anna Catharina Jacob, who served as Anna Catharina Lehn's baptismal sponsor

To see the new info in context with the rest of my tree go to Rödiger Family Tree at ancestry.com

(Stephan Rödiger)

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