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

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. 3--A New Wife (and Her Previous Marriage)

Frankly, I am posting this with some fear and trepidation. I feel like I am crawling out on a weak limb to grab the cat stuck up a tree, or skating on thin ice.
"Why?" you ask. I'm glad you asked. I have two main reasons.
First, I'm dealing with a part of the family that others reading this blog are more closely connected to than I am and who have done more research than I have. Some also have had direct contact with George and his second family, so stories may have been told that I am not aware of.
Second, the research I have done has left me with more questions than answers, and has left me to speculate on the validity of certain information that I have found. I don't want to draw the wrong conclusions and misrepresent the facts.

As always, I appreciate your feedback. But in this case I am begging for it. Help me to separate fact from speculation so we can all get a clear picture of George and his second family.

With that disclaimer and begging out of the way, let's begin.

On 30 October 1902, George Rödiger married Anna Augusta (Grosse) Schmidt. Their marriage record was recorded in Franklin County, Ohio.

Facts:

George was a farmer, living in St. Marys, Ohio, widower, 44 years old--the rest is old news, but verifies his identity.

Anna Augusta was living in Columbus, Ohio. She was born 18 October 1864, in Germany to August Grosse and Wilhelmina Buttner. She was previously married to man with the last name Schmidt,

 who is now deceased.

Their marriage was solemnized by Rev. Richard Plüddermann.

Questions which arise:
1) How did a farmer from St. Marys meet his bride who lived 90 miles away in Columbus, Ohio?
2) Did their families know each other in Germany?
3) What church were they married in? Does the name of the minister provide a clue?
4) What was Anna Augusta's first husband's given name?
5) When did she immigrate, and did she come alone or with her parents?
6) Why were their ages given in terms of the year following their marriage? This is highly unusual, since they had already had birthdays in the current year of 1902. Was one or the other of these dates a mistake?

Of the above questions, I have only found answers to #4 and #6. I'll address #6 first.
Q #6) Upon further review of the other three marriage records on this page solemnized in October of 1902, two of them also gave ages in terms of a birthdate in 1903. So that does not appear to be unusual in Franklin Co. Still odd though. I know from George's birth record in Tann that his correct date of birth is 24 May 1854. So, the record is already two days off. So, by adding 44 years (which is given as his age) to 1854, I get 1898. Since according to the record he would have been 44 on his birthdate in 1903, there is a 5 year discrepancy. This makes the age info for both spouses suspect.

Q #4--What was Augusta's first husband's given name? Page 468 of the Franklin County, Ohio Marriage Record Index provides the answer (left and right sides of the record have been copied separately to make it almost legible to the naked eye):

Bride's portion first, last line:

Augusta Grosse, age 24, native German, not previously married, resides on S. 5th,
marriage solemnized by Carl Ackermann, St. Johns

Bridegroom's portion, last line:

Marriage: 14 August 1890, Albert Schmitt, age 26, native German, carpenter by trade,
not previously married, resides on Mohler

From this record I learned that the first husband of Anna Augusta Grosse was Albert Schmitt. I learned his age, ergo his approximate birth date (1864), where he was born, where he resided and what he did for a living. I learned when, where and by whom Albert and Augusta were married, as well as where she was living at the time.
It was from George's marriage to Augusta that I derived her birth date of 18 October 1864. Since I am now suspicious of that information, it does not surprise me to learn that Albert and Augusta's marriage record tells a different tale. According to her marriage to Albert, she was 24 years old when they married on 14 August 1890. Math wizards out there may want to check out my calculations, but I think this works out to mean that her birth date was between 15 August 1865 and 14 August 1866. And of course this isn't consistent with the 18 October 1864 from her marriage with George Rödiger.

Questions:
1) When was Anna Augusta Grosse really born?
2) When did Albert Schmitt/Schmidt die?
3) Did Albert and Augusta have any children?

Let me address Q #3, Did Albert and Augusta have children. The answer is, yes. Three that I'm aware of.
Their first child was Johannah. My source for this FamilySearch.org, Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001, Franklin, Death Records 1890-1899, pp. 98-99. I have the image for this but, in this case I think it would be simpler for me to just give you the data found in this record:
Name: Schmitt, Johannah
Color: W
Sex: F
Age: 6 months
Place of Birth: City
Marital Status: --
Duration of Illness: 3 days
Date of Death: 28 July 1891
Cause of Death: convulsions from acute gastro-enteritis
Physician: W. B. Schueller
Occupation: --
Residence: 439 E. Deshler
Tenement or Private Residence: Private
Time of Residence in Columbus: 6 months
Place of Previous Residence: --
Name of Father: Albert Schmitt
Name of Mother: Augusta Schmitt
Nativity of Father: German
Nativity of Mother: German
Place of Intended Interment: Green Lawn
Date of Intended Interment: 1 August 1891
Name of Undertaker: George G Schoedinger

In addition to this record, there is also a Memorial page for Johannah on FindAGrave.com, memorial # 62298404. If you take time to look it up, you will find a photo of the location of her grave. There is no stone, but someone has very thoughtfully made a sign and posted it at the grave site.
In addition to the photo, there is a burial card, which probably is from the Green Lawn Cemetery records. Don't confuse this cemetery with the one in Wapak. The Green Lawn referred to here is in Columbus, just south of I-70 and adjacent to German Village. I was hoping to post a digital image of that card here but am awaiting permission from the one who posted it. It is available on the FindAGrave.com website. I will tell you that the info on the card differs slightly (sigh) from the death record cited above. It gives her date of death as July 30, rather than July 28, and her cause of death as "Summer Complaint." I'm no doctor, so maybe Summer Complaint is another term for acute gastro-enteritis. However, the burial card does give a birth date of 24 January 1891 which is consistent with the age of 6 months given in the county death record.

Their second child was Gertrude. My sources for this child are Franklin County Record of Births vol. 5, p 172-173, Entry #238 and FindAGrave Memorial #62298515.
The former tells us that Gertude Schmith was born on 3 March 1892 in Columbus. Her parents are given as Albert Schmith and Anna Grosse, who lived at 439 E. Deshler.
The latter has another burial card, which gives Gertrude's birth as 15 March 1892, death from Scarlet Fever on 2 January 1900, and burial in Green Lawn Cemetery on 3 January 1900. Need I point out the birth date inconsistency? Anywho, the parents names are given as Albert and Anna Schmidt.

Their third child was Ervin Earnest. His birth record was recorded in vol 6, pp. 22-23 of the Franklin County Records, Entry #920 and tells us that Ervin Schmidt was born 25 November 1893, his parents were Albert Schmidt and Anna Grosse, who were now living at 395 Forrest. (I actually have visited both locations and have the photos to prove it--however, the one on Deshler has large trees and shrubbery obscuring the view. But here is a photo of their house on Forest St. It is quite small, and was a step down from the house on Deshler.

395 Forest St, Columbus, OH

After I had taken this picture in July, 2012, I visited Eileen (Luth) Bollenbacher in October, She had an old photo of Augusta (Grosse) Schmidt-Roediger. But she could not identify where it was taken. I had one of those spine-tingling moments and said, "I know exactly where that was taken," and showed her my photo. And now I will show you hers:

Anna Augusta Schmidt, with children, Gertrude and Ervin Schmidt (ca. 1896)

And a close up of Augusta and the kids:

After his mother and George Roediger married, Ervin moved with them to Hopewell Twp, Mercer County, OH. He married Martha Clara Etta Now in 1915, had four children that I have identified, died 22 February 1963 in Celina and is buried in Buck Cemetery, Mercer Co.

I have a pretty extensive collection of photos of headstones from Buck Cemetery, but not Ervin and Martha's. So, if anyone "happens" to go headstone hunting, would you snap a picture of theirs for me? :)

Now I will return to an earlier question that I posited: When did Augusta's first husband, Albert Schmidt die? Frankly, this has been stumping me for a long, long time. I may have I found some articles about his death, but there are a couple of things that bother me about this particular Albert Schmidt. Unfortunately, I can't find any other Albert Schmidt who died in Franklin Co who fits the profile. This Albert Schmidt does in part, although some of the dates are problems.

Is this Anna Grosse's husband, mentioned in the German Language Newspaper in Columbus?:

Westbote Zeitung, 8 July 1903
"Sought rest in death and found it too. By means of morphine he shook off the burden of life from himself
--Albert Schmidt, a German ..."

And an article in an English Language Newspaper:

Columbus Dispatch, 8 July 1903

I hope you can read this, because it is too late in the day to transcribe it. Note the similarities between the Albert we know, and that of the man in this article. Same name, German, middle-aged (about 40), was found in the German Village area (Central Ave and Mound St--there ain't no farms there anymore, I can tell ya) and "it is said he was a carpenter." All of that fits. What doesn't fit is that he died 8 months after George and Augusta were married. But their marriage record states that she was a widow. If this is the right guy, then, well, you can see why I was a little nervous about this subject. Not that I'm saying he is. I just don't have any other candidates at this point. And it is an interesting story to end this segment on. There was another short article in the Columbus Citizen on the same day about the mysterious Albert Schmidt and his suicide note.

Another thing that bothers me about this Albert Schmidt: There is nothing in these articles that indicates that he was currently married, or ever had been. That goes for his suicide note as well. There is some ranting about property, but nothing about a wife or children. So, help me out here. Has anyone found another Albert Schmidt that would fit the bill? If so, please step forward.

There are, of course, two more children in George and Augusta's future. So, stay tuned for "pt. 4, the George Roediger Line Endures"