Switching Gears—Where did the Weifenbachs come from in Germany?

BACKGROUND
Sometime after my great-grandfather, Conrad Tobias Rödiger, arrived in Ohio, he met Anna Christina Weifenbach, who was a lifelong resident of Washington Twp., Auglaize Co. Ohio. Christina lived with her parents, Conrad Weifenbach and Christena Diegel and her 8 siblings in the brick farmhouse on the corner of Wiefenbach Rd. (named after her family, but is misspelled) and Bay Rd.

This is about 2 miles south of old Rt 33. Her parents had been married in 1866 by Christian Wessling, Minister of the Gospel.

Conrad and Anna Christina (Diegel) Weifenbach

The Weifenbachs attended the  Weifenbach Church situated across Wiefenbach Rd from the Weifenbach homestead. The church no longer exists but many of its members ended up attending Salem Methodist Church in Wapak.

My great-grandfather, Conrad Tobias Roediger, had purchased land about 1 mile north of old Rt 33, on the west side of Bay Rd and on the north and south sides of Kruse Rd. I believe that he attended the Weifenbach Church and that my grandfather, Alfred Tobias Roediger, was baptized there.

In 1889, Conrad Tobias Roediger and Anna Christina Weifenbach were married and subsequently raised three daughters and my grandfather, Alfred Tobias.

Top: Carrie and Bertha; Bottom: Anna Christina (Weifenbach), Alfred Tobias, Conrad Tobias and Mamie Roediger

So, in addition to the Roediger and Eichenauer families, I have an vested interest in the Weifenbach family as well.

ANCESTRAL HOME
Up until this year, all I knew about the Weifenbach German origins I had gleaned from record of the ship "Atlas" on which Anna Christina's grandparents and family had traveled to America.

This ship arrived in the port of New York on 6 August 1846. The Weiffenbachs who stepped off of the ship are described as follows:
Joh. Weiffenbach, age 37, male, peasant
Catharine Weiffenbach, age 32, female
Christine Weiffenbach, age 17, male
Anna Gela Weiffenbach, age 5, female
Conrad Weiffenbach, age 3, male
Catharine Weiffenbach, age 1
All were listed as being "from Nieder Aula, with destination being Ohio"

At the time that they immigrated in 1846, ship records typically were content to only provide the name of the country of origin. Since Germany didn't become a nation until 1871, the most I would have expected to find was that they were from one of the 39 sovereign states formed after the downfall of Napoleon. A few of the major states included Prussia, Bavaria and Hesse. So, imagine my surprise when their place of origin was given as Nieder Aula, a very specific village. And imagine my delight when I discovered that there appears to only be one village by the name Niederaula in all of Germany. The name derives from the fact that it was situated on the Aula river. Nieder is a German adjective which means "low" or "lower". There is also a village named Oberaula. Ober means "upper". So Niederaula is down the Aula river and Oberaula is up.

And here is the Kicker. When I Google-mapped Niederaula I discovered that it is only 13 miles from Tann. Tann to Niederaula map link. This makes me wonder if my great-grandparents realized how close their home villages were to each other. Déjàvu--this is the same question I asked in regard to the Diegels in my last Blog Post.

This is the "Wappen" (Coat of Arms) of Niederaula:

As you can see from the ship record, questions immediately arise about "Christine" who is listed as a male and is of an age which makes me seriously doubt that she is one of their children. Being 17, she (or he) would have been born about 1828 or 1829 and Johannes and Katherine were not married until 1841. The other difficulty I faced concerning Christine, was that of the six Weiffenbachs on the Atlas, she was the only one I could not find a baptismal record for.

So, now that I established where they were from, I began searching in earnest for the records for this family. Just recently the church records for Niederaula were digitized and posted on Archion.de, so I have been busy researching the Weifenbach and Berlet families in Niederaula. And what I found is on the whole AMAZING. On the Weifenbach side I have been able to to get birth, marriage and death records back to my 4G Grandparents. Additionally, I have learned the names of my Weifenbach 5G and 6G great-grandfathers. Unfortunately there is a 19 year gap in the records between 1754 and 1773. And there is a generational jump that takes place in the Weifenbach family during that time period that prevents me from connecting the dots any further back with any certainty.
However, on the Berlet side I have been able to find birth and marriage and most death records back to the Berlet 6G grandparents and know the name of my 7G grandfather. In addition, my 6G grandfather, Johann Caspar Berlet married Elisabeth Baum in 1747 in Niederaula and I have learned that her parents, Johann George Baum and Anna Catharina Eicheberg were married in 1722 in Niederaula and her father, Jost Eicheberg would be my 8G grandfather. This means that I have made it back into the late 1600s with this family. This is very exciting since I really had no record of the Weifenbach part of my family in Germany until very recently! So much progress in so little time. You can find the Ancestor Tree of Conrad Weifenbach HERE and then choose the file "Conrad Weifenbach Ancestors as of 20191107.pdf"

As I mentioned earlier, of the six Weiffenbachs on that boat, I have only found birth records for Johannes and his wife and the three youngest Weiffenbachs.

So, for now, I will share the birth records I found for the five I have found and throw in Johannes Weiffenbach and Catharina Berlet's marriage record for good measure.

Johannes Weiffenbach Baptismal Record:

März 11 [1810]--Johannes, des Ackermanns, Philipp Weifenbach, daher, und deßen Ehefrau, Anna Maria, geboren Hofmann, Sohn; gebohren am 5ten ejus der Morgens zwischen drei under Uhr. Gevatter, Johannes Sippel, Ackermann in
 ?Friedlos?, Schwager des Vaters vom Kinde.

11 March [1810]--the farmer, Phillip Weifenbach from here and his legitimate wife, Anna Maria neé Hofmann had a son, Johannes who was baptized, born between 3 and 4 o'clock on the 5th of the same month. The baptismal sponsor was Johannes Sippel, farmer in ?Friedlos?, brother-in-law of the father of the child. I gather that this means that Johannes' father has a sister who married Johannes Sippel (twigs for further research).

Catharina Elisabetha Berlet Baptismal Record:

Am 28ten April [1815], Catharina Elisabetha, des Johannes Berlet hiesigen Einwohners und Ackermanns und deßen Ehefrau, Barbara Elisabetha gebh. Fink, ehel. Tochter, gebohren am 23ten l. M. Mittags 12 Uhr. Gevatter: Catharina Elisabeth des Johann Valentin Berlet Ehefrau.

28 April [1815]--Catharina Elisabeth, legitimate daughter of Johannes Berlet, resident and farmer [of Niederaula] and his wife, Barbara Elisabeth Fink, was baptized, having been born on the 23rd at 12 noon. Sponsor was Catharina Elisabeth, wife of Johann Valentin Berlet.

Johannes Weifenbach and Katharina Elisabeth Berlet Marriage Record (I have captured this in two parts, the first being the information about the groom and bride, and the second pertaining to the dates:

Johannes Weiffenbach, Ortsbürger und Landbauer in Kirchheim, des weil. Einwoh. und Landbauers zu Nieder Aula, Philipp Weiffenbach, und deßen Ehefrau, Jakobina Maria, geb. Hofmann, jetzt Witwe von Adam Kurz; ehe. lediger Sohn, geb. März 5, 1810, reform. Konfeßion.

Katharine Elisabeth Berlet, des hiesigen Auszugers und Kirchenältesten, Johannes Berlet und deßen Ehefr. Barbe Elisabeth, geb. Fink; eheliche Tochter, geboren April 23, 1815

Johannes Weiffenbach, born 5 March 1810, citizen and farmer in Kirchheim, legitimate son of the resident and farmer of Nieder Aula, Philipp Weiffenbach and his wife, Jakobina Maria Hofmann (who is now the widow of Adam Kurz)

Katharine Elisabeth Berlet, born 23 April 1815, legitimate daughter of Johannes Berlet, who lives outside of the village,  and his wife, Barbe Elisabeth, neé Fink.

Place and Date of Civil Registration: Nieder Aula, November 13, 1841
Dates of Church Banns: November 14, 21 and 28
Place and Date of Wedding: Nieder Aula, Dezember 5, 1841

I do not think you need me to translate any of this, but note that the village name was written as two words. On today's maps, it has been compacted and appears as "Niederaula".

CHILDREN:
1) Angelica Weiffenbach (and again I divide this record in two parts because it stretches across two pages in the original document):

#429--Nieder Aula, [Geburt:] Januar Sieben, 5. Uhr, morgen.
[Taufe:] Niederaula im Pfarrhaus, Jan. 23.
[Geschecht und Namen des Kindes:] Mädchen, Angelica (vulgo: Anna Gela) Weiffenbach

[Namen und Stand der Eltern:] Johannes Weiffenbach, Landbauer; Katharina Elisabeth, geb. Berlet, deßen Ehefrau
[Namen und Stand der Taufpaten:] Angelica Berlet, der Mutter eheles. Schwester

Taken together, this record states that the little girl, Angelica (name in common language is Anna Gela) Weiffenbach was born on 7 January [1841] at 5 am to the farmer, Johannes Weiffenbach and his wife, Katharina Elisabeth, neé Berlet, and baptized at the Pastor's house in Niederaula on 23 January [1841]. The baptismal sponsor was the mother's sister, Angelica Berlet

This child, Anna Gela Weiffenbach, married Johann Conrad (Conrad John) Eichenauer, the youngest son of Johann Konrad Eichenauer and Anna Katharina Jacob, and brother of Anna Margaretha and Johann Friedrich Eichenauer in Auglaize Co, Ohio. Just so I don't lose anybody here, Johann Friedrich was the father of all of the Eichenauers who immigrated to Auglaize Co. and Mercer Co., Ohio; and Anna Margaretha was the mother of George and Conrad Tobias Rödiger who immigrated to the same area. Hope that helps.

2) Conrad Weiffenbach:

#429--Kirchheim, [Geburt:] Zehnten Julius, des Morgens um sechs Uhr.
[Taufe:] am 23 Julius dahier
[Geschecht und Namen des Kindes:] ein Knabe, Conrad Weiffenbach 

[Namen und Stand der Eltern:] Johannes Weiffenbach, Tagelöhner dahier, gebürtig aus Niederaula; et. ux: Catharina Elisabetha, geborene Berlet, gebürtig aus Niederaula
[Namen und Stand der Taufpaten:] Conrad ?Stürz?, Schneider zu Mengshausen, in Amt. Niederaula

Taken together, this record states that the small boy, Conrad Weiffenbach was born at 6 am on 10 July [1843] to the day laborer here, Johannes Weiffenbach (who was born in Niederaula), and his wife, Catharina Elisabetha, neé Berlet, and baptized here on 23 July [1843]. The baptismal sponsor was Conrad ?Stürz?, tailor from Mengshausen in the district of Niederaula.

3) Anna Catharina Weiffenbach:

#429--Kirchheim, [Geburt:] vierzehnten Julius, des Mittags um zweÿ Uhr.
[Taufe:] am 27 Julius dahier
[Geschecht und Namen des Kindes:] ein Mädchen, Anna Catharina Weiffenbach  

[Namen und Stand der Eltern:] Johannes Weiffenbach, Tagelöhner dahier, gebürtig aus Niederaula; et. ux: Catharina Elisabetha, geborene Berlet, gebürtig aus Niederaula
[Namen und Stand der Taufpaten:] Anna Catharina, des Christoph Stanges und dessen Ehefrau Anna Elisabeth, geboren Müller, eheliche Tochter, zu Lingelbach im Amte Oberaula

#515--the little girl, Anna Catharina Weiffenbach, was born in House #27 in Kirchheim on the 14th of July [1845] at 2 pm to Johannes Weiffenbach (born in Niederaula), and his wife, Catharina Elisabetha, neé Berlet (born in Niederaula) and was baptized here on 27 July [1845]. The baptismal sponsor was Anna Catharina, the daughter of Christoph Stang and his wife, Anna Elisabetha, neé Müller from Lingelbach in the District of Oberaula. I included the headers here for your reading pleasure. As you can see, they are using printed forms with headers. Prior to 1830, many of the records were just handwritten, lumping all the information into one paragraph.

From the above, I have learned that the parents, Johannes and Anna Catharina (Berlet) Weiffenbach were both born in Niederaula. They were married in Niederaula, but Johannes is said in the marriage record to be from Kirchheim, which is just a stones throw (3 miles) to the northwest. Their first child was baptized in the pastor's house in Niederaula, and although the child's birth has been recorded as taking place in Niederaula, there seems enough scratching out and adding in of information to make me wonder whether that is correct. After all, her father was living in Kirchheim when married, and the rest of her siblings were born in House 27 in Kirchheim.
Here is a google map showing the driving distance between the two villages:

Forested and cultivated land lies between the two villages which lie next to the Aula, which appears to be just a creek.

I think that I have, by this time, been able to establish the ancestral home of the Weifenbachs of Auglaize Co. Ohio. There is a rich vein of Weifenbach ore to be mined there, but that would be way too much info for one Blog Post. So, I want to conclude this Post with a bit of frustrating news:

I have been unable to determine where the Weifenbachs lived between 1846 (when they arrived in New York) and 13 August 1866 (when Anna Gela, the oldest daughter married Johann Conrad Eichenauer in Auglaize Co). That is 20 years unaccounted for!
In 1870, the Weifenbachs who came on the "Atlas" appeared in the Census in Washington Twp, Auglaize County except for Christine (or is it Christian?) and Anna Catharina (the child listed as 1 year old on the ship record). So what happened to those two girls? Either or both could easily have married or died or both during that 20 year period.
According to the ship record, their destination was Ohio. But, I have yet to find them in the 1850 or 1860 Census. This is not surprising as the indexing on Ancestry.com for those years is mediocre at best. Names are horribly misspelled. Even in the 1870 census the Weifenbach family was listed as "Viepenbeck". I am sure they were not listed in Washington Twp in the 1850 census because I have looked through those records with a fine tooth comb, but haven't had the time (nor inclination frankly) to go page by page through all of Auglaize and Mercer Counties. So, next stop is the Recorder of Deeds Office in Auglaize Co to see when the Weifenbachs bought land.

So, as usual, the more questions that get answered, the more questions that arise. But, as soon as the opportunity presents itself, I WILL follow up.

Stephen Roediger
(Roediger-Eichenauer Family Historian)

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