Recap of Research from 2020-2022, pt.2

Headline: A Dis-Entanglement Project Leads to New Discoveries!

I have often referred to a dear fellow collaborator, Regina Hiller, as my Genealogy Angel. She is a fountain of knowledge and always willing to answer all my questions, help transcribe the illegible scribbles of the Church records and make comments on people in my Ancestry.com tree when she finds a birth, marriage or death record that I do not have.

A week ago, Regina made a comment on a fellow by the name of Johann Conrad Möller, a resident of Niederthalhausen, where the Eichenauers also lived and worshiped for generations. Her comment was, “probably identical with Hanß Curth Möller”. This led me to look for the Hanß Curth Möller in Niederthalhausen that she was referring to.

I discovered, to my immediate dismay, that I had 3 gentlemen named either Hanß Curth (old form) or Johann Conrad (new form) in Niederthalhausen who married within just a few years of each other (in the 1740s), and I had several more that had been included in my tree because they were mentioned as the father of a particular child when he or she was either baptized or married that could have been one of these three men.

I do not like loose ends, especially when it means that I have multiple instances of the same person appearing separately in my tree. So, I set about the task of straightening it all out. It took me an entire week, about 100 file cards, the perusal of two Church books covering 150 years and a lot of deduction. But in the end, my tree is all the better for it.

To be quite honest, not a single one of these Johann/Hanß Conrad/Curth Möllers is a blood relative. All this is background for the real story:

We do have a Hanß Curth Möller from Niederthalhausen in our family linage. He is my 7th great-grandfather. He did not originally become involved in the Dis-entanglement Project, because he was clearly from an earlier generation. You may be able to figure out your relationship with him from the following:

Hanß Curth Möller was the father of Anna Catharina Möller, who was the mother of Johann Michael Mürer, who was the father of Anna Christina Mürer, who was the mother of Johann Konrad Eichenauer, who was the father of Anna Margretha Eichenauer (wife of Johann Tobias Rödiger) and of Johann Friedrich Eichenauer (husband of Anna Katharina Rödiger).

So if you are an Ohio Roediger, you are descended from Anna Margaretha Eichenauer, and if you are an Ohio Eichenauer, you are descended from her brother, Friedrich. From there, hopefully, you can pick up the thread that leads back to you. If not, send me a comment, and I will see what I can do to clarify their relationship to you.

What I knew about Hanß Curth Möller a week ago wouldn’t have filled a thimble. I knew that he was the father of Anna Catharina Möller. I knew that he was buried in Niederthalhausen on 27 March 1735, age 74 years, 6 months. So, I also knew that he was born about September of 1660 because of his age at death. I did not know the name of his wife or when they were married. Nor did I know his specific birth date, where he was born, nor the names of his parents. I also did not know anything about any of his other children.

The problem is that the Church books in Niederthalhausen don’t begin until 1686, so it is hard to connect the dots between Möllers who were born, married or died prior to that date. BUT, as a result of the Dis-entanglement Project, I remembered that there are Niederthalhausen Church records imbedded (and hidden) in the Beenhausen Church book covering the years 1649-1684, as well as records for Oberthalhausen and 6 other villages besides Beenhausen.

Map is from the Meyersgaz.org website

Niederthalhausen is marked by the red dot. Oberthalhausen is to the west and designated simply as "Ob".

Hanß Curth Möller's baptismal record: "am 28 7bris" (28 September)

Once my Möller Dis-entanglement Project led me to this Church book, I discovered that our ancestor, Hanß Curth Möller was born in Oberthalhausen, not Niederthalhausen. Although Hanß Curth Möller's father's name is mentioned in his baptismal record, it is difficult to read and I am uncertain what it was. But my best guess is that his father's name is Hans Möller.

His baptism in Oberthaalhausen  prompted me to examine the Oberthalhausen Church book and, in turn, led me to discover that Hanß Curd was married in Oberthalhausen in 1693 to Catharina Beißheim.

"Anno 1693, am 27. Aprilis ist Hanß Curd Möller und Catharina, Peter Beißheims von Niederthalhausen, nachgelaßen Tochter copuliert word" (on 27th of April, in the year 1693, Hanß Curd Möller was married to Catharina, the daughter of the deceased Peter Beißheim of Niederthalhausen)

I also discovered that his first three children, including his daughter, Anna Catharina (our direct ancestor) were born in Oberthalhausen, and the last two (that I am aware of) were born in Niederthalhausen.

Armed with this information, I was able to find Catharina Beißheim’s birth, confirmation and burial records; as well as the marriage record of her parents on 9 February 1654 in Niederthalhausen, which revealed her mother’s name to be Eulalia Weckman, daughter of Martini Weckman. Her father, Peter Beißheim’s burial record reveals that he was buried on “Dom. Sexagesima”* in 1686 in Niederthalhausen, age 70. This puts his birth at about 1615-1616. At the time of his death he was serving as Mayor of Niederthalhausen and church warden. 

 *Sexagesima is a Sunday roughly equivelent to 60 days before Easter on the Church Calendar and happened to fall on the 7th of February in 1686.

Peter Beißheim’s wife, Eulalia, was buried on 4 March 1684, at age 52. This puts her birth about 1632.

So, putting it all together, I am very happy to announce that the Eichenauer-Roediger linage has been extended once again and I now add another identifiable 9th great-grandfather to my Tree. The following chart provides the details. The Relational Notations below each name in the chart refer to that individual's relationship to me. But, using the linage information previously provided in this Blog post, you can determine their relationship to you.

I am very pleased to have been able to learn so much about our ancestors over the last 10 years. As we close out 2022, I wish all of my cousins, both in the USA and in Germany, all the best in 2023.

--Stephen Roediger

Reaching for the Topmost Branches--The Eichenauers

First, let me point out that my starting pointer this post is Johann George Eichenauer, the grandfather of Anna Margaretha  and Friedrich Eichenauer who figure so prominently in our family tree. Anna Margaretha married Johann Tobias Rödiger, whose sons, George and Conrad, and a grandson, Johann Heinrich (John Henry) emigrated and settled in Ohio. Her brother, Friedrich Eichenauer married Anna Katharina Rödiger, and five of their children, Tobias, Conrad, Adam, Gus and Lizzie Eichenauer also emigrated and settled in Ohio. So, hopefully, armed with this information, you can place your relationship with the "person of interest", Johann George Eichenauer.

Johann George Eichenauer is my 5G grandfather. Up until a few months ago, I only knew the name of his father (Georg) and the name of his wife (Anna Katharina Schäfer) and the names of three of their five children. I thought I knew where and when he had been born, but was mistaken on both counts. In actuality, both he and his wife, Anna Katharina Schäfer were born in Angersbach (see Addendum)

What I have learned since then has taken me one generation further up the Eichenauer tree. I now know that Johann George Eichenauer's father, Georg was married twice. First in 1717 to Anna Margaretha Rencker (I think this is the correct spelling). They had three sons, Caspar Georg, Conrad Georg and Johann Caspar. The first two were twins. In 1724, Georg's first wife died and he married Regina Kiesner on 3 October 1724 in Angersbach. To this couple were born four boys and one girl. Our common ancestor, Johann George was the youngest. His three older brothers all died before the age of 3. Of his sister, Anna Gertraud, I have yet to discover how long she lived and whether she married.
Georg Eichenauer, who is at this point the tip top of the Eichenauer tree, has been difficult to figure out. The church book that would have his death record had writing near the binding and when it was digitized some of the information was hidden in the shadow. I have found a record that could possibly be his death record, but here is what I have had to deal with:

Catalogus Defunctorum, Anno Christi 1750

The year is 1750. The death takes place on the 2nd of January. Just below the date is the name of the deceased. The first name ends with "org" which is probably "Georg" and the last name is definitely "Eichenauer". The age of the deceased is also partially obscured so that all that I can read on the last line  is a "0" or "6" followed by "Jahr und 8 Monath" (year and 8 months). So there is not enough of the years of age visible to know how old he was. But, I deduce from this record that "?org Eichenauer" was an adult, since no parents names are included.
Without knowing his age, I would have to guesstimate his birth year based on the date of his first marriage. That was in 1717. Since men rarely married before age 20 (and often not until age 30) I would guesstimate that he was born between 1677 and 1697. When I looked for baptismal records in  that timeframe I found three Johann George Eichenauers born in Angersbach who fit the bill. But at this point I have no way of knowing if any one of them is the correct one. So the climb to the top stops with Georg for now. Perhaps, if I have opportunity to talk with someone at the Archive with access to the actual books, they could read the name and age of the deceased person in the record above. Then I could decide if it could pertain to our Georg Eichenauer, or whether the facts contained there rule him out.
I had more success with Georg's wife (Johann George's mother), Regina Kiesner. I found her death record:

This is from the year 1758, the 7th of October. Can you see "Regina Eichenauer"? Yes, part of the "R" is in the shadow, but I am certain this is Georg's wife. Regina is an unusual name in this area and I have not found another Regina in all my searching in this church book. Her age is on the third and fourth lines "alters 64 Jahr [smudge smudge] Woche" (64 years ?? weeks). This would put her date of birth about 1684. From her marriage record, I also learned that she was born in Vaitshain, about 13 miles south of Angersbach. Sadly the records for Vaitshain have not been digitized, so I am stuck again. I will revisit if and when the records become available.
This then, is as far up the Eichenauer tree as I can climb for now:

Not that it means much to the main Eichenauer research, but in baptismal records, baptismal sponsors are named. And from the baptism of Georg and Regina's son, Johann Henrich, I learned that his baptismal sponsor was Regina's brother, Johann Henrich Kiesner. If the Vaitshain records become available, this information may become useful in learning the names of Regina's parents--my 7G grandparents

ADDENDUM

When I was researching past posts to see just how far up the Eichenauer tree I had taken you in the past, I discovered something that seems appropriate to address since it pertains to Johann George Eichenauer and his descendants.

25 January 2018 I posted a blog called "The Eichenauer Geography (pt. 1)" which turned out to have some incomplete as well as some inaccurate information. Now that records from Angersbach and Grebenau are available online, I am able to set the record straight. However, you may want to refer back to that blog in case you want to see the maps of the places being talked about here.

In that 2018 post, I asserted that Johann George Eichenauer (who moved to Hof Trunsbach to become it's manager in 1794) was born in Grebenau. That turned out to be untrue. He was born in Angersbach about 7 December 1737 (this is his baptismal date--his birthdate was not given).

On 11 October 1763 he married Anna Katharina Schäfer, who was also a native of Angersbach. Together, they had five children--all boys. The first four, including our common ancestor, Johann Heinrich, were born in Angersbach between 1764 and 1770. Sometime between 1770 and 1772, this portion of the Eichenauer clan moved to the village of Grebenau where their fifth son was born in 1773.
Of the five sons, two died in childhood. The three who survived into adulthood were:
1) Johann Henrich Eichenauer (our common ancestor)
b. 1 September 1764, Angersbach
d. 26 November 1813, Niederthalhausen
m. 10 January 1794, Niederthalhausen to Anna Christina Mürer (The Mürer the Merrier)

2) Johann Konrad Eichenauer
b. ca. 1 June 1768, Angersbach
d. 27. September 1845, Angersbach
m. 13 June 1803, Angersbach to Anna Margaretha Völler

3) Johannes Eichenauer
b. 3 June 1773, Grebenau
d. 2 February 1836, Hof Trunsbach bei Niederthalhausen
m. Barbara Elisabeth Sunkel

While, Johann Heinrich and Johannes accompanied their parents to Hof Trunsbach and subsequently married and settled down either at the Hof or in the nearby village of Niederthalhausen, Johann Konrad elected to return to his hometown of Angersbach, married Anna Margaretha Völler and settled down. At this point, I know that they had at least six children born between 1804 and 1813. On both his and his wife's death record, Johann Konrad's vocation is listed as "Schreiner" (joiner, woodworker).

The management of the Hof eventually fell to Johann George's son, Johannes, whose wife, Barbara Elisabeth Sunkel had 9 children. Seven of these were girls, four of which did not survive childhood. Their oldest son, Nicolaus inherited the management of Hof Trunsbach, and their second son, Heinrich, his wife and children emigrated to Lancaster Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania in 1847. Together. Heinrich Eichenauer and Eva Catharina Schneider had 14 children, the last three born after immigrating. So now you know that we have 5th and 6th cousins living in the area just north of Pittsburgh.

Your Rödiger-Eichenauer Genealogy Pointman,
Stephen Roediger

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

The Eichenauer Geography (pt. 1)

The Eichenauers of Mercer County, Ohio and the Roedigers of Auglaize County, Ohio have an intertwined family history which begins in a small village of about 300 inhabitants in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg District of the German State of Hesse called Tann. While the Rödigers had lived in this village for generations (Henn Rödiger was listed in one document from 1627 as one of 12 farmers in Tann, most of whom had 1 horse and oxen), the Eichenauers were relative newcomers.

It appears that Johann Konrad Eichenauer and his wife, Anna Katharina Jacob moved to Tann after their eleventh child was born on 21 September of 1833 and before their twelfth child was born on 10 September 1836.

My intention in this blog is to show via modified Google Earth Maps (since I can't take you on a personal bus tour) where the Eichenauers came from before moving to Tann and about how long they lived in those locations. Since my research has only been able to learn the birthplaces of Johann Konrad Eichenauer's ancestors back to his grandfather, this shall be a fairly short "lesson." But hopefully you will get a spacial concept that will serve you in further research forays. And, of course, if you have access to Google Earth or even Google Maps, you can follow along in one of those programs and enhance your experience by zooming in on whatever floats your boat.

First, let me show you a map of Germany in relation to her neighbors in Europe:


The individual States of Germany are outlined in blue. Hesse is located almost in the geographical center of Germany. Frankfurt is the largest city of Hesse, so if you find the blue line that surrounds Frankfurt, you have found Hesse.
Sadly, I have been stymied in my attempts to show all of Hesse and and also have Google Earth show some of the midsize cities in Hesse that you might be familiar with. So this next map does show Frankfurt in the south and Kassel in the north, surrounded by the blue line indicating the borders of Hesse. After you have studied it for a few moments you can move on to the next map which will zoom in on the northern area of Hesse indicated by the area outlined in red.

 

The map below is semi-sort-of the area framed in red on the map above, and begins to show some of the smaller towns. Again, I have framed an area in red that will be enlarged on the following map.



Zooming a little closer on the area framed in red above, we can now find Tann on the map below, which is about 4 miles north of Bad Hersfeld.



I am now going to enlarge the area around Hof Trunsbach so that you can see the locality a bit better before I explain it's significance.



As I wrote earlier in this blog, Johann Konrad and Anna Katharina Eichenauer moved to Tann between 1833 and 1836. But before coming to Tann, they had been residents of Niederthalhausen, about 3 miles up the road. Johann Konrad and Anna Katharina were married in the Niederthalhausen church, their first 11 children had been born in Haus 18 in Niederthalhausen and baptized the this church. When I visited Tann, I wasn't aware of the significance of Niederthalhausen to our family history, so never visited there. However, thanks to Youtube I was able to lasso a photo of the church there. If you search for "Evangelische Kirche von Niederthalhausen" on Youtube, you can watch a short video that shows several views of the church and captures the tolling of the bells in the church tower. The link is Niederthalhausen ev. Dorfkirche

The church is located just below the yellow pushpin

Although Johann Konrad lived in Niederthalhausen with his family from 1815 to about 1835 when they moved to Tann, he wasn't born there. He and his 7 siblings were born at the Hof Trunsbach, which I wrote about in a previous blog. If you refer back to the map image just before that of the Evangelische Kirche, you will see that the Hof was located about 3/4 mile SE of Niederthalhausen. Johann Konrad Eichenauer's grandfather, Johann George (1727-1822) had come to the Hof Trunsbach with his family to become its "Conductor" in 1794. Succeeding generations of Eichenauers held that position for almost 100 years (until 1888).

But of course, only one person could hold that position, so other members of the family found it necessary to find other positions either on the Hof or elsewhere. In a future blog, I intend to show where some of the children and grandchildren went from the Hof and what occupations they pursued.

[On 1 Feb 2020, I reviewed this post and was startled to discover several factual errors in this paragraph. Please see my post from 2/1/2020 for corrections and additions to this paragraph--SRR] I now know that Johann George Eichenauer, the first Eichenauer who held the position of Hof Trunsbach Conductor had at least three sons by his wife, Anna Catharina Schäfer who was born in Angersbach. The first two sons were born in Grebenau, where their father was born. 1. Johann Heinrich (1764-1813) was Johann Konrad's father. It appears that Johann Heinrich inherited the Conductor position when his father died, but about this I am not 100% sure. 2. Johannes  Eichenauer (1773-1836) married Barbara Elisabeth Sunkel from Reilos and had 9 children, two sons and seven daughters. 3. Konrad Eichenauer, about whom I have learned very little because the church records from Grebenau are not yet available online. I do know that he was living in Angersbach in 1823 (his mother's hometown) because of the baptismal record of a niece who was named after his wife, Anna Margaretha Möller. It may be that Konrad was already married and settled in a career in Angersbach when his father moved to Hof Trunsbach with the other two sons. Hopefully, sometime soon those records will be available to solve this little mystery.

From the above paragraph, I revealed where this branch of the Eichenauer clan lived prior to 1794. But look at the map below to gain some perspective:



First note the distance between Grebenau (where Johann George Eichenauer was born) and Angersbach (where his wife was born). [I subsequently have learned that Johann George Eichenauer, his wife and four of their five children were born in Angersbach. They moved to Grebenau between 1770 and 1772 where their fifth child was born--SRR] It looks to be about 10-12 miles as the crow flies. These two towns are located in a different district from Tann and Niederthalhausen which are in the Hersfeld-Rotenburg District. The District that Grebenau and Angersbach is in is called Vogelsbergkreis which is outlined in light green.

Now note the distance between Hof Trunsbach and Grebenau. It calculates out to be about 24-25 miles. I am not sure how to measure the significance of the distance between these two locations, but if they left family behind in Grebenau or Angersbach, it would certainly limit the number of times they would visit one another. Perhaps we will never learn the reasons behind making such a move but it prompts me to ask myself questions: Was the opportunity of being the manager of the Hof just too good to pass up? Were there limited economic opportunities in the Vogelbergkreis that forced them to seek work further from home?

Hopefully the following diagram will be legible. It provides the basic information that I have been able to learn about Johann George Eichenauer and Anna Catharina Schäfer's children and grandchildren. I believe this is all included in my ancestry.com tree "Rödiger Family Tree" and there, where possible, I have provided citations in the descriptions of each event. As a reminder, the NW Ohio Eichenauers descend from Johann Konrad Eichenauer, son of Johann Heinrich Eichenauer, son of Joann George Eichenauer.
And finally, just to ramp up your curiosity, I would draw your attention to the second son of Johannes Eichenauer (second column), Heinrich Eichenauer who died in 1899 in Lancaster Twp, Butler County, PA. Had you heard of Pennsylvania cousins?