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

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

Lost Weifenbach Years Accounted For

In my last post I lamented the fact that "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!"

I am very happy to report, thanks to my mother's astute observation that the Berlet family may hold the key, that I have discovered where the Weifenbachs were living at the time of the 1850 and 1860 US censuses.

The Berlet family is connected to the Diegel family as well as to the Weifenbach family.
Here is the pertinent connection:
The mother of Conrad Weifenbach (my great-great grandfather) was Katharina Elisabetha Berlet from Niederaula, Germany. Katharina's brother, Henrich Berlet married Anna Maria Diegel. Anna Maria is my 1st cousin 4 generations removed in that her grandparents are also my great-great-great-great grandparents, Johann Heinrich Diegel and Martha Elisabeth Pfiel from Schwarzenhasel, Germany.

The Berlet connection between the Diegels and Weifenbachs helped because I already knew that when the Diegels and Berlets first came to America, they lived in Black River Township, Lorain County, Ohio and eventually moved to Washington Township, Auglaize County, Ohio.
Since I had scoured the area around Washington Township in the 1850 and 1860 census and found neither hide nor hair of the Weifenbachs, I thought that a closer look at Lorain County censuses might be worthwhile, though I confess I wasn't very hopeful. Since the Berlets and Diegels had lived in Black River Township, I began there.

In the 1850 census of Black River Twp. I found:

At first blush this record would be easily overlooked for a couple of reasons. The most obvious is that the surname here was written as Vaginburgh and pertains to the first four members of the family. And it was written as Vagenbaugh and indexed as Vagerbangh by ancestry.com for the fifth member of the family on the following page of the census. No wonder a search for Weifenbach turned up no hits in Lorain Co in 1850.
The second problem is that of the "Vaginburgh" named Hannah. There was never a Hannah Weifenbach in our Weifenbach family. The fact that Hannah's age is listed as being the same age as Elizabeth's is also disconcerting. For even if the name was incorrectly recorded, I know of no female Weifenbach in that immediate age range in our family other than Katharina Elisabetha (Berlet) Weifenbach.

Other than the problem concerning the identity of "Hannah, age 39", the other members of this family match up perfectly with Johannes, Katharina Elisabetha and two of their children, Conrad and Anna Catharina Weifenbach.
The one child that apparently is not represented on this page is the eldest daughter, Angelica (AKA Anna Gela or Abbie) who was born in 1842 and would have been 8 years old at the time of this census. As you will see when I add the record from the 1860 census, Hannah disappears and "Abigail" appears. So saying--

1860 Census, Black River Twp:

I believe that this record is Johannes Weifenbach, his wife and three children who appear in the 1870 Census in Washington Twp, Auglaize Co, OH. The names are right, the ages are right and their place of birth is right. Of course, the biggest difficulty is that the surname does not match. And it is certainly not the fault of the Indexers at ancestry.com this time. I would have indexed this surname the same way. I can only hazard a guess or two about why the surname is so far out in left field in both censuses here. Perhaps the census taker was deaf, or perhaps the family member who provided the information had a speech impediment. In any case, the problem of the misspelled surname has been a royal pain to solve.

The 1870 census in Washington Twp, Auglaize Co. was not much better. In case I haven't shown this one before:

In this record, I have already made the suggestion that the surname should be indexed as "Weifenbach". The original indexed name was consistent with what was written by the census taker as "Viepenback". The only reason I found this record was because I knew the Weifenbachs lived in Washington Twp and I had gone through the 1870 records with a fine-tooth comb. As you can see, at this time, Abbie Weifenbach (Appie according to the census taker) was married to Conrad Eichenauer (line 15 and 16) and had an adopted son, John Evans (line 17). Abbie's parents show up on lines 18 and 19, and her brother, Conrad Weifenbach was married to Christina [Diegel] and had a daughter, Catharina Weifenbach (lines 20-22).
As you can see from the 1860 Census above, Conrad and Abbie Weifenbach had a sister, Catharina that does not show up in the 1870 census. After further research, I discovered that she was married to John Eiesle/Eissle in Auglaize Co on 20 January 1870:

One would think that this couple would have shown up in the 1870 census as a married couple, but once again a Weifenbach has escaped me. However, I am hot on the trail of Anna Catharina Weifenbach and her husband.

So, it is now clear that the Weifenbachs arrived in New York in 1846 and lived in Black River Twp, Lorain Co, OH at the time of the 1850 and 1860 Census. Then sometime before 1866 the family relocated to Washington Twp, Auglaize Co. where most of the family remained.
Johannes and Katharina Elisabetha Weifenbach had two daughters and just one son, Conrad, to carry on the Weifenbach name. Conrad Weifenbach and his wife, Christena Diegel had five children, three daughters and two sons, Frederic and Jacob. Frederic died at age six. Jacob Weifenbach became the last male to bear the Weifenbach name from that line. He married Mary Vordermark, and their daughter, Lillian Matilda "Lillie", the very last Weifenbach, was born in 1897, married Eugene Byron Slattery in 1916 and died in Wapakoneta in 1983. Today, the only reminder of the Weifenbach family in Auglaize Co is in the form of a road name, which ironically was also misspelled as Wiefenbach.


I am currently researching what happened to Anna Catharina Weifenbach after her marriage to John "Eisle." Hopefully, I will be able to resolve that question very soon.

Stephen Roediger

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)

Where Did You Come From 3G Grandpa Diegel?

Time to get the Diegels off the back burner. I started this blog about six months ago and had a lot of difficulty figuring out hot how to present it. I'm afraid this is as good as it is going to get, so let's get it off the back burner and into the oven.

George and Anna Martha (Schubert) Diegel are my 3G Grandparents. Here is how:
They were both born in Germany. They were married in Lorain County, Ohio in 1839 and shortly afterwards moved to Washington Twp, Auglaize County, Ohio. In the US Census of 1840, they are listed as residing in Washington Twp, Auglaize County.

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.

WARNING: IF YOU HAVE RESEARCHED GEORGE DIEGEL AND GOTTEN INFORMATION FROM HIS FINDAGRAVE.COM MEMORIAL PAGE, THROW IT AWAY! Concerning his full name, his birth place and the identity of his parents IT IS FALSE AND MISLEADING.

OK, I got that off my chest. And believe me, that Memorial page caused me many many hours of wasted research time. So, on to the revelation of where the Diegels of Auglaize County, Ohio actually did come from.

In my attempt to discover where George Diegel came from in Germany, I worked from 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.

There is a significant portion of this document that I will not present in this blog post, as much of it pertains to George's brother Jacob and his descendants and is not germane to this topic. However, this paragraph is particularly useful.

Armed with the birth date of 7 March 1811 in "Hassel Greis, Rothenburg, Herhessen, Germany" I opened up archion.de and began what I knew could turn into an arduous search. And so it proved.

According to this account, George Diegel and his brother 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. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a full list of the towns and villages in this district. But, not only does the government break down the villages and towns into districts, so does the Evangelische Kirche which includes, to the best of my understand, what is known in English as the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church--distinct but similar. The Evangelische Kirche'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.

I need to insert a note here that I later found two documents which which would have saved me countless hours of searching, but did not know of their existence at the time.

After searching through the Rotenburg churches, which are arranged alphabetically, I discovered an interesting birth record in the 56th church, Schwarzenhasel:

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 sounds very promising. Same name (surname even spelled the same), born on the same date, and occurring in the same district which I theorized was the equivalent of "Hassel Greis, Rothenburg, Herhessen, Germany". But, I have fallen down enough rabbit holes to not get overly excited quite yet. There are several other tests that need to be made to determine the possibility of this being a match.

The first would be whether this George Diegel married or died in Schwarzenhasel. He could have married, but couldn't have died there if he was my GGG Grandfather.

So, I looked for a George Diegel who married in Schwarzenhasel between 1830 and 1937 and there are none. There also no George Diegels who died in Schwarzenhasel between 1830 and 1937. Keep in mind that he could have married or died elsewhere in Germany, but at least the possibility he is my GGG Grandfather remains a possibility.

Another test involves George's older brother, Jacob. Keep in mind that in the first paragraph of this document, no mention of George's parents names are made, but a brother, Jacob, is mentioned:

I will mention, that according to the paragraph which followed the one above, the "old man" mentioned here did not survive the voyage. So we are left with the two Diegel brothers who arrived in America about 1836. A subsequent paragraph reveals the following information:

(keep in mind that these are the words of Linna Diegel Klinefelter Ratcliff, not me). Later portions of the DFH document reveal that the three daughters were Anna who married Christopher Clay in Lorain County; Mary, who married Henry Berlet in 1857 in Lorain County; and Eliza, born 30 April 1834 in "Hassel Greis, Rothenburg, Herhessen, Germany", married "Mr. Reynolds" in Lorain County (married and divorced before she was 18). So, still without the two crucial documents which verified that the Diegels were indeed from Schwarzenhasel, I searched for George's brother Jacob, his wife Mary Christena Schwarz and their three daughters in the Schwarzenhasel records.

After a search in Schwarzenhasel, I found a birth record fo a Jacob Diegel born to the same parents as our subject, George Diegel:

[1798] Nov. 28, Jacob, Henrich Diegels et uxor Martha Elisabeth Pfielin, ehel. Sohnl. nat. am 25ten, ejusd. h. antemerid 9
gehatten, Jacob Diegel

Basically the translation from German and Latin is that Jacob, legitimate son of Henrich Diegel and his wife Martha Elisabeth Pfiel, was born on the 25 November 1798 at 9 in the morning and baptized on the 28th; Baptismal sponsor was Jacob Diegel.

This led to a search for a marriage record for Jacob, son of Henrich Diegel and Martha Elisabeth Pfiel. I actually found two, for two distinct Jacob Diegels, but this would ultimately prove to be the correct one:

27 März 1826, Jacob Diegel, Schneider, Henrich Diegel Sohn dahier,
mit Christina Maria, Nicolaus Kirchners Tochter dahier

Jacob Diegel, Tailor, son of Henrich Diegel from here married Christina Maria, daughter of Nicolaus Kirchner, on 27 March 1826.

Note that Jacob Diegel's wife's birth surname is not Schwartz as is indicated in the DFH, but Kirschner. But, since the bride in this marriage record has a first and middle name consistent with the DFH source, I chose to research children born to Jacob Diegel and Christina Maria (Kirschner) Diegel. I found 3 and only 3:

1) Anna Catharina, b. 21 January 1827

1827, Januar 21 -- Anna Catharina, die Tochter des Schneiders, Jacob Diegel et ux Christine Maria, geb. Kirchner, nat. 13ten ejusd. merid. 1; Gevatten: Anna Catharina, Henrich Diegel Tochter, des Kindes Vaters Schwester dahier

Anna Catharina, the daughter of the tailor, Jacob Diegel and his wife, Christina Maria Kirchner was born on 13 January 1827 and baptized on 21 January. Her baptismal sponsor was Anna Catharina, daughter of Henrich Diegel, and sister of her father.

This record confirms that her grandfather's name was Henrich Diegel as we saw from her father's baptismal  and marriage record. A new bit of information is that her father had a sister, also named Anna Catharina Diegel. Also, her mother's first and middle name, Christina Maria matches that given in the DFH, except there it is Mary Christena. It is not unusual for first and middle names to be used interchangeably so I would not immediately discount this record. The similarity may prove significant at some point in this research.

2) Anna Maria, b. 15 October 1830

Schwarzenhasel, Geburt: Haus 54, fünfzehnte Oktober [1830], 10 Uhr Abends / Tauf: Schwarzenhasel, 24tn Oktober /
Kind: Anna Maria, eheliche Tochter / Eltern: Jacob Diegel, Schneider und Christine Kirchner /
Taufpaten: Anna Maria, das Zimmermeisters Kirchners Ehefrau, geboren Kuch

Sorry the writing on this one is so small. It is spread across two pages. But it basically says that Jacob and Christina (Kirchner) Diegel had a daughter, Anna Maria, born in House number 54, Schwarzenhasel on 15 October 1830, baptized on 24 October 1830; baptismal sponsor was Anna Maria Kuch, wife of the master carpenter, Kirchner.

3) Anna Elisabeth, b. 31 April 1833

Schwarzenhasel, Geburt: Haus 54, ein und dreißigsten [1833] / Tauf: Schwarzenhasel 5ten Maÿ /
Kind: Anna Elisabeth, eheliche Tochter / Eltern: Jacob Diegel, Schneider und Christina Maria Kirchner /
Taufpaten: Anna Elisabeth Sauer, Jungfrau

This is very curious. This record says that Anna Elisabeth was born on 31 (ein und dreißigsten) April 1833 in Haus 54, and was baptized on 5 May. Her parents were Jacob Diegel, a tailor and Christina Maria Kirschner. The baptismal sponsor was the unmarried woman, Anna Elisabeth Sauer. Is there something I don't know about German calendars? From what I remember April does not have 31 days. ("30 days has September, April, June and November" etc.)

Again, these are the only children I found born to Jacob and Christina Maria (Kirchner) Diegel, and a very thorough search of the Schwarzenhasel records did not reveal any confirmation or marriage records pertaining to these daughters, nor any death records for any one of this family group. This means that they must have relocated, but to where? The Schwarzenhasel records did not divulge a single clue. But what seems clear is that George, his brother Jacob, his wife and children all left Schwarzenhasel between 1833 (when the youngest daughter, Anna Elisabeth was born) and 1841 (when the eldest daughter, Anna Katharina would have been confirmed in the Lutheran Church had they still been there). So it seems very plausible that they are the same as those who arrived in Lorain County, Ohio and subsequently established themselves near New Knoxvlle, Auglaize County, Ohio.

To summarize this last section, I found in the Schwarzenhasel records information which correlates with the information revealed in the DFH pertaining to George and Jacob Diegel and Jacob Diegel's wife and 3 daughters--except for his wife's maiden name.

Now let me present the two documents which pretty much seal the deal concerning the validity of my Diegel family being from Schwarzenhasel. According to the DFH, George's brother, Jacob and his wife, Mary Christena Diegel had two sons after arriving in Lorain Co., Jacob, born 4 May 1841 in Lorain County who came to Auglaize County with his parents and married Sarah Cornelia Roberts and Adam. Nothing is said further about Adam in this DFH, other than the fact that his "history is in the book with the Smith Family". That makes me wonder where THAT history has gone to, but that would be fodder for a separate Blog.

But not to get sidetracked, I have found Jacob Jr.'s death certificate--check it out:

As you can clearly see, this Jacob Diegel was born in Lorain Co, OH on 4 May 1844. His parents were Jacob Diegel and Mary Christina KIRSCHNER. This lines up with all of the information known about Jacob Diegel Jr. from the DFH except his mother's maiden name. But KIRSCHNER is the maiden name of the woman whom I have theorized from the Schwarzenhasel records to be his mother and both the Schwarzenhasel records and the DFH agree that her first and middle names were a variation of Christina Maria. Can you see that I am jumping up and down in excitement? Well, I AM!

The second source which confirms that Schwarzenhasel is the ancestral home of the Diegels in my family comes from the obituary of Anna Elisabeth Diegel, daughter of Jacob and Mary Christina (Kirschner) Diegel posted on 11 Jan. 1906. This was found in the Auglaize Co. Library's extensive Obituary collection. Unfortunately, the clipping does not state which newspaper it was clipped from, but was probably the Wapakoneta Daily News. The whole obit is quite a bit longer, but this portion reveals all I needed to know:

SCHWARTZEN HASSEL GREIS, ROTHENBERG,  KURHESSEN, GERMANY

Of course, it really means "Schwarzenhasel, Kreis Rotenburg, Kurhessen, Germany" but hey, what more do we really need? If you put these two documents into the mix, the certainty that George Diegel and his brother, Jacob and his family were from the little village of Schwarzenhasel becomes 100% in my book.

So, now that I have established that, maybe you are curious about where Schwarzenhasel is located in Germany. I can help with that, but first let me pose the question, "If Jacob Diegel's wife's maiden name was Kirchner, why did the DFH think it was Schwartzen?" Well, I can only guess, but I think it probably has something to do with the name of the village she was from. Perhaps the source of this error misread notes in the German language and confused her maiden name with the name of the village. Maybe they thought she was a Schwartzin from Hassel Greis, or something of that nature.

About that location. Ain't Google Earth grand?! They even helped me save the image so I could post it here:

Schwarzenhasel is less than ten miles as the crow flies from Tann, or about 13 miles by car. The Diegels lived very close to the Roedigers though they may never have met. But it does make me wonder if my great grandfather, Conrad Tobias Roediger, who was born in Tann, ever knew just how close he lived to his wife's grandfather back in Germany. Maybe they didn't, but now we do!

Stephen Roediger

The Relationship Between Nikolaus Scheuch II and and His Mother-in-Law

In the last Blog post about the Tangled Web of Relationships I mentioned that I was uncertain about the relationship between Nikolaus Scheuch and his mother-in-law, Anna Martha Scheuch. It was one of those itches that I just had to scratch. As a result I put together an ancestor tree for Anna Martha Scheuch, daughter of Nikolaus Scheuch and the first wife of George Roediger (1854-1934) and made Nikolaus Scheuch the "Source" so that all of the others showing up in this tree would show their relationship to him.
Due to the fact that this Blog window is so narrow and this tree is 8 generations long, I am turning the chart 90º so that hopefully it will appear large enough for the Blog follower to read. However, doing this also turns the text on it's side, which would give me a crick in my neck. And of course you must scroll to the bottom and then your way towards the top.

So, the bottom line is that Nicholas Scheuch married his 2nd cousin. This is true because his wife's mother and Nikolaus shared the same great grandparents, Johann Michael Scheuch and Anna Catharina (birth surname unknown).

 If you would like to look at the "normal" view, I have placed a PDF version in Dropbox called Anna Martha Scheuch Ancestors Normal Chart.pdf. This will open up a new browser window linked to my newly created Blogger folder. At the time of writing there is just one file, but there will certainly be others added so on the right side of the file with the name shown in the link above you will see a column with the "..." symbol. If you click this, you can choose "download file" from the dropdown menu that appears. That should put this particular file wherever you typically download files. It may open up automatically, or you may have to navigate to the file to open it manually.
The nice thing about PDF files is that most computers, whether Apple or "the other guys" are equipped to open the file with a native PDF Viewer, and the view can be magnified so that what appears to be teeny-weeny text can be read easily without pixilating. The downside is that Blogger won't allow me to insert a PDF file into my Blog, so this is my work around for those of you with a keen interest in this stuff.

Stephen Roediger