Week 5 Prompt: At the Library

This week’s 52 Ancestors theme is “at the library.” Couldn’t have come at a better time since I’m heading to Salt Lake City next week and plan to spend a day researching at the Family History Library.

I will be focusing on two German branches. Unfortunately, these are records that are digitized, but I cannot access them even at a Family History Center, as only LDS members can view them. So microfilm it is. On tap are my Stoffel/Braun family (which I blogged about a few weeks ago) and my Leppin/Hänfler family.

Heinrich Karl “Charles” Stoffel and Anne Marie “Mary” Braun are one set of second great-grandparents on my maternal side. Charles was born 16 September 1853, in Hessen, and baptized 2 October 1853 at Ortenberg, Büdingen, Oberhessen, Hessen.1 My goal is to find his siblings and his parent’s marriage record. Mary was born 19 November 1854 at Ober Florstadt, Friedberg, Oberhessen, Hessen, and baptized 24 December 1854 at Nieder Florstadt, Friedberg, Oberhessen, Hessen.2 While I have located the baptism records of several siblings, I think there might be a few more. I also need to find some marriage records and death records for her siblings. If time permits, I will start evaluating other church records where her parents (Kasper Braun and Margaretha Kempf) appear as witnesses, as well as records that contain either of the surnames. This will help build a network and probably expand the family (and maybe determine if other family members emigrated).

Herman Leppin and Hermine “Minnie” Hänfler are another set of second great-grandparents on my maternal side. Herman was allegedly born 22 March 1872 in Germany.3 There is one record that lists his birth place as Marienwerder, Westpreußen, the same place his wife was born. However, I have not been able to locate a baptism record for him, so I’m guessing he came from a different town in that Kreis since Minnie’s baptism (as well as her siblings) turn up in the “Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1518-1921” database on Ancestry (across two locations) so perhaps the town he was baptized in isn’t yet available in the database—or it was an error and he was born elsewhere. Right now, I don’t have enough information to build a plan for him. Minnie, on the other hand, is a different story, as I have identified her siblings and parents and found that at least one brother and two sisters, as well as her mother, came to the United States. Minnie was born 9 April 1871 at Gilwe B, Marienwerder, Westpreußen, Preußen, and baptized 23 April 1871 at Neudörfchen, Marienwerder, Westpreußen, Preußen. She is the daughter of Carl Hänfler and Justine Hanenberg.4 Fortunately, many of the records I needed are online, but there are some offline that I need to grab while I’m at the FHL. I’ll be looking at possible baptism records for her father Carl, as well as the marriage record for her sister Karoline.

So, that’s my plan. Can’t wait!!

Sources

  1. Ortenberg Evangelische Kirche (Ortenberg, Hessen, Germany), Taufen [Baptisms]1836-1870, 5:444, Heinrich Karl Stoffel (1853); FHL microfilm 1,201,732, item 1.
  2. Evangelische Kirche Nieder Florstadt (Nieder Florstadt, Hessen, Germany), Taufen [Baptisms] 1831-1863, 7:484, Anne Marie Braun (1854); FHL microfilm 1,200,654, item 2.
  3. Arizona Department of Health Services, death certificate 1773 (1948), Herman Leppin; digital image, Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates (http://genealogy.az.gov : accessed 8 April 2010). Also, “World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 November 2009), Herman Leppin, serial no. 30[?]6, order no. 4697, Draft Board 70, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois; citing World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, NARA microfilm publication M1509; no roll cited.
  4. Neudörfchen Evangelische Kirche (Neudörfchen, Westpreußen), Tauf=Register [Baptism Register], 1858-1875, section 1871, p. 228, no. 18, Hermine Hänfler; digital images, Ancestry (http://ancestry.com : accessed 11 March 2018).