{"id":5963,"date":"2019-07-17T11:54:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T16:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/?p=5963"},"modified":"2019-07-11T12:55:03","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T17:55:03","slug":"52-ancestors-29-german-brick-walls-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/52-ancestors-29-german-brick-walls-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"52 Ancestors #29: German Brick Walls Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"52AncestorsFB\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Week 29 Prompt:<\/strong> Challenging <\/p>\n

This week\u2019s 52 Ancestors<\/a> theme is\u201dChallenging.\u201d First thought\u2014brick walls! Ten years ago (almost to the date!), I wrote about all of my German brick walls at that time. They were all tied to an immigrant ancestor, and were mainly self-imposed due to a lack of knowledge in researching German ancestors.<\/p>\n

A lot has changed in the last ten years. My understanding of German research has soared, my ability to decipher the German language has grown, and the availability of online records has multiplied. I can take several people off the original list!<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a quick run-down of the original brick walls and summary of what I\u2019ve discovered over the last ten years, as it pertains to their parentage and origin.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Emil M\u00fcller and Huda Wach<\/strong><\/p>\n

A notation on a passenger list and a smart cookie at the Family History Library helped me discover Hulda\u2019s orgin in Kreis B\u00fctow in Pommern, Preu\u00dfen. With that, I was able to find civil birth registrations for two of her siblings, both having been born in Zerrin, Kreis B\u00fctow. I also discovered when she died through an obituary in the local paper. According to the obituary, she was born in Bernsdorf, which is another village in Kreis B\u00fctow. As for Emil, it took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to track down his origin. But through the use of the FAN Principle<\/a> and decades of church records, I was able to track him to Bromberg, Posen, Preu\u00dfen. You can read more about his parentage and origin in my post A Breakthrough in the Emil M\u00fcller Case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Heinrich Wach and Emilie Wietzke (parents of Hulda Wach, above)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finding Hulda\u2019s origin meant finding her parents\u2019 origin. I know that Emilie and Heinrich had two sons in Zerrin, and Hulda was supposedly born in nearby Bernsdorf. Whether Heinrich or Emilie were also born in the area remains a mystery, as I have not been able to track down any church records for this location. I still don\u2019t know whether Emilie remarried because Heinrich died, but I assume that is the case. Again, no church records to consult. The parentage for Heinrich and Emilie may remain a mystery, simply because of a lack of records.<\/p>\n

Herman Leppin and Hermine \u201cMinnie\u201d H\u00e4nfler<\/strong><\/p>\n

Minnie\u2019s origin was finally discovered, again through the use of the FAN Principle and the correlation of data from several record. She was born in Gilwe B in Kries Marienwerder in Westpreu\u00dfen, Preu\u00dfen. Turns out, her whole family, parents included, immigrated! Herman remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

Philip Rottman and Mary Eva Lesser<\/strong><\/p>\n

I figured these second great-grandparents would always be a thorn in my side. Until a few days ago, I hadn\u2019t  gotten anywhere on determining parentage or origin for either. I thought DNA might help, and turns out, in the case of Eva, it did. I finally have a lead as to her origin (likely Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France), and her parents (and beyond!). I\u2019m slowly putting the many pieces together, but I think I\u2019m on to something. Philip on the other hand, well, I think he will always remain a mystery.<\/p>\n

Charles Stoffel and Mary Braun<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turns out, Charles and Mary were indeed born in the area of Frankfurt, Germany. Charles, a.k.a. Heinrich Karl, born in Ortenberg in Kries B\u00fcdingen in Oberhessen, Hessen, is the son of Heinrich Stoffel and Margaretha Knoll. Mary, a.k.a. Anne Marie, was born in Ober Florstadt in Kreis Friedberg in Oberhessen, Hessen, the daughter of Kasper Braun and Margretha Kempf. Research is in full swing on the Stoffel and Braun families.<\/p>\n

In terms of parentage and origin, I can check Emil M\u00fcller, Hulda Wach, Hermine H\u00e4nfler, Charles Stoffel and Mary Braun off the list. Hey, five out of ten ain\u2019t bad! And, I have a strong lead on Mary Eva Lesser. Progress!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Week 29 Prompt: Challenging This week\u2019s 52 Ancestors theme is\u201dChallenging.\u201d First thought\u2014brick walls! Ten years ago (almost to the date!), I wrote about all of my German brick walls at that time. They were all tied to an immigrant ancestor, and were mainly self-imposed due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,26],"tags":[308,316,320,325,330,331,337,343,347,425],"class_list":["post-5963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genblog","category-personal-research","tag-family-braun","tag-family-hanfler","tag-family-leppin","tag-family-muller-miller-prussia","tag-family-reeder","tag-family-rottman","tag-family-stoffel","tag-family-wach","tag-family-wietzke","tag-theme-52-ancestors","cat-25-id","cat-26-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3HcLI-1yb","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5963"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5970,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5963\/revisions\/5970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}