Today, I might just ask more questions than I answer.  I have found references to three different people with the surname Theilig in the early records of East Perry County.  One of them happens to be my great great grandmother, so this name always gets my attention when I see it.  The big question is whether these three are connected to each other in any way.  They all are in a relatively close range of ages, so are they siblings?  Or are they cousins?  I will not answer many questions today.  I will just show what we have and what I have found.

The three Theiligs are as follows:

• Johanne Christiane Theilig  b.1818                            Groβenstein
  
• Gottfried Theilig  b.1811                                               Rückersdorf
• Johanna Sophia Theilig  b.1822                                   ???
  

I will start with Johanne Christiane Theilig, my great great grandmother.  A few other posts have already been written about her.  First, one was recently written by Lynn Degenhardt.  Here is the link.

The Trail of Christiane Theilig’s Out of Wedlock Child

Another post from farther back was the following one.

So Many Johanns and Johannes

The passenger list for the Gruber Group which arrived in the winter of 1839 shows Christiane.

This is where we find out that she was from Groβenstein, as was George Schumann, who was likely the father of the child out of wedlock mentioned in Lynn’s article.  Christiane went on to marry a Richter who died, then a Wunderlich who died, and then a Mueller.  In one of the censuses along the way, it says that Christiane became a midwife.  One other fact that we find in a record or two is that her father was Michael Theilig.  She died in 1887.

Gottfried Theilig also came to America with the Gruber Group, and his name is on the same passenger list as Christiane, but they are listed separately on different pages.  This is where we see Gottfried.

He is said to be a 28 year old tiler from Rückersdorf.  We have a record from the Trinity, Altenburg books that states that a George Theilig, age 30, a tiler from Rückersdorf, died of gangrene from an old injury.  He died on July 9, 1841, so he did not live here long.

Other than the different first name, the other information seems to substantiate the fact that this was the same person who traveled with the Gruber Group.  I found this transcription of a record in Germany that had a possibility of tying Gottfried to Christiane.

It shows a Gottfried Theilig whose father was Michael Theilig from Rückersdorf.  However, if you follow the link, it will lead to a marriage record of Gottfried Theilig to Rosine Bachmann, and I could find no date for the record.  I have doubts that the Gottfried Theilig who came to America was previously married. 

Then there’s Johanna Sophia Theilig.  She was married to Christian Gottlieb Braeuner, the brother of Hermann Braeuner in a post published just a few days ago.  That’s when I was attracted to this Theilig.  I noticed her name right above some other records I was looking at for that post.  The only record we have that indicates her maiden name was Theilig is a baptism record for one of their children. 

Right in the middle of this image, you should be able to see the mother’s name being Johanna Sophia geb. Theilig.  This child was born in January of 1855.  In August of that same year, Johanna Sophia died after a long illness.  Her death record does not indicate her maiden name.

Christian Gottlieb Braeuner married again.  His second wife also had the name Sophia, so that had me flummoxed for a while.  Her name was Sophia Wunderlich.  We have page after page of Wunderlichs in our German Family Tree.  The record of a Braener/Wunderlich wedding is the only one in which we find a Sophia Wunderlich.  I have no idea how she ties into the Wunderlich clan.

So you see there are still plenty of questions about this trio of Theiligs.  In closing, I will show you a map with both Groβenstein and Rückersdorf on it with their relative location to Paitzdorf.

I also managed to find a few drawings of the churches in both of these areas.  First, here is Groβenstein.

Then, here is Rückersdorf.

I think the similarities between these two churches are very evident.  From the evidence I found while searching for German records, there were definitely plenty of Theiligs from the area shown in the map above.  However, I still have no definitive evidence that this trio of Theiligs were related.  Maybe someone else with more time on their hands can research it further.