I start today with a birthday girl with the surname Militzer, but I will use her special day as a gateway to get me back to some German church records to explore the origin of the Schilling name in East Perry County.

Juliane Militzer was born on February 1, 1875 and baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg.  She was the daughter of Christian and Maria (Grebing) Militzer.  Below is her baptism record.

Gotthilf Lebrecht Schilling was born on September 27, 1865 and was also baptized at Trinity, Altenburg.  He was the son of Ferdinand (Friedrich) and Theresia (Schuessler)(Petzoldt) Schilling.  Here is his baptism record.

On November 7, 1895, Gotthilf married Juliane at Trinity.  This is their marriage license.

The Schillings had property north of Altenburg which can be seen on this 1915 land map.  It shows some land owned by Gotthilf and some owned by Ferdinand Schilling, his brother.

Gotthilf and Juliane had seven children.  Gotthilf was a farmer all his life.  He died in 1930; Juliane died in 1965.  They are both buried in the St. Paul’s Lutheran Cemetery in Wittenberg, Missouri.

So much for that family.  My interest was piqued today mainly because of what I found going back deeper into the Schilling genealogy.  As I mentioned earlier, Gotthilf was the son of Friedrich Schilling.  After arriving in America, Friedrich married Theresia Petzoldt, whose husband had recently died.  They were married at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna in 1858.  Here is a Perry County record for that wedding.

I think I may have found a passenger list showing Friedrich coming to America in 1852.  This is a passenger list from the ship, Bremerhaven, which arrived in New Orleans on October 27, 1852.

This document states that Friedrich was 24 years old in 1852, which would put the year of his birth at 1828.  We do not have a document in the church records that states exactly when Friedrich was born, nor is his grave found on Findagrave.com.  I attribute that to the fact that he probably died during the “Koestering Hole” days and is not recorded.  The 1860 census shows Friedrich living in Brazeau Township.

The 1870 census shows his family also.  I would have to show two images to show his whole family, but for my purposes today, this is enough.

If you calculated Friedrich’s birth year from these two census documents, you would figure he was born in 1832 if you look at the 1860 entry, but you would get 1828 from the 1870 entry.

Before I move on, let me says that Friedrich was not the only Schilling to settle in Perry County.  He had a brother named August Schilling, and according to his tombstone, he was born in Germany on November 24, 1834.  I wrote a previous story including August titled, A Nativity Name.

I found a baptism record for a Christian Friedrich Schilling from the parish in Grieben, Germany.  It is shown below.

This document says Friedrich was born on March 11, 1828 and baptized on the 15th.  It states that his parents were Johann Michael and Johanne (Otto) Schilling.  I also found marriage record for a Johann Michael Schilling and a Johanne Otto taking place in 1820 in Ossig, Germany.

Then I also found a baptism record for another son from the same couple.  They had another son by the name of Friedrich August Schilling.  And indeed, he was born on November 24, 1834 and baptized at the same parish in Germany.  Here is that baptism record.

I think this record is pretty good evidence that this Christian Friedrich and Friedrich August not only are brothers, but are the two brothers that ended up in Perry County.  And if so, then we could also almost certainly now say that his birthday was March 11, 1828.

Take a look a a close-up of Christian Friedrich’s baptism record showing his parents’ names.

In the right-hand box, you can see the maiden name Otto for his mother.  I think I may have uncovered a new name to attach to the Schilling family tree.  Nowhere in any resources that we have in our museum do you find the surname Otto attached to this surname.  I can also state that my buddy, Gerard Fiehler, who is a descendant from the Schilling family, is not aware of the name Otto being part of his family.

So here is the real reason I wrote this story today.  I only utilized the birthday of Juliane Militzer to be able to tell you that I was able to find a long lost relative of Gerard.  Mission accomplished.

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Now I have to tell you the rest of the story.  I was just about to publish this story.  As I usually do, I read it out loud to Gerard.  When I finished, he said, “Before you publish that, we have to take a trip to your barn.”  It just so happens that my barn is the repository for several tombstones that had fallen down in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery over the years and since their correct location could not be determined, they began being collected in the cemetery’s shed until it blew down in a storm.  Now those stones are in my barn.  Gerard seemed to remember that there was a Schilling tombstone in that collection.

Gerard and I piled into my truck and we headed to my place, went into the barn, and started searching.  We struck pay dirt.  Below you will see a partial stone that we found.

Bingo!  The Friedrich Schilling gravestone we found indeed states that his date of birth was March 11, 1828.  It also shows that he died in 1873, but the date of death is missing.