A birthday girl led me to tell the story of two married couples today. I discovered that two brothers from one family married two sisters from another family. It is their stories that I tell today. The two families involved are the Kaufmann’s and the Boehme’s.
First, let’s talk about the parents of the brothers and sisters. All four of the parents were part of the original immigration in 1839, but they all came to America aboard different ships. The Kaufmann parents were George and Regina (Goethe) Kaufmann. George Kaufmann made the voyage to America aboard the ship Johann Friedrich, which arrived in New York in 1836. So George was the first of these parents to arrive in this country. He was 11 years old when he arrived. Here is the passenger list showing this family on that ship.
The Kaufmann family then became part of the New York Group that joined the Gesellschaft in Missouri in 1839.
George’s wife, Regina Goethe, was part of the Gruber Group that traveled to America aboard the Johann Georg and arrived toward the end of 1839. The Goethe family can be seen on the passenger list of the Johann Georg. Regina was 16 years old at the time.
Now let’s move to the parents of the Boehme sisters. They were the two whose portraits are staring at me when I am working in our museum’s research library, Charles and Ernestine (Schlimpert) Boehme.
Charles Boehme traveled to the United States aboard the Republik. Charles was 5 years old at the time. Here we see the Boehme family on that passenger list.
Ernestine Schlimpert made the voyage to America aboard the Copernicus. Ernestine was just 3 years old at the time. We see her on that passenger list.
Once these two couple were married, they each had several children. The image below puts the Kaufman children side-by-side with the Boehme children. The red lines connect the two Kaufmann/Boehme couples that I am highlighting today.
I will begin with today’s birthday girl and her marriage to a Kaufmann. She happens to also be the oldest one of the bunch. Emma Boehme was the firstborn child of Charles and Ernestine Boehme. She was born on July 24, 1856. All of today’s characters were probably baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. I say “probably” because one of the baptism records seems to be missing from the church’s records. In the case of Emma, we do have her baptism record.
I am going to skip over the 1860 census and go right to the one taken in 1870. That is because I wanted to show both of the Boehme sisters, and this is the first census to show them both. The Charles Boehme family lived in the village of Altenburg. The other Boehme sibling we will look at later was Hulda, who was 11 years younger than Emma.
Emma’s future husband was born on February 27, 1864. His name was Joseph Kaufmann. It is his baptism that is mysteriously missing from the Trinity records. I suspect it was because a new pastor, Rev. J.F. Koestering arrived in 1864, and he may not have conducted the baptism. Another local pastor may have performed the baptism and not made sure it was recorded. We can find Joseph and his older brother, Ferdinand, in the 1870 census for Brazeau Township. It is in two images. The Kaufmann family lived on a farm outside Altenburg.
On November 6, 1884, Joseph Kaufmann and Emma Boehme were married at Trinity. Here is the church record for that wedding.
Joseph and Emma had three children. One of them was the Lydia Kaufmann who married a Gruenwald and was a character in a recent post titled, Businessperson and the Green Forest. Joseph and Emma both died rather early. Joseph died in 1908 when he was 44, and Emma died in 1909 when she was 52. I assume they were buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery, but neither one of them is found on Findagrave.com.
Now we move to the other Kaufmann/Boehme couple. Hulda Boehme was born on June 2, 1867. Her baptism must have been one of the last ones to take place in Trinity’s 1845 church before their 1867 church was dedicated on Reformation Day in 1867.
Hulda’s future husband was Ferdinand Kaufmann. He was born on February 18, 1857. Below is his baptism record.
Ferdinand Kaufmann and Hulda Boehme were married on May 4, 1890 at Trinity. Here is the church record for that marriage.
Ferdinand and Hulda had 5 children. Ferdinand died in 1937 at the age of 80. Hulda died in 1943 at the age of 75. They are both buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Altenburg.
The two Kaufmann men in this story were farmers. An older Kaufmann married a younger Boehme, and a younger Kaufmann married an older Boehme. The cousin Kaufmann’s from these two families would have attended the same Kaufmann or Boehme family reunions.
