The story today begins with a birthday in Switzerland that took place 200 years ago. Barbara Adler was born on December 1, 1820, the daughter of Johann and Elizabeth (Peters) Adler. The Adler family made the voyage to America aboard the ship, Salem, that arrived in New Orleans in December of 1840. We see this family on that ship’s passenger list. Barbara was 20 years old when she arrived.

Barbara’s husband was going to be George Bergmann, but when it comes to George Bergmann’s, we have to be careful. There were several of them. All of them had Bavarian origins. There was a George Bergmann, Sr. who is mentioned in this short history concerning the beginnings of Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg.

The George Bergmann, Sr. mentioned here may be related to the George Bergmann that married Barbara Adler, but I cannot say how. The Ferdinand Bergmann mentioned above is brother of the George Bergmann highlighted in today’s story. Here is Ferdinand’s bio in the Friedenberg book.

That leads us to the other two George Bergmann’s I need to discuss. Those two are usually distinguished from one another by calling one of them “Creek” George Bergmann and the other as “Siding” George Bergmann (as indicated in the image above). They were both brothers of Ferdinand. Creek George was George Ernst Bergmann. His bio in the Friedenberg books is shown here.

Then we finally come to the George Bergmann we will discuss today. He was George Johann Bergmann whose bio we can read below.

And, if that is not enough, Ferdinand Bergmann had a son named George Ernst Bergmann, the same name as Creek George. Here is his bio.

Siding George Bergmann was born on October 2, 1814. As it says above, his parents were Johann and Brigitta (Schwarz) Bergmann. Siding George came to America aboard the ship, Plato, which arrived in New York in August of 1840. We find him on the passenger list below. George was 25 years old.

George J. Bergmann married Barbara Adler on July 13, 1843. They were married by Rev. C.F. Gruber, the pastor in Uniontown. However, that marriage record is not found in that church’s books. We can view this couple’s civil marriage record.

We have the photo shown below of Siding George and Barbara Bergmann that is said to be taken at the time of their wedding.

The first church record we find mentioning this couple was the baptism record for their first child, Barbara Bergmann, which took place in 1846. Back in those days, you find not only cases where a son was named after his father, but also quite a few cases where daughters were named after their mother. Here is that baptism record in two images.

The German Family Tree lists 9 children born to this couple. One died right away. Another one drowned in the Mississippi River in 1874 at the age of 17. We find the Bergmann family in the 1850 census for Brazeau Township. I included an Adler household listed under the Bergmann’s. I do not know how they might have been related, but the other Adler was also from Switzerland.

Next, we find the Bergmann household in the 1860 census living in the Cinque Hommes Township.

The Bergmann’s are once again found in the same location in the 1870 census. We once again see that same Adler household under the Bergmann’s.

The last census in which we find Siding George was the one taken in 1880.

Siding George Bergmann died in 1884 at the age of 69. We can look at a Perry County death record for him. It is displayed in two images.

Barbara Bergmann was still alive for the 1900 census, but I was unable to find her. A photo of Barbara shows her in her later years of life.

Barbara Bergmann died in 1906 at the age of 85. Below is her obituary. It says she died at the home of Gottlieb Bergmann, but I did not find Barbara living with him in 1900.

Siding George and Barbara Bergmann are both said to be buried in the Peace Lutheran Cemetery in Friedenberg, but only Barbara has a photo of her gravestone on Findagrave.

So, today we wish a Happy 200th Birthday to Barbara Adler Bergmann, one of the earliest members of Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg. She is also one of the few characters being born in Switzerland that have shown up on this blog.