Quiet often, when I am searching for another story to write, I will check to see if I can find a bicentennial birthday. Today, I found two. And how appropriate is that? Finding two bicentennial birthdays on the date that can be written as 2/2/22. I cannot resist telling the stories of both of these individuals today. One of them is a man, and one of them is a woman. I will begin with the woman.

Anna Grother, as already stated, was born on February 2, 1822 in Worpswede, Hanover, Germany. She was the daughter of Lutje and Anna Grother. I found a record of Anna’s baptism in Germany.

The Grother family came to America before the Gesellschaft arrived. They travelled aboard the ship, Sophie, that arrived in 1838. You will see that the Grother’s made the voyage with a few Holschen’s, who also settled in Perry County. Anna was the 17 year-old on the list.

The Grother’s and Holschen’s were in St. Louis when the Gesellschaft arrived not long after they did. They decided to join the Stephanites, along with a few other families, who became known as the “St. Louis Group”.

Not long after settling in Perry County, Anna Grother married Johann Martin Popp. Johann was born on February 10, 1816 in Germany. He was the son of Conrad and Anna Maria (Horn) Popp. His family came to this country in 1840 aboard the ship, Clementine. We can see them on the passenger list below. There are a few John Popp’s on this list. Today’s Johann Popp was the 24 year-old.

Johann Popp married Anna Grother on March 5, 1843 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. We can take a look at the church record for this occasion.

There is also a civil record for this wedding that we can view.

This marriage to John Popp resulted in his wife being named Anna Popp. In a previous blog, I displayed the numerous Anna Popp’s that can be found in Lori Adams’s family tree on Ancestry.com. I will display these images again. Since Anna was a Grother, her name doesn’t even show up on this list, indicating that there are even more Anna Popp’s that could be added who would have been Anna’s that married Popp men.

To add to the potential confusion, there are also several Johann Popp’s to be found in that family tree.

We find the Popp couple in the 1850 census with 3 children.

The German Family Tree lists 9 children born to Johann and Anna. Next, we find this family in the 1860 census.

The 1870 census would be the last one in which we find Johann Popp. He was a farmer all his life.

Johann Popp died in 1875 at the age of 59. Anna Popp was living in the household of her son, Martin when the 1880 census was taken.

Anna Popp died in 1900 at the age of 78. Both Johann and Anna were buried in the Concordia Lutheran Cemetery in Frohna.

Now, we will discuss the man who was born 200 years ago. His name is Jacob Detjen. His parents’ names are unknown to me. His church marriage record says that Jacob was from Bremervoerde, Hanover, Germany. We find Jacob showing up in church records in the 1850’s.

Jacob’s bride was going to be Maria Heinsen. Later, members of this family got rid of the -en in their surname, making it Heins. About all I can say about her birth is that she was born around 1835. She was the daughter of Lueder and Maria Katherine (Gronewald) Heins. That makes her the sister of Leo Heins, who has had his story told on this blog. The Heins family is another one that starts showing up in church records around here in the 1850’s.

Jacob Detjen married Maria Heinsen on December 5, 1856 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Below is an image of their church marriage record.

A civil record for this wedding is displayed below.

Jacob and Maria had just one child, a boy named Heinrich Detjen, who was born in 1857. Finding the Detjen’s in census records proved to be a challenge. I was just able to find them in two census entries. I was not successful with the 1860 and 1870 censuses. Maria died in 1869 at the age of 34, leaving Jacob a widower. We find Jacob in the 1876 Missouri state census living in Cape Girardeau County. His son, Henry, was living in his household. There is a bit of a mystery, though. Maria died in 1869, but there is a Mary Detjen listed here, and she is listed in the same age range as Jacob, so she was not a daughter.

We find a Maria Detje in our German Family Tree who was born in 1820, but is not connected to Jacob at all, but I think it is possible that she was his sister.

The only other census in which we find Jacob Detjen was the one taken in 1880. He and his son, Henry, were living in the Shawnee Township.

Jacob Detjen died in 1896 at the age of 74. Both of the death records for Jacob and Maria are found in the books of Immanuel Lutheran Church in New Wells, but only Jacob’s gravestone shows up on Findagrave. The enlarged photo below makes it easier to see the birth date of 2 Feb. 1822.

Jacob and Maria’s son, Henry, would have 5 children, 3 of which were sons that had several children, so there were quite a few Detjen descendants that came from the Detjen/Heinsen marriage. All of the baptisms that I could find show them taking place in New Wells. I refer to these Detjen’s as the New Wells Detjen’s. There was another clan of Detjen’s in Farrar.

I wonder if the Leo Heins family that has a family reunion regularly in Jacob, Illinois knows that they may have a whole set of Detjen relatives that they are likely related to.