The information shown below from our German Family Tree is the starting point for today’s post. As you can see, there is not much there. It contains only a baptism record and a marriage record from Grace Lutheran Church.

As of the time of this writing, the German Family Tree does not contain records for Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim, even though we have portfolios in our research library containing those records. Work continues toward getting those records indexed. When the Friedheim records are included in the GFT, there will be many more documents connected to Sophie Martin, today’s birthday girl. However, I will begin today’s post by looking at a different character.

Heinrich Christoph Kurre was born on June 1, 1819 in Sudheim, Hanover, Germany. Several family histories on Ancestry.com give Johann Heinrich Philipp and Ann Dorothee (Ring) Kurre as his parents. By 1844, Henry had arrived in America. On January 25, 1844, he married Amalia Mary Haupt in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. Henry’s name is butchered on this document, and in future records, his wife was called Amalia.

Amalia was born on August 29, 1829, the daughter of Henry and Johanna Wilhelmine (Ische) Haupt. She is also said to have been from Sudheim, Germany. Perhaps this was one of those couples that came to America in order to be married.

The cover page of the Friedheim records is displayed below. These books were initiated in 1948 when Rev. F.J. Biltz, one of the first graduates of Concordia Seminary in Altenburg, became the pastor.

You will not see the name, Friedheim, on this page. Instead, it says these records were from churches in Dissen and Sudheim. Later, both of these names would be changed. Dissen would be renamed Friedheim because another city in Missouri was already named Dissen. Later in this post, you will discover how the name of Sudheim was changed.

The Kurre couple would settle in Sudheim, Missouri. I suppose they may have been involved in naming this location. Later, in 1860, Henry Kurre was one of the original members of a church that was built there. This paragraph from Goodspeed’s History talks about that congregation.

A family history on Ancestry.com lists 8 children born to Henry and Amalia Kurre. I found almost all of these children’s baptism records in the Dissen/Sudheim records That set of books is not organized by churches. The Sudheim records are intermingled with those of Dissen. I am going to display a few of the baptism records of the Kurre/Haupt children. The first one I found was for Auguste Kurre, who was born in 1848, the first year of these books. She was the 2nd Kurre child. The first was born before these records began. On the right of this document, the Sudh. means it was a baptism in Sudheim. Also, a cross like the one you see on the right indicates that the child died.

The next record I located was for Marie Kurre, who was born in 1850.

The last child born to Amalia Kurre was Hanne Kurre, who was born in 1861.

Hanne was born and died the same year that Amalia died (1861). A death record is found in these books for Amalia, but it gives no exact date of death. I am thinking that Amalia may have died in childbirth.

Only two of these 9 children lived long enough to witness their mother’s death in 1861.

That leads us to look at Sophie Martin, today’s birthday girl. She was born on March 4, 1844, the daughter of Christian and Marie Wilhelmine Elisabeth (Kasten) Martin. In a previous post, Is There a Kasten in the Braeuner Past?, it was suggested that Elisabeth Kasten had been previously married to Henry Hornemann before marrying Christian Martin in 1839. If that is the case, the passenger list for the ship, Weser, on which we find Elisabeth Hornemann is even more interesting for today’s story.

The Hornemann’s were on the same ship as a Haupt family, and both families were from Sudheim. There’s even an Amalia and Maria Haupt onboard. However, today’s Amalie Maria Haupt was born 3 years after the Weser landed in America, and the Henry Haupt’s age does not correspond to Amalia’s father’s age.

Sophie Martin was baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. Her baptism record is pictured here.

Sophie is found in the 1850 census at the age of 6. A Kasten family can also be seen on this entry.

Sophia is found in the 1850 census at the age of 16.

Henry Kurre married Sophie Martin on August 7, 1862 at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. We can take a look at their church marriage record.

There was also a civil marriage record for this event.

There were 9 more children born to this couple, most of which lived to adulthood. They, too, have their baptism records in the same books. The first child born to Henry and Sophie was Josephine, who was born in 1863. There was a Kasten as a sponsor.

Let’s take a break from church records to look at some census records. Henry and his first wife are found in the 1860 census for the Apple Creek Township. Henry was a farmer.

We find Henry and his second wife in the 1870 census. This time, Henry was in the dry goods and groceries business. The first 3 children were from his first marriage, and the last 4 were from his second wife. Henry was 24 years older than Sophia.

In 1877, Henry was appointed the postmaster for a town called Kurreville. I think it is likely that Henry came up with that name. That would have been previously called Sudheim.

When the 1880 census was taken, the Kurre’s were said to be living in the Whitewater Township, in which Henry was called a merchant and a farmer. Below their entry is the Frederick Kurre household. He was a son.

The last child born to the Kurre’s was a son named Monroe, who was born in 1881. Here is his baptism record.

Sometime along the way, these two photos were taken of Henry and Sophie Kurre.

Henry Kurre died in 1887 at the age of 67. A type of death record for Henry was found on Ancestry.com.

A biography of Henry and his son, Frederick is found in the Goodspeed History. Some of the information does not agree with the documents I have found.

Sophie is found in the 1900 census as a widow with two remaining children.

Next, we find Sophie in the 1910 census with a son, H.M., and his family. A girl by the name of Bernice Riehn is found in this and the previous census. This entry says she was an adopted child.

The last census in which we find Sophie was the one taken in 1920. At the age of 75, she was living in the Monroe Kurre household, which was apparently near the G.H. Kurre household.

Sophie Kurre died in 1924 at the age of 80. We can view her death certificate.

An obituary for her was published in a newspaper.

Supposedly, both Henry and Sophie Kurre were buried in the Kurreville Cemetery which is said to be in Millersville, but only Henry has a gravestone photo on Findagrave.com.

Whew! For a story that began with so little information in our German Family Tree, this post took a while to write.