Church records in this area include families with the surnames Muench and Lindner. In the case of today’s couple made up of a Muench and a Lindner, those church records do not tie the Muench man to other Muench’s in the German Family Tree, nor do those records tie the Lindner woman to other Linder’s. Although the records do not tie them together, I have every reason to believe these two are related to others with the same name. We will start with the Lindner bride.

Anna Lindner has a special birthday today. It is that birthday that attracted me to this story. She was born in Germany on June 23, 1847, making today her 175th birthday. I do not know the names of her parents. One of the best places to find those names is on their death certificate, but on Anna’s, the line for her parents’ names both say, “Don’t know”.

The man that Anna would marry was Conrad Muench, who was born on November 24, 1847, also in Germany. Like Anna, we have no information about his parents, and in his case, he died before Missouri death certificates were kept, so we cannot even look there for help.

What I find interesting is that, according to a later census entry, both Conrad and Anna immigrated to the United States in 1873. Below is a portion of their entry in the 1900 census that documents this fact.

I was not able to find a passenger list for either Conrad or Anna to verify this. I thought I might find each of them on the same ship because 1873 was also the year in which these two were married in America. It has all the looks of a man and woman from Germany coming to this country where it was easier to get married than in their homeland. Conrad Muench married Anna LIndner on April 14, 1873. Their marriage record is found in the books of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville. This record says that Conrad was a tailor in Perryville. This record also gives evidence that Conrad was tied to the Peter Muench family because Peter was a witness at this wedding. Anna Maria Hoehn married Peter Muench, but that wedding took place in 1872, so I don’t know why she still was called a Hoehn in this record.

A civil marriage record from Perry County for this wedding can also be viewed.

The first American census in which we find either Anna or Conrad was after they were married. The 1880 census shows this couple living in the Salem Township where Conrad was a farmer. Two of the 6 children born to this couple are found in their household by this time.

We have to wait until 1900 to view the next census because the 1890 census records were destroyed in a fire. This would be the last one in which we find Conrad. It is also the one which displays the immigration years for Conrad and Anna. This is one of the better images from the 1900 census pages from the Salem Township. Their oldest daughter had gotten married in 1899, and another daughter died in 1889 at the age of 9. So, we see the remaining 4 children listed here.

Records for children in this Muench family can be found in both the books of Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar and Zion Lutheran Church in Crosstown. Conrad Muench’s life came to a tragic end in 1903 when he was just 55 years old. His death record from the books of Salem, Farrar give a cause of death, but it is written in German.

An article published in the Perry County Republican gives us a description of his tragic death. We can say that a farming accident resulted in his early death.

Conrad was buried in the Salem Lutheran Cemetery in Farrar.

Anna is found as a widow in the 1910 census. Only her son, William, was included in her household. Both Anna and William were called farmers.

The last census in which we find Anna was the one taken in 1920 when she was 72 years old. William had married Hedwig Buettner in 1910, so we see Anna living with him and his growing family.

Anna Muench died in 1927 at the age of 79. She almost made it to her 80th birthday. As you can see, her death certificate is no help in identifying her parents.

An obituary for Anna was published in the Perry County Republican. This article mentions a stroke as a cause of death, which is not indicated on her death certificate.

Anna Muench was buried in the Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Crosstown.

In addition to quite a few descendants who carried the surname, Muench, there are several other folks with the names Bohnert, Fritsche, and Weibrecht that can trace their family tree back to the couple highlighted in this story.