In recent months, I have been mentioning in a few blog posts that Ancestry.com now has a collection of records that is described as Missouri Synod, U.S., Lutheran Church records, 1851-1972. I am still discovering that this collection contains documents that I can use for this blog. Just yesterday, I was able to display a marriage record from Trinity Lutheran Church in East St. Louis, Illinois. I also received an email recently from Wayne Schuessler, who informed me that Family Search includes some records that were provided by Concordia Historical Institute in St. Louis. One such listing of a church record book found on Family Search is described in the image below. It calls the church a Lutheran congregation in Apple Creek, Missouri.

I found a baptism record from this congregation for a character in today’s story. I have come to the conclusion that the records now found on Family Search and Ancestry.com have been provided by Concordia Historical Institute. I have come to an additional conclusion. The unknown Lutheran congregation in Apple Creek was St. John’s Lutheran Church in Arnsberg. In a binder we have in our museum, it states that Rev. Lohmann from Perryville once had this congregation’s records and had given them to “someone”. It now appears that he gave at least some of them to CHI. I will give evidence that this is the case later in this article.

First, I will tell the story of today’s birthday girl that led me to the Arnsberg records. Maria Theresia Weiss was born on January 22, 1874, making today her 150th birthday. Mary was the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Kiefner) Weiss. Her baptism record is found in the Ancestry.com Lutheran church collection, but the congregation is only identified as “Lutheran Church”. That record is pictured below. This document includes the fact that the family lived in the city of Appleton.

Interestingly, Maria has a transcribed baptism record found in our binder containing records from Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville. This record states that she was baptized by Rev. Baumgartner.

When the 1880 census was taken, we find Mary at the age of 6. Her father worked in a brewery. The brewery was located in Appleton, but this family must have been living across the Apple Creek in the Union Township of Perry County.

In the Arnsberg binder we have, there is a listing of customers from a ledger in an Arnsberg store. It includes an entry for Joseph Weiss, who was a brewer from Appleton.

The next child born to the Weiss’s in 1879 was baptized at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. After that, the next child born in 1882, followed by all the remaining Weiss children, were baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville. It appears that the Weiss family moved to Perryville in the early 1880’s.

Mary would get married before the 1900 census, so we will now look at the man who would become her husband. His name was August Michael Thieret, who was born on November 10, 1875, although our German Family Tree says he was born on October 11, 1875. He was baptized at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg. I think a mistake was made in reconstructing the records for that church that can be found in the Friedenberg Remembrances book. August was the son of Charles and Barbara (Hoehn) Thieret. August is found in the 1880 census at the age of 4. His father was a grocer in the Union Township.

August Thieret married Mary Weiss on February 13, 1898 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville. The church record for this wedding is pictured here.

We can also take a look at the Missouri marriage license for this pair.

August and Mary had just one child, a son named Everett. In the 1900 census, we find this small family living in Perryville, where August was a day laborer.

The 1910 census shows August as a plasterer.

August had his World War I draft registration completed in 1918. This document says he was a general produce buyer for the J.P. Faherty Feed & Coal Company. 

Since their son, Everett, never married nor moved out of their house, we see the same trio in several census entries. Here is the 1920 census entry.

Next, we see this family in the 1930 census. August is called a poultry and produce salesman. Everett was a salesman in a grocery store.

Mary Thieret died in 1932 at the age of 38. Influenza is given as her cause of death on the document below.

Mary’s obituary was published in a local newspaper.

August and Everett are found in the 1940 census. At the age of 65, August was a racker at a pool hall. August was a grocery clerk.

The last census we can view is the one taken in 1950. Everett was listed as the head of the household. 

August Theiret died in 1958 at the age of 82. His death certificate says he died at the Pine Lawn Nursing Home in Perryville.

Everett Thieret died in 1976 at the age of 77. August and Mary Thieret are buried together in the Home Cemetery in Perryville. Everett is buried in the same cemetery.

Now, I will provide more evidence that the church records found on Ancestry.com and Family Search are indeed ones from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Arnsberg, although I think they are a very limited set of records from that congregation. First, there is this note that has been attached to the first page of those records. It mentions Rev. Baumgartner, who baptized Maria Weiss.

On another page of those records, we find Rev. Baumgartner’s signature.

Also found in those records is this note indicating that they were given to the Concordia Historical Institute in 1980.

If you page through these church records, you will find name after name that can also be found in the Arnsberg binder which lists renowned folks who once populated Arnsberg and attended St. John’s Lutheran Church. However, I will add that it would be nice if this record book had a page that indicates which church the records were from. These records are from a very limited time frame…the early 1870’s. Perhaps they were the ones that were recorded by Rev. Baumgartner during his time as pastor.

I think if any of the people who put together the Arnsberg binder are still alive, they would be interested to see that this set of records from that congregation is now accessible.