According to our German Family Tree, a pair of sisters could call today their anniversary. However, these two were not married in a double wedding. Their weddings took place on the same date, but in different years. I have already told the story of Johanna Oehlert, who married Gottlieb Krause on June 12, 1881. That post was titled, One of the Krause/Oehlert Marriages. Today, you will read the tale of Johanna’s older sister who was married on the same day, only 5 years earlier, according to our German Family Tree. I would discover later as I researched this story, that this sister would more likely have celebrated her wedding anniversary yesterday.

Hannah Christiane Oehlert was born on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1856, the daughter of Johann Gottfried and Theresia (Kranawetter) Oehlert. There is also just a bit of a debate about Christiane’s birthday. Her death certificate, which I will display later, says she was born on Christmas Day, December 25th. Christiane’s baptism record is found in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. We can view that baptism record below, which definitely gives a date of December 24th.

It was about a year after Christiane was born that Rev. Georg Schieferdecker was expelled as the pastor of Trinity, and he established Immanuel Lutheran Church on the other end of Altenburg. The Oehlert’s were charter members of Immanuel. I failed to find Christiane in the 1860 census.

Let me give a brief summary of the life of Christiane’s mother. Theresia Kranawetter, while she was still in Germany, had a relationship with a German soldier and had a son. She then married a Zwickelhuber and had a few other children. The Zwickelhuber’s came to America in 1853, but already in that same year, her husband and 2 of her children died. The son who had the German soldier as a father then took the name, Kranawetter, Theresia’s maiden name. Theresia’s second husband was Christiane’s father, but he died in 1864 when Christiane was just 8 years old. Theresia’s 3rd husband was Gottlieb Louis Dietrich, who she married in 1866.

In the 1870 census, we find this entry for the family of Gottlieb and Theresia Dietrich. The Anna in this entry is Christiane’s younger sister, Johanna, who would was the sister who got married on June 12th. However, Christiane, who would have been about 14 years old at the time, was not listed in this household. That was also the year that Christiane was confirmed at Immanuel, Altenburg. I was also unable to locate Christiane in this 1870 census, so I have not found any census entry for Christiane prior to her marriage.

So, let’s now take a look at the man who would become Christiane’s husband. His name was August Johann Dietrich, who was born on April 8, 1854. August was the son of Gottlob and Louisa (Vogel) Dietrich. He was the first child in this Dietrich family, and he was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Here is his baptism record.

August was part of the amazing Dietrich family that was made up of 9 children, all boys. I have dubbed these boys as the “Altenburg Giants” because it has been written in a Dietrich family binder that all of the sons ended up being over 6 feet tall and because 9 boys could make up a baseball team. Below is a photo of those boys that has been displayed in several previous posts. I will let you guess which one of these boys would have been August, the oldest one.

Let me also say that August’s father was a brother to Gottlieb Louis Dietrich, Theresia Kranawetter’s 3rd husband. August is found in the 1860 census at the age of 6. His father was a farmer in the Brazeau Tonwship.

Next, we find the Dietrich’s in the 1870 census. There were 7 boys in the family at this point in time.

Two more boys were born in the 1870’s. The Dietrich binder says they moved to Junction City, Kansas in about 1877. One thing we do know. August Dietrich married Christiane Oehlert in 1878 in Altenburg. I will first display the church marriage record from the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Fortunately, by this time, Rev. J.F. Koestering’s marriage records had once again appeared in the Trinity books. This this church marriage record says this wedding took place on June 11, 1878.

I am also able to show 2 civil records for this wedding. This first one has to be shown in 2 images. Both of these Perry County records state that the wedding took place on June 11th.

Here is another Perry County record. I now think our German Family Tree has an incorrect marriage date for Christiane. I also now know that our GFT has the marriage date as June 11, 1878 for August Dietrich’s entry. The June 12th date is only shown for Christiane’s entry in the GFT.

I am going to use information that is found in the Dietrich family binder to document how many children this Dietrich couple had. That binder includes this circular illustration of the Dietrich family tree. I am just showing the portion for August’s branch. It says he had 9 children.

August and Christiane must have been living in Junction City, Kansas when the 1880 census was taken, but in the process of researching other stories about members of the Dietrich family, I know that I have on several occasions already, have failed to find them in that year’s census. So, the next census I can show that includes them is the one taken in 1900. In this entry, you find all 9 of the Dietrich children. That’s enough for a baseball team, too, but this family is not all boys. August was a farmer in the Lyon Township, which is located in the rural area outside Junction City.

The Dietrich family made a move before the next census. When the 1920 census was taken, the Dietrich’s were living in Zavala County, Texas. They were living near the town of La Pryor, and August was still farming. Their oldest son, Martin, was married and had his household listed right under that of August.

August Dietrich died in Texas in 1918 at the age of 63. That left Christiane as a widow. We find her still living in the same location in Texas when the 1920 census was taken. Christiane just had 3 chidren in their 20’s living with her, and Martin’s household was once again listed next to hers.

The last census in which we find Christiane was the one taken in 1930. She was living with her son, Albert, and his wife, Clara. Albert was farming.

Christiane Dietrich died in 1934 at the age of 75. In her case, we can view her Texas death certificate. This is where we see her birthday as December 25th.

Both August and Christiane had their bodies transported back to Kansas to be buried. They are buried together in the St. Paul’s Lutheran Cemetery in Junction City.

Once I discovered that today’s wedding took place on yesterday’s date, I decided I didn’t want to wait until next June to write this story. I also just did not have the time to research another story for today. And since I am on quite a long streak of writing stories every day, you get this tale today.