A pair of twins was born on December 8, 1859 in Altenburg. It was a boy/girl set of twins. The names were Heinrich Emanuel and Margaretha Katherine Wunderlich. It appears that only Henry lived to adulthood, and it is his story you will read today. Today would be his 165th birthday. Henry was the son of Christian and Christine (Stockmann) Wunderlich. The baptism records for the twins are found in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. Those records are displayed below.

Both of the twins are included in the 1860 census at the age of 4 months. Their father was a farmer in the Brazeau Township.

Before I move on, let me add that Henry’s father was one of the original immigrants who had arrived in Perry County in 1839 and was first married to Christiane Jacob, another original immigrant. About a month after they had a child in 1854, Christiane died, and shortly after that, the infant died. All of the children in the above census entry were ones who were born to Christian Wunderlich and his 2nd wife.

One hole that remains unfilled for this story is the 1870 census for this Wunderlich family. Although I have every reason to believe that they continued to live in the Altenburg area, I was unable to find them in the 1870 census. I think the census taker just missed them. I wish I could look at an entry for them because I would like to know if Margaretha was still part of their family at that time. Another question remains. We have no death record of Henry’s father, but I suspect that he died during this time and it is part of the “Koestering Hole” in Trinity’s records. Henry’s mother would get married to John G. Lorenz prior to the 1880 census. In that year’s entry, Henry is called a stepson who was working on John Lorenz’s farm.

Now, we need to take a look at the woman who would become Henry’s bride. Her name was Maria Elizabeth Roth, who was born on February 19, 1960. Mary was the daughter of George and Elizabeth (Roth) Roth. Yes, that means Mary’s parents were a Roth/Roth couple, who had been married at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. Mary was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. We can view a transcription of her baptism record here.

Mary was just a baby when we see her in the 1860 census. Her father was a carpenter in Cape Girardeau.

When the 1870 census was taken, Mary was 10 years old. This time, her father was called an undertaker still living in Cape Girardeau.

The last census in which we find Mary as a single person is the one taken in 1880. She was 20 years old, and her father was called a farmer.

Henry Wunderlich married Mary Roth on November 20, 1887 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau. A transcription of their church marriage record is pictured here.

The Missouri marriage license for this couple is shown below.

I found no evidence that Henry and Mary had children of their own. In the 1900 census, we find this couple living in the Union Township where Henry was farming. In their household was Henry’s mother, who I think should have been called Christine Lorenz, along with a girl named Gertrude Vogelsang who was called adopted. This is the only census in which Gertrude shows up in a census with the Wunderlich’s, but she was confirmed at Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar, and her confirmation record says her father was Henry.

In the 1910 census, we find the trio of Henry and Mary Wunderlich and Christine Lorenz, Henry’s mother.

The Wunderlich’s are found in the 1920 census, and this time we find another adopted child named Harry Clemmings, who was a teenager.

The 1930 census shows Henry and Mary with an empty nest. Henry was still farming at the age of 70.

The last census entry in which we find Henry was the one taken in 1940. He and Mary were living in Perryville, and neither had an occupation.

Henry Wunderlich died in 1941 at the age of 81. His death certificate is displayed below.

An obituary was published for Henry in the Perry County Republican.

Mary Wunderlich is found in the 1950 census living in the Lutheran Nursing Home in St. Louis at the age of 90. This entry says she was never married, but that must be a mistake.

Mary died a year later in 1951 at the age of 91. Her death certificate can also be viewed here.

An obituary for Mary was also published in the Perry County Republican. Although her death certificate says she was going to be buried in the Lutheran cemetery in Cape Girardeau, her obituary says she was going to be buried in Perryville.

Henry and Mary Wunderlich both have sites listed on Findagrave.com for Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville, but neither one has a gravestone photo.

Researching for this story was a real challenge. Our German Family Tree includes both Henry Wunderlich and Mary Roth, but they are not connected as husband and wife. When I found family trees on Ancestry.com for Henry and Mary, they included hardly any census entries. None of the family trees I looked at listed death dates for either Henry or Mary. Eventually, I located all of the documents you find in this article, but it certainly took a while to find them.