Both the bride and groom in today’s post were not born in or around Perry County. That means I cannot display any baptism records for these two. It is the bride that is today’s birthday girl, and she would be celebrating a special birthday.

Margreta Gerstacker was born on June 3, 1850, so today would be her 175th birthday. The only evidence I could find identifying either of her parents was the name of her father being Stephen Gerstacker. That evidence is found in the 1860 census in which we find Margreta at the age of 9 living in Cape Girardeau. There were 3 Gerstacker’s in this household. One was Stephen Gerstacker, who appears to be Margreta’s father. I have to assume Margreta’s mother likely had died prior to this census. There is also a 30 year-old man named Conrad Gerstacker who I think was Stephen’s brother. Stephen was a blacksmith, and Conrad was a teamster. Family trees on Ancestry.com say that Margreta was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Margreta would get married in the next decade, so we will now take a look at the man who would become her husband. His name was Johann Heinrich Popp, who was born on May 23, 1843. John was the son of Phillip and Katherine (Kodisch) Popp. He was born in Bavaria, Germany. In two later census entries, it says he came to America in 1850. We find John in the 1860 census at the age of 16. His father was a farmer in the Cinque Hommes Township, and John was helping him on his farm.

I have no idea how a farm boy from near Friedenberg became acquainted with a teenage girl in Cape Girardeau. John Popp married Margreta Gerstacker on June 11, 1867. When they were married, Margreta had just turned 17 years old. The wedding took place at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg. What makes this even more interesting is that there were two weddings that took place that day at Peace, Friedenberg. The other wedding was one in which Michael Bergmann married Anna Margaretta Popp, who was John’s younger sister. A previous post was written about the Bergmann/Popp couple titled, Bergmann – Popp – Bergmann. The pastor who performed these weddings, Rev. Besel, was the pastor of Peace, Friedenberg at that time.

Our German Family Tree lists 6 children born to this couple. All of them were baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau. When the 1870 census was taken, the Popp’s were living in Cape Girardeau with their first child. John was called a farmer.

Next, we find the Popp’s in the 1880 census. There were 3 children in their household, and this time, John was called a teamster. If you have been looking closely at all the previous census entries for Margreta, you have seen that she was said to be born in Ohio.

Two more children were born in the 1880’s. Then we have to wait until 1900 to see this family in another census entry. Three single children were living with John and Margreta. Also living in their household was their daughter, Bertha, who had married Theodore Ochs. John was back to being called a farmer.

In the 1910 census, John and Margreta had 2 single daughters living with them. In the occupation column for John, it says “own income”, which usually means the person is retired.

The last census in which we find John and Margreta is the one taken in 1920. The same 2 single daughters were living with them. There was also a boarder in their household. He was a 76 year-old man named George Popp. I do not know his connection to John Popp.

Both John and Margreta died in 1922. John died in February of that year at the age of 78; Margreta died in October at the age of 72. Every once in a while, I am unsuccessful at finding a person’s death certificate when there should be one. However, in the case of John and Margreta, I was unsuccessful at finding either one of their death certificates, even though each of them has a death record in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau. Maybe one of our readers will find their death certificates, but I failed.

John and Margreta Popp are buried together in the New Lorimer Cemetery in Cape Girardeau.

We have quite a few Gerstacker’s in our German Family Tree. However, I found no connection between Margreta to the other Gerstacker’s. That doesn’t mean there isn’t one. Even though she was married in Perry County, I found no evidence of her ever living in this county. Prior to her marriage and then after that marriage, she is found living in Cape Girardeau where she raised a family and, along with her husband, is buried there.