I expected to be researching for a new story today, but I could not resist embellishing an old one. These days, I always start looking for a new person to write about by looking for either a birth or wedding that took place 200 years ago. When I did that yesterday, I immediately found a 200th wedding anniversary. Not only that, but it also was the anniversary of one of the notable pastors who was one of the important leaders of the 1839 German Lutheran immigration that ended up settling in Perry County. He was also the first pastor of the church that I now attend in Altenburg. I knew that it was a story that had to be recognized on this blog. As it turned out, I also found some actual images of documents that I am now able to display.
Gotthold Heinrich Loeber married Sophie Henrietta Wilhelmina Zahn on September 22, 1825 in Germany. In the article that is attached to today’s post, I only was able to display a transcription of the German marriage record for this couple. Since that time, I have discovered that Family Search is a better site to use to find the actual images of such records. Now, you can see that marriage record pictured below.
On Family Search, it gives the location of this event as shown below. It lists not only Eichenberg, but also the other nearby towns of Biebra, Dienstadt, and Kahla. I think there was one set of books for all of these congregations.
Based on information found in a Loeber family binder that we have in our research library, Rev. Loeber became a pastor in about 1824 and his first call was to serve Eichenberg and Bibra. The map below shows the proximity of these towns.
In our museum, we have Wilhelmina’s wedding dress prominently on display.
This Loeber couple had 4 children, and all of them have their baptism records in the same books in which we found Gotthold and Wilhelmina’s marriage record. Their first child, a girl named Anna, was born in 1826. Her baptism record is pictured here.
This daughter died in 1829. The next child of the Loeber’s was a son named Christoph Heinrich. He was born in 1828, and his baptism record is shown here.
In 1830, this pair’s only daughter who lived to adulthood was born. Her name was Martha, and we can view her baptism record below.
The baptism record for the Loeber’s last child, a son named Gotthilf, is pictured here. He was born in 1835.
Much more can be read about the Loeber’s history by reading the attached post as well as another one which highlighted Wilhelmina titled, Mama Loeber.
Before I close, I will unashamedly say that the Loeber family and my Schmidt family must have been friends. When my great grandfather, Gottwerth Schmidt, was born in Kahla, Germany in 1834, his baptism record below shows that Wilhelmina Loeber was one of his sponsors.
Also, when Gottwerth’s younger sister, Eva Schmidt, was born in 1837, we find that Rev. Gotthold Loeber was one of her sponsors.
In conclusion, I have to think that my great great grandparents, Joachim and Charlotte Schmidt, likely attended the Loeber/Zahn wedding 200 years ago.