Now that this blog is nearing its 10th anniversary, and over 3000 posts have been published, I run across some stories that were written during the early years of this blog that can be embellished. So, instead of researching and writing a brand new story, I rewrite an old one with some additional documentation. The post I am writing today is sort of like that. Today, after discovering the fact that there was a double wedding that took place 150 years ago, I decided that tale must be told. That was before I also realized that I have previously written the stories of both couples that were married on that day. I just was not aware that two Popp sisters were married on the same day. I just cannot ignore a double wedding that also has such a special anniversary on today’s date.

First of all, let me list the 2 previous posts that told of each Popp sister separately. The story of Martha Popp and her husband, Heinrich Mahnke, was told in the post, Mahnken or Mahnke? That post does not solely tell about Martha and Heinrich, but focuses on the discussion about how the surname, Mahnke, should be spelled. The story of Martha’s sister, Anna Popp, can be found in the post titled, Feig-Mueller-Popp-Weber. Her groom was Gotthold Feig.

Martha and Anna Popp were the daughters of Johann and Anna (Grother) Popp, and I can tell you that the listing of that Popp family takes up several pages in our German Family Tree. Martha was born in 1852, and Anna was born in 1856. Let me also remind you that around her the pronunciation of the name, Popp, sounds more like the word, pup. Both of these Popp girls were baptized at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna. Martha’s baptism record is displayed below.

Anna’s baptism record has been seen in the previous post about her, but I will display it again here.

After Anna’s baptism, we find the 3 remaining Popp children being baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Altenburg. That congregation had been established in 1857, and most of the charter members of that congregation were originally from Trinity, Altenburg, but a few of them, including the Popp’s, were from Concordia, Frohna.

The double wedding that took place in 1875 was at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. I suppose that is a bit surprising because most marriages took place at the home congregation of the bride, and both of the Popp sisters were members at Immanuel. Immanuel was welcoming a new pastor in 1875, and I am not sure if he had arrived on the scene in October yet. That may explain the weddings taking place at Trinity. Another factor may have been that both grooms were members of Trinity.

I have shown the church records for the Popp sisters in the prior posts, but since I was not aware that the sisters were married on the same day, they were shown separately. Below, you can see both of these church marriage records together.

In the past posts, I displayed Perry County civil records for each of these couples, but since then, I have discovered that Family Search has much clearer images than Ancestry.com has for this collection of records. Below are the two better images of those records. First, here is the record for Anna’s wedding.

Next, here is the record for Martha’s wedding.

I will take a bit of time summarizing the lives of these two Popp sisters, but more details can be found in the previous posts. Martha and Heinrich Mahnke had 2 children, one of them a foster child named Johanne Popp. Johanne had been born to Magdalena Popp prior to her getting married. Then, after Magdalena was married, she died in childbirth in 1879, so that must have been about the time that Johanne went to live with the Mahnke’s. Martha Mahnke would later die in 1914 at the age of 61. Her death certificate below says she died of cancer.

Her church death record is found in the books of Trinity, Altenburg, so she is almost certainly buried in that congregation’s cemetery, but when I visited that cemetery yesterday, there is an empty spot where Martha’s grave site is found.

Now, I will tell a bit about what took place in Ann’s life. Anna and Gotthold Feig had 3 children, and all of them were baptized at Trinity, Altenburg. Then, Gotthold died in 1883. Anna then married Ernst Weber, and that couple had 3 more children. Anna Weber died in 1911 at the age of 54. She also died of cancer.

Anna’s church death record is also found in the books of Trinity, Altenburg. Anna does have an entry on Findagrave.com which says she is buried in Trinity’s cemetery, but she has no gravestone photo. In her case, I also found an empty spot where she would have been buried.

The double wedding in 1875 took place in the 1867 church sanctuary that is still used by Trinity to this day. Since I was sitting in this church this morning, I imagined what it must have been like 150 years ago when the Popp sisters were married. October 5th during that year was on a Tuesday. I have to think that the church would have been pretty full for a double wedding, complete with folks from both Concordia, Frohna and Immanuel, Altenburg.

Two other double weddings come to my mind that took place at Trinity, Altenburg. One took place just 2 years prior to the ones for the Popp sisters. A Grebing brother and sister both had their weddings on the same day in 1873. Then, there is also the famous day when the Schmidt twins, Arthur and Emmanuel, married their brides on the same day in 1915.