My normal procedure for finding a person to write about on this blog is to search for a date in our German Family Tree that may have been a birthday or wedding anniversary, beginning with special dates such as 150 years ago. Normally, if I am successful at finding a date that shows positive results, I may have results in the single digits. Yesterday, when I placed March 22, 1891 in the search box, I got 86 results. I looked at the first result, and it was a confirmation record. The light bulb went on, and I realized we had entered the time of year when I will be finding extra positive results because this is the confirmation season. Around these here parts, the tradition is to conduct the rites of confirmation on Palm Sunday. Since Easter is not an event that always occurs on the same date like Christmas, and since Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter, there is not a set date for confirmation, but we have a season for confirmation. This year, next week is Palm Sunday, so that is where several congregations around here will confirm the students that have finished their studies of the catechism.

I decided to write a post today about the confirmation class of 1891, so this post will not follow my normal format. I will admit that one of the reasons I chose to do this is the fact that included in the Class of ’91 was my grandfather. I decided to include a listing of the confirmands that I located from local congregations’ books in this post so that some of our readers can perhaps identify someone from their family tree who was confirmed that year.

Before I include that list, here are some statistics about the results. I found records from 10 different local congregations, most of which are located in Perry County. A few churches are found in the New Well/Pocahontas area in Cape Girardeau County and one is found in Jacob, Illinois. Some congregations that often get mentioned on this blog had not yet been established in 1891. I found records in all the expected congregations except for Salem Lutheran Church in Farrar. When I looked into Salem’s church books, I discovered that they did not have a confirmation class in 1891. If they did, I think they would have been confirmed on Palm Sunday. The total number of confirmands you will be reading will be 87.

Trinity Lutheran Church – Altenburg (9)

• Marie Caroline Asche
• Theobald Eduard Constantine Buck
• Susanna Theresia Josephine Goecke
• Carolina Maria Bertha Goetz
• Bertha Jacobine Loebs
• Theodore Friedrich Carl Militzer
• Emanuel Gotthold Schmidt (my grandfather)
• Wilhelmine Walther
• Anna Maria Weinberg

Immanuel Lutheran Church – Altenburg (6)

• Gustav Ferdinand Degenhardt
• Friedrich August Leimbach
• Emma Alvine Palisch
• Emma Christiane Palisch
• Sarah Elizabeth Schirmer
• Christiane Mathilda Seibel

Grace Lutheran Church – Uniontown (8)

• Emma Emilie Gentsch
• Heinrich Joseph Hecht
• Wilhelmine Rosa Hemmann
• Clara Magdalena Hopfer
• Wilhelmine Justine Emilie Kasten
• Amalie Martha Mueller
• Ludwig Wilhelm Julius Poelke
• Heinnrich Gustav Schaeffer

Concordia Lutheran Church – Frohna (20)

• Lina Louise Bergt
• Magdalena Juliane Fiehler
• August Robert Gemeinhardt
• Hermann Julius Holschen
• Johannes Adolph Koenig
• Martha Catharine Wilhelmine Mahnken
• Johannes Herman Gerhard Mangels
• Martin Dietrich Miesner
• Emma Rosalie Mueller
• Joseph Benjamin Oberndorfer
• Johann Heinrich Ludwig Persson
• Andreas Martin Popp
• Ludwig Benjamin Roth
• Gottlob August Schilling
• Arthur Joseph Schlimpert
• August Eduard Otto Schroeder
• Bertha Selma Stueve
• Claus H. Stueve, Jr.
• Ernst Joseph Vogel
• Herman Martin Weinhold

Immanuel Lutheran Church – New Wells (13)

• Ernst Wilhelm Hemmann
• Amalie Agnes Holt
• Martha Helene Kasten
• Johann Ernst Ladreiter
• Genovefa Helene Landl
• Marie Amalie Agnes Lorenz
• August Otto Eduard Mirly-Steenbock
• Agnes Lina Mirly
• Martin Conrad Reisenbichler
• Ernestine Marie Rudert
• Ernestine Emilie Scholl
• Magdalena Starzinger
• Richard Eduard Ude

St. John’s Lutheran Church – Pocahontas (5)

• August Wilhelm Gaebler
• Emma Emilie Hoehl
• Ernestine Henriette Petzoldlt
• Theresia Louise Schattauer
• Gustav Friedrich Schliesser

Christ Lutheran Church – Jacob, IL (3)

• Caroline Sophia Anna Grote
• Maria Heitmann
• Freidrich Rodewald

Trinity Lutheran Church – Friedheim (6)

• Johann Heinrich Louis Iseenberg
• Caspar Heinrich Grass
• Ferdinand Heinrich Wilhelm Kester
• Marrtha Louise Charlotte Moeller
• Caroline Emma Elizabeth Vogt
• Catherina Franzisca Weis

Cross Congregation – near Longtown (6)

• August Friedrich Wilhelm Horn
• Anna Katherina Christiane Muench
• Peter Emanuel Muench
• Eva Katharina Georgina Schmidt
• Albert Edward Wagner
• Richard Friedrich Wagner

Immanuel Lutheran Church – Perryville (11)

• Herbert Markwort
• Johann Dewein
• Wilhelm Boxdorfer
• Martin Sandler
• Gottlieb Boxdorfer
• Valentine Weibrecht
• Ida Hooss
• Amalie Dewein
• Anna End
• Anna Schmidt
• Marie Albrecht

I have a few observations.

• I discovered as I was typing these names that I apparently have become quite skilled at writing these names. I found my fingers flying over the keys and the names just magically appeared. I imagine that someone not familiar with these names and their spellings would have had more difficulty typing this list.
• There were many more confirmands at these congregations back in 1891 than you find in most of those churches today. My church, Trinity, Altenburg, will confirm just 2 next week on Palm Sunday.
• Confirmation traditions are not the same everywhere. Not all Lutheran churches have their confirmation rites on Palm Sunday. I know that I was confirmed on Pentecost Sunday at St. Jacobi Lutheran Church in Jennings (in North St. Louis). I cannot resist placing a photo of my confirmation class here. I was one of 28 confirmands that year. By the way, about 10-15 years ago, that congregation ceased to exist.

• I wonder when it became standard procedure to have a photo of an entire confirmation class taken. I also wonder when it became common for confirmands to wear robes.
• The confirmation photos that I mostly see when gathering information for this blog are ones where an individual confirmand is standing in a photo studio holding a small book (a catechism or a prayer book) in their hands. Those confirmands are dressed in fancy church clothes, not robes. Below is an example of one of those photos.

• Although the tradition of “questioning” the confirmands before their confirmation day has disappeared from a lot of Lutheran congregations, it still takes place in many churches around here.