This post’s birthday girl would be celebrating a very special birthday today. Her name was Anna Wilhelmina Haeckel, who was born on April 14, 1851. That means today would be her 175th birthday. Anna was the daughter of Johann and Anna Haeckel. I have found a few different surnames as possible maiden names for her mother. Our German Family Tree uses the surname, Geist, and Family Search uses the surname, Graef. Anna’s baptism record is found in the books of Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim. An image of that record is shown below. Perhaps someone who can read the pastor’s German handwriting can determine what surname for the mother is on this document.

Anna is found in the 1860 census at the age of 9. Her father was a farmer in the Cinque Hommes Township. The census taker butchered the family’s surname and also did not list all the children in the order of their birth. It almost looks like the census taker forgot Anna and added her at the end.

In the 1870 census, Anna was not living with her parents. She is found in the household of the rather famous Charles Weber, who has appeared on this blog on many occasions. She is called a 19 year-old domestic servant. Charles Weber was a clerk of the county court in Perryville.

Anna would get married during the next decade, so we will now take a look at the man who would become her first husband. His name was Johann Friedrich Weith, who was born on February 9, 1854. Johann was the son of Johann and Jacobine (Kirschner) Weith. Both Ancestry.com and Family Search entries say that Johann was born in Baltimore, Maryland. At some point, the Weith family made their way to Perry County. They are found in the 1870 census living in the Cinque Hommes Township. Johann was 16 years old.

John Weith married Anna Haeckel on February 21, 1877. I am able to display 2 different civil Perry County marriage records for this wedding. Both of them indicate they were married by Rev. Holtermann, who was the pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Friedenberg at the time.

Here is another record called a certificate of marriage.

Our German Family Tree lists 3 children born to this couple. No baptism record is included in the GFT for their first child. I suspect that child was baptized at Peace, Friedenberg. The other 2 children have baptism records in the books of Cross Congregation, a Lutheran church located near Longtown that existed for a short while. When the 1880 census was taken, we find the Weith’s with just one child. John was a farmer in the Cinque Hommes Township.

Two of the Weith children died in 1890 of different diseases. Each of them are buried in the Cross Congregation Cemetery near Longtown, but neither one has a gravestone photo on Findagrave.com.

Then, in 1891, John Weith died at the age of 36, almost 37. His death record is found in the books of Cross Congregation, and he is buried in that congregation’s cemetery. He also has no gravestone photo on Findagrave.com.

Anna would get married again, so we will now take a look at the man who would become her 2nd husband. His name was Carl Friedrich Dambach, who was born on July 7, 1838. I am not going to go into great detail about his life, but I will say that Friedrich was first married to Ernestine Mehner. That couple was married on January 16, 1866. Here is a Cape Girardeau County marriage record for that couple. You can see that they were married at Trinity, Friedheim where Rev. John was a pastor.

This Dambach couple had 13 children. Over the years, their children were either baptized at Trinity, Friedheim or Grace, Uniontown. Then, in 1892, Ernestine Dambach died, leaving Friedrich as a widower. On June 18, 1893, Friedrich Dambach married Anna Weith at Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. Their church marriage record is shown here. It says Friedrich was from Cape Girardeau County, and Anna was from Crosstown.

This marriage did not last long because Anna Dambach died in 1896 at the age of 45. Her death record is found in the books of Grace, Uniontown.

Since her death record was in the Grace, Uniontown books, you would think she would have been buried in that church’s cemetery, but I found no entry on Findagrave.com for her.

Friedrich Dambach is found as a widower in the 1900 census. He was living with his daughter, Julia, who had married Theodore Tanz.

Friedrich Dambach died in 1902 at the age of 64. Somehow, he had made his way to the vicinity of Bismarck, Missouri because his death record is found in the books of St. John’s Lutheran Church near there.

That congregation has its own cemetery, but I failed to find an entry for Friedrich on Findagrave.com.

This post has some holes in it, and most of them have to do with people’s deaths. There are plenty of deaths and burials mentioned, but I was not able to even display one gravestone for any of them.