About a year ago, I wrote the one and only post on this blog about a family named Neislein. That post got one comment on it at that time, but yesterday, a person with the name, Neislein, gave that post a “like” on our website. Normally, such a reaction to an old blog, although much appreciated, does not surprise me. However, in this case, I was shocked because I was in the process of gathering some documentation for today’s post, which I knew was going to be another Neislein story. In fact, today I will be sharing the story of the parents of the Neislein in that previous post.

I found this Neislein story because our German Family Tree says that Andrew Neislein was born on July 19, 1851, which would mean that today would be Andrew’s 175th birthday. However, now I think that his birthday is more likely June 19th, not July 19th. If that is the case, then Andrew would have celebrated that special birthday last month. Andrew was the son of Johann Neislein, but I found that Family Search gives his mother’s name as Johanna Schatte, and his death certificate gives his mother’s name as Hanna Heincemann, and other family trees on Ancestry.com give a few different spellings of names similar to Heincemann. A marriage record that can be found for Johann Neislein gives his bride’s name as Schatte. Andrew was probably born in the Apple Creek Township, perhaps near Sedgewickville. In a history of Sargents Chapel Lutheran Church, which is found near Sedgewickville, it says there were Lutheran pastors in that area at the time of Andrew’s birth, so he might have been baptized by one of those pastors before any church records were kept. Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim had been established by the time of Andrew’s birth, but his baptism record is not found in their books. There is also a chance that Andrew’s baptism record can be found in the St. Joseph’s Catholic Parish in Apple Creek because that is where Andrew’s father is buried. Andrew’s father appears to be the first Neislein to enter this area of Missouri because he was born in Germany.

Before we find Andrew in his first census in 1860, his father died in 1858. Then his mother married Jacob Schremp, so in the 1860 census we find Andrew living in a Schremp household. Andrew was 8 years old at the time. Jacob Schremp was a farmer in the Apple Creek Township.

I failed to locate Andrew in the 1870 census when he would have been a teenager. And since Andrew would get married in the 1870’s, we will now take a look at the woman who would become his bride. Her name was Pauline Hilderbrand. I was unable to determine her date of birth. Even her death certificate says it was unknown. What I do know is that Pauline’s gravestone says she was born in 1848. Pauline was the daughter of Joseph and Barbara (Hahs) Hilderbrand. I did find a baptism record for Pauline’s older sister, who was born in 1846, in the books of Grace Lutheran Church in Uniontown. However, Pauline’s baptism record is not found there. In the 1850 census, there is a girl named Catherine who was 2 years old who might be Pauline. Her father was a farmer.

When the 1860 census was taken, we find the Joseph Hilderbrand family with 9 children in the household. None of them are called Pauline

In the 1870 census, we find a girl named Polly in the Hilderbrand family. She was 16 years old, which would support the fact that Pauline may have been born in the 1850’s, not 1848.

I found two potential marriage dates for Andrew Neislein and Pauline Hilderbrand. One is a Cape Girardeau County marriage record that gives the wedding date as July 13, 1876. The names on this document were Antohy Nesiline and Polly Hilderbrand.

A different date is given in a list of early marriages near the Arnsberg church in a binder we have for that congregation in our research library. This list gives their wedding date as July 15, 1874 and says that Anthony Neislein and Polly Hilderbrand were married by a justice of the peace by the name of Henry Hahs.

In the 1880 census, the Neislein’s were living in the Apple Creek Township where Andrew was a farmer. They had 1 young child in their household.

Their first child, Joseph, found in the above entry, was baptized at a Lutheran church in Sedgewickville. There is a set of books on Ancestry.com that includes records from the church in Sedgewickville and the ones from Sargents Chapel. I think Joseph’s record comes from the church in Sedgewickville. The baptism took place in 1879.

Our German Family Tree lists 7 children in the Neislein family, but none of them have baptism records tied to one of the Lutheran churches that are indexed in that document. Since we cannot view the 1890 census, the next entry we can find for Andrew and Pauline is the one taken in 1900. There were 7 children in the household.

The last census in which we find Andrew was the one taken in 1910. One son, Andrew, Jr., was a blacksmith.

Andrew Neislein died in 1912 at the age of 60. This document says that Andrew was born on June 19, 1851.

When the 1920 census was taken, Polly was a widow who was living with her single son, Charles.

The last census for Polly was the one compiled in 1930. This time, Charles was the head of the household, and Polly was listed as his mother. Charles was farming. This entry says Polly was 88 years old, and her age had been reported as 66 in the previous census in 1920. Something doesn’t add up.

Pauline Neislein died in 1932 at the age of 83, but it does not give a date of birth. Her age of 83 in 1932 could get us to an 1848 year of birth, but I have trouble accepting that year of birth. Andrew was always found in census entries as being older than Polly, but an 1848 birth year would make her older than Andrew. We can view her death certificate below.

An obituary for Pauline was published in the Cash Book Journal in Jackson.

Andrew and Pauline Neislein are each buried in the Arnsberg Cemetery.

There are several numbers found in this story that just don’t seem to compute correctly. Maybe someone in the Neislein family can set some of these matters straight.