The second day of our biennial immigration conference is now complete. Yesterday, the participants in our conference spent most of their day away from Altenburg. After a few short presentations in the morning, the group headed out to visit some historic churches that were in existence when the German Lutherans arrived in 1839. Many of … More Immigration Conference – Day 2
There are plenty of Bohnert’s living in Perry County. Many of them are Catholics. Many of them are Lutherans. You will read the story today that describes one situation that helps explain this outcome. It is not the first such story. It may not be the last. Andreas Bohnert was born on April 28, 1860, … More Andrew Bohnert – One Catholic Bride; One Lutheran Bride
First of all, I have a confession to make. I made a mistake. I was not careful enough in confirming a marriage date. Our German Family Tree says a marriage took place on January 27th, but after investing a lot of my time in gathering information about the couple that got married, I found that the marriage actually … More Lohmann Marries Schumer – A Catholic Couple
In recent months, I have been mentioning in a few blog posts that Ancestry.com now has a collection of records that is described as Missouri Synod, U.S., Lutheran Church records, 1851-1972. I am still discovering that this collection contains documents that I can use for this blog. Just yesterday, I was able to display a marriage record … More Arnsberg Records Discovery
On several different occasions, I have written stories in which a bride or groom from the Lutheran community around New Wells in northern Cape Girardeau County finds a mate across the Apple Creek in the southern portion of Perry County. In the early years of settlement of this area, a young man might have had … More Finding a Bride Across the Creek
John Wichern is our birthday boy today. He was born on February 13, 1893, so he would have been 127 years old today. John was the son of Henry and Louise (Leible) Wichern, the 4th of 9 children born into that family. Only 3 of the 9 were boys. I have written several stories that … More John Wichern – Machinist and Mechanic
I hinted yesterday that I might write about the Birmingham mentioned in the title of that story. I will keep my promise. Today, I will attempt to tell what little we know about a place that once existed on maps called Birmingham, Missouri. Most of the information I have today is from a piece of … More Birmingham, Missouri
I discovered in our German Family Tree a person with a birthday today who had the surname Unterreiner. I must admit that the first thing that came to my mind was that this surname was a “Catholic name”. The cemetery for our nearest Catholic church, St. Joseph Cemetery, has 44 entries on Findagrave.com that include … More Lutherans and Catholics
Rebecca Martha Estel is today’s birthday girl. She was born on December 31, 1841 and baptized the next day on January 1, 1842. Martha was the sister of Elias Estel, whose story was told on this blog this past December 17th. That post was titled, Elias Estel’s Early End. When her brother died tragically in … More When Did Martha Estel Die?
The surnames Armbruster, Litsch, Behrle, and Killian show up in our German Family Tree in a very limited way. When they do show up, they are always included in marriage records, but you never find any of them being baptized in one of the Lutheran churches around here. That is because these surnames are what … More Catholic Wedding – Lutheran Pastor
