A Christmas song asks the question, Mary, Did You Know? I have to ask the following similar questions of Mary Bretscher. Mary, did you know whether you were born on December 31st or January 1st? Mary, did you know whether you were born in 1844 or 1845? I have to ask these questions because we … More Mary, Did You Know….Your Birthday?
We will be celebrating a 168th wedding anniversary today. I think the couple getting married on this day 168 years ago is a pretty unusual duo. First of all, both the bride and the groom were each the firstborn child in their respective families. Add to that the fact that the groom was the first … More 1st of Many Marries 1st of Even More
I chose this story today because, like yesterday, it contains another example of a Schuessler marrying a Burkhardt. I found the story because one of the Schuessler sons was born on this day. Herman Schuessler is today’s birthday boy. He was born on September 7, 1862. We will get back to him later. First, let’s … More Herman’s Schuessler Dad and Burkhardt Step-Mom
One hundred sixty-four years ago, a wedding took place in Frohna, Missouri with Ernst Eduard Burkhardt as the groom and Johanna Schuessler as the bride. The wedding took place on September 6, 1855. Both the bride and the groom had come to America aboard the same ship in 1839, but they were both young children … More Ernst Eduard’s Women
I am a little frustrated this morning. My efforts to find a good story to write for this blog today were rather fruitless. Because I am not in Altenburg, I look for a type of story that does not rely heavily on documents that we have in our research library. Instead, I look for a … More A Very Short Note from the Teacher
Wikipedia describes bock beer as “a strong lager of German origin”. Also, the word, bock, in German means he-goat or ram. I will attempt to tell the story of several Bock’s today. Eventually, I will tell at least part of the story of four generations of Bock’s, three of which carry the name Michael Bock. … More Bock Beer
The blog post today was written by Lynn Degenhardt. I am reluctant to call him a guest blogger, even if this is the first post that has been authored by him. Lynn is a resident of Altenburg and is one of the key members of our research team here at our museum. He is by … More The Trail of Christiane Theilig’s Out of Wedlock Child
In the early days of this blog, I wrote a post titled, The Beginning of the Hemmann Herd. As was the case with many of those early posts, it was very short. I have gotten “wordier” as time has gone by, and now WordPress tells me a typical post is over 800 words long. Today, … More The Beginning of the Hemmann Herd -Part 2
Two hundred fifteen years ago, Ferdinand Boehlau was born in Leipzig, Germany. His birthday was September 16, 1803, just a few months after the official announcement of the Louisiana Purchase. Ferdinand would end up living in a portion of that land acquisition because he became part of the Gesellschaft that arrived in Missouri in 1839. … More Lutheran Hall of Fame Sponsors
A marriage took place in Paitzdorf, Germany on this day in 1820 that had a huge impact on the history of East Perry County, Missouri. It was the marriage of Gottfried Mueller and Maria Rothe. When Gottfried and Maria came to America as part of the Gruber Group in 1839 aboard the Johann Georg, they … More The Genesis of a Mueller Multitude
