Tag: Alsace

52W Mark V – Week 4: Elisabetha Messer and Mathias Schmidt

Elisabetha Messer (1813-1883) and Mathias Schmidt (1806-1894)

I amused myself just now when I jotted down the surnames I’d be writing about this week: Messer and Schmidt. Combined, they are similar to the surname “Messerschmitt”, which is also the name of a well-known aircraft manufacturer. However, instead of airplanes, the topic of discussion is my Gx4 Grandparents, Elisabetha Messer and Mathias Schmidt.

Now that we’ve established that I can be easily distracted or amused or both, let’s turn to Elisabetha and Mathias.

Elisabetha was born in Alsace in 1813. Other than that her father was Bernard Messer, also of Alsace, I don’t know who Elisabetha’s mother was or whether she had any siblings. Sometime in her childhood or teens she moved with her family to one of the German colonies in the Beresan district of Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian Empire. I came to that conclusion because Mathias was already in the Beresan when he married Elisabetha sometime around 1831. Elisabetha was about 18 years old when she married.

Mathias was also born in Alsace, in the village of Röschwoog, which now sits inside France about five kilometers from the German border. Mathias’s father was Paul Schmidt; I don’t know who his mother was. Mathias was a middle child, with an older brother, Jakob, and a younger brother, Martin. It may be that there were other children, but I have not seen any indication either way. The family moved from Alsace to Karlsruhe colony in the Beresan in 1819, when Mathias was 13 years old.

Elisabetha and Mathias married sometime before 1831, possibly in Landau colony, where the first of their 13 children were born. All their subsequent children were born in Karlsruhe. The youngest was born 25 years later, in 1857. My Gx3 Grandfather, Valentine, was born right in the middle, with six older and six younger siblings.

Elisabetha died in Karlsruhe on October 8, 1883. Mathias died in Karlsruhe almost exactly eleven years later, on October 3, 1894.

While it might seem abrupt after only four weeks, this brings us to the end of my Great x4 Grandparents on my mother’s maternal line. Next week I switch to my Great x4 Grandparents on my mother’s paternal line, which is the Mormon branch of my family.

52W Mark V – Week 1: Klara Stumpf and Michael Loran

Klara Stumpf (1822-1854) – Michael Loran (1819-?)

With my Great x4 Grandparents, Klara Stumpf and Michael Loran, I continue on where I left off at the end of the 2025 iteration of the  52 Ancestors Challenge, with my Germans from Russia ancestry.

Both Klara and Michael were born in German colonies located in the Beresan district of Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian Empire. Klara was born in Speier colony, likely about 1822, while Michael was born in Karlsruhe colony, sometime about 1819.

Both Klara and Michael’s parents were born in what is now south-west Germany. In fact, pretty much all my Germans from Russia ancestry originates in this part of Germany. A few, as indicated on this map, hail from Alsace, which is now part of France, but for much of its history it moved back and forth between German and French control.

Klara was the fifth of seven children born to Jakob Stumpf (1788-after 1840) and Elisabetha Berk (or Burck) (1786-1830). Jakob was born in Riedseltz, in what is now France, very close to the border with Germany. Elisabetha was born in Pforzheim, which is in the modern German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is most likely that the two met in the Beresan, given that Jakob and Elisabetha were born about 50 kilometers apart. They both settled in the Beresan in 1809 and their eldest child was born in Speier in 1810.

As for Michael, he was the second of seven children born to Heinrich Loran (1786-1840) and Eva Maria Horter (1788-1861). Heinrich and Eva were born in Queichheim and Morlheim, respectively. The are both villages that are now part or suburbs of Landau in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. I don’t know when they married, but they both emigrated to the Karlsruhe colony in Beresan in 1809. All seven of Heinrich and Eva’s children were born there.

Klara and Michael married sometime around 1839. Given that the two were born in different colonies, I don’t know how or where the two met. I also don’t know where they married, although it might be more likely that they married in Karlsruhe, because that is where all five of their children were born.

Klara passed away in 1854 in Karlsruhe, at the age of 32, about a year after her last child was born. Michael remarried about two years later, probably in 1856, to Maria-Elisabetha Kitzel. Together they had four children, two boys and two girls. The boys were born about 1857 and 1860, in Karlsruhe. I don’t know when the girls were born; I assume they were also born in Karlsruhe. Maria-Elisabetha died in Karlsruhe in June 1884.

Sometime after Maria-Elisabetha died, Michael relocated to Felsenburg, which had been established in the Beresan in 1860 and was a daughter colony of Waterloo. Michael died there on June 1, 1898.

Unfortunately, I have found few records other than those that provide the vital statistics about Klara and Michael, so it has not been possible so far to add more detail about their lives. This is typical of many of my German-Russian ancestors.

52W Mark IV – Week 50: Card L11 Katherina Loran

Katherina Loran (1846-1893)

While I might not have a lot about my Germans from Russia ancestry and I haven’t gotten as far back in those lines as the other branches of my family tree, Katherina Loran, is one of the few of my Great x3 Grandparents of this lineage for whom I have the names of all four of her grandparents. In fact, I know the names of three of her for Great Grandfathers, but it should come as no surprise to any genealogist that I don’t know any of her Great Grandmothers.

Katherina was born in the Karlsruhe colony in the Beresan in 1846, to Michael Loran and Klara Stumpf. Both of Katherina’s parents were born in the Beresan – Michael in Karlsruhe and Klara in Speier.

On her paternal line, Katherina’s ancestors came from Queichheim, Rhinepalatinate. Queichheim is now part of Landau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, about 40 kilometers northwest of Karlsruhe, where many of my other German-Russian ancestors originated.

On her mother’s paternal side, Katherine’s maternal grandfather, Jakob Stumpf, was born in Riedseltz, Weissenburg, Elsaß (Alsace). Alsace spent much of its history moving between French and German control. At the time Jakob was born, it was primarily under French control, but small exclaves were under German control. Riedseltz is now within France, about five kilometers from the German border and just over 30 kilometers due west of Karlsruhe.

Katherina’s maternal grandmother, Elisabetha Berk (or Burck) was born in Pforzheim, Baden, on the other side of Karlsruhe and about 50 kilometers from Riedseltz. Just over 15 years ago, when one of my cousins married, they and their spouse created a new surname that was a mash-up of their surnames at birth. The result was “Burke”. I had to let my cousin know that she was reviving the surname of our Great x5 Grandmother!

Returning to Katherina, she married Jacob Anton in Karlsruhe on October 28, 1863. Over a 25 year period, Katherina had 11 children with Jacob. At least half her children emigrated to the United States and Canada, mostly to Montana and Saskatchewan. I think it’s amazing to think that my lifetime overlapped with two of her children. The youngest of Katherina’s children, Mathilda, lived until December 1971, passing away at age 83. If I had ever met Mathilda, I’d have been meeting with someone only one generation away from someone born more than 100 years before me.

In  1874, Katherina and her family moved from Karlsruhe to Christina, one of the German daughter colonies in the Beresan. It was very likely that Katherina was pregnant at the time of the move, because she gave birth to a daughter, Veronica, in June 1874. Katherina and Jakob may have been amongst the earliest settlers in Christina, as it may have been founded in 1874; however, there are birth records showing that German colonists were there as early as 1860. Today what remains of Christina

Katherina died young, at age 47, when her youngest child was only five years old.

Paul Antone, my maternal grandmother’s second cousin*, made a trip to Ukraine in 2010 to visit some of the places where the German colonists had lived. He shared many of his photos with me, including several from the Christina cemetery. Amongst those was a photo of Katherina’s headstone.

Translated to English, the inscription on Katherina’s headstone reads “Here rests in God Katherina, born in the year 1846, died 1893.”

*Yes, I know that makes him my second cousin twice removed. 😏

52W Mark IV – Week 47: Card L8 Valentine Schmidt

Valentine Schmidt (1839-?)

The unexpected benefit of the way I’ve chosen to do the 52 Ancestors Challenge this year is that I come out knowing more about each of my ancestors than when I started to write the posts. When I came up with the idea, I thought it would simply be a matter of writing up my research.

Instead, the gaps in my research and lack of knowledge for most individuals became readily apparent when I started to write about them. I’ve ended up doing much more research than anticipated, and that’s been a great thing. It has helped me hone and practice my genealogy skills while fulfilling the primary reason I do the challenge, which is to write more. As I said back in March, it’s turned into participating in a second challenge – Yvette Hoitink‘s Level-Up Challenge!

The primary downside is that I spent several months many weeks behind in the Challenge this year. I finally caught up a few weeks ago, but largely only because I know so little about the final suit of my deck and there are so few readily available resources. Many of those individuals were barely above a “one” before writing them up over the last few weeks.

Case in point is my Great x3 Grandfather Valentine Schmidt. A few weeks ago, I had little more than a birthdate, a vague idea that he was born in the Beresan colonies of the Germans from Russia and the name of his spouse. However, I did have some additional information that I hadn’t incorporated into my database – some of which I’ve had for decades.

Valentine was born in 1839 in the Karlsruhe Colony of the Beresan district in Ukraine, which at the time was part of the Russian Empire. He was the seventh of 13 children born to Mathias Schmidt and Elisabetha Messer.

Matthias and Elisabetha were born in Alsace, which has a long history of moving between French and German control. Matthias was born in Röschwoog, which practically sits on the current French-German border, in 1806. At the time Matthias and Elisabetha were born, Alsace was firmly in the control of Napoleon. Matthias and Elisabetha most likely settled in the Beresan as teens, moving with their families. By 1819, they were both in Karlsruhe and by 1831 they were married, when they had their first child.

As far as I know, Valentine lived his whole life in Karlsruhe. He married Margaretha “Regina” Boechler on October 21, 1863. They had at least two children that I have researched and who have some sort of documented sources – my Great x 2 Grandmother Barbara and a younger sister named Elisabeth. While FamilySearch tells me that there were four more children after Elisabeth, not a single source has been cited for any of them.

Valentine was still alive in 1894, when his father passed away. He was also most likely still in Karlsruhe, which means he was still there when his daughter Barbara and son-in-law Michael Lerner emigrated to America.

Since Valentine was still alive well into his 50s and at the time his daughter emigrated, I considered whether he had also emigrated to America, particularly given the lack of evidence he died in Karlsruhe. However, I have never found anything indicating that occurred.