Talk about “leveling up” one’s genealogy. My maternal grandmother’s ancestry has been so difficult to research over the decades. However, thanks to the spin I’ve taken on this year’s 52 Ancestors Challenge, I’ve managed to improve my work on this branch. I’ve spent a lot of time double-checking and updating my research. As a result, I’ve changed a lot of what I’ve recorded about my maternal grandmother’s line, some of which has been unchanged in 30 years.
Case in point is my Great x3 Grandmother, Margaretha Bechler, who until about a week ago I had as “Boechler” in every genealogy database I’ve used since the mid-90s. In fact, until three minutes ago, the draft I’ve had for this post for the last two weeks has had “Margaretha ‘Regina’ Boechler (1844-?)” as the caption under her image above. I removed the “Regina” because I cannot find where I got that from. So even if it was correct, I can’t back it up.
In the old country, the name was spelled “Bechler” and “Boechler” in the new world. This is reflected in the church register for Margaretha’s marriage to Valentine Schmidt. It is the spelling used in the 1858 Karlsruhe, Beresan census entry for her family. “Bechler” is also the spelling used in “The German Colonies in South Russia” by Konrad Keller, one of the leading sources for Germans from Russia.
For many of the descendants in North America of Margaretha’s father, Gregor, they use the spelling “Boechler”. This is demonstrated by one of the few resources I have had for many years, the Boechler Family History, by Tim Boechler and Annette Boechler, published in 1994 and revised in 1997.
As a result of revisiting my research, I’ve also come to reject a photo I had accepted without question that is reproduced it the Boechler Family History. I have no idea about the provenance of the photo. It is said to be a photo of Gregor Boechler, his wife Katherine Geiger, and their seven children, including Margaretha. Some time in the last 30 years I came across another copy of the image that has a caption with the names of the people who are supposedly in the photo.
Unfortunately, much of the information in the caption does not pass scrutiny. First and most egregious, the 1858 Karlsruhe census states that Katherine died in 1853. It further indicates that Gregor married a woman named Marianna by 1854. The census includes five children said to be Gregor’s. Three were born before 1853 (Margaretha, Jakob, Andreas), two were born after 1853 (Katharina, Franz). Given that the photo has children born after 1853, that cannot be Katherine in the photo. It must be Marianna. The photo doesn’t include the younger Katherina, but it is possible she had died before it was taken.
For some of the children, the birthdates in the caption are wildly different from those in the 1853 census, primarily those who can be attributed to Katherine Geiger. The most glaring of these is Margaretha. The census indicates that she is Gregor’s eldest child, but the photo says that she is the youngest. If Phillip and John (both born after 1858) are the youngest, it cannot be Margartha (or any girl) on the woman’s lap.
On that point, I have no sources for Phillip and John. FamilySearch has a Phillip and Johannes listed as Gregor’s sons; however, none of the sources attached to these individuals provides any evidence that they are Gregor’s sons.
After having revisited my research, what do I know about my Great x3 Grandmother?
Margaretha was born in 1839 in the Beresan district, most likely in the Karlsruhe colony, to Gregor Bechler and Katherine Geiger. Gregor was originally from Karlsruhe in the Grand Duchy of Baden, who moved to the Beresan with his family shortly after he was born. I know nothing about Katherine other than the fact she married Gregor and had three children with him.
Margaretha married Valentine Schmidt on October 21, 1863. Together they had two daughters, my Great x 2 Grandmother Barbara and a younger sister, Elisabeth. There may be four other subsequent children, but beyond a list of names I have not seen proper sources for them. While that is not the end of Margaretha’s story, that is the end of what I know about her.
A Deck of Ancestors 