Tag: Russian Empire

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 2: Marianna Schmidt and Johannes Anton

Marianna Schmidt (1820-1893) and Johannes Anton (1818-1885)

Until recently, I had thought that my Great x4 Grandparents, Marianna Schmidt and Johannes Anton, were most likely from Mörlheim, Landau, Rhinepalatinate before settling in a German colony at Karlsruhe, Beresan District, Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian Empire. I have since learned otherwise, at least for Johannes.

Marianna was born about 1820. I actually do not know where Marianna was born, or who her parents might have been. The only real information I have about Marianna’s birth is her registration of death, which states that she was 73 years old when she died. I suspect Marianna was born in the Beresan and it was her parents who emigrated from the German states.

Likewise, while I know that Johannes was born in 1818, I cannot say for certain where he was born. However, I do suspect that he was born in the Beresan. Johannes was born to Peter Anton (1797-before 1858) and Maria Anna Hatzenbühler (1786-after 1858) and had three younger sisters. Peter and Maria Anna were both born in the Rhinepalatinate – Peter in Mörlheim, Maria Anna in Ottersheim. It also appears that they had relocated to the Beresan, as the 1858 census for Karlsruhe shows that Maria Anna was living there at the time. Presumably, Peter had died before the census was taken.

Marianna and Johannes married sometime around 1840. Together they had ten children, five girls and five boys, all of whom were born in Karlsruhe. The first was born in 1842 and the youngest was born in 1861. I can’t imagine how hard that was on Marianna.

Sometime after all their children were born, Marianna and Johannes may have moved to the Christina colony, as Johannes died there in 1885. He is also buried there. I acknowledge the possibility that only Johannes moved there, perhaps to be with a family member who cared for him in his final days. However, the simplest answer is often the correct one, so it’s more likely the former rather than the latter.

Nevertheless, Marianna was later back in Karlsruhe, or had never left, because she died there on June 4, 1893. Marianna was survived by all her children, who at the time ranged in age from 32 to 51. The cause of death was registered as “old age”.

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 52: Card L13 Mary Geiss

Mary Geiss (?-?)

With my Great x3 Grandmother, Mary Geiss, we come to the final card in the deck for this year’s 52 Ancestors Challenge. As the saying goes, last but not least. So while this might be one of the shortest posts, it does not mean that Mary is the least of the ancestors I’ve written about this year. She, along with her husband, is simply someone I know the least about.

Mary was of German origin who lived in one of the German colonies in the Beresan district of Ukraine, Russian Empire, possibly Karlsruhe colony. Mary married Philip Heck sometime before 1868. They had at least one child, my Great x3 Grandmother, Margaret Heck.

With that, another year of the 52 Ancestors Challenge is complete. Hard to believe that after signing up in 2020 and 2021 and failing to produce anything, I’ve successfully completed the challenge four years in a row. I thought that the way I approached the challenge this year would have resulted in a greater focus on writing – a primary reason why I began participating – but instead it resulted in far more research than I anticipated. In hindsight, it was worth it, but I was not expecting the amount of work I put into it.

I’ve signed up for the 2026 edition of the Challenge. I suspect I’ll revert back to following Amy’s prompts. I think I’ve gotten what I needed by deviating from the prompts for a year. Plus, by striking out on my own, I’ve become a bit disconnected from the other participants in the Challenge, particularly on Amy’s Facebook group where the weekly prompts are discussed.

In the meantime, I once again put my hard work on the Challenge to use, having compiled a third edition of my collection of 52 Ancestors entries, consisting of my posts for 2024. It was a popular Hannukah and Christmas present this year. I’m really excited about next year’s edition (which will include this post!), because I’m really proud of the work I did this year. I’m particularly happy with the cohesive theme I set, which tied the whole set of 52 posts together unlike any other year.

All distributed now but for two copies!