Welcome to my penultimate, and probably shortest, entry for the 2025 52 Ancestors Challenge.
Philip Heck, my Great x3 Grandfather, was of German origin who lived in one of the German colonies in the Beresan district of Ukraine, Russian Empire, possibly Karlsruhe colony. Philip married Mary Geiss sometime before 1868. They had at least one child, my Great x3 Grandmother, Margaret Heck.
Das ist alles.
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.
My Gx3 Grandmother, Anastasia Wormsbecker, was born sometime around 1840, most likely in a German colony in the Beresan District of Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian Empire. It is likely she was from the colony of Rastadt. The original founding colonists included some Wormsbeckers; as well, Anastasia married a man, Franz Lerner, who was also likely born in Rastadt. I know nothing about Anastasia’s parents or what part of Germany her ancestors were from before settling in the Beresan.
Anastasia and Franz likely married sometime before 1860, which is the year that their first child, Elisabeth, was probably born. Anastasia and Franz had five more children, the last of whom was born in 1873. Four of their six children emigrated from the Beresan; three ultimately ended up in Saskatchewan, Canada, while a son ended up in Texax.
Sometime between 1873 and 1877, Franz died. By 1878, Anastasia married Thomas Schmidt, with whom she had three children. At least one of their children, Katharina, emigrated for Alberta, Canada.
Given that Anastasia had three children with Thomas, she likely lived at least until 1880. Beyond that, I know nothing more about her life.
I’m now entering the set of cards in this suit of my Gx3 Grandparents on my mother’s maternal line, of whom I know the least. We are in some pretty hazy territory, so I expect the next eight posts to be much shorter than the rest. My Gx3 Grandfather, Franciscus “Franz” Lerner is a prime example of this. I don’t even have a solid idea of when he was born and died.
As far as I know, with not a lot of evidence, is that Franz was born sometime between 1835 and 1840 in the German colony of Rastadt in the Beresan District of Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire at the time. What I know with a bit more certainty is that Franz’s paternal line hailed from the Karlsruhe area of Baden in what is now Germany. At least four generations of his direct male line likely may have lived in Baden.
The hiccup in this lineage is the identity of Franz’s father. While I know nothing of Franz’s mother, not even her name, I have two possible candidates who might be his father. Franz may be the son of one of two brothers, Michael Lerner or Bernard Lerner. They are the sons of Franz Ignaz Lerner (1759-aft. 1816) and Maria Eva Geiger (1756-aft. 1816), both from Malsch, Karlsruhe, Baden. They left Baden for the Beresan in 1809 and settled in Rastadt.
Franz married Anastasia Wormsbecker (there are many spelling variations) in Rastadt, Beresan sometime around 1860. They had five children. The youngest four all emigrated to North America. Two went directly to Saskatchewan, Canada. Two sons went to Texas, one of whom was my Great Great Grandfather, Michael (“Mike”) Lerner. Mike ultimately moved to Saskatchewan with his family; his brother, Jerome, remained in Texas. Only their eldest child, Elisabeth, remained in the Beresan.
As I was looking at the list of Franz’s children, my mind began to speculate. A custom in the Netherlands for naming children was that the first son was named after the child’s paternal grandfather. The second son was named after the maternal grandfather. The first-born daughter was named after her maternal grandmother; the second daughter was named after her paternal grandmother.
If there was anything similar in German culture, particularly those parts of Germany closer to the Netherlands, that carried into the Beresan, it might provide a clue as to whether Michael or Bernard is Franz’s father. Mike was Franz and Anastasia’s first-born son. The name would be in keeping with a paternal grandfather with the same name. Mike and Anastasia did not name any of their other two sons Bernard. Of course, I can’t place much, if any, weight on this, but it does make some walking around sense.
For me, Franz’s life ended as mysteriously as it began. At most, all I know is that the possibility is that Franz died in 1876 or 1877 in the Beresan.
You can find more specific information about the dates and places of Franz’s birth, marriage, and death on various online trees, but they are largely unsourced or provide unverifiable and vague citations. Without something more, they deserve to be given no weight.
A Deck of Ancestors 