Feb 07

Tombstone Tuesday–Mary Schumm

Mary Schumm, wife of Frederick (1861-1930), Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Schumm, Ohio

This is the tombstone of Mary Schumm, located in row 11 of Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Schumm, Van Wert County, Ohio. The gravestone is inscribed: SCHUMM, Mary, Wife of Frederick Schumm, 1861-1930.

Mary was the second wife of Frederick Schumm Jr. Frederick and his first wife Margaretha Ehrenmann were featured in the two previous Tombstone Tuesday blogs.

I found most of the information about Mary Schumm in the church records of Zion Lutheran, Schumm.

Her death and burial was recorded in 1930: Mary, wife of Fredrick Schumm, was born in 1861. Nothing more was entered but that told me her year of birth. The Ohio Death Index on Ancestry.com showed that Maria K. Schumm, Mercer County, died 16 Feb 1930. (Ohio Death Index, www.ancestry.com, accessed 31 Jan 2012.)

To learn Mary’s maiden name I consulted Zion’s marriage records. The records show that Friedrich Schumm Jr. married Maria Büchner on 6 Sep 1888 in the church.  Both were from the parish at Zion.

I then looked at Zion’s birth records. Maria Catharina Büchner was born 7 March 1861 to Johann Büchner and his legal wife. Maria was baptized 13 March 1861 at home. The sponsors at her baptism were Mrs. Catharine Dietrich and Mrs. Maria Dietrich.

Maria’s baptism record tells us her father’s name, but what was the name of her mother? I went back to Zion’s marriage records again.

I learned that Johann Büchner married Margaretha Scior 21 Apr 1853 at home. Johann was from Zion and the bride was a member of the congregation. I am uncertain of the spelling of Margaretha’s last name. It looks like Scior in a couple entries and like Zior in one entry. The handwriting is very difficult to read. Johann and Margaretha Büchner had several children but most of their baptismal entries simply listed the mother as Margaretha or Johann’s legal wife.

Frederick and Maria (Büchner) Schumm had the following children: Justina Louise (1889-1889), Amos C. (1891-1974), Erna Theresa (1894-1971) and Naomi Margaretha (1897-1982).

There was a short death notice for Mary Schumm in The Rockford Press. Death of Mrs. Schumm—Following a long illness, death claimed Mrs. Marie Katherine Schumm, 69, widow of the late Frederick Schumm, at the home of her son Amos Schumm and family. Surviving are Amos Schumm and daughter, Mrs. Arnold Schumm and Mrs. Walter Schumm, and brothers John and Henry Buechner. Funeral services were held from the home Wednesday afternoon. (The Rockford Press, Thursday, February 20, 1930, p.1.)

 

Feb 03

John Bryan’s Bible

John Bryan's Bible, 1849

Last summer I visited Ed, a distant relative who lives in Jay County, Indiana. We both descend from different children of John and Hannah (Huey) Bryan. John was born in 1824 and died in 1900.

During our visit Ed showed me John Bryan’s Bible. He thought this was John’s everyday Bible and the one he carried to church on Sunday. This Bible is quite a bit smaller that the Bible John was holding in another photo that was taken about 1883. This Bible is about 7-8 inches long.

This small leather Bible is dated 1849. I think this is the oldest family Bible that I have seen. The Bible is in pretty good condition, considering its age. Some of the ink is bleeding through a few pages. Holy Bible is stamped into the leather on the side.

Best of all there are several pages that contain the handwritten record of births and deaths of the John Bryan family members. I took several photos of the Bryan Bible with my digital camera.

First page: The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Translated out of The Original Tongues; and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. New York: American Bible Society, Instituted in the Year MDCCCXVI. 1849. Handwritten on the page: Miss Alta Butcher, Bryant Ind., June 11, 19??

John Bryan's Bible, 1849

Births--John Bryan Bible

Family Record—Birth
John Bryan was born August the 15th AD in the year of our Lord 1824
Hannah Bryan was born January the 19th AD in the year of our Lord 1830
Mary Lisabeth Bryan was born October the 5th AD in the year of our Lord 1849
Peter Bryan was born May the 22nd AD 1851
Hallot Bryan was born February the 24th AD 1853

Births--John Bryan Bible

William R Bryan was born October the 27th AD 1854
Emily Bryan was born May the 8th AD 1856
Jackson Bryan was born March the 22nd AD 1858
Byantha Bryan was born March the 5 AD 1864
Alta Jane Bryan was born September the 30 1866

Deaths--John Bryan Bible

Family Record—Deceased
Jackson Bryan died July the 2nd 1868
William Riley Bryan died January 25 1893
Peter J. Bryan died Jan. 27th 1914

Above right, page introducing the New Testament: The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Translated out of The Original Greek; and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. New York: American Bible Society, Instituted in the year MDCCCXVI, 1849.

Inside back cover, John Bryan Bible

Inside the back cover:
John Bryan his Book, Holy Bible, written several times.

It is amazing to think that John Bryan used this Bible over 160 years ago.

 

Jan 31

Tombstone Tuesday–Margaretha Schumm

Margaretha Schumm, Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Van Wert County, Ohio

This is the tombstone of Margaretha Schumm, located in row 5 of Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Schumm, Van Wert County, Ohio. The gravestone is inscribed: Margaretha, ehefrau [wife] of Friedrich Schumm, gest [died] 27 Jun 1885, 38y, 3m, 2t [days].

According to the church records of Zion, Schumm, Margaretha Schumm, born Ehrmann [Ehrenmann], was the wife of Mr. Fr. Schumm Jr. She was born 25 March 1847 in Washington, Crawford County, Ohio.  She died 27 June 1885 of long standing heart trouble and was buried on 29 June in the parish cemetery. She was 38 years, 3 months and 2 days old.

I featured Margaretha’s husband Friedrich Schumm in last week’s Tombstone Tuesday. They were married 26 October 1871 and had the following children: Theodore Wilhelm (1872-1876), Katherine Magdalena (1874-1958), Anton “Hugo” (1876-1932), Mina Juliana (1876-1876), Leona Barbara (1877-1958), Henrietta Amalia (1879-1947), Maria Elizabeth (1881-1966), Clara May (1883-1883) and L. William (1884-1961).

I couldn’t help wonder who Margaretha’s parents were. I looked at the 1850 and 1860 censuses as well as Zion’s church records.

Margaretha  was in the Adam Ehrenmann household in 1850 in Van Wert County: Adam “Ehrman”, 53, born in Germany; Charlotte, 44, Germany; Emily, 14, Ohio; Christian, 22, Ohio; Adam, 17, Ohio; Florina, 12, Ohio; Margaret, 5, Ohio; Catharine, 0, Ohio. This does not prove that Margaretha was the daughter of Adam Ehrenmann but I would look at him as a person of interest who could possibly be her father.  

In 1860 Margaretha appears to be living with the Adam Dietrich family in Van Wert County: Adam “Dertrich”, 32, born in Ohio; Mary E, 27; Mary M, 1; Eserbert Zimmerman, 19, Bavaria; Margaret “Airaman”, 15, Ohio.

Why was Margaretha living with the Dietrichs in 1860? The following information from Zion’ church records may give the answer.

The church records tell us that Mrs. Ehrenmann died 21 March 1851 between 8 & 9:00 in the morning. She was age 45 years, 7 months and 12 days. She was buried 23 March. This could very well be Charlotte that was in the 1850 census.

From the church records: Adam Ehrenmann married widow B. Albrecht on 2 August 1853 at home.  Adam was a widower from Zion.

From Van Wert County marriage records, www.familysearch.org: Adam Ariman/Ehrenman married Barbara Albright/Albrecht on 2 August 1853. This confirms the above church record.

From Zion’s records: Mrs. Ehrenmann died 17 September 1853, age 43 years, 8 months and some days.  She was buried 18 September.  The cause of death was a fever. This may have been Barbara, a bride only a month before.

From Zion’s records: Mr. Adam Ehrenmann died 18 November 1853 at age 53 years. He was buried 20 November.  The cause of death was from consequences of consumption. This is probably the same Adam seen in the 1850 census, although the age is slightly off.

If Margaretha was the daughter of Adam and Charlotte she was orphaned within a few short years. That could have been why she was living with the Dietrich family in 1860.

I would be interested to learn more about the Ehrenmann family. Please let me know if anyone has any additional information about them.

 

Census sources:

Adam Ehrman household, 1850 US Census, Willshire, Van Wert, Ohio; Roll: M432_736; Page: 170B; Image: 342. www.Ancestry.com, accessed 29 Jan 2012.

Adam Dertrich [sic] household, 1860 US Census, Willshire, Van Wert, Ohio;  Roll: M653_1045; Page: 426; Image: 157; Family History Library Film: 805045. www. Ancestry.com, accessed 29 Jan 2012.

 

Jan 27

Happy Anniversary to Karen’s Chatt!

This is the one year anniversary of Karen’s Chatt. It is hard to believe that one whole year had passed since Jeff created this website for me. I have read that the average life of a website is 100 days. I think we have done pretty well considering this is primarily a family-specific website.

Below are some statistics for Karen’s Chatt during the past year:

  • There were 4,358 visits to the website.
  • There were 1,718 unique/different visitors to the website.
  • There were 13,638 page views.
  • Visitors viewed an average of 3.13 pages per visit.
  • Visitors spent an average of 4 minutes and 50 seconds per visit.

There were visits from 69 different countries. Some of the more unusual countries were Moldova, Burma, Russia, Ethiopia, Qatar, and Slovenia, to name a few. I am even not sure where some of them are located.

It is no surprise that most visits were from the United States, with a total of 3,961 visits. The top ten countries were US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia, Russia, Ireland, Brazil, US Virgin Islands, and India.

There were visits from every state in the union except one. There were no visits from Maine. That’s ok. I have never been to Maine either.

Most visits came from Ohio, a total of 2,054 visits. Indiana came in second with 534 visits. Rounding out the top ten states were California, Illinois, Colorado, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Arizona.

The most popular static pages on the website were the gallery/photo pages. The Schumm Gallery was the most viewed. Following that were the Brewster Gallery, Links page, Schinnerer/Scaer Gallery, Photos page, and the Miller Gallery.

The most popular blogs were Ten Tech Tools and Tips, Tombstone Tuesday: Jacob Miller, Changes in Technology over the Years, and Dropping Pennies.

Many people found Karen’s Chatt by entering specific words or phrases on a search engine. There were 899 various search terms that were used. Here are just a few:

  • Nicholas Headington War of 1812 (93 searches. I guess I really need to blog about him!)
  • Marie Kessler (19 searches. There was a lot of interest in my great-great-grandmother.)
  • Changes in Technology over the years (19 searches)
  • Dropping Pennies song, Hear the Pennies Dropping, etc. (40 searches! Who knew this catchy Sunday School song is so popular!)
  • My interest is Chatt (Mine, too!)
  • Scary Santa (6 searches. Did others find my Uncle Kenny/Santa scary?)
  • Schinnerer clan
  • Van Wert, Georgia destructed (Is there a Van Wert, Georgia?)
  • Christian Hoffman and Maria Schinnsler, Van Wert, Ohio (Were they looking for Schinnsler or Schinnerer?)
  • Who does the Bluetooth lady’s voice? (I don’t know. She stopped talking to me several months ago.)
  • Flip Pal Memorial Day (A Flip Pal scanner is handy on any holiday.)
  • Hide Schumm zeugen jehovas (I’m sorry. I can’t help you with this one. I do know that Zeugen is a witness/sponsor at baptism.)
  • The last two search terms on the list appeared to be in Russian.

Karen’s Chatt is still a work in progress. I would like to put more genealogy on the Family pages but I haven’t decided what format I want to use. I have more photos to upload. It would be a great asset if I had a faster Internet service to upload photos. I refer to our wireless service here as “glorified dial-up”.

I have accomplished several things I had hoped to. I am writing about my family history and sharing the information in my blogs. I am doing more cemetery research and as a result posting my weekly Tombstone Tuesday blog.

I was able to help a couple people with their family research and I even met some distant relatives. We shared photos and information and I gained some new information, too!

And I joined the great group of Geneabloggers! Geneabloggers wear those colorful beads at conferences. If you haven’t already you should check out the vast number of family history blogs in this group.

My readers are great. In fact one kindly gave me some advice for self improvement. She suggested that I need to “lighten up”. Her comment was in response to me asking her to correct some misinformation she had published about one of my ancestors. I also asked her to give the source of a group of photos that she took from this website without my permission. She had put those photos on her Ancestry page. I asked her state where the photos came from by labeling each, “Photos courtesy of Karen Miller Bennett” and my URL.

She wrote to me:  I do not need your permission to use those pictures. If you don’t want anyone to have those pictures make them private! You need to lighten up and realize that mistakes are made, I try to research and I add and delete things all the time. First thing you should do is make your site private then nobody will bother you. Please don’t contact me again.

Well, I guess she told me! Hmmm. Let’s see. She doesn’t need my permission to take and use photos from this website? Even photos that I personally took myself? Does the word copyright mean anything anymore? I wonder if she realized what she was writing. Think about it, Missy. If this website were private you wouldn’t have all those nice photos, now would you???

All in all it has been a fun and interesting year. I have learned a lot and I plan to continue writing blogs and adding additional items to Karen’s Chatt. I hope you keep visiting and reading.

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 24

Tombstone Tuesday–Friedrich Schumm Jr.

Friedrich Schumm Jr, Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Schumm, Ohio

This is the tombstone of Friedrich Schumm Jr., located in row 9 of Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Schumm, Van Wert County, Ohio. The gravemarker is inscribed: Hier Ruhet [here lies] FRIEDRICH SCHUMM, Geb. [born] Apr. 1, 1844; Gest. [died] Dez. 24, 1907. Text Offenb. Johannis. Kap. 7, Vers 13 Bis 17.

According to the church records at Zion, Schumm, Friedrich Schumm Jr. was born 1 April 1844 in Schumm. He was the third child of Johann Friedrich and Magdalena (Meyer) Schumm. His father was one of the oiginal Schumm immigrants.

Friedrich Jr. died 24 December 1907 in the hospital at Fort Wayne, Indiana, aged 63 years, 8 months, 23 days. He was buried 27 December 1907 in Zion’s cemetery. Survivors included his widow and nine children. (records of Zion, Schumm)

Friedrich married Margaretha “Margaret” Ehrenmann on 26 October 1871 in Allen County, Indiana. They were married by Rev. Seemeyer. Her name was spelled “Ariman” on their marriage record. (Allen County, Indiana, Index to Marriage Record, 1824-1920, WPA; from County Clerk, Book 8: 389. www.FamilySearch.org, accessed 23 Jan 2012.)

Friedrich and Margaret had nine children: Theodore Wilhelm (1872-1876), Katherine Magdalena (1874-1958), Anton “Hugo” (1876-1932), Mina Juliana (1876-1876), Leona Barbara (1877-1958), Henrietta Amalia (1879-1947), Maria Elizabeth (1881-1966), Clara May (1883-1883) and L. William (1884-1961).

Margaret (Ehrenmann) Schumm died 27 June 1885 at the age of 38 years. She is buried in row 5 of Zion’s cemetery. (records of Zion, Schumm)

Friedrich then married Maria Catharina Büchner on 6 September 1888 at Zion, Schumm. (Van Wert County Marriages, Vol 7:265, #686; www.familysearch.org, accessed 23 Jan 2012) She was born 7 March 1861, the daughter of Johann Büchner and wife. Maria died 16 February 1930 and is buried in row 11 of Zion’s cemetery.  Friedrich and Maria had four children: Justina Louise (1889-1889), Amos C. (1891-1974), Erna Theresa (1894-1971) and Naomi Margaretha (1897-1982). (records of Zion, Schumm)

The Friedrich Schumm family lived in Mercer County, Ohio. Their farm was located in the Charlie Reservation in Black Creek Township, a couple miles northwest of Rockford.