FEBRUARY 1995 NEWSLETTER
Maurer Family Research Update by Trudy SCHENK 30 Dec 1994
"Dear Jerry: I have been working on the Maurers more between Christmas and New Year. Sure wish the records would exist, so some connections could be made.
"After I had found the location in Germany in the State of Wuerttemberg where the Maurers came from as well as several other families who lived in New Hanover Twsp., Pennsylvania in the 1740's and 1750's, where the place Jungholzhausen was given as a place of origin for the Schweinhart family and where I then found several Maurer families, including a Johann Michael Maurer born in 1712.
"As I later met with Jerry Mower at the Family History Library realizing that Johann Michael was age 18 in 1738, placing his birth year to 1720, we decided that the 1712 born Johann Michael could not be the emigrant ancestor. The Jungholzhausen parish records give reference to Maurer families in the neighboring village of Goggenbach. This is also a small place and belongs to the parish of Eschental. After a fire in the 1740's in the Eschental church, not very many records are preserved. In a marriage record of 1735 I found Johann Philipp Maurer who is listed on the same ship Johann Michael is a passenger on.
"Due to the lack of birth records it cannot be determined if Johann Michael was a brother to Johann Philipp or a cousin and it is also not possible to place Johann Michael Maurer into a family.
"In order not to miss an opportunity of possible other records for Eschental, I called the Lutheran pastor there, just to get the confirmation that 'Yes' a fire destroyed 80% of the church records. I will write to the town house to make sure nothing else is available.
"For now I am extracting all Maurers in this small district and I find that the given name Michael is used by every family.
"Undoubtedly though we have the correct area. The surnames of the residents in this district of Wuerttemberg called Hohenlohe are 60% the same as those of New Hanover and Trappe Twsps. in Pennsylvania. Sincerely yours, Trudy Schenk"
I have spent the last month researching and studying the research of Trudy SCHENK. I guess basically we can say we have good news and bad news to report. We are very happy to have located the MAURER family in Germany.
We believe the evidence is extremely strong that the MAURER family hails from the Goggenbach area of Wuerttemberg, Germany. We definitely have located people who sailed on the ship, Charming Nancy (with Michael MAURER) in the Goggenbach / Doettingen area. These individuals show up in the Church records of Pennsylvania attending the same Lutheran churches as Michael MAURER.
The Georg Caspar MAURER family from which Trudy originally thought Michael MAURER hailed, came from Goggenbach, a neighboring village to Doettingen. This family had a Michael MAURER born in 1706. Trudy thought this was ours. I pointed out to her that my research discovered that the Michael MAURER on the Charming Nancy was 18 years old upon landing in Philadelphia in 1738. That would place his birth as 1720. IF that Michael MAURER is our Michael MAURER, and IF the age is correct, then the Michael she found in 1706 is incorrect. The Georg Caspar MAURER family has a 3 year gap in children from 1719-1721 however, and there certainly is room for another child to have been named Michael. Often a child would be renamed a name previously given to an older sibling who died. This was very common.
Also on board the same ship is a Philip MAURER and Trudy located him in the Doettingen records. It really appears that we have our Michael on the Charming Nancy. To complicate matters a bit more, there is another Michael MAURER immigrating also in 1738 on the ship, Glasgow, and his age is 24, meaning a birth of 1714. That birth record has not been located yet. You folks just have to be patient a little bit longer as we explore all clues and hope to uncover all the information we can. I would rather go slow and be more sure of the results. Trudy and I phone each other and discuss ideas and we send materials through the mails regularly.
What does all of this mean? It means that we are quite sure we have the general area of the MAURER family pinned down, but the actual Michael eludes us. Now the bad news: Since the MAURER family hails from Goggenbach, Trudy got on the phone to Germany and phoned the pastor to inquire as to the location of the Goggenbach church records. Those records exist from 1747 to present day, but the records prior to 1740 were destroyed in a fire of that year. Unfortunately for us, there doesn't appear any way to locate MAURER families of an earlier date of the Goggenbach Parish.
Well, what do we do now? I drew a circle around Goggenbach and then researched which of the villages within approximately a 10 mile area have existing Parish registers. There are about 10 villages with registers. Those registers are microfilmed and in Salt Lake. I feel we need to search these to see if any MAURER families attended those churches. This may lead us to the families we want. On the other hand, it may prove fruitless. That also is knowledge worth having.
If we remain convinced that the MAURER family hailed from Goggenbach, and we can only search from 1747 to the present, we will extract all the MAURER families in those records down to about 1884 (like we did the GEISSINGER families of Goetzis). That is all we can do.
Data from Research to date:
FHL #1340208 Marriage in Kupferzell 22 Apr 1704 after 3 proclamations were posted, Georg Caspar MAUERER a batchelor in Goggenbach with Eva Margaretha KUR, dau. of Johann KUREN of this place. This couple does not know yet where they will live.
A Michael MAURER who turned out not to be ours: Birth and Christening entry in Doettingen: Born 18 May 1711, Christened 19 May 1711, Hans Michel, illegitimate son of Anna Maria MAURER dau. of Michel MAURER in Jungholzhausen. She was impregnated by Georg LUDWIG, a farmhand. [Records subsequently show this infant, Hans Michel, lived only two weeks.]
Birth and christening entry in Doettingen: 29 Jun 1706: Hans Michel, son of Georg Caspar Mauerer, a resident and of Eva Margretha, his wife.
Church christening record of Kupferzell, Wuerttemberg, FHL # 1340218: 16 Jul 1680, Eva Margareth KURR, dau. of Hannss KURR and of Eva
Communion Record, Doettingen 1737: Joh. Mich. MAURER, single; Joh. Leonhard MAURER, single.
Report from Ingegard PERSSON on Amelia Augusta (Anderson) MOWER
"Gothenburg, Sweden, December 13, 1994: Dearest Jerry:
I have such a bad conscience for you and your family. I have wanted to work more and harder with your project, but I find that this has been a fall full of difficult projects.
I think I mentioned that I got many beginners in my classes this fall and when we do research project at the special genealogy research center of Gothenburg, they do not allow me to bring full groups any more, but I have to run with only a few students at the time. They feel it is more quiet that way, and I find this far too time consuming.
"Today the Swedish people all over the world celebrate the Santa Lucia Day, which is also known as the day of Queen of Lights, in all schools, public institutions, like hospitals or police station you will find a Santa Lucia, offering coffee and gingerbread and special rolls. She will also sing special carols with her maids, and Santa helpers. We also send our Lucia out in the world sharing this beautiful tradition.
"I have however, not forgotten you, dear friends, slowly I am getting some more information together. I have done another trip to the Lindesberg area and found some written material about the area that I include in this letter.
"I have also started to work on finding the earliest ancestors of Emelia Augusta ANDERSON.
"I am also very excited to tell you that I am traveling to the USA this Christmas to spend the holiday season with my sister outside New York. I hope that New York will not be too crazy, but on the other hand, it will be wonderful to see my sister's family.
"Dearest Jerry, I wish you and your wonderful family all the best for the holiday season, and a wonderful 1995. May you all be safe and merry, and I will return some more work to you in the New Year. Fondest Greetings, Ingegard"
Ingegard sent me a picture of the home in which Andrew ANDERSON, father of Amelia Augusta ANDERSON, was born in Lindesberg, Sweden. I will include a copy of that home in this newsletter. She also sent me some documentation from what appears to be Swedish records of Amelia's family. Any of you out there speak Swedish?
This is the ancestral home of Andrew ANDERSON (born here in 1832) in Lindesberg, Orebro, Sweden. He is the father of Amelia Augusta MOWER