Week 27: Independent #52 Ancestors

One important methodologiy in genealogical research is to not only focus on your direct descendant, but also look at the F.A.N. club, i.e. friends, associates, and neighbors.[1] Rarely did our ancestors strike out on their own, either across an ocean or across a county. They would usually travel with their family members, church members, or even close neighbors. Yet, many times there was that one person who struck out on his/her own to forge the path for the rest of the group. In my family, one of those people was John Michael Rebholz, my third great-grandfather.[2]

Michael was born in 1779 in Ramberg, Bavaria, near the Rhine River.[3] His obituary mentions that he was from a family of nine children, although I have only been able to find three other brothers and a sister. Michael married Catherine Elizabeth Knapp when he was thirty years old.[4] His obituary states that he served in the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars, so that might explain him marrying rather late in life. His wife was twenty at the time they married and they had 12 children.[5]

In 1841, when he was sixty-two, Michael came to the U.S. apparently by himself. As near as I can determine, all but one of his children ultimately emigrated to the U.S, most of them initially joining him in Reading. His wife did not ever come to the US and died in Bavaria in 1849. 

It seems remarkable to me that Michael ventured across the Atlantic in his early sixties apparently with the intent of making a new life for his family in Reading. While he forged ahead of his children, he was not the only German to do so. From the 1830s to the 1860s, more than 1.5 million Germans immigrated to America.[6]I don’t know Michael’s precise reasons for coming to America, but his motivations may have included sparing his sons from long-term mandatory military service and the potato famine (similar to that which happened in Ireland) which hit in Bavaria especially hard in the 1840’s.[7]

Michael must have made an impression on the folks in Reading. One old family story I’d been told was about an unnamed ancestor who, when he turned 100, was celebrated by a big parade lead by John Philip Sousa. Well, Sousa was not there when Michael turned 100, but the Reading papers published several stories on his huge birthday celebration.[8] According to the papers, several hundred friends and relatives celebrated with him at a supper in his honor.  

I don’t have any pictures of Michael to share, but I have included a picture of his eldest daughter Catherine Magdalena (Rebholz) Lauter, who joined her father in Reading and lived there until her death in 1878.

[1]I believe Elizabeth Shown Mills coined this term for “cluster research.”

[2]I learned recently that many Germans named all of their sons Johann (John) but would refer to them by their middle names. This was certainly true for many of the men in my family. 

[3]“Reading’s Centenarian Dead,” Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle, 9 February 1880, p. 1, col 2; digital image, Google News (https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ZuSUVyMx-TgC&dat=18800209&printsec=frontpage&hl=en: accessed 25 Aug 2013).

[4]Bischofliches Ordinariat Catholic Church (Ramberg, Reinland-Pfalz), Baptism-Marriage Register, 1804-1835, p. 270, Rebholz-Knapp marriage (1810); digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSJY-2SFR-Z?i=146&cat=83174: accessed 19 October 2018), image 147 of 451; FHL microfilm 367,693.

[5]Albersweiler, Rheinland-Pfalz, Parish Registers, Volume 306 C, Ramberg 1788, p.45, Knapp Baptism; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSZP-K9SP-D?i=109&cat=187738: accessed 3 Nov 2018); FHL microfilm 7,946,299, image 116 of 166.

[6]German Immigration: 1830-1860, (http://www2.needham.k12.ma.us/nhs/cur/kane98/kane_p3_immig/German/germany.html: accessed 4 July 2019).

[7]Ibid. “Emigration,”German Immigrants to America, digital image (http://www.maggieblanck.com/Goehle/Germans.html: accessed 3 July 2019). 

[8]“The Centennarian’s Birthday,” Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle, 4 March 1879, p. 1, col. 3: digital image, Google News (https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ZuSUVyMx-TgC&dat=18790304&printsec=frontpage&hl=en: accessed 11 Nov 2012). “100 Years Old To-Day,” Reading (Pennsylvania) Times and Dispatch, 4 March 1879, p. 1, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com: accessed 12 Nov 2016). “The Centennarian Serenated,” Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle, 5 March 1879, p. 1, col. 2: digital image, Google News (https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ZuSUVyMx-TgC&dat=18790304&printsec=frontpage&hl=en: accessed 11 Nov 2012).

Catherine Magdalena (Rebholz) Lauter (1810-1878)