Week 2 2022: Favorite Find #52 Ancestors

When I finally found my second great-grandparents Nicholas Muller and Anna Maria Manderi it was a with a sense of satisfaction that I am sure many genealogists can relate to. It was a long, hard slog over many years with me pounding my desk with my head. So cool that what I found during my research involving them is one of my “Favorite Finds.”

Nicholas was from Lengelsheim in the Lorraine region in France and Anna Maria was from Goßersweiler in Bavaria, Germany. Lorraine is one of those regions in Europe whose borders changed often across its long history: sometimes in France; sometimes in Germany. France annexed Lorraine in 1766, fifty-eight years before Nicholas was born, but it continued to be a largely German-speaking area.[1] Indeed, although Nicholas usually identified himself as French, he was occasionally identified as German and likely spoke German.

While Goßersweiler and Lengelsheim are less than twenty-five miles apart (as the crow flies), it is hard to imagine that Nicholas and Anna knew each other in Germany. However, I have not found any immigration records for them to know if they came to the U.S. together nor any other records that tell me how they met in New York City. Nicholas became a U.S. citizen in October of 1849, so must have come to the U.S. no later than 1846 as the immigration laws at the time required him to renounce his foreign citizenship three years before admission as a U.S. citizen.[2]

Nicholas and Anna were married at St. John the Baptist church in Manhattan on 10 November 1846.[3] The second parish to serve German Catholics in New York, St. John the Baptist was established in 1840.[4] For its first twenty years or so, the church was beset with conflicts between the lay board of trustees and the parishioners.[5] The church as closed on and off, including for some months in 1846. Located on 30th near 7th Avenue, the small frame church burned to the ground in 1847.[6]

Even though the church burned, the records of marriages and other ceremonies from that era survived and were digitized by the genealogy website FindMyPast.com. How lovely! The six-line entry for their marriage tells me so much:

· Nicholas’ age: twenty-two

· Nicholas’ birthplace: Lengelsheim in Lotharingia (ancient name for present day Lorraine and other areas).[7]

· Nicholas’ parents: Joannis Muller and Catharine Burgholzer.

· Anna Maria’s age: twenty-one

· Anna Maria’s birthplace: Völkersweiler, Bavaria

· Anna Maria’s Parents: Martin Manderi and Francisca Kristiani

· Witnesses: Joseph Gläschen and “Kenrijus Feiniges”

What was that? Joseph Gläschen ?

As it turns out, one of the witnesses to the marriage of my second great-grandparents was a man whose son would eventually marry their daughter. In and of itself, not terribly unusual, except this man, Joseph Gläschen, was another of my second great-grandfathers! Since the Gläschens were from Wernersberg, which is only about a mile from Völkersweiler, I am guessing that Joseph was someone they knew from the old country. “Favorite Find” indeed!

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[1] Wikipedia.org, “Lorraine,” rev. 20:20, 9 January 2022.

[2] Eillen Bolger, “Background History of the United States Naturalization Process,” Virginia Commonwealth University (https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/naturalization-process-in-u-s-early-history/ : accessed 16 January 2022).

[3] St. John the Baptist, Manhattan, New York, marriage register, unpaginated, Muller-Mandery (1846); digital image, Findmypast(https://search.findmypast.com/record?id=S2%2FUS%2FNEW_YORK%2FDRIVE_20%2F0036%2FROLL_792%2F00751&parentid=US%2FNY%2FCATH%2FPR%2FMAR%2FPH2%2F00219884%2FB)

[4] Wikipedia.org, “St. John the Baptist Church (Manhattan),” rev. 00:32, 10 July 2021.

[5] Remigius Lafort, S.T.D., Censor, The Catholic Church in the United States of America (New York City: The Catholic Editing Co., 1914), 338; digital image, Google Books (https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Catholic_Church_in_the_United_States/KL4YAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA338&printsec=frontcover ; accessed 16 January 2022).

[6] Ibid.

[7] Wikipedia.org, “Lotharingia,” rev. 04:31, 16 January 2022.