I have been researching my third great-grandmother, Sophie Jacob, and her sister Catherine Jacob. I knew from baptism and marriage records that their parents were Heinrich Jacob and Elizabeth Von Emde. I want to find more information about their life.
Catherine Jacob was born on 2 December 1833 in Leckringhausen, Germany, and her sister Sophie Jacob was born on 9 March 1836 in Leckringhausen, Germany. Leckringhausen was settled in 1699 by French Huguenots fleeing persecution. Before 1828 the records are all in French. (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leckringhausen)
When I saw the marriage record for a Heinrich Jacob and Anna Elisabeth, I felt I had found Catherine and Sophie’s parent’s marriage record. One thing that was bothering me was Anna Elizabeth’s maiden name: Wellway. According to her daughter’s baptism records, her surname was Von Emde. With the location and marriage date of 6 October 1832, the time fits perfectly with the baptism records. They would have married about a year before Catherine was born. My first thought was Anna Elisabeth had a previous marriage. So on the hunt I went. This record is why I love German records so much, it had several faded dates written in the margins. I decided to search for the first date, what I believed to be a death date for Heinrich Jacob, 22 July 1890.
According to Heinrich’s death record he first married Anna Elisabeth Wellwey and then had a second marriage. Very faintly written above Wellwey is V.D. Emde. This gave me hope that I was on the correct path. Also faintly written in the very last column are two dates, 28 October 1832 and 8 June 1855. The first date lines up with when Heinrich married Anna Elisabeth. The day they were married is different, but I could have possibly translated it wrong or the death date could have been incorrectly recorded.
The next record I decided to search for was what I believed to be a birth date, 15 November 1804, of Anna Elisabeth. According to her baptism record, she died on 8 June 1855 and married Heinrich Jacob. The other thing listed is her parent’s names, Stephen Von der Emde and Catherina Elisabeth Thiele. I was sure I had found Catherine and Sophie’s parents’ information; but why was Anna Elisabeth’s surname listed as Wellway on her marriage record?
Now that I had located Anna Elisabeth’s parents’ names, I wanted to do a little research to see what I could learn about them. First, I located Katherina Elizabeth Thiele’s death record. She died on 19 December 1845 and was 75 years old. This would put her born around 1770. This record lists her maiden name as Thiele and states that she was married to Friedrich Wellway. It also had some interesting information in the last column. It lists her second marriage as being with Friedrich Wellway and her first marriage as being with Stephen Von Emde, his death date listed as 16 February 1807. I had proof of why Wellway was on Anna Elisabeth’s marriage record. Her mother had married twice, and Friedrich Wellway was Anna’s stepfather.
The next two records I searched for were Stephen Von Emde’s death record and his marriage to Katharine Elisabeth Thiele. I located both of these records. Stephen and Catherine Elisabeth were married on 24 August 1793 in Philippenindorf. Stephen died on 18 February 1807 at 40 years old. The date reported on Katharine’s death record is the 16th instead of the 18th. I assume that this information was provided by someone else, and they recorded the incorrect day. I asked for help translating his death record, hoping there was a cause of death but, none was listed.
The next search I did was to learn how many children Katherine and Stephen had before his death. I located baptism records for six children born to them from 1795-1807. The last son being born three months after his father’s death. Children born to Stephen and Katherine: Catherina Von der Emde was born on 9 February 1795, Anna Magdelena Von der Emde was born on 2 August 1797, Johann Daniel Von der Emde was born on 10 November 1799, Maria Elizabeth Von der Emde was born on 12 June 1802, Katherine Elisabeth Von der Emde was born on 15 November 1804, and Johann Christoph Von der Emde was on born 6 May 1807.
Sometimes I wish I could find all the answers I have when researching my ancestors. I wish I knew what happened to Stephen and why he died so young. This question may not be answered but I am grateful for the answers I do have.
After more research, I learned that Katherine married Friedrich Wellway on 27 January 1810 and they had three children. Johann Heinrich was born on 12 October 1810, Martin Wellway was born on 29 July 1813 and died on 15 April 1814, and Marin Wellway was born on 16 March 1818. I am still researching to learn more about each child born to Katherine Elisabeth.
To do a thorough analysis of each of these documents to verify that I have the correct parents for Catherine and Sophie, I searched each document again, and found a clue in the baptism record for Catherine. On the left side next to Anna Elisabeth, I find the statement “Getraut 1832 Wolfhagen”. This statement leads me to Anna Elisabeth’s marriage record to Heinrich Jacob in 1832 in Wolfhagen.
I do not know why their surname is different at times. I have seen records for this family recorded as Von Emde, Von der Emde, and sometimes Emde. While I know they are the same family, I cannot explain the difference in their last name other than maybe whoever was making the record left part off, or maybe the family changed it over time.
I do not know what drew me to the marriage record, but I had that feeling that I needed to look at it more. For a while, I thought I was on the wrong track and had wasted a lot of time research the incorrect family. But that feeling led me down a path to locate more ancestors and add two more generations to my family tree. It reminds me that I always need to listen to that feeling because it will lead me to what I am supposed to find.
Sources:
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Leckringhausen Franz, KB 1699-1836, baptism Catherine Jacob, page 732, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Leckringhausen Franz, KB 1699-1836, baptism Sophie Jacob, page 734, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1760-1803, baptism Friedrich Wellway, page 848, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1760-1803, marriage Jost Phillip Von der Emde and Katherina Elizabeth Thiele, page 1020, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1760-1803, baptism Anna Magdelena Von der Emde , page 917, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1760-1803, baptism Johann Daniel Von der Emde, page 928, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1760-1803, baptism Marie Elisabeth Von der Emde, page 939, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1804-1830, baptism Anna Elisabeth Von der Emde, page 13, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1805-1824,death Johann Steven Von der Emde , page 757, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1805-1824, marriage Friedrich Wellway and Katherine Elisabeth Thiele, page 714, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1805-1824, baptism Johann Heinrich Wellway, page 74, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1804-1830, baptism Martin Wellway, page 101, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1804-1830, death Martin Wellway, page 391, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1804-1830, baptism Martin Wellway, page 121, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, KB 1830-1861, marriage Heinrich Jacob and Anna Elisabeth Wellway, page 481, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, Tote(death) 1830-1855, death Katherina Elisabeth Wellway, page 511, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen, Tote(death) 1830-1855, death Friedrich Wellway, page 550, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
- Kurhessen-Waldeck, Landeskirchliches Archiv Kassel, Wolfhagen, Wolfhagen,Tote (death) 1880-1922, death Heinrich Jacob, page 164, (www.archion.de, accessed 26 February 2021)
Ella Jane Anne 
Dear Jennifer,
How are you? Seems you did an excellent research job so far. I guess you had some help on reading the old German “Kurrentschrift” writing, which can be quite challenging. I know this quite well from my own (ancestry) family research. I am German living in Germany and I find it hard to read and often understand less than 30% of the texts (lol).
The remark “Getraut 1832 in Wolfhagen” is using more modern German alphabet, which leads to the assumption that it was added much later (not much earlier than 1890 or even in 20th century).
For you further research on people you found only as born, can I ask you did you also check for the confirmation records of the parish of protestant church of Leckringhausen? If baptized, the confirmation normally occurs at the age of 14 (latest 15) and shall be documented in the church records of the parish. Such brings you a few years into the person’s life. If there is no confirmation record than the person died at younger age or the family has moved out of village/town/city before confirmation was due. In 19th century or earlier a confirmation was mandatory for every protestant Christian.
If birth, marriage, death occurred later than 1860, you got good chances to find also in the Hesse state archives, in the so-called “Standesamt” Registers. In your case the city registers of Wolfhagen are good place to search. Online (for free) the state archive has digitalized (for reviewing) between ~1860 and 1900; marriage registers are publicly available until 1930 and death registers until ~1960. The different stop dates come from data protection agreements.
The “von der” As pre-fix of Emde is a German title of nobility. In history you find that such nobility titles were granted and withdrawn by Kings at their personal discretion. Also there have been times at which a family was not proud to be of nobility and therefore did not use it. Finally it is possible that a preacher writing the church record was no fan of nobility status and therefore may not written into the church chronicles if he did not like the respective family.
For more information about life and living of people the Hessisches Staatsarchiv can be also helpful for you, as they got lots of other documentation reaching back in time till ~11th century, which can include documents on house building, buy/sell of (farm or other) ground, court files (on criminal cases or what so ever dispute was), tax record of officers (eg customs officer), last will documents if registeted with a court, hospital records on patients (especially for the few mental hospitals in Hesse in the past, eg in Haina or Merxhausen), etc.
Finally, there is a chance that a “Familienverband” (private family association) does exist for the family “von der Emde”. If so, they may have further documents and information. Doing genealogy is very exciting and time consuming. And due to the accuracy of documentation Germans are globally famous for, there are so many sources one can search in (as long as you know that they exist).
I wish you good luck and success with your ancestry.
All the best,
Frank
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Frank,
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post and respond. I did have help with translating some of the documents but I am able to read some of the script as well. Thank you for this information and I will check your suggestions. I will have to check my file on this family to see if I located their confirmation records.
Jennifer
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Dear Jennifer,
The homepage of Hesse state archives (Landesarchiv Hessen) is this:
https://landesarchiv.hessen.de/
Sadly, the page is in German only. You will need someone to help if you are not able to read/write German. Sorry.
Within their public search engine you will find at least a front page of all documents or document compilations. If no full digital document (eg jpg or gif format) is found -only front page visible- than the archive will require a proof that you got rights to see the document (eg you are proven relative of the person the record is about) prior to granting access to digitalized documents. Also for some sensible/confidential documentation (e.g. de-nazification court file of post 2nd world war time for a person), the archive can decide that you may need to visit archive in person [appointment to be scheduled with archive in advance] or they charge you for doing research and/or copies of original documents for you. But during visit you will be allowed to take photos (free of charge) from the documents you request to review.
I know this in-person review of pre-ordered documents at the archive is a complicated process. But depending on what you like to see it can be worth doing it (remember a case file of a court hearing, including impeachment, evidence documents, pleadings, protocol and verdict can be up to several hundred machine typed pages long; ok, ancient court files can be also handwritten only but much shorter then)
I hope, my 2 comments do a) motivate you to continue and b) help you to advance with your research.
Good luck,
Frank
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