Connecting to our Ancestors

Have you been researching and felt really connected to an ancestor? This is how I felt when I learned about Anna Elisabeth Brand. I have already posted a blog about Anna and her husband that you can read: https://ellajaneanne.com/2019/08/19/wilhelm-gossmann-and-anna-elizabeth-brand-and-their-16-children/

Anna was born on 13 August 1865 in Kassel, Germany. According to my grandmother, she was very superstitious and would change her birthday to the 14th. She did not want to have a birthday on Friday the 13th. Since my birthday is on 14 August I felt very connected to Anna. For this blog, I am going to list fourteen facts that I know about Anna.

1. Anna was 75 years old when she died.
2. Anna’s father, Heinrich Brand, was Lutheran.
3. Anna’s mother, Anna Katarina Schneider, was Catholic.
4. Anna married Wilhelm Gossmann in 1886 in Wehlheiden, Germany at 21 years old.
5. She had 16 children with only one set of twins.
6. Anna died on 16 November 1940 in Kassel, Germany.
7. She was the last child born to her parents.
8. She had six siblings.
9. She had two brothers named Carl Heinrich Brand. One died at two years old.
10. She lost five children when they were younger than three years old.
11. Her ninth child, Elisabeth Gossmann died at 18 years old.
12. Her fifteenth child, Christoph Lorenz Gossman died while a soldier during WWII.
13. Anna died 23 years after her husband Wilhelm, who died in 1917.
14. Anna is my second great-grandmother.

I love old photos and will often look through them at antique stores just to look at them. Sometimes I hope for any identifying information that I can use to identify and return the photo back to its family. Finding the photo above of Anna a couple weeks ago made me cry. Feeling connected to my ancestors is why I love researching my family.