Friday, August 14, 2015

#52 Ancestors - 32 - Well Almost

Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small has a weekly challenge to write the stories of your ancestors. This is week #32 and the suggested theme is also 32. The suggestion was to highlight one of your 32 third great grandparents.
The generation of my third great grandparents was a challenge when I first began my genealogy journey.  Today I am happy to say that all but one has been identified.  Here are all the surnames:

Moehllmann, Wesserhuhn, Krentler, Rauscherbush, Tendick, Hollman, Kuches, Manglemann, Schmidt, Kueppers, Heitman, Memering, Ramacher, Hochwar, Sargent, Waggoner, Skeen, Percyfield, Adkins, Mahan, Williams, McBride, Houchin, Clifford, Smith, Davis, Mason, McClannahan, Ring.

As I mentioned, there is one "unknown" - Polly the wife of George Smith - has not yet been identified.  But were you counting the names? There are only 29 rather than 31.  So today I am going to introduce you to Heinrich Kuches or Kukes and Matilda Mangelmann.

Heinrich was born in 1810 in Kaldenhausen, Germany and Matilda Mangelmann was born in nearby Baerl about the same time. They married about 1830 as their first child, a son Diedrick, was born 23 December 1832 in Dusseldorph, Kries Moers, Rhineland, Germany. He was followed by a sister Katrina on 12 Aug 1838.  It is assumed that the mother died shortly afterwards as Heinrich remarried in September of the following year.

Much of what we know about Diedrick and Kathrina and their family comes from their grandson Alfred Moehlmann. He writes:
"Kathrina's father was a prosperous man and had a small farm.  She was heir to about 20 acres of land at Hochstrasse near Neukirchen and all her children were born there."
Katrina had married Peter Tendick on 14 Jan 1858 in Neukirchen. Katrina and Peter had nine children and in 1889 immigrated to the United States with seven of the children and settled in Greene County, Indiana.

Alfred writes the following about his grandfather Diedrick:
"Diedrick was a full brother to my Grandmother - Katrina Kukes (or Kukas) Tendick. Their father was Henry Kukes and they were born in Rhineland Province of Germany, near Dusseldorf, Kries Moers, Germany.  Now most of the details are those that I remember from my grandmother.  As far as I know, they were the only children.  I don't know what Diedrick was learning to be, but he was an apprentice to a man named Bovenschen.  Evidently later on he was drafted into the Prussian Army.  We do know that they conscripted for military service at that time. The camp or barracks he was serving in had to be close to their house, for my Grandmother said that their father would send her to camp with a basket of food at times.  She always mentioned one item for sure; that was light bread.  Now light bread was a delicacy there at that time - about the same as cake or pie was when we were kids.  Rye bread was their staple food.  Now Diedrick didn't like the military life or the Prussian system and he deserted the Army.  In order to leave Germany he had to get out on an assumed name to emigrate to America. He took the name of the craftsman he worked for - Bovenschen and kept it his entire life and raised his family by that name."
So Diedrick  had immigrated to the US in 1854 at the age of 21 and settled in Greene County, Indiana,where his sister and her family later joined him.  In 1862 he married Margaretha Schmidt and they had twelve children.

Matilda was the daughter of Katrina and Peter Tendick and married Frederick Moehlmann and had a son Alfred.. Diedrick and Margaretha had a son William who married Gesena Heitman and they had a daughter Helen.

Helen Bovennschen and Alfred Moehlamnn, my grandparents, married in 1921.  Helen and Alfred were second cousins. As a result the number of 3rd great grandparents are reduced by two to 30. Of course that number increases with each generation you go back. Five more generations back and I only need to research 960 people rather that 1024, assuming there are no other cousin marriages. 


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