Ancestry From Württemberg

My German Roots Stemmed from Rosenfeld, in Württemberg, and Left for Amerika in the Mid-1800s

Germany

Rosenfeld

Rosenfeld today is part of the Zollernalbkreis district of Baden-Württemberg in south-west Germany. At the time my ancestors left Rosenfeld, it was a town in the Schwarzwaldkreis district (formed in 1818), in the Kingdom of Württemberg which existed from 1806 until 1918 when the Weimar Republic was formed. Prior to 1806, and since 1495, Württemberg was givn the rights of a Duchy by the Holy Roman Empire. Wikipedia has an article about the
History Württemberg.

Family

Konrad Müller married Anna Marie Nagel in Rosenfeld on September 17, 1811. Konrad was 24 years old, and Anna Marie was 19. Konrad and Anna Marie were to tragically have only two children together. Their first child, a girl, was Elizabethe, born 27 Jan 1813. Their second was a boy: Johann Konrad, born 26 Feb 1814. For Anna Marie, it was a difficult birth, and she died only 10 days after giving birth to little Johann, who was to live only five months, and died July 26.

Later the year that Anna Marie and little Johann had died, on October 23, Konrad married Anna Marie Nagel's younger sister, Susanna, who was nearly 21 at the time of the marriage. It's likely Susanna had helped to care for the children after Anna Marie's death, and that she and Konrad had become close. One year later, on October 22, 1815 Konrad and Susanna's first child was born, a girl, whom they named Anna Marie, in memory of Susanna's sister and Konrad's first wife. Konrad and Susanna were my Great Great Great Grandparents. Susanna's ancestral names include Bock, Beutter, Gramale, Hartmann, Nagel, Springer and Tafel.

Konrad and Susanna were to have six more children after little Anna Marie was born in 1815: Elizabethe Margarethe (1818), Johannes (my Great Great Grandfather in 1821), Anna (1824), Catherina (1826), and Johanna (1830). After fathering a total of nine children, Konrad died in 1832 as he approached his 45th birthday. Elizabethe, the surviving child from Konrad's first marriage, was to marry Lucas Mebold, in Balingen, a town 10 km east of Rosenfeld, in 1834. Lucas was probably from Balingen.

The Family Disperses - Going to Amerika

The family members each went their respective ways. In 1839, in Rosenfeld, daughter Anna Marie married Andreas Mauthe, from Heselwangen. In 1847 Johannes decided to head for Amerika. In the same year, Catherina married Johann Martin Springer, and went with her new husband to Amerika before having any children in Rosenfeld. In 1854, 22 years after Konrad's death, and 7 years after Johannes' departure, Susanna finally packed up Elisabethe Margarethe and Johanna, and the three of them headed for Amerika. We don't know where Anna went, though she was in Rosenfeld in 1838 to have her Confirmation.

In America: Müller is Miller

Elizabethe Margarethe Miller settled in Indiana, where she married Johann Friedrich Witte (White).

[More to Come]

Catherina Miller had also settled in Indiana, with her husband from Rosenfeld, Johann Martin Springer. It's said that Johann sold all their belongings, and headed off from Indiana to fight with the Confederacy. She divorced him in 1861, and later married Henry Knost. She survived Henry, and lastly married William Winselman, whom she also outlasted. The Brownstown Banner, dated Dec. 12, 1895 notes: FROZEN TO DEATH - Last Thursday morning the section hands discovered the lifeless body of William Winselman lying at the bottom of an embankment on the line of the B. & O. S. W. Railway, a short distance above Shields Station. Catherina died more than 12 years later, on April 7, 1908 at age 82.

Johanna Miller, the youngest of Konrad and Susanna's children, married Conrad Stotz about 1855, in Indiana.

[More to Come]

Johannes Müller, known in America as John Conrad Miller, son of Konrad and Susanna, was my Great Great Grandfather. He married Christina Link, who'd also come from Württemburg. She was born in July 1826, making her five years younger than Johannes. We don't anything about Christina's beginnings, though the Württemburg Emigration Index does list a Christina Link from Tuebingen, who'd applied for emigration in April 1843. Tuebingen is in the same region of Württemburg, so they would have had much in common. Johannes and Christina had four children: Anna (my great Grandmother in 1853), Christina C. (1857), John C. (1858-1859) and Frederick C. (1886-1867). John and Fred were both born in New York State. Anna and Christina may have been also, but there is also evidence of their being born in Connecticut, which may be indication their having been born in Connecticut's panhandle, which was part of NY prior to 1857. The family moved a little northwestward, as Christina and John were baptized at the Hunter Presbyterian Church, in Hunter, Greene County, NY in 1862. By 1870 the family was in Shandaken, Ulster County, NY. Both John and his 12 year-old son John were working in the L.A. Chichester Chair Manufactory.

Miller Meets Nicklas; Nicklas Meets Monahan

Anna Miller married Edgar Rudolph Nicklas, and were my Great Grandparents. Together they had seven children: Ernest Raymond (my Grandfather in 1879), William Edgar (1882), Louella Irene (1885), Florence Henrietta (1887), Gertrude Adele (1888), Mildred Elizabeth (1891) and Christina Henrietta (1895). The first five were born in Chichester, the name given to the town that had sprung up by the factory, in Ulster County, NY. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, work died out at the chair factory, and the family moved south to New York City.

Ernest Raymond Nicklas (known as Ray) married Catherine Clotilda Monahan, and are my Grandparents. They had two children: Catherine Anna (1907) and Edgar Raymond Nicklas (1915). Catherine (Aunt Catherine to me) married Frank McGeehan in 1936, and had no children. Edgar (known as Ed) was my father, and married my mother, Edna. They had one son: me.

Of Edgar and Anna's other children, William Edgar Nicklas married Jessica Cooke in New York City. They had one child: Janet, who was born in 1918, married Harold Throop, and had two children of their own. Louella did not marry, and hence had no children of her own. Florence, their fourth child, lived only 18 days. Gertrude married Emil Dickert in 1825, and they had no children. Mildred also did not marry. Mildred, and her friend Lillian Rifenberg, ran a group of bungalows in Setauket, on Long Island known as the Locust Valley Cottages. We, and many other family members, spent weeks in the summertime vacationing there. Christina, Edgar and Anna's seventh child, married Robert Morton, and had five children.

At this point in the family history, we're running into generations of the living, so we'll stop here.

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