52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 1 – Michael Boehm

Last year, 2017, I wrote about my parents, grandparents, gt-grandparents and 12 of my 2^nd gt-grandparents . So my 1^st ancestor for 2018 will be from the 2^nd gt-grandparent level.

Michael Boehm has been difficult for me to research as he never came to America. I have found a record of him in the German Lutheran church records where he is listed in 1832 as the father of my gt-grandmother, Anna Louise Boehm. On her confirmation record from 1846 her father is named as Michael Boehm, but it includes a cross which is said to mean that he was deceased.

This was at the church at Nakel. The birth was shown as at Josephkowo, which is a small village about 5 kilometers or 3 miles southwest from Nakel, across the kreis (similar to a U.S. county) border into Kreis Schubin. Nakel is in Kreis Wirsitz. These were in the Province of Posen in Prussia. This area is now a part of Poland. According to one source, in 1833 Josephkowo had 24 residences with a Protestant population of 164.

Since he and the mother were not married, I was unable to find any marriage record for them. I was very happy several months ago when a DNA match contacted me who was also a descendant of Michael. Her line goes through his “first wife” so we are cousins. She shared some more information about him so I did find more records. Ancestry.com has a database “Germany, Lutheran Baptism, Marriages, an Burials, 1567-1945.” Church records from Nakel are included. Of course they are handwritten in German so I have mostly used the transcriptions done by Ancestry or other researchers.

Michael was married 4 Feb 1810 at Nakel to Rosina Frederich. They had two daughters, Henriette in 1811 and Anna Charlotte in 1813. Then Rosina died in 1815. Henriette was married in 1829 to Andreas Stenzel. Anna Charlotte was married in Feb of the next year, 1830 to Johann Giese. Then I believe it is my Michael who was the father of Wilhelmine born 21 Dec 1830 and baptized at Nakel 23 Jan 1831. The mother was listed as Rosina Leu. Sadly Wilhelmine died at less than 5 months old on 18 May 1831. My gt-grandmother Anna Louise was born 30 Aug 1832 to Michael Boehm and Anna Rosina Leu, who were “still not married.” It was less than a year when Michael died, 13 Feb 1833, at age 45. So we can estimate his birthdate as about 1787 or 1788. I still have not found a birth record for him, so do not have his parents identified. Next week I will try to share some of my conclusions or speculations about Anna Rosina Leu.