52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2 – Anna Rosina Leu

As I wrote last week (3 Jan 2018), today I am giving my conclusions or speculations about Anna Rosina Leu, my 2^nd gt-grandmother who was the mother of Anna Louise Boehm. I might call Anna Rosina a mystery ancestor. I do know her name, but I have not yet discovered her identity. Anna Rosina never came to America so it has been more difficult for me to research her. I did found a record of her in the German Lutheran church records for Nakel in Posen Province where she was listed in 1832 as the mother of Anna Louise. Last week I noted that the father shown was Michael Boehm and he and Anna Rosina were “still not married.” Anna Louise was born 30 Aug 1832 and I believe the record says she was baptized a little over a week later on 8 Sep.

On Anna Louise's marriage record at Nakel in 1850, she was shown as the illegitimate daughter of Anna Rosina Leu of Polichno. Anna Louise was of Josephkowo. If you check the map on the post about Michael Boehm you will see that Polichno Hauland and Josephkowo almost adjoin each other.

When I checked the Poznan Project, which is a listing of marriages in the Province of Posen, I found there were 2 marriages at the Protestant Church in Nakel for women named Anna Rosina Leu. In Nov 1832, a few months after Anna Louise was born, there was a 46 year old widow, maiden name Hein. She was the widow of Mathias Leu. Her new husband, Michael Fratzke, was of Polichno. The other Anna Rosina was married in 1838 to Johann Mueller, when she was age 26, the daughter of Mathias Leu. So these were mother and daughter. There was also a marriage in 1806 for a woman indexed as Johanna Rosina Lech. There are some other researchers who have identified her as a Anna Rosina Leu also. This marriage was to a Martin Giese. They had a son named Johann Giese who married Anna Charlotte Boehm, the daughter of Michael Boehm, Anna Louise's father. So there are at least 3 possible candidates to be my 2^nd gt-grandmother.

There is a burial record at Nakel in 1841 for Rosina Giese, maiden name Leu, age 56 of Josephkowo. On a part of the record I haven't yet deciphered it does mention the name Martin Giese, so I suspect this was the mother-in-law of Anna Charlotte Boehm, my number 3 candidate. I tried checking the birth records at Nakel after 1838 to see if the Mueller couple showed there. I didn't find any and noticed that the marriage record showed that Johann was from Gorzyn, which appears to be in a different kreis about 90 miles from Nakel. So if they lived there, would the 1850 record still say that Anna Rosina was from Polichno? Also if all these women were married by 1850 would the record still use the name Anna Rosina Leu?

But what about that DNA match? If they were related to Anna Rosina as well as Michael, wouldn't the amount of DNA show a difference. I checked that and a 3^rd cousin once removed and a ½ 3^rd cousin once removed have very similar amounts of DNA and my match would fit in either one.

So if any of you have ideas about what I should try next, please contact me.

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.