Brick Wall in Locating Ancestor's Town of Origin

[Mike Thumm]

I would like to try this forum for help with a brick wall in locating my ancestor's town of origin.

I am searching for the town of origin of my ancestor Elisabeth Spring (b. Feb 6, 1842, d. Feb 1922) who was married to John Bilz from Soden.  Despite having found many key records, I am still coming up against a brick wall.  Here is a summary:

-My grandfather said she came from near Stuttgart and came to the US as an indentured servant as a young girl.
-From her Aug 25 1861 marriage record transcription from NYC St. Nicholas RCC: her parents are named as Heinrich Spring and Mathilde Maier but neither her birthplace nor those of her parents are stated.  The marriage record indicates she was Protestant but that she would raise any children as Catholic.
-NYC marriage index entry for Aug 25 1861 lists her birthplace as Bavaria (which may have been erroneously repeated from her husband's birthplace which was in Bavaria at that time)
- USC 1870 indicates Wuerttemberg as birthplace
- USC 1880 again indicates Wuerttemberg and father's birthplace as Bavaria
- USC 1860 shows a possible match for Elisabeth Spring working as a servant for pocketbook maker Georg Etlinger, with her birthplace indicated as NYC which must most certainly be wrong
-All other censuses (USC 1900, 1910, 1920, etc etc) just state Germany as birthplace
- I have not positively identified her on a passenger list.  There is an Elisabeth Zyring/Syring age 15 on board the ship Telemach arrived NYC June 30 1857 from Breman who is also listed in the NA "United States Germans to America Index, 1850-1897" as a gentleman's servant whose last place of residence was Berghausen.  Inspection of the passenger list handwriting features and style seems to indicate that the person was most likely named Elisabeth Syring, meaning that the lower case "y" was likely not a "p".
- A check by a professional genealogist in Germany for all Protestant and Catholic church records in the city limits of Stuttgart that existed prior to 1850 and all churches in Berghausen, Pfinztal in Baden yielded no results.  From the GGG online Meyer's Gazetteer there is Berghausen in Schwaben, Bavaria that appears to be on the border with Wuerttemberg.  I have not pursued this since at this time since I am not convinced that Elisabeth Syring on the Telemach in 1857 is my Elisabeth Spring.
- Her death record indicates date of birth as February 6 1842 which is consistent with a USC 1880 entry indicating birth in Feb 1842. Her death record indicates she was cremated (was not buried with her husband in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, NY).  Place of birth in the death certificates states only Germany and does not identify her parents.
- Obituaries for her in the Jersey Journal of Jersey City do not list her town of birth.

Any help or suggestions?  I suspect that Elisabeth Spring really did come from near Stuttgart as my grandfather told me but I cant see how I will ever be able to find her other than checking every since single village in Wuerttemberg.  Should I be contacting a German genealogist to investigate church records for Berghausen, Schwaben, Bavaria or is there a better way to investigate?

Thanks for any input...

[Bob Vornlocker]

You have two days to watch an exvcellent free webinar on Family Tree Webinars - http://familytreewebinars.com/archived_webinars_bydates.php

If you miss the free date, it only costs about $10 for a month's membership, during which, you can watch dozens  (hundreds) of excellent webinars.

Good luck!

By the way, did you actually look at the complete church record you mentioned. I found 4 of my 8 great-grandparents by doing this.

The webinar was very interesting. My problem is twofold: My grandfather's surname is very common (Schmidt) and the records I received are handwritten and in German (I don't speak German).  One of my current tasks is to try and get all of the German registered ship's manifests leaving Bremen and Hamburg and came to the port of New York. 

Ray S

---

From: Bob Vornlocker [via German Genealogy Group Forum] <[hidden email]>
To: rjsarosy <[hidden email]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2016 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: Brick Wall in Locating Ancestor's Town of Origin

You have two days to watch an exvcellent free webinar on Family Tree Webinars - http://familytreewebinars.com/archived_webinars_bydates.php

If you miss the free date, it only costs about $10 for a month's membership, during which, you can watch dozens  (hundreds) of excellent webinars.

Good luck!

By the way, did you actually look at the complete church record you mentioned. I found 4 of my 8 great-grandparents by doing this.

---

If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below:

http://german-genealogy-group-forum.78031.x6.nabble.com/Brick-Wall-in-Locating-Ancestor-s-Town-of-Origin-tp43p63.html

To start a new topic under German Genealogy Group Forum, email [hidden email]
To unsubscribe from German Genealogy Group Forum, click here.
NAML

[BVLOCKER]

CONTENTS DELETED

The author has deleted this message.

[Mike Thumm]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your advice and suggestions.  Regarding the St. Nicholas RCC record, I did circle back to that.  Although I was not able to view the marriage record personally or get a copy of it, I eventually got a much better transcription. Unfortunately it just seems that Elisabeth Spring's place of birth was not listed in the marriage record, although that of her husband was.  I do know that John Bilz and Elisabeth Spring had several children baptized at St. Nicholas.  Do you know if the baptismal records for the children might show the birthplaces of the parents?  I guess it couldn't hurt to write the church again.

[Bobbi]

I would try looking for any information I could find on the witnesses to the marriage.  

It is possible that one of them could be from the same place.

[Mike Thumm]

Hi Bobbi thanks for that suggestion.  I will try to research some of the marriage and baptism witnesses to see if any of them have roots in Wuerttemberg that might lead me to Elisabeth Spring's birthplace.  I previously recognized several of the witness names as being associated with or directly related to John Bilz, but have not researched some of the witnesses.  I will give it a try.  Thanks.