Correctly Connecting Generations

In this post I’ll continue to reveal Lawrence Huber’s ancestry in Butschbach and surrounding areas. I’m going to slow down a bit, though, and show you how I used a series of related records to correctly go back another generation. When you’re researching in a typical small (ish) European village, multiple people often have the same name. You must be careful to connect the right people to your family. You do so by finding every potentially related record and then reading every detail in those records. If you’re lucky, you’ll have the information you need to draw a correct conclusion.

In the last post, I identified the earliest (so far) generation for the Huber ancestry. Laurenz Huber and Catharina Hepptich, Lawrence’s great grandparents, married 20 April 1750 in Oberkirch. Laurenz was the son of Johann Huber who lived in Welden before his death.[1]  I do not know Laurenz’s age at marriage, nor do I know his mother’s name.

I found a potential baptism record for Laurenz in 1715. In fact, it was the only child named Laurenz that I found with a father named Johann.[2] This would have made him thirty-five years old when he married Catharina in 1750. Careful reading of that record tells me it was his first marriage. It’s certainly not out of the question, but it is on the older side for a first marriage. I needed further confirmation. I really wanted to find his death record. Sometimes you must work forwards before you can go backwards. Death records might give an age for a person, helping to approximate a birth date.

The records of Oberkirch are indexed, which is helpful. I use indexes, but if I’m not finding what I want, I read page by page to make sure I’m not missing anything. Death records are one of the more difficult records to find because you do not know how long a person might have lived. I need to use all available records.

I found all Laurenz’s children in the baptism records. His youngest child was born 23 August 1761.[3] Since her baptism record did not say her father was deceased, I know Laurenz was alive at that time. The oldest son of Laurenz married 2 May 1774. That record says Laurenz had died.[4] I narrowed his death to a thirteen-year span.

This is helpful because when I search the indexed records, I find four Lorenz Hubers who died after 1761. I read each of these records for the details they contained. One was for a man who died in 1792. He lived in Walden, which is where my Laurenz’s father, Johann, lived. The 1792 man was about sixty years old. He could have married in 1750. His wife’s name was Susanna Hebtich, which is the same maiden name as my Laurenz’s wife. If I hadn’t known my Laurenz died before 1774, I might be tempted to think the wife’s first name was written incorrectly. This record named witnesses, of which one was Andreas Huber, son of the deceased. My Laurenz did not have a son with that name.

There was a Laurenz who died in 1789 who was born about 1729. He could have also married in 1750. This man, however, lived in a community that had never been associated with my Laurenz. He also died after my Laurenz had died.

Finally, a death record from 1771 fit perfectly because it named his wife, Catharina Hebtich. It did not give an age for him, unfortunately. Catharina died in 1784 and her death record did give her age, sixty-five.[5]  That suggests a birth year of 1719. Given that she was a thirty-one-year-old bride, it does make sense that Laurenz could have been thirty-five when they married. Laurenz was born in 1715 and baptized 21 February in that year. His mother’s name was Christina.

It is the assembly of all the above evidence that leads me to conclude when Laurenz was born. No one record can stand alone.

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[1] Katholische Kirche (Oberkirch, Offenburg, Baden), Heiraten [Marriages], 1647–1815, p. 210, 20 April 1750, Hueber-Hebtich; FamilySearch, FSL 995,509.

[2] Katholische Kirche (Oberkirch, Offenburg, Baden), Taufen [Baptisms], 1647–1739, p. 3, 21 February 1715, Laurentius Huber; FamilySearch, FSL 998,814, image 426.

[3] Katholische Kirche (Oberkirch, Offenburg, Baden), Taufen, 1739–1777, p. 635, 23 August 1761, Catharina Huber; FamilySearch, FSL 995,506, image 315.

[4] Katholische Kirche (Oberkirch, Offenburg, Baden), Heiraten, 1647–1815, p. 465, 2 May 1774, Hueber-Haitzmann; FamilySearch, FSL 995,509.

[5] Katholische Kirche (Oberkirch, Offenburg, Baden), Tote [deaths], 1726–1796, p. 525 (1784), Catharina Hepptich; FamilySearch, FSL 995,792, image 276.