In a prior post, I found that Johann Huber of Wälden was the father of Laurenz Huber who married in 1750.[1] I found in Laurenz’s 1715 baptism record that his mother’s name was Christina. Her maiden name was not listed, which was typical of the baptisms in this time and place.[2]
I then went on a search for Laurenz’s siblings. I used FamilySearch’s indexing of these records, but I also read the baptisms page by page. There are sometimes spelling variations that might not be considered when searching an index. I looked for children born to a Johann or Hans and Christina Huber. I found several children.
Every record named the residence of the parents. Most of them say the family lived “in der Gnad” or “auf der Gnad.” One record gave more detail explaining the Gnad was in the Bauerschaft [farming community] of Wälden.[3] This is consistent with the 1750 marriage record saying Johann Huber lived in Wälden. Two of the baptism records, however, said the family lived in Ödsbach.[4] If you look up Gnad in Meyers, it says that Gnad or Gnadhof is a farm associated with Ödsbach. At first, I thought these might be different ways of referring to the same place.
But then I looked at the godparents more closely! Most of the godparents for Johann and Christina’s children were the same people, or spouses of the same people. That is, except for the two baptism records that said they lived in Ödsbach. Those godparents were different. I knew then that there were two different couples named Johann and Christina Huber!
To be sure, I went through the marriage records and found two for Johann and Christina Huber. One couple, mine, married 19 May 1696.[5] My Christina’s maiden name was Bauman. The other couple married 24 October 1707. That Christina’s maiden name was Eckenfels.[6] There is no father named for either Johann in these records because each man was a widower.
This is going to be very tricky moving forward (or backwards in time). This demonstrates further how every little detail is so important!
[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 958,814, IGN 7991479, image 426.
[3] Katholische Kirche (Oberkirch, Offenburg, Baden), Taufen [Baptisms], 1647–1739, p. 28, 19 January 1717, Laurentius Huber; FamilySearch, FSL 958,814, IGN 7991479, item 3, image 20.
[4] Oberkirch, Amt Oberkirch, Baden, Germany, Katholische Kirche, Baptisms, 1647-1739, 27 September 1711, Antonius Hueber; FSL 958,814, IGN 7991479, item 2, image 220. Also, Oberkirch, Amt Oberkirch, Baden, Germany, Katholische Kirche, Baptisms, 1647-1739, p. 59, 15 March 1719, Gertrudis Hueber; FSL 958,814, IGN 7991479, item 3, image 35.
[5] Katholische Kirche (Oberkirch, Offenburg, Baden), Heiraten [Marriages], 1647–1815, 19 May 1696, Hueber-Bauman; FamilySearch, FSL 995,509.
[6] Katholische Kirche (Oberkirch, Offenburg, Baden), Heiraten [Marriages], 1647–1815, 24 October 1707, Hueber-Eckenfels; FamilySearch, FSL 995,509.
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