The anniversary story
Tomorrow, August 9th, marks the 187th anniversary of the marriage of Gerhard Nuckel and Beta Lahrs in Bremen, Germany.
Gerhard (recorded as Gerd) was shown as age 33 and a laborer at the time of the marriage on 9 August 1833; Beta was shown as age 23. All of their parents were deceased; Beta’s guardians Gerhard Riechers and Heinrich Brandt gave permission for her marriage. The witnesses included 39-year-old bricklayer Carsten Hinrich Sievers and 30-year-old laborer Johann Kruse.1
And they were The Legal Genealogist‘s third great grandparents.
They had — for the time and place — a long and fruitful life together. Beta died in 1878; Gerhard lived until 1882.2 As far as I’ve been able to document, they had eight children:
• Anna Adelheid, born 1832, and married Johann Jacob Jung in 1860.3
• Gerd, born 1836, married Anna Margarethe Kruse in 1856, and died 1866, leaving four small children.4
• Johann, my second great grandfather, born 1838, married Marie Margarethe Sievers in 1860, and died 1870, leaving three small children.5
• Betha, born 1840, and married Johann Heinrich Friedrich Gercken in 1858.6
• Margarethe Gesche, born 1843 and died at the age of 17 months in 1845.7
• Johann Friedrich Wilhelm, born 1846, married Anna Marie Margarethe Müller in 1869, and died in 1932.8
• Adelheid, born 1849, married Friedrich Ludwig Klee in 1871, and died in 1922.9
• Gerhard, born 1851, married Gesche Adelheid Harting in 1873, and died in 1936.10
Um… waitaminnit.
Let’s review that again. Gerd and Beta married in 1833. Anna Adelheid born in 1832.
Sigh…
Yep. Anna Adelheid was a bouncing nine-month-old baby when her parents married. And yep, they were both her parents. Though her birth on 4th of December 1832 was initially recorded with one parent — my then-unmarried third great grandmother Beta Lahrs, that changed down the road. When Anna herself went to marry in 1860, her father went to the Civil Registrar to … um … regularize things.
And there, on Anna’s birth record, is the note, dated 14 January 1860 — some 27 years after Anna was born — that her father, Gerhard (Gerd) Nuckel came in to say he’d married her mother on 9 August 1833. That legitimated Anna, and so on her marriage record two weeks later, she was not recorded as illegitimate.
In the nick of time, Gerd.
In the nick of time.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “In the nick of time,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 8 Aug 2020).
SOURCES
- Bremen Standesamt, Zivilstandsregister (Bremen city registry office, civil status registers), Heiraten (Marriages), p. 249, 1833, Nuckel-Lars. ↩
- “Die Leichenbücher der Stadtgemeinde Bremen von 1875-1975” (Funerary Records 1875-1975), Die Maus – Family History and Genealogical Society of Bremen (https://die-maus-bremen.info/ : accessed 8 Aug 2020), entries for Beta Lars Nuckel, citing Bremen Standesamt 1878, Seite (page) 99, Nr. 566, and for Gerhard Nuckel, citing Bremen Standesamt 1882, Seite 507, Nr. 1977. ↩
- Bremen Standesamt, Zivilstandsregister, Geburten (Births), p. 629, 1832; Heiraten, p. 37, 1860, Jung-Nuckel. ↩
- Bremen Standesamt, Zivilstandsregister, Geburten, p. 106, 1836; Heiraten, p. 126, 1856, Nuckel-Kruse; Todten (Deaths), p. 604, 1866. ↩
- Ibid., Geburten, p. 114, 1838; Heiraten, p. 282, 1860, Nuckel-Sievers; Todten, p. 306, 1870. ↩
- Ibid., Geburten, p. 650, 1840; Heiraten, p. 519, 1858. ↩
- Ibid., Geburten, p. 557, 1843; Todten, p. 97, 1845. ↩
- Ibid., Geburten, p. 174, 1846; Heiraten, p. 766, 1869, Nuckel-Müller. The death information appears as a marginal note on the birth record, and is confirmed by the Bremen city funerary records. “Die Leichenbücher der Stadtgemeinde Bremen von 1875-1975,” entry for Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Nuckel (25 January 1932). ↩
- Ibid., Geburten, p. 250, 1849; Heiraten, p. 201, 1871, Klee-Nuckel. The death information appears as a marginal note on the birth record, and is confirmed by the Bremen city funerary records. “Die Leichenbücher der Stadtgemeinde Bremen von 1875-1975,” entry for Adelheid Klee (19 April 1922). ↩
- Ibid., Geburten, p. 854, 1851; Heiraten, p. 984, 1873, Nuckel-Harting. The death information appears in the Bremen city funerary records. “Die Leichenbücher der Stadtgemeinde Bremen von 1875-1975,” entry for Gerhard Nuckel (28 March 1936). ↩
Yeah…. Grandma’s WPA application said she and Grandpa were married 20 Mar 1917, but… when I found the actual Oklahoma marriage records, the date was 20 Mar 1918. Dad was born 20 April 1918. Theirs apparently was “just in the nick of time”.
On what date was the WPA application made? If it was a considerable time after the marriage, perhaps the wrong date was given. Elderly minds often give mistaken dates.
Way to go Grandpa, making sure his sweet grandaughter was proper and happy. When they hug grandpa and say thanks and grandpa remembers those butterfly kisses when she was 4 and 5
My great grandmother had her first child (great grandpa’s second) while my great grandfather was married to great gran’s next door neighbor. They had their second a few months after the his first wife divorced him for adultery and lack of support. That child was legitimate, though just barely. What a scandal! I only found out when I stumbled across a divorce notice on newspapers.com. I wasn’t even looking specifically for them, was just feeding in family surnames. After finding the notice, I found other documents confirming this. My 90-year-old mom knew nothing about it and didn’t know if her mom ever knew.
The first wife had the last laugh. She remarried, followed her daughter out to California, and outlived them all!
Every family has at least one of those “no! really???” stories… 🙂