There just has to be…
It’s not possible for a genealogist to come across a key date in a family history and not want to know more.
So too for The Legal Genealogist, looking at a birth 227 years ago tomorrow in a place far across the ocean.
Maria Margarethe Storch was born 10 September 1796 in Bremen, Germany. Her parents — Hermann Hinrich Wilhelm Storch, an arbeitsman (laborer) and Catharine Fette — had her baptized eight days later at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Bremen.1
She had at least two brothers: Cord Hinrich, born 26 February 1801 and baptized 1 March 1801;2 and Hermann Hinrich Wilhelm, born 21 November 1802 and baptized 28 November 1802.3
She was 21 years old when she married Carsten Heinrich Sievers in Bremen on 31 December 1817 at St. Peter’s Cathedral. The groom was a 24-year-old laborer.4 Their marriage produced two known children: Catharine Maria Magdalena, born 25 September 1819;5 and Carsten Hinrich Wilhelm, born 3 December 1820.6
It’s down that line that I descend, from Maria Margarethe to her son Carsten Hinrich Wilhelm to his daughter Marie Margarethe to her son Carsten Hinrich Wilhelm Nuckel to his daughter Marie Margarethe Nuckel, my grandmother. All of which makes Marie Margarethe (Storch) Sievers my paternal fourth great grandmother.
Judging from the entries in the Bremen city directories of the time, she was widowed sometime around 1862. Carsten was listed in the 1862 directory; his widow in 1863.7
And she was 70 years old when she died in Bremen in 1866.8
And that’s about it.
That’s pretty much all I know.
I don’t know when or where her brothers died, where they lived, if they married or had children.
I’m not 100 percent sure she didn’t have other children herself.
And I have no idea what she was like.
What she looked like.
What she sounded like.
What her life was like.
Sigh…
Yes, it’s been 227 years since she was born.
But there has to be more to her story than this.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “More to the story,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 9 Sep 2023).
SOURCES
- Kirchenbuch, Evangelische Kirche Dom Sankt Petri, Bremen, Taufen (baptisms) 1793-1799, p. 278, Maria Margarethe Storch, 18 September 1796; digital images, DGS 008247983, image 195, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ : accessed 8 Sep 2023). Note accessible only at a FamilySearch Center or FamilySearch Library affiliate. ↩
- Ibid., Taufen 1799-1804, p. 315, Cord Hinrich Storch, 1 March 1801; digital images, DGS 008247984, image 185. ↩
- Ibid., p. 590, Hermann Hinrich Wilhelm, 28 November 1802; digital images, DGS 008247984, image 328. ↩
- Standesamt Bremen, Heiraten 1817, seite 319, Sievers-Storch (Bremen Civil Registration Office, marriages 1817, page 319); FamilySearch Library microfilm 1344186, Salt Lake City. ↩
- Ibid., Geburten (births) 1819, Reg. Nr. 921, 27 Sep 1819), seite 457; FamilySearch Library microfilm 1344150. ↩
- Ibid., Geburten 1820, Reg. Nr. 1242, 7 Dec 1820, seite 614; FamilySearch Library microfilm 1344150. ↩
- For 1862, Adress-Buch der freien Handsestadt Bremen … 1862, entry for Carsten Heinr. Sievers, Buntenthorsteinweg 113 (Bremen : Heinrich Strack, 1862), p. 135; digital images, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen (https://www.suub.uni-bremen.de/ : accessed 9 Sep 2023). For 1863, ibid., Adress-Buch der freien Handsestadt Bremen … 1863, entry for Carsten Heinr. Sievers, Wwe. (widow), Buntenthorsteinweg 113 (Bremen : Heinrich Strack, 1863), p. 136. ↩
- Ibid., Todten (deaths) 1866, seite 169; FamilySearch Library microfilm 1344234. ↩
I would just like a picture of a 1st great grandmother. Is that too much to ask for?
Sometimes when my mind is racing when I go to bed, I try to relive Lucy Maude’s life, starting when she was born in 1882, her five older siblings. The two that came after her. In 1900 when she was not only enumerated with her parents, but also in a sister’s home who lived 82 miles away (a MUCH faster ride today than then) with a toddler and a newborn. How she met her husband, my great grandfather. While they had four children together it wasn’t a pleasant marriage (per their divorce record). The border she took in, who she subsequently married, and had another child with. She died in 1921 and was only 38. Most nights I’m asleep while my grandmother would still be little, and I start to blur the lines between my great grandmother and my grandmother’s stories.
They aren’t the only ones whose stories put me to sleep, in a good way. A very good way.
Julie, Portraits back that far are quite rare. When America became independent and stopped taking convicts from Great Britain, they were sent to Australia. Documentation included a physical description. About 20 years ago there was a gifted artist who produced portraits from the descriptions. Some people later discovered an actual painting or photo of their former convict and the likenesses I have seen between the actual and the reproduction from the description were amazingly close. Unfortunately this talented person is now with their ancestors.
I have come to accept the best I can usually hope for with my ancestors is a portrait of their character from their deeds. And increasingly I find joy in walking where they walked, particularly when not much has changed. It’s like a portrait of their surroundings.
Christopher, I think you misread Julie’s comment. Her great grandmother was born in 1882 and died in 1921. There could easily be pictures then.