Those People Can Get Married At My House

I’ve been reviewing the digital images of the records Bethany United Church of Christ in Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois, that were recently placed online at FamilySearch. I’ve been reminded of several things while searching these records.

Manually reading the records takes time but discoveries can be made. Hermann H. Schildmann and Anna M. L. Luebker were married in 1880 at the home of my great-great-grandfather Michael Trautvetter. I’m not certain if he had any relationship to either the bride or the groom. The groom may have been related to the two Schildmann sisters that Michael’s brothers George and Theodore married. Or there could have been some other connection between the families that had nothing to do with any relationships stemming from biology or marriage. However I should look further into this couple to see if there is any actual relationship between them and Trautvetter. Trautvetter was a German immigrant (as were his parents), but little is known about his mother’s family and it’s possible that there is a connection between his mother and the couple. His father’s family is relatively well-documented and neither member of this couple appears a member of the Trautvetter family.

The actual marriage record needs to be accessed, but it probably does not indicate the precise location of the couple’s marriage.

There were research suggestions in the baptismal records as well.

Three children of Conrad and Barbara (Siefert) Haase were baptized in the Tioga church in 1866. Little is known about the origins of German immigrant Conrad. Two of the sponsors of the children were individuals with the surname of Haase–suggestive of a relationship to him and suggesting that they lived near enough to Tioga to attend the 1866 baptism. I had been hoping for individuals who could have been relatives of Barbara, but all the sponsors for the Haase children had the last name of Haase.

There are still quite a few pages of these records to plow through. Reading things with German and English intermingled is always a challenge.