Trip to Europe

Karen and I returned from our trip to Europe on Sept. 30th. During our trip we spent a week in Schaafheim, Germany exploring the nearby towns and collecting genealogy information. On this trip, our focus was on the town of Altheim which we had determined was the home of our Peter Kreh and his family. Before leaving home, I had written to the pastor of the church in Altheim telling him we would be arriving and asking for his cooperation in accessing the church records. Much to our surprise when we arrived, we found that he had given our request to Ms. Anne Tuchlenski, a genealogist familiar with the Altheim church records. By the time we arrived, she had prepared a report tracing the Kreh family back an additional five generations and over a hundred years to 1609. We had to pay 250 euros, but the money is going to a good cause, the restoration of a baptismal fount for the Altheim church that is dated from 1230 AD. Mirko and Elsbeth Kreh were also very helpful in explaining the report and then finding the link to the Schaafheim Kreh family tree. Mirko was pleased to find we share a common ancestor, making us members of the oldest and 'best' Kreh tribe.

After returning home, I've gone through the records and cross checked them against those from the Mormon's FamilySearch.org website. I found that their new Record Search pilot program is very helpful in finding records that I missed previously. I used the information provided by Anne Tuchlenski and Elsbeth Kreh as a guide while searching the on-line database. This allowed me to find additional children and add 'leaves' to the family tree.

Also I learned some tips about interpreting the records.

/Kreh/Krehe/Kreher/ and even /Kröh/Krähe/ These variations occur at different times and places in the history of the Kreh family. Sometimes you will find records of the same individual using several variations of the name. The same is true for other family names, e.g. /Funck/Funcken/ and /Schrod/Schrodt/Schrodtin/. After some thought, I decided to enter all names using only the root, i.e. Kreh, Funck, Schrod etc. Keep in mind that the records may contain different versions, hence the importance of using the Close Match option.

/Johann/Anna/ Most males were named Johann in honor of St. John and females were named Anna in honor of St. Ann, the local patron Saints. In the past, I overlooked many records because I didn't know this was a common practice.

Another observation was that when a child died at a young age, it was common to give the same name to the next child born of the same sex. In one family, this occurred three times. If you encounter seemingly contradictory information about a person's date of birth, consider this practice as a possible explanation.

One mystery I was able to clear up. In my past messages, I speculated that maybe Peter Kreh had two wives, to explain the discrepancy between the Canadian census where his wife's name is Margaretha, and Nicolaus' death certificate having the name Catherine Kapp. The records are clear that Johann Peter Kreh married Anna Margaretha Metzler on 29 Dec 1815 in Altheim. They had six children, five of whom emigrated to Canada, and a previously unknown daughter, Anna Katharina Kreh who married Johann Ludwig Seltzer and apparently remained in Germany. The best explanation for Nicolaus' death certificate is that in his grief, William wrote the name of his maternal grandmother, Anna Katharine Krapp, instead of his paternal grandmother.

I have created a Picasa web album for pictures of the Altheim church and houses where family members lived before emigrating to Canada. One thing I didn't find was the name of the ship and or the port where they left Germany.

You are invited to view John Carver's photo album: Altheim

Altheim September 14, 2010 by John Carver View Album Play slideshow