Germany Connectors' Challenge December 2023: German notables

Question

This month we will be connecting German notables.  Please join in!

Carl Schuhmann (Connected - Thanks Flo, Manu & everyone else!) -  4 sport athlete in the 1896 Olympics - Münster, London, Berlin - 0 starting cohnnections

Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger (Connected - Thanks Heike, Manu, Lisette & Flo!) - Film Director and pioneer of silhouette animation - Berlin, Dettenhausen - 1 starting connection

Karl Siegmund Schwarzschild (Connected -Thanks Manu!) -  Physicist and Astronomer - Oberrad, Stadtkreis Frankfurt, Potsdam - 16 starting connections

Margarete (Waldstein) Rey (Connected) - Writer and Illustrator - Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Cambridge, Mass. - 24 starting connections

Have fun!

Answer 1

Margarete Waldstein studied art, and left Germany for Rio de Janiero in 1935 where she married her husband Hans Augusto (Reyersbach) Rey (also a notable).  The two wrote the Curious George books.

Comments

Maybe Heimann-186 can be connected to Marx-1102 somehow via his wife?

A connection to Heimann-176 would also be nice, but that's probably a long shot.

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Margarete Waldstein should be connected through her sister's husband's brother's daughter to a family in Texas.

I took a look at Heimann-176 and couldn't get very far there to see if there was a connection.

Answer 2

Karl Schwarzschild is a "two-fer".  His son Martin Schwarzschild was a notable astrophysicist.

Comments

Karl Schwarzschild's father and grandfather have notables stickers too.  They were businessmen in Frankfurt.

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His father in law Friedrich Julius Rosenbach was notable as well. He was a professor in Göttingen.  I´ll do some work on this lutheran side of the family (I am always lost when it comes to finding Jewish sources).

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Connected:-)  There were a lot of notables in this line. Karl Schwarzschild should be connected through Philip Christian Ribbentrop

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I just found a second connection for Martin:

his wife - her father - his brother - his wife - her father is our Nickels-130

Answer 3

Karl Schuhmann doesn't have any connected profiles yet on WikiTree, but his wife and children are on familysearch:  https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G2WC-6FX

He apparently taught gymnastics for a time in London and 4 of his 5 children were born in London (the other was born in Berlin).  The family returned to Germany, and Karl and his wife are buried in Berlin, where they were married in 1899.

Comments

Found his baptism record.

And his parents´ marriage can be found on familysearch. Does anybody know where one could have a look at the orginal scan of this marriage record? I tried to find it on www.archion.de, but was not successful... Place of marriage should be Düsseldorf, but it says the record is from Evangelische Kirche, Garnisongemeinde Magdeburg. I am confused...

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Thanks Manuela,
It is very easy to be confused with FamilySearch.

I saw a marriage listed under "Deutschland, Preußen, Brandenburg und Posen, Kirchenbuchduplikate, 1794-1874" in FamilySearch.
Germany in this example was used by FamilySearch as a guide to their category structure. It is not the same as Wikitree categories and it is very misleading while trying to find a marriage in the town Unruhstadt in the Grand Duchy of Posen in 1841.

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There are two entries:

A.) https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JHQ2-C2W => Münster, Westfalen, Preußen, Deutschland

B.) https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP2W-3TZ5

=> Düsseldorf, Kreis Düsseldorf, Rheinprovinz, Preußen, Deutsches Reich

=> Artillerie Brigade, Düsseldorf, Magdeburg u Wesel, Düsseldorf, Magdeburg u Wesel, Rheinland, Preußen

198

=> Evangelisches Kirchenbuchamt Hannover

=> Evangelische Kirche. Garnisongemeinde Magdeburg

maybe https://wiki.genealogy.net/D%C3%BCsseldorf#Kirchenbücher helps a bit? Here I didn't find it:
https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/deutschland/akmb/militaerkirchenbuecher/0222/?pg=31

Here somebody else is digging as well for his military unit:
https://forum.ahnenforschung.net/showthread.php?t=19104

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found the wedding record duplicate and put it in the profile, gives birth places but no parents.

Wife from was from Münster. I found two people with her surname in 1860 address book, so brute force searching might be an option.

He is from Walthersdorf, which might also be Waltersdorf and quite a mess.

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Sorry, wrong person - see Reiniger

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Christine Hühn added share link to the wedding and birth of https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wittzang-1 , which brings us to her father in FamilySearch, who has suggestions for his wedding and birth.

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Based on the documents you provided I added his wife´s parents. They came from Zehdenick and probably from Iden, Altmark.

Also added more relatives on his mother´s side of the family (last name Gillen). Florian, Danzig again. He has a grand mother from the area of Danzig:-)

His father might be from Waltersdorf near Weißensee (now in Thüringen). Left a research note on his profile but not too sure about this yet.

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I guess, you mean this Waltersdorf, which seems to be in Sömmerda county. Exactly that one just extended their genealogy database: https://spweb.lra-soemmerda.de/websites/sarecherche/Seiten/home.aspx

Update: Which of course is worthless, since we're past civil records :(

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Matthias Gillen can be found on this gigantic page:

https://www.berndjosefjansen.de/jansen2/jansen2-000007.htm
There has to be one person from there already on WikiTree.

Update: if you want it more clickable: https://gedbas.genealogy.net/person/show/1221572724

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The political relation between the two Thuringian towns Weißensee and Sömmerda is really complicated. Prior to 1802, Weißensee was seat of the county which bore its name whereas Sömmerda was part of Erfurt as an "exclave". From 1816 to 1950, Sömmerda was a town within the Landkreis of Weißensee; whereas in the new administrative structure of East Germany since the 1990s, Weißensee is now a town within the Landkreis of Sömmerda.

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gutjahr-463 is 444.16 from the Bernd Josef Jansen tree.

 There at 110.7 there are four siblings, who passed away in Indiana and Ohio. Maybe we can connect one of those?

110 married the daughter of 222
Franz Anton Gutjahr, who was a half sibling of 444.16

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Found a connection that requires eight new profiles. I would of course also take anything shorter:

444.16. Elisabeth Franziska
https://www.berndjosefjansen.de/jansen2/jansen2-000007.htm#BM660
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gutjahr-463

444 Johann Conrad Gutjahr,
https://www.berndjosefjansen.de/jansen2/jansen2-000007.htm#BM660

222 Franz Anton Gutjahr
https://www.berndjosefjansen.de/jansen2/jansen2-000004.htm#BM658

111 Margaretha Josepha Henrietta Gutjahr
https://www.berndjosefjansen.de/jansen2/jansen2-000003.htm#BM81867

110.7 - Eberhard Lüttgenau
https://www.berndjosefjansen.de/jansen2/jansen2-000003.htm#BM81867
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/LVPZ-FTM

Francisca Catharina Wilhelmine Roll
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/M225-BBG

Johann Erberhard Roll
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/K8DT-FLH

Peter Roll
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/MPW5-FRJ

JB Roll
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/GZ4G-36Z

Maria Gertrud Roll
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/MPWT-M4J
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Roll-476

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wow... I looked at that family yesterday and added some sources to the Gillen but did not find any connect. ... so still 2 days left to connect him :-)

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It's done (and I'm done as well). Please check the locations. One of the Rolls also deserves additional information extracted from Latin death record.

Maybe it would still be useful to create those four children, who passed away in the US, so people could connect to them.

Thank you very much for taking over the organization of this Challenge, Paige and Manu!

Answer 4

I added the parents of Charlotte Reiniger, her birth certificate and the marriage certificate with Carl Robert Koch. The Reiniger trail seems to lead to Bohemia (her father was born in Stift Tepl in 1865), where there are also other Reiniger profiles in the Tree already. Maybe someone with more knowledge in Bohemian sources can find the link.

Comments

Added Reiniger grand parents and a great grand father as well  (all foresters from Bohemia). I found no obvious connection to the other Reinigers on Wikitree, but I am having dificulties in locating a place. Where could Branten, Gerichtsbezirk Ronsperg, polit. Bezirk Bischofteinitz, Kreis Pilsen be? The source that mentions this name is linked in Karl Reiniger´s profile.

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Hi Manuela,

Ronsperg is https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pob%C4%9B%C5%BEovice (Poběžovice) today and Bischofteinitz is just around the corner(see: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hor%C5%A1ovsk%C3%BD_T%C3%BDn (Horšovský Týn), but i was not able to identify Branten - anyway, step by step they will be connected to the Tree! Thank you for your help and have a nice weekend :-)

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Hier noch Kinder:

• Geburt Anton - https://www.portafontium.eu/iipimage/30069554/tepla-klaster-13_1060-n?x=-2&y=277&w=764&h=263
• Tod Anton - https://www.portafontium.eu/iipimage/30069552/tepla-klaster-11_0290-z?x=59&y=159&w=514&h=177
• Geburt Ernst - https://www.portafontium.eu/iipimage/30069554/tepla-klaster-13_1110-n?x=-48&y=445&w=764&h=263
• Tod Ernst - https://www.portafontium.eu/iipimage/30069552/tepla-klaster-11_0290-z?x=61&y=404&w=514&h=177
• Geburt Maria - https://www.portafontium.eu/iipimage/30069554/tepla-klaster-13_1170-n?x=37&y=60&w=916&h=315
• Geburt Rudolf - https://www.portafontium.eu/iipimage/30069554/tepla-klaster-13_1350-n?x=9&y=150&w=740&h=255
• Tod Friedrich - https://www.portafontium.eu/iipimage/30069552/tepla-klaster-11_0440-z?x=78&y=156&w=428&h=147 
• Tod der Ehefrau Elisabetha - https://www.portafontium.eu/iipimage/30069552/tepla-klaster-11_0430-z?x=76&y=556&w=428&h=147

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Here is the marriage of Heinrich Karl Reininger's parents - https://www.portafontium.eu/iipimage/30067016/pivon-09_0019-o?x=78&y=339&w=642&h=221

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Thanks. This helps a lot! The marriage record provides the missing link to his parents. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Reiniger-64 and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Reiniger-6 seem to be the same person. As soon as the profiles are merged Lotte Reiniger should be connected to the tree :-)

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Wonderful - this is Treefolk cooperation at it's best, yipiie, we did it!

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Do you know why the merge was rejected?

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No, thank you for the hint - I asked the profile manager if he could explain his reasons (just to understand the rejection because to me the information on the two Karls seems to makes a merge quite reasonable.)

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That is indeed very confusing. Maybe it helps to transcribe the marriage record for him. One could also add him as son of his parents already for the sake of having him connected

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I also contacted the profile manager. He was not sure, whether both persons are really the same and did not have time / resources to analyze the relationship.

I sent him a translation of parts of the marriage record and tried to explain how important merging duplicates is. I hope he reacts. Otherwise connecting the duplicate profile to the parents as Florian said might be an option.

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Merge was approved and Lotte Reiniger is connected :-)

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Dear Manuela and Lisette, thank you so much for all your help!

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Thanks for adding them already, Manu. One Thon item checked off already.