Help find Mary Schuck's father, a German schoolmaster and music teacher from Germany in the Philadelphia area

Question

Looking for some help with the parents of Mary Schuck, who married Eli Bangs in the Philadelphia/Wilmington area in about 1832 and then died in about 1836 after having three children.  (Eli remarried twice more and had more kids after that.)  The only hint I have at the moment is that her father was apparently a schoolmaster/music teacher from Hesse Cassel, Germany.  I suspect he lived in Philadelphia, but it could have been Wilmington, Delaware or Bridgeton, New Jersey or somewhere else nearby.  I haven't been able to find marriage or death records for Mary so far.  Any assistance is welcome!

Comments

Maria Magdalene Schuck

in the Hesse, Hesse-Kassel, Hess Darmstadt, Hess-Marburg, Hess-Reinfels, Rhineland, and Waldeck, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1661-1957

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Name:	Maria Magdalene Schuck
Gender:	weiblich (Female)
Event Type:	Geburt (Birth)
Birth Date:	1814
Birth Place:	Stockstadt, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany)
Mother:	Anna Maria Schuck
City or District:	Stockstadt

Answer 1

Only with the name it will be hard to find her. If she might be the person Betty mentioned cannot be proofed because from Stockstadt there is nothing online avaible until now.

Because archion has no register you must very church book page by page; that would be nearly impossible if you don't have the related parish.

Comments

Two further items in addition to what you have already pointed out: (1) Stockstadt at that time was in Hesse-Darmstadt, not in Hesse-Cassel (Hesse-Darmstadt is essentially southern Hesse, and most of their records have at least been indexed on ancestry.com; Hesse-Cassel is essentially northern Hesse, with very few records indexed on ancestry.com); (2) the fact that this Maria's mother's name was given as Anna Maria Schuck (birth records in this area usually give the mother's maiden name) indicates that this Maria was an illegitimate child, with father unknown - also does not fit what we are looking for.

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I'm not convinced that Mary was born in Germany; she may have been born in/near Philadelphia.  The source says that Eli Bangs "m. about 1832 Mary Schuck, dau. of a German schoolmaster and music teacher, a native of Hesse Cassel, Ger."  A lot of people have interpreted it to mean that Mary herself was from Germany, but I think it could also be interpreted as saying that her father was from Germany, but not necessarily that Mary was.  So maybe one approach would be to look for a Schuck in Philadelphia in the early/mid 1800s who's a music teacher.  I'm not sure how to go about that, other than slogging through city directories.

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Yes, I agree that looking for a school teacher/music master Schuck/Schoch [or similar] in the greater Philadelphia area would be the most likely avenue of success.

fold3.com has the city directories for Philadelphia for the relevant time period online. I looked through the ones for 1831 and 1833 and did not find a teacher with a name similar to Schuck. I also did not find our Eli Bangs or his father Eliakim - the only Bangs in Philadelphia at that time was Capt. Elijah Keeler Bangs (nr. 158 in the family genealogy), who had a china store at 176 N. Front St. (the Wikitree profile of him at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bangs-170 needs some TLC).

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Elijah is Eli's half uncle; I hadn't looked at his profile until now but I'll try to beef it up when I get a chance.  

Eli's father Eliakim supposedly moved to Philadelphia in about 1838 and died not long after.  But Eli himself was supposedly born in Philadelphia around 1810, so something about the timing doesn't make sense.  My guess is that either Eliakim moved to Philly earlier or Eli was actually born elsewhere.  

Eli and Mary's third child Eli Jr. was definitely born in Bridgeton, NJ in 1836.  I also just noticed that in the Bangs book, under the listing for Eli's father Eliakim it refers to son Eli "of Camden, NJ."  So maybe I should be looking at Camden instead of Philadelphia.

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Another very tenuous lead:  Eli and Mary's second son is William Hoffman Bangs.  There are no Hoffmans that I know of on the Bangs side of the family, and the name is potentially German.  Could be the name of a maternal relative.  Their oldest son is George W. Bangs.  No idea what the W. stands for, but again, it could be relevant.  No Georges that I know of on the Bangs side, either.