This process of discovery never ceases to amaze me. As I prepare for my trip to Udenhausen, I am corresponding with our kind hostess in Germany who will be showing us around. Because our hostess is an Udenhausen native, she has been contacting different people she knows to see if they know anything of the Schaefer family. In at least two cases, the answer has not only been YES, but she has managed to find living relations there who are telling the stories their mothers remember about our family! It's incredible.
The latest news, however, was that there were TWO more siblings from our family of Johannes Schaefer and Margaretha Gipp who came to America, namely Anna Schaefer, born in 1841, and Josef Schaefer, born in 1848. We don't know much about Anna, but she might have come to New York as early as 1868. When we find her in the 1880 census of New York, her surname is something like Bissell, she was widowed, she was a teacher, and her younger brother Josef was living with her! I have so far not been able to locate much more information about Anna, and it would be good to know what happened to her.
Joseph arrived in NY much later, in 1876. Around 1881, he married Eva Elisabeth Selzer and they had a daughter named Katherine Anna Schaefer. It was during this time that Josef made an occupational transition to publishing of Catholic books and articles. He had a business on 23 Barclay St. which today is a block away from where the World Trade Centers once stood. I am still learning about Joseph's work, but he was made a Knight in the Order of St. Gregory, and according to his obituary, he was close personal friends with Cardinals Farley and Hayes.
Joseph's daughter married Clemens J. Kracht, who was a lawyer, and they had two children that we know of, a boy and a girl. I have not been able to track what became of the girl (as usual), but via the boy, it does appear there are living Kracht-Schaefer descendants in the country today!
So this is all quite remarkable. We have discovered two living descendants from the oldest sibling (Paul) who remained in Germany. In addition, we have now determined that the four youngest siblings: Philip, Anna, Peter, and Josef all came to America - two were carpenters and two were teachers. The two carpenters left New York within five years of arriving, their destination being Murray, Iowa, where they both died. At least one of the two teachers remained in NY, and in fact when our gg-grandmother Mary Schaefer (Maria Magdalena Vierling) returned to NY around 1885, she not only had Vierling relations there, but now we find out also Schaefer relations. Our g-grandfather Charles had an Uncle Joseph Schaefer, one who was still alive when our grandparents were born. Why have we never known about this connection? Part of it was locale, I think - Joseph lived his whole life in Manhattan, and our relations lived in Brooklyn. But I have often wondered how Charles got to be a chauffeur on Wall St. That would be the area where his uncle lived. This might also explain my grandfather's middle name: George Joseph Schaefer.
Maybe the truest thing I have learned from doing all this work is that there is ALWAYS more to the story. Always.
Happy Memorial Day.
