Kertzinger-Grimm French Relations

Wherever my family tree appears sparse, it's not just because of a brick wall. Sometimes it's because I had once stumbled upon evidence that made me believe the family story was bleak. This was the case with the pocket of matrilineal relations starting with my g-grandmother Marie Grimm, then to her mother Pauline Grimm, and then to her mother Salome Grimm, all three born out of wedlock in the Alsace region of France between 1835 and 1880. Surely all three generations must have endured sad circumstances. But did they? To some degree they did because the history of France in the 19th century was not exactly peaceful.  Suffice it to say that borders were changing back and forth, and soldiers, refugees, emigrants and immigrants were all on the move. Was there any "normal" family life? I thought surely not.

But today I think again. Finding a recent DNA match from this same line of unmarried Grimm women has caused me to review, and whenever that happens, there is always the chance of finding new records. It so happens that familysearch recently added some French records to their collections. Here's what I found:

First, it appears that Salome Grimm had more than one naturel child before she married. We know, of course, about Cecile Pauline Grimm, born in 1860. But next there came Joseph Charles Grimm born in 1862. Like Pauline's birth record, the registration for Joseph lists only the mother, and maternal grandparents. Did both these naturel children have the same father? We don't know.

Next, I looked a little closer at Mssr. Kertzinger. His birth record also lists only a mother and maternal grandparents. What's more, it appears that his mother, Madeline Kertzinger, also gave birth to two naturel children! Francois had an older sister, Clementine, born in 1841, also naturel. Apparently children born to single women was not so uncommon.

What seems subsequently remarkable, but probably wasn't, was that two people born naturel, Francois Henri Kertzinger and Salome Grimm, married, with Salome bringing with her two naturel children (Pauline and Joseph), presumably from a different father. But did Kertzinger and Salome Grimm have other children? They most certainly did:  Marie Madeline (1866), Clementine Caroline (1868), Salome Henriette (1871), Franz Heinrich (1873), Leonie Eugenie (1875), Albertine Pauline (1877), and Emilie (1879). Our Pauline was not so alone in the world! She had at least seven half-siblings and she was, as far as we know, the oldest of the bunch. I haven't yet determined what happened to all these Kertzinger half-sibs, but if any survived to carry on, they would all show up as DNA matches, being all descendants of Salome Grimm.

A final note about Mssr. Kertzinger. I noticed in the earlier records, he was named as Francois Henri. In later records, after 1871, he was named as Franz Heinrich, a name in fact given to his only son. Why is this? Because Alsace and Lorraine were lost to Germany in 1871. Like I said, this family lived squarely in the middle of tumultuous times. Curiously, even though the records show the family using German names after 1871, they all declared French citizenship in 1872.  Franz Heinrich Kertzinger died in Strasbourg in 1912.

As for Salome Grimm Kertzinger, she died in Strasbourg in 1904 at the age of 67.  I don't know if Salome had Kertzinger grandchildren by that time, but she definitely had grandchildren by her daughter, Pauline. After the death of Pauline's husband, Michael S. Klein, Pauline emigrated to New York with most of her children, except one - Emilie.  Emilie arrived in NY in 1905, almost 15 years old, with $1.50 in her pocket. Her mother, Pauline, a widow and washerwoman, had paid for her daughter's passage. It is my feeling that Emilie Klein was raised by her grandmother, Salome, and after Salome died, Pauline sent for her daughter to come to NY.

So this gives all new perspective to the succession of single Grimm women. Salome had two children out of wedlock, and seven more with Kertzinger. The Kertzinger-Grimm family were numerous and together. Then, Salome's oldest, Pauline, had one daughter out of wedlock, and at least three more children with Michael S. Klein before he died in Strasbourg in 1891. But what made Pauline, a recent widow, come to the US by herself  in 1892 with most of her young children, apparently pregnant again even before she left? We don't know. But she had lived through alot, and she was a strong woman. Pauline Grimm Klein wanted a chance for something better, and she clearly intended to move forward.

Happy Women's History Month!

The Crown Bridge

Several years ago, there was quite a flurry of piecing together my Crown genealogy, which is to say identifying five branches of children whose parents were Richard Crown and Sarah Meehan. We found DNA matches with descendants from four of the five branches, and then added family history notes that had been handed down to those descendants and which served to confirm knowledge of the other Crown sibling branches. It has been exhilarating to understand the Crown story better and to share it with modern-day researchers.

Now, in the course of corresponding with various Crown relations, I must share a little detail that has recently emerged. Here is an excerpt from a recent contact who described visiting her elder Crown relation last summer and going on a driving tour with him to the areas where the Crowns used to live. She wrote:

[he] brought us on a tour of the family locations in Leitrim - including a visit to tiny Crown Bridge (who knew we had a bridge named after our family?)

This brought to mind a correspondence I had in 2016 with a contact who belongs to my Crown family group:

[he] related a childhood memory. When he was a youngster ….. they would walk the 200 yards or so from their home to look at the night sky from a nearby bridge. It was known as Crown Bridge.

Could it be the same bridge? I asked Contact #1 for a photo, which was then forwarded to Contact #2 unlabeled to see if there was any hint of recognition. There was. There is indeed a common memory in both family groups of this same place, this unremarkable little wall that was built over a ditch and which today displays a small road marker: LM-R280-011.  See it from Google Earth.

For whatever reason, this bridge and its story move me in a way that locating records cannot. The Crown Bridge now represents to me a small portal into the time and place of the lives of several Crown families and generations. Descendants of those families are now scattered across the globe, but as we find each other now and attempt to look back, the roads leading to this little bridge can give us all a glimpse into the Ireland that our Crown and Travers families called home.