Anna Maria Times Two

In 2018, we discovered what became of Anna Maria Schäfer, a sister of my ancestor, Peter Schaefer:

• Anna Maria Schäfer, 1835-1906, wife of Joseph Adams, married and lived in Boppard.  Her daughter, Elisabeth Adams, married and lived in Nohn (the location of another Schäfer sibling, Elisabeth), and her son, Gerhard Adams, was the one who emigrated to Wisconsin, and whose descendants are a DNA match to me and others in my family.

Now to present day. I've been excited to learn recently that I share DNA with a number of Schäfers from the Eifel region of Germany who came to America in the 1800s, and specifically to the midwest:  Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska.  Sounds familiar, like my ancestor, Peter Schäfer and his brother, Philip, moving to Murray, Iowa. Was my ancestor related to all these other Schäfers emigrating to the American midwest? Among the German locales mentioned in my DNA matches are Mayen, Münk, Arbach, and Mannebach, but the vast majority of records can be found in Retterath. It appears that many generations of Schäfers were recorded living in the Retterath area, about 22 miles west of Udenhausen as the crow flies (no roads are that direct in this hilly region, so the travel distance was and is longer).

Imagine my surprise to discover a marriage record in 1869 between Peter Joseph Scheider, a teacher, and Anna Maria Schäfer, who was born in Udenhausen and was a daughter of Johann Schäfer and Margarethe Gipp. The marriage was in Retterath!

My first assumption was that Anna Maria who married Scheider in 1869 was the widow of Joseph Adams who died in 1866, but that was wrong. Thanks to correspondence with a Scheider researcher in Germany, we have the civil marriage certificate from Virneburg. It does not indicate that Anna Maria was previously married, and it would have if she had been. More than that, the marriage certificate indicates that Anna Maria as well as her parents, Johann and Margarethe, were living in Retterath at the time of the marriage.

So this new evidence gives us some new insights:

• Johann Schäfer and Margarethe Gipp were living in Retterath in 1869, not Udenhausen. It could be that the family was living there because that is where their son, Gerhard, a priest, was assigned. In fact, Gerhard performed the Scheider-Schäfer marriage! But how was my Schäfer family related to other Schäfers in Retterath who seem to be showing up as DNA matches? We don't yet know.
• The next important point is that we now clearly have two girls in the Schaefer family named Anna Maria: one born 1831, married Joseph Adams, lived in Boppard, died in 1906, and the other born 1835, married Peter Joseph Scheider, lived in Unkel, and died in 1885. My previous assumption was that the Anna Maria born in 1831 died as a child, and the next female child, born in 1835, was then named for her deceased sister. But my new German correspondent tells me that especially in this area of the Rhine, children were always named for their godparent. This article supports that idea.

Thus, in our Schäfer family, two girls named Anna Maria had a godmother named Anna Maria. Because I have yet to find baptism records of our family group, we don't know Anna Maria Who, and whether she was the same or a different woman for each child. Without access to libraries or archives (closed by cursed COVID pandemic), it could be awhile before we can search for and access additional records to give us more clues. But one thing seems clear — we have recovered a family member thought to have died in childhood. Welcome back to the Schäfer family history, Anna Maria #2!

A Crooked Crown with Links to Leitrim

The research summarized in this post stems from a DNA match not to me but to several other Crown/Travers relations including my dearly departed second cousin, M. Muldoon. (Click here to read about my genealogy adventures with her in 2013-14.) That match to her was with a person who has one Anthony Crown in his direct line of descent. Who was Anthony Crown?

It appears that Anthony Crown was born in Ireland (year of birth varies in documents), arriving in NYC around 1820. He married to Susan Ridgeway in 1838, and they lived in Ward 6 where Anthony was listed as a grocer and later a coal merchant. Anthony died in April 1857 leaving four children and a somewhat extensive estate to be managed by his wife.

This summary doesn't tell half the true story about Anthony Crown. Think of the 2002 movie Gangs of New York. Then look up a particular gang called Dead Rabbits. Then look up the word groggery. Then read about Crown's Corner Grocery, a groggery owned by Anthony Crown, which was nicknamed "The Gates of Hell" not just for moldy groceries and poisonous liquor but also for all kinds of immorality, savagery, and murder. The owner was known as an especially cruel person.

The story of Anthony Crown strikes me as both horrifying and fascinating. More digging required! It turns out that Anthony Crown had at least four siblings: Patrick, John, Ann, and Bridget. John died in 1844 at age 17. Patrick lived in Macon, GA starting around 1850, and he died there in 1886. Patrick left a will that named his deceased brother Anthony of NYC, his deceased sister Bridget Dowd and her two orphan daughters, and another sister, Ann Sweeney. Then we get to Patrick's gravestone in which was carved his birth place: Drumlease Parish, County Leitrim, the parish next-door to where our Richard Crown and Sarah Meehan lived and died. Wow. So in addition to the DNA match to my second cousin, now there's also circumstantial evidence that links the homeland of My Crowns to the family of the infamous Anthony Crown.

According to the 1855 NY state census, Anthony Crown had lived in NYC for 36 of his 38 years, making his arrival in NY around 1819 at the age of two. In addition, Anthony's will provided for his parents as well as his two orphan nieces who were then living with Anthony's parents. Who were the parents? Also living in Ward 6 were Charles and Bridget Crown, both born before 1800 in Ireland. Censuses show them living with their daughters of the names Sweeney and Dowd. Bingo. 

But the identity of Charles Crown is layered. Two death notices in NYC newspapers tell us:

• 1844 death notice of John, father Cormick, brother Anthony
• 1857 death notice of Cormick, father of Anthony dec, 82 years

Was Charles Crown the same person as Cormick Crown?  Apparently yes. The NYC Municipal death record reports the death of Charles Crowne on 23 May 1857 at 152 Leonard St (a house built by Anthony) at age 82. Charles was buried at a Catholic cemetery (Calvary) whereas Anthony was not (buried at Greenwood).

So many more questions are bubbling to the surface at this point, not the least of which is how this new Crown family group is related to mine. The progenitor of My Crowns was Richard Crown who died in Pollboy, Cloonlogher, Leitrim, Ireland in 1867. There is some question about Richard's approximate birth year, but I speculate that it was around 1796. Was Richard a son of Cormack/Charles who died in NYC in 1857? A nephew? A younger brother? I could speculate all day. We seem to be inching closer to a better understanding about our Crowns, but there is no end of intrigue when it comes to learning about their lives.