The Plot Thickens, My Dear Catherina Kirchoff Rohrs Witte Haase

, 20

Wednesday was just the day for a road trip, so I decided to hit the library and courthouse in Napoleon, looking for more clues to the life of my great-great grandmother - Catherine Kirchoff Rohrs (Witte) Haase. Yes, you do see an additional name there!

I first went searching in the probate court for the marriage license of Catharina Rohrs and Christ/ Christian (census name) Haase. Instead, I find that Christ./Christopher Haase married Catharina Witte on August 15, 1893. Hmmmm??? Further searching found the marriage record for Catharine Rohrs and Wilhelm Witte on October 13, 1883. Those marriages were also found in the St. John Lutheran Church , Freedom Township church records.

Wilhelm Witte died on Feb. 22, 1893 and was buried in St. John Lutheran Cemetery, Freedom Township in Row 4, not far from Christopher Haase, 1833 - 1914, in Row 8.

* If you look again at the 1875 Freedom Twp. plat map previously on this blog, you will be able to see W. Witte's 20 acres just to the right of Fred Elling's, in Sec. 29.

So did Catharine married Christ. Haase in August 1893, after the death of second husband, Witte, in February? It would seem so. A search in the probate records found no wills for either of the two men, so I would have to search the journals for any probate activity after their deaths.

I found a Catharina Haase buried in Freedom Township in the Kline's U.B. Cemetery in Row 11. The dates match our Catharina - 1842-1916, but why she would be buried in that cemetery is a mystery.

 I have come to the conclusion that since Catherine could not speak English, her husband probably reported for her on the census and frankly, neither one of them could be completely depended upon for correct numbers!

Now I have to guess that Catherine immigrated between the time Mary came in Sept. 1876 and Oct. 1883 when Catherine married W. Witte. In looking through Vol. 33 of Germans to America, Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports, Oct. 1876 - Sept. 1878, I have found a likely Catharina Roehrs who may be our ancestor arriving in Oct. 1876, but I can't be sure yet. So far, she is the ONLY candidate of the correct age with that name coming from Bremen during the time period given.

After going through each page of the Freedom Township census, I still couldn't find her in the 1880 census. Finding her there would help in narrowing down an immigration date. Apparently, I will have to look through each page of other townships to see if she is there. I noticed that the census enumerator was quite creative with spellings in Freedom Township - Norten was probably Norden, Ickhof was probably Eichoff and Glonce was probably Glanz, for example. So Rohrs could be spelled in a very creative way that I have not yet tried.

A last discovery was a very short death notice in the Henry County Signal, July 30, 1914 for Christopher Haase:

"Christopher Haase, an old resident of Freedom township, died Tuesday, July 21, and the funeral services were held Friday morning at St. John's church, Freedom township, Rev. Thun officiated."

This post originally appeared on a previous blog, Elling Family News, on March 11, 2009.

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