Anna Elisabetha Ittel and Adam Fuhrmann

Because Anna Elisabetha Ittel and Adam Fuhrmann married outside of Freinsheim, I actually have a marriage record for them. They married in Bissersheim, 4 km NNW of Freinsheim, on 30 Mar 1812.

One can't have everything - the marriage record doesn't supply their parents' names. Anna Elisabetha is most probably the daughter of Christina Barbara Hammelin and Johann Georg Ittel christened in Bissersheim 30 Jun 1789.

Adam was not born in Bisserheim. There are no Fuhrmann birth records from Bissersheim at all. Given than Anna Elisabetha and Adam seem to have raised their children in Freinsheim, I'm guessing that Adam is Johann Adam, the son of Catharina Heck and Johann Peter Fuhrmann born 20 Oct 1786 and christened in Freinsheim 22 Oct 1786.

Anna Elisabetha and Adam had ten children christened in Freinsheim that I know of. Two died young:

• Anna Elisabetha - presumably born 1812-1815. Described in the 1836 legal notice discussed below as adult but unmarried;
• Katharina - presumably born 1812-1815. Described in the 1836 legal notice as a minor;
• Christina Margaretha christened 27 Jul 1817. Her christening record gives her father's name as "Johann," but I'm fairly certain that this refers to Johann Adam, who's named in the other christening records as either Johann Adam (3 records 1819-1824) or Adam (4 records 1825-1833);
• Christina Barbara christened 26 Sep 1819. Deceased by October 1825;
• Leonhardt born 29 Apr 1822, christened 30 Apr 1822;
• Anna Maria christened 28 Jan 1824. Deceased by October 1833;
• Christina Barbara christened 21 Oct 1825;
• Magdalena christened 02 Apr 1828;
• Susanna christened 05 Jun 1831; and
• Anna Maria christened 13 Oct 1833.

Adam Fuhrmann died sometime before 31 Mar 1836. The Amts- und Intelligenzblatt des Königlich Bayerischen Rheinkreises includes a legal notice published 04 Apr 1836 announcing an auction for the benefit of the widow and children of the late Johann Adam Fuhrmann. Unusually, Frau Anna Elisabetha Ittel was described as an "Ackerbauerin," a farmer in her own right. She was acting both in her own interests and as guardian of the minor children: Katharina, Margaretha, Leonhard, Anna Maria, Barbara, Magdalena and Susanna. The children's secondary guardian was Jacob Kröther, a farmer resident in Freinsheim.

The auction also involved Anna Elisabetha Fuhrmann, lacking both marriage and profession ("ehe- und gewerblos"), the adult daughter of Anna Elisabetha and Johann Adam.

The property being auctioned consisted of:

• A dwelling house together with stable, barn and other equipment, situated on 2.36 ares (0.0236 hectares) in Freinsheim at the under bake-house ("am untern Backhause"); and
• 9 ares arable land, also 6 ares and 12 ares arable land outside of the Freinsheim "Bann" (town limits?).

Katharina Fuhrmann is the less likely possibility of two for the Catharina Fuhrmann who married Franz III Selzer and had one son, Ludwig, christened in Freinsheim 08 May 1839. Eight months later, Franz died. He was buried in Freinsheim 31 Jan 1840. The other possibility for Franz's wife is the daughter of Catharina Bayer and Leonhard Fuhrman. Why do I think this second possibility is more likely? Because it looks very much to me as if Katharina, her mother and at least some of sisters emigrated to St Louis, Missouri.

Emigration to St Louis

I found a set of entries in the marriage and burial records for St Marcus United Church of Christ in St Louis that are an impressively good match for five of the seven daughters of Anna Elisabetha Ittel and Adam Fuhrmann:

• Susanna Kaufmann, born 29 Mar 1851, daughter of Christian Kaufmann from Wernings, Kreis Buedingen, Hesse Darmstadt, and Elisabetha Fuhrmann from Freinsheim, Canton Duerkheim, Baiern, died 25 Jul 1852 and was buried the following day;
• Elisabethe Kaufmann née Fuhrmann from Freinsheim, Canton Neustadt, Rheinbaiern, died 17 Apr 1856 in childbirth and was buried the following day. She was 41 years of age, i.e., born in 1814/5;
• Catharina Flickinger née Fuhrmann from Freinsheim, Canton Duerkheim, Rheinbaiern, married Jacob Becker from Oberhochstadt, Rheinbaiern, 12 Apr 1851;
• Barbara Fuhrmann, daughter of the deceased Adam Fuhrmann and wife Elisabetha "Hel" from "Freundsheim, Tuerkheim," Rheinbaiern, age 28 years, died 04 Jul 1849 cholera, buried 05 Jul 1849. ("Our" Barbara would have been 23. If Ittel was misread as Hel, could 23 have been misread as 28?);
• Magdalena Fuhrmann, from Freinsheim, Canton Duerkheim, Rheinbaiern, died 05 Apr 1851 and was buried 06 Apr 1851. She was 22 years old, i.e., born in 1828/9; and
• Susanna Fuhrmann from Freinsheim, Canton "Tuerkheim," Baiern, married Conrad Rick from from Wernings, Kreis Buedingen, Hessen Darmstadt, 02 Dec 1852.

Catharina Fuhrmann Flickinger Becker's burial record doesn't mention that she was from Freinsheim, but does say that at the time of her death 25 Jan 1874, she was 58 years, 5 months and 3 days old, suggesting that she was born 22 Aug 1815.

In following up on Susanna Fuhrmann Rick, I discovered that in 1860 she and Conrad were living with Elizabeth "Forman," age 73. Both Susanna and Elizabeth are said to have been born in Baden. Also, according to the 1900 US Census Susanna immigrated to the States in 1848. These two pieces of information led me to the passenger manifest of the SS Lyons, which sailed from "Havre de Grace" for New Orleans 05 Jun 1848. (Where exactly was "Havre de Grace"? This older name for Le Havre in France fell out of use during the French Revolution. On the other hand, Havre de Grace in Maryland acquired this name in 1785. However, most of the 170 passengers on the Lyons were immigrants from France and Germany, with a few from Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Ireland and none from the States.)

The manifest included what appears to be a party of Freinsheimers bound for St Louis - Eva Kullman and Johannes Raffel with their adult children, a daughter-in-law and a grandson; Jacob Machenheimer, who's identified as being from Freinsheim in the St Marcus marriage records; and Elisabeth Fuhrmann, age 57, with her daughters Barbara, age 22, Magdalena, age 20, and Susanna, age 18.

What it looks like to me is that the two oldest daughters, Elisabetha and Katharina, emigrated first. Elisabetha's daughter Lisette Kaufmann was born in Missouri 10 Dec 1846. Katharina married her first husband, Jacob Balthasar Flickinger, in St Louis 22 Aug 1844. (He died 09 Jul 1849 in the cholera epidemic that swept St Louis that summer and also claimed Barbara Fuhrmann's life.) Then Elisabetha Ittel Fuhrmann and three of her younger daughters followed in 1848.

Anna Elisabetha Ittel may or may not be the Elizabeth Fuhrman born in 1785 who died in St Louis 20 Nov 1875.

Anna Maria born 1833 would have been 14 or 15 at the time her mother and sisters emigrated. I can't find any definitive evidence as to what happened to her or to the remaining two of her older siblings, Christina Margaretha born 1817 and Leonhardt born 1822.