Trying to locate the town "Sacksou" bei (near) Nördlingen
Trying to locate this town. My ancestor Charles Meyer was from there being born in 1839 and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
I am reading this as "Sacksou NEAR Nördlingen" but can not locate any such village/town near Nördlingen. Name could be spelled phonetically. There IS a hamlet called "Saxau", but it is much nearer Munich.
See newpaper clipping below from 1869.
Any ideas??
I'm at a brickwall.
Answers
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Yes, I read that the same way. What else can you tell us about Charles Mayer from other records? Do you know his religion?
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Everything I was able to find says that Charles Mayer was from Prussia and Protestant. Noerdlingen and Saxau are in Bavaria, which was never part of Prussia. Saxau is in a very Catholic part of Bavaria. It's hard to determine the validity of this detail. There is a possibility that it may have been added to this notice by mistake.
On Ancestry.com is a well-documented family tree for this couple [ see https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/110717928/person/320084068083/facts ] that includes a suggested birth/ baptism entry from Boele, Westfalen [which was in Prussia, so that would fit] Apparently that entry was found through indexing. If it were me, I would spend some time trying to prove or disprove this connection. Unfortunately it is entirely possible that two or more children named Carl Meyer/Mayer were born on the same day somewhere in Prussia. It was a big country. So the first thing to do would be to check the death/burial records of Boele to see if this Carl died young. Then you check the marriage records for a possible marriage. If neither of those eliminate your person, your case has been strengthened. There are emigration books available for Westfalen at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City that could be checked for an emigration record.
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Thank you for your fast reply!
The Ancestry Tree you reference is actually mine. I was eventually going to remove the Westfallen Baptism when I was able to sort this out, so sorry for confusion.
I will definately followup on your excellent suggestion that I try to track possible marriage and death records in Boele. I had not considered that and automatically jumped to the conclusion the the is our man that went to America! That will be my next step.
Regarding religion. He did not practice religious and regardless of the many sources, including newspaper articles, I find no reference to his birth religion. I WAS assuming he was Lutheran per his Saint Louis, Missouri, USA marriage, but there could be other explanations for that, as perhaps it was simply convenient (common in America), his wife was Lutheran, or he changed religions. For instance, he, nor any family member that I can find, ever had a funeral in a church, which is unusual in America at the time.
I AM sure that is my Charles/Carl referenced in the newspaper article, as it is cross-referenced with street addresses they had in Saint Louis (the daughter's funeral was held at the Saloon/music hall that he owned!). I agree, the place of origin as published could simply be an error.
They US Census does say several times that he was born in Prussia, so that obviously does not fit, but US censuses are notorious for errors for various reasons.
The newspaper article seems quite specific where he is from, so I am wondering if there could be a DIFFERENT "Sacksou bei Nördlingen" somewhere in what was Prussia at the time? I know that as in America that there are often several towns of the same name in Germany. That would recify the problem.
One more quick question please? 😃
The baptism record in question does list his father as a "Kunst". Does that mean "artisan" in English? I am seeing several translations. The reason I ask it that if his father was a skilled professional, perhaps they moved to Bavaria at some time? I wondered already about the possibility of moving within modern day Germany, as I can find NO other births or relatives for that family in the local Boele parish record.
Sorry SO LONG and thank you for your time!
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I totally agree with you that the people in that newspaper clipping are yours. I did a little research of my own before I answered your question. However, I have seen instances where very specific places printed in newspapers [and other information] simply did not pertain to that family. Things got mixed up somewhere along the way.
You could also check the Catholic church records for Saxau. They are freely available online at www.matricula-online.de . The Catholic parish for this village is Jetzendorf. This part of Bavaria is very Catholic.
Every other reference I saw to a place of origin for Charles Meyer said "Prussia". And I also agree with you that census information is often incorrect. That is one reason it is important to find as many records as possible. You have done a great job with that. I wonder if you were actually able to obtain a Civil War pension file for him. And he certainly could have changed religions. In America, all things are possible.
There is only one town called Noerdlingen. It did occur to me that actually a different town with a somewhat similar sounding name was meant. A newspaper article of one of our ancestors said the deceased was born in "Mearto", when she was actually born in "Nieste". Another example: The printed probate notice said "Uberagfrach Langerien". The same place listed on the handwritten worksheet found in the probate file could eventually be identified as "Unterazpach [=Unterasbach], Landgericht [ district court]".
As to your other question, the father of these twin boys, Clemens Meier, was a " Knecht", meaning a farm hand. It's easy to confuse the letters "n" , "e", and "u", since they look so much alike.
I would love to hear about your progress. Good luck in your search!
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