Can someone please translate 1858 death record for Anna Catharina [Hartkopf] Müller?

Gary Knecht

Anna Catharina was widow of Isaac Müller [her 2nd husband]. A translation may yield other useful details about her life (like her parents' names (Wilhelm Hartkopf and Catharina Loh), where she was born, and her death date: https://dfg-viewer.de/show?id=9&tx_dlf%5Bid%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.landesarchiv-nrw.de%2Fdigitalisate%2FAbt_Rheinland%2FPA_2104%2F%7E043%2F04343%2Fmets.xml&tx_dlf%5Bpage%5D=179

Robert Seal_1

Death of Anna Catharina Hartkopf, wid0w of Isaac Müller.

Number 170.

In the year 1858, on the 24th of August, in the morning at 10:00 am, appeared before me Mayor Joseph Lambert Trip as civil registrar of the joint community of Solingen, the neighbors of the deceased, the scissors manufacturer Reinhard Birkendahl, 43 years old, and the knife worker Friedrich Kohl, 38 years old, both residing in Solingen, with the notice that the unemployed Anna Catharina Hartkopf, 91 years old, widow of the deceased at Solingen knife worker Isaac Müller, residing in Solingen and born at Mankhausen, community/parish of Merscheid, in the marriage of the deceased at Stockdum in Gräfrath married couple knife worker Wilhelm Hartkopf and Catharina Loh, died on the 22nd of August this year in the afternoon at 3:00 pm in their [her?] apartment here at Wehrwolf [=Werwolf = street in Solingen].

Read aloud, approved, and signed:

Rh Birkendahl | F. Kohl | Trip

Comment: See the following link regarding the street named "Werwolf" in Solingen: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werwolf_(Solingen)

Gary Knecht

Thank you @Robert Seal_1 . Especially for the link to street named "Werewolf." I will look for it when I visit Solingen in October.

Robert Seal_1

You're welcome, @Gary Knecht.

Gary Knecht

@Robert Seal_1 -- I have had no luck finding Anna Catharina Hartkop's birth record and would like to know if you can clarify who was in which city/town and where they were there. I have searched indexed FHL films 176232, 176234, & 176236 ( Solingen); 176248 & 176249 (Wald); and 186088 (Grafrath) looking for surnames Loh and Hartkop as parents of Anna Catharina Hartkopf around 1766 or 1767. Nothing came close. I have not yet checked unindexed films 176243 or 176244 (Solingen) as that will take a LOT of time.

Perhaps I need to look somewhere else (Mankhausen? Merscheid? Stockdum?) but I'm not sure where. Can you review your translation and suggest where I should look for birth of Anna Catharina Hartkop and/or marriage of her parents?

Gary Knecht

Because Anna Catharina Hartkopf married Peter Müller in 1792 and then Isaac Müller in 1811 (after Peter's death), she had a lot of children (10 altogether). Among the MANY godparents named, I picked out several that are most likely related to Anna Catharina: Anna Margaretha Loh (2x), Samuel Hartkopf (2x), Daniel Hartkopf (1x), and Philipp Hartkopf (1x). Not sure how this might help....

Robert Seal_1

@Gary Knecht

Hello Gary,

Yes, the word order in which these records are written can be very confusing as to who is who and where they are from.

Based on Anna Catharina Hartkopf Muller's 1858 death record, here is what we know:

She died at the age of 91 years in August 1858, so she was born circa 1766 or 1767. Since both of the informants who reported her death were neighbors rather than relatives, they might not have had her age exactly correct, so keep this in mind when searching for her birth record.

The death record states that she was born in Mankhausen in the community/parish of Merschied. I cannot find a place called "Mankhausen" in Meyers Gazetteer but I do find ONE place called Merscheid: https://www.meyersgaz.org/place/20172038 and this place has a Catholic parish.

Note however there is a district called Merscheid in the city of Solingen: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merscheid_(Solingen) I cannot find this Merscheid listed in Meyers Gazetteer. I would assume that this Merscheid would be covered by the parish records in Solingen.

So I would suggest you at least search the Merscheid found in Meyers for Anna Catharina's birth starting in the years 1766 and 1767, and then expanding the search if necessary to about 5 years on either side of these years.

Anna Catharina's parents are Wilhelm Hartkopf and Catharina Loh, both of whom apparently died in Stockdum (which is close to both Gräfrath and Solingen), but this doesn't mean that they married at Stockdum. They could have moved to Stockdum after they married some place else. Also, Stockdum appears to be covered by the parishes in Solingen and Gräfrath, places where you have already search.

I would suggest you also search in the Merscheid parish records for this marriage because this is where Anna Catharina was born.

If this doesn't provide any results for you then you will have to search the unindexed films for Solingen.

Best regards, Robert Seal_1

Robert Seal_1

Here is the link to the church records for Merscheid, Kreis Bernkastel, Rheinland from the Family History Library catalog: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/97306?availability=Family%20History%20Library

Here is the link to the civil records for Merscheid in Solingen from the Family History Library catalog: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/199385?availability=Family%20History%20Library

Unfortunately, this second link falls outside of your years of interest.

Gary Knecht

@Robert Seal_1

Hi Robert--Thanks so much for your replies! I'm still looking, but feel like I now know where to look.

After searching records for the Merscheid found in Meyers as well as several nearby villages, I came back to Solingen and reread the Wikipedia article on Merscheid (Solingen). Eventually I found my way to [Oben]Mankhaus[en] in Merscheid here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obenmankhaus.

I now feel confident this is where Anna Catharina Hartkopf was born - or at least where her neighbors (91 years later) believed she was born (to Wilhelm Hartkopf and Catharina Loh).

I will revisit the indexed records for Wald, Solingen, and Höhscheid circa 1766 and 1767 and then, when time permits, I will search the unindexed films for Solingen.

Thanks again,

Gary

Robert Seal_1

You're welcome, @Gary Knecht. And well done! -- excellent research finding the article on Obenmankhaus in the German Wikipedia. So yes, focus your search in the Solingen area and disregard searching the parish records for Merscheid, Kreis Bernkastel, Rheinland.

Best regards, Robert Seal_1

JohnsonGreg

Looking at the Meyers Gazetteer map of Solingen, there is a major road that arcs from Solingen westward to Ohligs. About 2/3 of the way to Ohligs the area of Merscheig is marked on the map with "Mer" above the road and "Scheid below the road. That road is called Beethovenstrasse to the east of Merscheid but becomes Merscheidstrasse when it enters the Merscheid area. This appears to be the mercheid strasse mentioned in the Obenmankhaus.

https://www.meyersgaz.org/place/20827013

If you zoom in on this googlemaps you can find the streets referred to in the article as well as a place called Mankhauser Hof.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/COBRA+SOLINGEN/@51.1616991,7.0185606,16.75z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xc02f4f6b57b51520!8m2!3d51.1627902!4d7.01842