Gregarin Hobers and His Descendants

Gregarin Hober (the son of Oster and Afra Hober) was my 7th Great Grandfather.  He was born in Staudt, Rheinland Pfalz, Germany.  He and his wife Maria had 2 children -- Andreas (1690-1750) and Johann Adam (1698-1742).  Since there is a big gap between the births of Andreas and Johann Adam, I wouldn't be surprised to find some other siblings.

Andreas married Katharina Ida Posch  and they had 3 children -- Katharina (1724-1786), Afra (1728-1742) and Valentin (1733-1797).

Johann Adam married Sophia Sabel (born in 1705) and they had 6 or 7 children -- Johannes Wandelin (1723-), Anna Christina (1725-), Christian (1728-), Maria (1731-), Katherina (1734-1790), George and Andreas (1735-1748).  I am not sure whether George and Andreas are two separate people or are twins.  Information on Find A Grave shows that they were born in 1735 and died in 1748.

Anna Christina Hober was my 5th great grandmother.  She married Christian Hommerich (1719-1765).  An interesting fact about her was that her younger sister Katherina married Christian's younger brother Anton Hommerich (1734-1797).   My great grandmother Theresa Homrich had a sister Helen that married the brother of my great grandfather Peter Joseph Nebgen.  I think it was much more common back then for sisters to marry men who were brothers.

TWIN SISTERS

This is a follow-up to my Wednesday post.  My paternal grandmother Theresa Nebgen Sherlock's mother Theresa Homrich Nebgen (confused yet?) had a twin sister Josephine Homrich Schmidt.  According to family legend and the newspaper clipping, their father Sebastian Homrich couldn't tell them apart until they were 14 years old.

I remember Grandma Theresa telling us kids the story often that her mother was one of a set of twins.  I think that was a big deal in those days.  Now with the help of fertility pills and IVF, twins and other multiple births are a lot more common.

Theresa Homrich married Peter Joseph Nebgen while her twin sister Josephine married Joseph Anthony Schmidt. Theresa's older sister Helen was married to Peter Nebgen's older brother Nicholas.  Yeah, it is fun doing my family tree!

What I found very interesting was not that Theresa and Josephine died 6 years apart -- Theresa in 1945 and Josephine in 1939, but that it was 1 day apart -- Theresa on May 7th and Josephine on May 6th.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

                                                Theresa and Josephine Homrich

CRUISING DOWN THE RHINE RIVER

After my Grandparents (Charles Sherlock and Theresa Nebgen Sherlock) visited the Cologne Cathedral, they continued their river cruise down the Rhine.  According to Theresa's travel diary, they visited St. Goar [Sankt Goar -- a town on the left bank of the Middle Rhine], Bonn (the capital of Germany) and Heidelberg.  They stayed overnight in Heidelberg and visited the Heidelberg Castle (which has still been only partially re-built), attended Mass since that day was a holy day (Corpus Christi) in Germany and visited the University of Heidelberg.  During my research, I learned that not only is the University of Heidelberg the oldest university in Germany but was the 3rd university founded in the Holy Roman Empire.  Now that is impressive!

On their way to Switzerland, Charlie and Theresa visited Freiburg im Breisgau, a town in southwestern Germany. They then visited the Rhine Falls, which is the largest plain waterfall in Europe.  I believe the photo above has the falls behind Theresa.  From the Rhine Falls, Theresa and Charlie visited the city of Lucerne, Switzerland.  They saw one of the famous landmarks, the Chapel Bridge (a covered wooden footbridge that crosses the river) and Mt. Rigi (also known as Queen of the Mountains).

Theresa wrote in her diary "Switzerland is beautiful so far I don't know which country [Germany or Switzerland] I like the best."

SUNDAY'S OBITUARY

          The above obituary is for my Great Grandmother Theresa Nebgen Homrich.  She was born on 10 Sep 1870 in Byron Center, Michigan.  Her twin sister was Josephine Nebgen.  Theresa married Joseph Peter Nebgen on 3 Feb 1891 in North Dorr, Michigan.  Soon after their marriage, they moved to Chicago, where they raised 3 daughters and a son.  They belonged to St. Mathias Parish in Chicago.

         Her husband, Peter Nebgen died on 26 Feb 1944 in Chicago.  Ten months later, Theresa went to Los Angeles to live with her youngest daughter Theresa Nebgen Sherlock, who was living with her husband Charles Sherlock in the Hollywood Hills.  Theresa Nebgen died while in Los Angeles on 7 May 1945.  They shipped her body back to Chicago for the funeral (since most of the family lived in Chicago) and for burial at St. Boniface Cemetery.

PLAYING DETECTIVE WITH PHOTOS

      I spend a lot of time staring at old photos, some how wishing the names of the people in the photo will magically become known to me. Yes, I have read those articles on how to decipher clothing and other tell tale signs that will let you know what year/era the photo was taken.  Personally, I prefer the "staring" method.  Look at this photo and then look at another photo.  Do the people look the same?  Would they look the same 20 years sooner or later?   Where is that age progression software when you need it?  More importantly, why couldn't my ancestors write the names on the back of the photos?   Of course, this photo had the names written on the back and I am still confused!

     You see when someone writes "Aunt Therese" and "Aunt Helen" and "Uncle Josef Nebgen", I assumed the Aunts were from the Wittayer family and had no clue who they were.  All I knew for sure was that the man in the 2nd row to the far right was my great grandfather Peter Joseph Nebgen (or Uncle Josef Nebgen).   I knew that the woman next to him was his sister Maria Rosina, even though the photo lists her as Mrs. Haus.

        So, after many stares at the photo, some discussion with Suzanne in Germany and a little research on passenger lists I discovered that my great grandmother and her sister were in the photo, too.  A 1929 passenger list shows that my great grandfather Peter Joseph Nebgen traveled with his wife Theresa [Homrich] Nebgen back from Germany to the US.  Suzanne had already told me that this photo was taken in Germany in 19129 and she had a matching photo.  So, that "Aunt Theresa" was actually my Great Grandma Theresa.  She is in the 2nd row standing to the left of Maria.

        Also, on that passenger list, it shows that Theresa's sister Helen Homrich Nebgen (yes, Helen had married Peter Joseph's brother Nicholas but he had died in 1915)  and her daughter Rose Nebgen Roemer were sailing back from Germany.  This means that "Aunt Helen" is actually my Great Aunt Helen Homrich Nebgen.  She is the lady sitting in the front row to the far right.  I won't even ask where Rose is.  Perhaps, she took the photo.

         I do know the names of the rest of the people in the photo but haven't figured out their exact relationship to Peter Joseph. I'm guessing cousins!  Their last name is Wittayer (Wittaner) -- the same as Peter and Emil's mother's maiden name but I need the connector to our tree (probably a sibling of Peter's mother).  Confused already?  I guess I need to do a bit more "staring" and a lot more research!

TREASURE CHEST THURSDAY

      I am always afraid that I am going to run out of topics to discuss on my blogs.  Of course, if you asked my husband and kids, they would say that it was impossible for me to run out of things to say!  I guess my worry is due to my finite collection of photos. I always like having a photo with my post. So, what happens when I have utilized my entire collection. I forget, however, what other gems I have besides the traditional  photos of ancestors.

      A perfect example is this photo above of a note written by either my Grandma Theresa or perhaps even her mother, Theresa Homrich Nebgen.  On the page is listed all the descendants of Sebastian Homrich.  You see he married twice (his first wife died the day after giving birth to their 3rd child).  Sebastian then married Anna Simon, who gave birth to 14 children (including a set of twins).  Great Grandma Theresa was one of those twins along with her sister Josephine.  I always thought it was interesting that Theresa died six years and one day after the death of her twin sister.  

    This paper was filed in our family bible and I received it as the family bible was passed down to me.  It was a huge treasure find and started off my genealogy research of the Sebastian Homrich family very nicely.  It probably saved me many hours of research.

    Okay, maybe I need to do a bit organizing and planning and then won't have to worry about running out of topics!