52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #29 Christina S. Schenkel

I decided to venture across the ocean again and write about one of my German ancestors.

Christina Sophia Schenkel was my maternal 4th great grandmother. I have her birth year as 1748 and her death year as 1816. I didn't record where I got these years, but I probably got them from a family tree on ancestry.com years ago when I first started compiling the tree. I don't have any parents or siblings listed for her. She married Johann Nicholas Roedelsperger/Rodelsperger, and they are the parents of Johann Adam Roedelsperger (John Adam Redles), my German immigrant 3rd great grandfather and husband of Sarah Rulon.

I found a Christina Sophia Schenkel in an index on ancestry.com called Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898. It lists her birth date as February 8, 1747 in Groß Umstadt, Hessen, Germany, and her death year as 1816 in Germany. She was baptized the day after her birth on February 9, 1747. It lists her parents as Johann Conrad and Sophia Elisabetha Schenkel. This could be my Christina, but I'll need to do more research to confirm. Another record in that same index on ancestry.com gives the place of baptism as Evangelisch, Gross Umstadt, Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt. I found records of two more children of Johann and Sophia: Anna Maria born in 1744 and Maria Philippina born in 1749. These could be Christina's sisters.

One of my German Rodelsperger cousins, who has done extensive research, put together a pedigree chart several years ago for the Rodelsperger/Redles branches. He has that Christina Schenkel and Johann Nicholas Rodelsperger were married October 1, 1767, in Heubach, Germany (a district in Groß Umstadt, Hessen, Germany). He gives Christina's death date as January 14, 1816, in Heubach and that she was buried on January 17, 1816. Besides Johann Adam (my 3rd great grandfather), he lists their other children as Johannes (b. 1767), Johann Jakob (b. 1769), Catherina Elisabetha (b. 1771), Johann Nicholaus (b. 1774), Johann Leonhardt (b. 1777), and Margaretha Elisabetha (b. 1778). He notes that Christina's father was Johann Eduard Schenkel.

Click on the map below for a larger view.

Heubach, a district of the south Hessian town of Gross-Umstadt in Darmstadt-Dieburg, Germany (Google maps)

Several years ago, my mom, her sister, and my youngest sister went to Heubach, Germany, for a reunion of Rodelsperger/Redles descendants. I wasn't able to go, but I hope someday to have the opportunity!

Catherine

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.

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