For years now, the spouse of Henry August Holzgraefe (born in Bergkirchen, Germany in 1824) has been known as Caroline Baker due to the undeniable Indiana marriage record which marriage took place in the Evansville, Trinity Lutheran Church in 1850. Since I first started my Holzgrafe research I have been puzzled by Caroline. I couldn't find any Bakers in Evansville who might be related to the German immigrant. Over the years I slowly built up clues. Her birth and death dates were known due to her death records in 1899. She was born on 5 December 1825 in Germany. Baker was not a very common German surname. I thought I'd try looking at the marriage records of the children of Henry and Caroline as they often will have the mother's maiden name on them. Sure enough two of their children gave us clues as to the true maiden name of Caroline. One record indicated that the child's mother's name was Caroline S. and the other record showed a Caroline Schnake. Schnake? Not even close to Baker. As I looked closer, I could see that the Holzgrafes tended to live near a group of Schnakes. These must be her relatives, I thought! I began to research the Schnake family tree using Family Search and other sources. I put together a neat little family tree and was able to help the Schnake family tree grow a bit in the Evansville, Indiana area.
Then it began. The father of the neighbor Schnakes was Johann Daniel Ludewig Schnake who was born in Bergkirchen, Germany as were his children. I thought, hey, why don't I just search for a Caroline Schnake *1825? The first hit was Marie Caroline Louise Schnake *5 December 1825 in Bergkirchen, Germany daughter of Johann Daniel Ludewig Schnake and his first wife.
I have absolutely no doubt that Marie Caroline Louise Schnake is the wife of Henry August Holzgrafe. As to how her name became Baker for the marriage record, I am not sure. Perhaps she married a Baker shortly before and he passed away. Or perhaps they just wrote her name down wrong. Schnaker sounds a little like Baker...maybe? Either way, I am satisfied. One more mystery solved.
Nice work!
ReplyDelete