Share a bit about one of your fascinating ancestors in the comments. Frankly, I find something intriguing about all of my ancestors, even what some may consider mundane. I consider it part of what made them who they were and, in turn, makes me who I am.
For instance, my 3rd-great-grandfather mentioned yesterday, John Henry Lichtenfels, immigrated from Germany and was said to have been the first German baker in Richmond, Ind. He was married twice, the first time in Germany and the second time in the United States. The jury is still out on whether the first marriage ended in a legal fashion. My 2nd-great-grandmother, Caroline (Lichtenfels) Hammann Mayer, was a daughter of the second union. At some point before John Henry died in 1853, his first wife and the children from that marriage immigrated to the U.S. I often wonder how that went over with the second wife.
Caroline married first Christopher Hamman who died a few years into the marriage. She then wed the widower Paul Mayer, an immigrant to the U.S. from Germany. This was his third marriage, the first two ending in death. Paul's first two wives were both named Mary; Paul buried both women beneath the same headstone.
I would love to learn more about the Lichtenfels and Mayers in Germany some day!
Below: Paul Mayer's Declaration of Intent (naturalization papers), filed in Richmond, Wayne, Ind., 1859. So much information, including from whence he sailed (Havre) to where he disembarked (New York); that date (4 April 1859); that he was no longer loyal to the King of Wurttemberg, Germany; and the day he signed this, 7 October 1859. Presumably, the clerk, Andrew Scott, spelled Paul's name incorrectly (as "Maier") where Paul signed for himself (as "Mayer").
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