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NOW, THE GREAT GREAT GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION: ANCESTOR NO. 15: JOSEPH KIRNER, SR. (~1837-1907)

  Joseph Kirner is a brick wall ancestor . That means he is the most distant Kirner ancestor for whom I can NOT find evidence of parents. Every document found that names him occurs in the second half of his life. No baptism or marriage record has been found for him, and he is not found in any census record until he was in his mid-thirties. He was born in New York City, and his parents were German immigrants. [1] His surname evolved from Körner to Kerner to Kirner, and was sometimes assumed to be Kernan, Kearny, or Kiernan , an Irish name. His trade as a bricklayer, also called a mason, helps distinguish him despite the recorded name variations. On a few documents, he was named John Joseph, but most called him Joseph. German men of the era often had the first name John (Johann) and went by their middle names. Joseph probably married Rosanna McGuire/Maguire in 1860 in New York City, judging from the age of his eldest child, John Joseph Jr., who was born on May 27, 1861. [2] Hi...
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ANCESTOR NO. 14: MARY AUGUSTA FELDWEG (1874-1960)

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 Besides myself, Mary Feldweg is the only twin in recent generations in my family. She was baptized Marie Auguste Feldweg at St. John’s (Second) German Lutheran Church in Newark, N.J., along with her twin sister Julie Bertha Feldweg in 1874. [1] They were the daughters of Robert Feldweg and Bertha Mühlpfordt , German immigrants. [2] Their birthday was May 15, 1874. They had an older sister, Henrietta Elizabeth , called Lizzie . Mary’s only brother, Robert Jr., was born on October 13, 1876. Due to the close bond between twins, even though she was only three and a half years old, Mary may have never forgotten when her sister Julia died on Nov. 21, 1877, of enteritis . [3] Could it have been food poisoning , appendicitis , or some other illness? Did the rest of the family have it, but survive? Mary’s younger sister, Bertha, was born on Feb. 28, 1879. Mary and Lizzie were already attending school in 1880. [4] In 1887, their parents bought a house at 37 West Street in Newark ...
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ANCESTOR NO. 13: OSCAR RICHARD BRUGUIER (1873-1950)

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 My grandmother was so proud of her father, the pharmacist Oscar Bruguier. At a time when few people went to college, he earned a degree. She told me that when he saw her mother riding a horse in the park, he fell so madly in love that he dropped out of medical school and married her. I don’t know if that’s true, but I did find an article naming him as one of the graduates of New York College, now called Columbia University. [1] Oscar was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, but my mother recalled he spoke with a German accent. My grandmother said that they spoke German at home. He was born on December 15, 1873. [2] His parents, Franz von Bruguier and Anna Ladewig, were both immigrants from the German state of Brandenburg (before Germany was a country). [3] Oscar’s parents had sixteen children, but only four survived childhood. He had an older brother Paul, a younger sister Minnie and a younger brother Frank. His father Frank had his own pharmacy, and Oscar probably grew up...
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