Tuesday, April 15, 2014

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #15 ~ Christian Zaugg

Written for Amy Johnson Crow's Challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. (click on the icon in the sidebar for details at Amy's blog)


First just the facts:
Name: Christian Zaugg
Born: 07 Dec 1822, Eggiwil, Bern, Switzerland
Married: Elizabeth Bealman, 15 Apr 1858, Wayne County, Ohio
Died: sometime between the 1880 census and the 1900 census


Relationship: Christian is my 3rd great-granduncle. I am descended through his younger brother, Jacob:


 - his daughter, Emma (Zaugg) Graber (1860 – 1919)
 - her daughter, Ella Rosa (Graber) Saurer (1883 - 1963)
 - her daughter, Lela Mabel (Saurer) Ritchie (1913 - 1991)
 - her son, my father, Donald John Ritchie (living)


The few things I know about Christian:
He came over with the rest of his family in 1853.  As noted above, he married in 1858 to a girl who had also come here from Switzerland (Berne, Switzerland according to the 1860 census.)

In the 1870 census the family is still in Ohio and have listed all the children shown on the page from the Zaugg book. The image I've seen of the census is exceptionally hard to read, but there is no doubt that there are 5 children listed.

Which brings me to an interesting discrepancy and one I never noticed until I started writing this blog post. It appears possible that there were two children named William.  I find a child, William, age 2 months, born in Ohio listed here on the 1870 census when the family is still in Wayne County.   However by 1880, when the family is living in Tennessee, there is a child, William, age 8 listed as being born in Tennessee.  Every other record I have for William indicates he was born in Tennessee so I need to look for a death record for the first William in Ohio or Tennessee. 

The 1880 census is the last time I have a record for Christian.  I haven't really looked in Tennessee to see what else might be available as this is a collateral relative that I don't currently have time to research.  The good news for me is that one of the cousin connections I've made is a great-great-granddaughter of Christian through his son William so there is another genealogist on his trail.

All I know is that by 1900 Elizabeth is back in Ohio living with her daughter Lena's [now Eichenberger] family.  Elizabeth is listed as a widow.  So, I still have a big question mark about Christian - where and when did he die and where is he buried?

4 comments:

  1. sure are a lot of "christ"s on that page...

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    1. Yep, and it's not even your family Christ-ian Mathis!

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  2. I like how Christian Zaugg's is a collateral relative... It makes him sound like collateral damage LOL! Hummmm but the William child is mysterious?...

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    Replies
    1. Some day I'll figure out William, but not right now. And we LOVE collateral lines - sometime I find things when I trace them that I haven't been able to find out tracing the direct lines. So it's really the opposite of collateral damage - it's like collateral goodness!!

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