Virginia Caroline Wright's Maternal Ancestors: Prosit!

Maternal Ancestors for Virginia Caroline Wright South

Roll out the barrels—it’s time for our German lines, those good Germans who married other Germans primarily and kept their language and traditions alive. There were not enough German speakers in the newly formed United States to make German the official language, despite your having read this countless times. But there were sufficient German speakers to have Congress in 1795 consider publishing laws in both English and German. The initial proposal was dropped, and when it came up again, it failed; a bill was approved to publish existing and future federal laws in English. We Souths, like about 17% of Americans, have German ancestors, most of them having come from Virginia Caroline Wright’s maternal lines. Although only about 10% of our population at any given time had German backgrounds, their influence on our culture might be greater than that proportion would support. San Antonio, Texas, the heart of our Spanish and Mexican culture here Texas, was once about one-third German in population; there was a German-English school from 1858-1893; the Gunther hotel and the owner’s flour mill, Pioneer Flour Mill were begun by a German entrepreneur; the King William [Kaiser Wilhelm] neighborhood was once referred to as “Sauerkraut bend; there still exists a Maennerchor (Men’s choir); the city still bears many traces of German influence in its street names, Huebner, Beitel, Tezel, Wurzbach, Basse, etc. And of course San Antonio and the neighboring Hill Country towns like New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, and Boerne make the most of their German heritage with Wurst Fest, beer gardens and fests, wine fests, and plenty of Schnitzel and Apfel Struedel.

We will take these German lines back even earlier than this chart shows.

The Rosenbaums and Rosenbalms

There is a great book available in full on Ancestry.com, The Rosenbaum and Rosenbalm Family of Southwest Virginia compiled by Clifford R. Canfield, who coincidentally taught for the Department of Defense schools in Germany as David and I did for over 21 years. Clifford was assigned to Baumholder and was living in Frankfurt when his book was finished. We spent our years assigned to Heidelberg. At the time I was in Germany, I knew people involved in German genealogy for their families, but I was too caught up in being a teacher, librarian, parent, and tourist to take advantage of the location for our family history. Canfield’s book will form the backbone for much that I present to you about Virginia Caroline’s maternal grandparents, the Rosenbalms, and their ancestors.

 He begins his book with a discussion of the name Rosenbaum, which literally translated from German means Rose Tree. He makes it clear that while Rosenbaum can be spelled many ways, the Rosenbalm spelling was especially common in Washington County, Virginia. Canfield states that although many assume that Rosenbaum was originally a Jewish name, that is incorrect because Germans did not take surnames until the late 1700s and early 1800s. While there are many people in the United States whose ancestors were Jewish Rosenbaums, there is not a connection between our German Lutheran Rosenbaums and the Jewish families who often came from Central Europe according to Canfield. I can remember one of my first cousins, Tommy South, making the assumption that we had some Jewish background and his surprise when I told him they were just good old Protestants, trying to find a place to worship as they wanted, more land and a better life for their families. DNA has borne this out for the group of South cousins for whom I manage the DNA matches—no Jewish background--but I believe we all show Western European background as well as lots of ties to Great Britain. The Rosenbaum tie to Great Britain came as a big surprise to me though.

Though many Germans came from the Palatine region of Germany, in the southwestern part of Germany, it was a name applied to German immigrants from other regions as well. In the early 1700s the British promised two hundred acres of land and a year’s supplies, along with religious freedom, to Germans in order to have them colonize large areas of land in present day Pennsylvania. This was one way England planned to keep Sweden and Holland from becoming competitive colonizers in America. Hurried into London and then into camps awaiting ships for America, they later faced more camps in New York along the Hudson. The British government kept a record of the Germans who took this course of action, and so in Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration by Walter Knittle, a list of those Germans who needed subsistence allowances once in New York is found to contain the name of Bernhard Rosenbaum. Bernhard and his wife Catherine Winz are listed for the years 1710-1712. Like many others brought by the British to the colonies, Bernhard settled in the Swatara region of Pennsylvania. [I wonder if my grandparents Tom and Ester South realized they were using such an old family name in choosing Bernard for my uncle Joe’s second name?]

Hannss Bernhard Rosenbaum (1665-1710) 7xggf German Immigrant Ancestor

Bernhard Rosenbaum  was born in Koelbach (east of Bonn) and married Maria Catharina Winth in 1701 in the town of Orlen (north of Wiesbaden). He was a weaver of linen by trade. After their time in New York, Bernhard came with his family to the Swatara region of Pennsylvania with Reverend Casper Stoever in what was then Lancaster County. He is said to have helped Stoever organize a Lutheran church near New Holland, Pennsylvania. Bernhard and Catharine had three children.

Anthonius Conradus Rosenbaum (1702-1776) 6xggf German Immigrant Ancestor We have three DNA matches where the common ancestors between our trees and the trees of our matches are Anthonius Conradus Rosenbaum and his wife Barbara Baumann.

The first mention of Anthonius (Anthony) Conradus Rosenbaum is his marriage to Barbara Baumann, who was from Earl Town in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1737. It is also listed, according to the Canfield book, in records for the New Holland Lutheran Church. Earl Town is part of present New Holland. The births of their two older children are listed in Stoever’s records. Stoever traveled to many small settlements ministering to the German Lutherans he could. The place given for the two daughters Susanna and Salome in 1739 and 1741, respectively, was Swatara without a more specific settlement given. There are records in a Dauphin County (formed in 1785 from Lancaster County,PA) resource quoted by numerous sites that Anthony owned 200 acres of land in the eastern part of Hanover Township in 1750 and 1756. He died without a will in 1776, and his executors, wife Barbara and son Alexander, stated there were four daughters, one having died, leaving three children. Settlement of the estate was completed in April, 1776, Findagrave places his death and burial in New Holland, burial at Trinity Lutheran Cemetery where his wife Barbara is also interred.

Alexander Rosenbaum (1742-1806) 5xggf We have 55 DNA matches where the common ancestors between our trees and the matches’ trees are Alexander Rosenbaum and his wife Charaty Miller.

Alexander Rosenbaum was born in the Swatara region of Pennsylvania. One of Ancestry’s Family Data Collections for Individual Records lists his marriage to Charaty Gertrude Miller in 1762 in the Swatara region of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as well. After his father’s death he sought permission from the court to make a settlement of his father’s estate, and not long after that Alexander sold his land in Pennsylvania, and like so many other early colonists, he headed south to Rowan County, North Carolina. This county, formed in 1753, later was divided to make other counties with names familiar to us: Guilford and Surry County. It is slightly west of center in North Carolina. He must have planned this move before his father’s death because he appears on a 1768 tax list for Rowan County. Cranfield states that there are two vouchers paid for help provided during the Revolutionary War years, the second dated 1787. Online record of the Salisbury, Rowan County,1787 voucher is available on Family Search.org. Alexander also appears on the first Federal Census record for Rowan County, NC, with five children. Cranfield states that three of the older children had married by then and left home, one a son John who married a girl from German neighbors the Sprakers. The Sprakers had moved to Montgomery County (from which Washington County, Virginia, was later formed). Alexander has a deed in Rowan County for 1791 for 600 acres on both sides of the Brushy Fork of Abbott’s Creek on the east side of the Yadkin River. Between 1791 and 1793, Alexander and his family must have moved to Washington County, Virginia since he is on the personal tax list for 1793. His sons John and Anthony were already living there as well, but his younger sons lived in neighboring county Wythe County. Perhaps Alexander joined them from years 1794-1797 since he is not on Washington County rolls for those years. In November of 1805 Alexander bought 100 acres of Washington County land on the Middle Fork of the Holston River. Alexander’s 1806 death is on record with Findagrave showing burial in Zion Methodist Church cemetery, and there is also an Ancestry.com Family Record on his death. His will is on record with Washington County, Virginia. What is a little unusual about his will is that while he gives his wife Charaty some livestock, the furniture and benefits of the “plantation” during her natural life, he gives his daughter Eave/Eve the part of the plantation upon which he lives, unusual because daughters usually did not inherit land. He puts his son John in charge as executor. The will is signed with an X indicating that Alexander did not write English. The inventory of his property, done in August, 1806, shows the typical things a farmer might have: livestock, a plow, grubbing hoe, ax, carpenter tools, adze, saddle, scythe, and a cupboard, the total less than $166. It appears that Charaty and Eve bought some land in November, 1806.

This is a tree chart from the Cranfield book showing two generations of the Rosenbaums, Anthony and John as well as siblings.

Alexander Rosenbaum Will 1806

John Rosenbaum (1765-1821) 4xggf We have 128 DNA matches where the common ancestors between our trees and the matches’ trees are John Rosenbaum and his wife Catherine Spraker.

John Rosenbaum was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1765 before the family moved from Pennsylvania to Rowen County, North Carolina.  John’s first Washington County, Virginia, record is a deed of the purchase of 400 acres of land, one of the earlier deeds in Washington County since it is in Deed Book 1. In 1797 he bought 85 more acres on a branch of the Laurel. He is listed on both land and personal property tax books in Washington County, Virginia, from 1791 until his death is 1821. He asked permission in 1808 from the sheriff in Washington County to build a grist mill and to erect a dam across the South Fork of the Holston river since he owned land on both sides of that river after a party of twelve “fit persons” (names included familiar WCV names like Snodgrass, Kincannon, and Hand) examined his plan to see if it would harm his neighbors homes, gardens, or orchards. Permission was finally granted in 1812. The land tax rolls in 1811 listed the original 400 acres plus three other tracts, one 150 acres, one 50 acres, and one 42 acres. John and his family is listed in both the 1810 and 1820 censuses. John died without a will in 1821. The inventory of his estate was lengthy compared to many I have seen from that era. It is believed that Catherine then lived with her sons David and Adam. She died in 1830 in Damascus and was buried beside her husband at Zion. Her will recorded in WCV left some livestock to sons Adam and Valentine and personal items to various daughters and grandchildren, then the balance of her personal property to son David.

George Rosenbaum (1772-1854) 4xggf We have 6 DNA matches where the common ancestors between our trees and the matches’ trees were George Rosenbaum and wife Mary Spraker.

I have commented before that sometimes the family tree does not fork, and George and his brother John, mentioned just above, are good illustrations of that. We will get to the case of their marrying Spraker girls who were related later. George was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the Swatara region like his brother John. In 1796 George married Anna Maria “Mary” Spraker in Wythe County, Virginia, roughly two counties away from his Washington County, Virginia, family. The first mention of George’s property involved some 456 acres first assigned to his grandfather by James Campbell in a record dated 1800. It was on the south side of Cripple Creek, and by 1806 George apparently owned full title to that land. The land joined land of another Rosenbum, Adam. George is shown on the census for 1820, 1830, and 1840. He and his wife had several land deeds in the 1820s and 1830s. George died in February, 1854, and was buried at Zion Lutheran Church in the Cripple Creek Valley about five miles southwest of Crockett, Virginia. His will left his wife the use of all his property during her life, asks that all his other property be sold after his death to provide specified bequests to his daughters and some grandchildren. He states he has given his son George all he intends to give him, which most likely means he already gifted him some property. He appoints a Spraker to be his executor. His widow Mary died in 1855 and is buried near him and her parents near Cripple Creek, Virginia.

David Rosenbalm (1809-1885) 3xggf We have 18 DNA matches where the common ancestors between our trees and the matches’ trees were David Rosenbalm and Catherine Rosenbaum.

David Rosenbalm was the son of John Rosenbalm / Rosenbaum and Catherine Spraker. He married his cousin Catherine Rosenbaum in Wythe County, Virginia, in 1829. They lived in Washington County, Virginia, where he farmed. He bought a brother’s share of his father’s estate in 1828. His land was on the south side of the Holston River. David more or less exchanged farms with Valentine Rosenbalm, a brother, in 1835. He is listed in the 1840 census with a household of nine. That same year he was appointed as road overseer. In 1850 he was listed in an agricultural census, and on the US Census for that year he is listed as a farmer with ten children at home; the oldest, John is labeled as a farmer as well as his father at age 16. In 1854 disaster struck this family; diptheria took the lives of four of the children. In the 1860 census David and Catherine have four children at home, Anna Mary already having left home to marry. David joined the 37^th Infantry Regiment in 1862 and was mustered out at Fort Delaware, which means he was a POW at the end of the war. He was listed in tax assessments by the county and IRS during his life. He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1868. Catherine died in 1870. He remarried to a widow, Francis Hailman Spraker, in 1872. David is shown living with his son Asa on the farm in Washington County. 

Anna Mary “Annie” Rosenbalm Robinson Wright (1831-sometime around 1920?) Great Grandmother As stated in the Wright section, we have 19 DNA matches where the common ancestors between our trees and the matches’ trees are Anna Mary “Annie” Rosenbalm Robinson Wright and her husband James Hand Wright. My Thru Lines alone suggest that I have many matches through Anna herself, some of them of course my known South cousins, and some not.

After generations of little change in the lives of our Wrights and Rosenbalm folks tucked in the hills of Virginia, change was on its way for Anna, born in 1831 to David and Catherine Rosenbalm. She likely appeared in the 1840 census, but as a child her name did not appear on the census until 1850 when she is shown at home with her parents aged 18. She married at age 25 in 1856 John Calvin Robinson from Smythe County, the next county over from Washington County.  From that name, I think it’s very likely his family was Protestant! They had one son, James E.T. Robinson, and then John died. I could not locate a death certificate for him, but it was some time in 1860.

In the 1860 census it appears Anna is living with the David SK Wrights and is listed as a weaver, but James Robinson is not listed in that household, nor does he ever appear with Anna again. I have listed in my tree that he lived only twenty years, but no other information, so he presents a challenging mystery for us.  

Since James Hand Wright was a Confederate soldier, during the war years Mary must have lived alone with her first three children, Virginia, the infant D.R. who died in 1865, and Frances “Fannie.”   In the 1870 census Anna and James are listed in Washington County and the post office is given as Abingdon. James Robinson is not listed in that household, but James Hand Wright’s daughter by his first wife, Margaret is listed. By that time there were two sons, Robert and Charles, and two daughters, Virginia Caroline and Frances “Fannie” Catherine. The 1880 census is for the Holston District and the same four children are at home; son John had died at age four in 1876.

There is no 1890 census for the United States, but this decade brought change for Anna. Her daughter Martha Wright died at age 15 in 1886.  We know that Fannie married in 1882 to George Printz. By 1890 they had five children, and by 1900 they were living in Callahan County, Texas, with eight children and Anna. James Hand Wright died in 1897. In 1896 or ’97, after her father died and left them a sum of money, Virginia Caroline and her husband CE South had also turned up in Callahan County, Texas, with their first seven children. It is hard to imagine how changed Anna’s life was without her husband or her son Robert who had left for Oregon, now attached to her daughter Fannie’s family eking out a rather poor existence in Texas.

Her son-in-law George was an “itinerant” Methodist minister in Callahan County and also in Ector County where he moved the family as shown in the 1910 Census. Fannie passed away in 1915 and is buried in Lamesa, Texas, but George had moved the family to Ector County seemingly without Mary who does not appear in the 1910 census. Virginia Caroline passed away in 1923 in Callahan County. So it has been a great mystery to us all what happened to Anna Mary “Annie” Rosenbalm Robinson Wright after the West Texas move.

However, our cousin Julia Griffin had the foresight to record family remembrances of her aunts Ava Martin and Oma Thelma Griffin, recorded in her handwriting on notebook paper. Both of them recalled that Virginia Caroline took Ava and Ralph, who would have been young children, sometime before Virginia Caroline’s death in 1923, out to West Texas on the train to Judkins (now a part of Big Spring), for Anna’s funeral. They recall George picking them up in a wagon to go to the funeral.

Though Julia and Bob and I have good intentions of trying to find out the time and place of Anna Mary Rosenbalm Robinson Wright’s passing and her place of burial, we have not yet done so. Phone calls to the county library of Ector County have been of no help. Julia says she thinks once her family tried to find Anna’s grave, but it was on private land. I have wondered if she is actually buried with Fannie in Lamesa, but I have nothing to indicate that.

Thanks to Julia Griffin for this photcopy of a picture of Anna Mary “Annie” Rosenbalm Robinson Wright, my great great grandmother

Resources

Resources I found on Ancestry.com that have been helpful are Findagrave, AGBI, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, Family Data Collection, Births, Family Data Collection Deaths, Family Data Collection, Individual Records, North Carolina Census 1790-1890, Annals of southwest Virgnia, 1769-1800, The Rosenbaum-Rosenbalm Family of Southwest Virginia by Clifford R. Canfield published in Frankfurt, Germany 1963, The Virginia Regimental Series,

Foreign, mostly German records that I could see existed but not access to read thoroughly came from these sources on Ancestry.com International version [for which I do no pay the hefty upgrade fee, alas]:

Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1500-1971.

https://archive.org/details/earlyeighteenthc00knit/page/288 online version of The Early Palatine Emigration: A British Government Redemptioner Project to Manufacture Naval Stores by Walter Knittle, published in New York Philadelphia in 1937. This book was one of the sources used by

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t7pn9bj63&view=1up&seq=61 online version of Records of Rev. Casper Stoever: baptismal and marriage, 1707-1709. Published in Harrisburg, PA, 1896. Anthonius Rosenbaum and Barbara Baumann marriage listed in this book.

https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/10428#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=3674%2C497%2C1491%2C1142 Online map of early German settlers in Lower Rowan County, NC. There are lands labeled Rosenbaum on this map.

https://www.newrivernotes.com/ Interesting website for Washington County, Virginia, and neighboring counties in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. It has tax rolls and a variety of things about the Rosenbalms.

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/burchett/897/ A Rootsweb site with information on the Rosenbaums and some of their ancestors.

http://benedgar.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-ancestry-of-susannah-rosenbaum-wife.html A blog post with information on the Rosenbaums and some of their ancestors.