Emma Steinhauer

Written by her granddaughter Marjorie Wright, February 21, 2011

copyright 21 February 2011

I began researching my paternal Grandmother's ancestry, since everyone has always seemed to concentrate on the males in a family to the point of boredom. I knew little about her family history, except that they were from Germany. As a child I heard a jumble of German names which I could never keep straight. The story I knew was that her mother was born in Germany, and that my grandmother Emmy, born in America in September 1885, was a "first generation" American. (I won't get into the argument of what really constitutes a "first generation" American.)

These grandparents' families were so large, with 10 and 12 kids, and, it seemed to me, so old, that I really didn't meet many of them,
and yet the ones I did know made me curious to learn about my Germans. Emmy's mother, Elizabetha Kunigunda Heinlein, married Friedrich George Steinhauer, but I was surprised to learn they were married in 1874 in the church where I was confirmed, St John's United Church of Christ in Newport, Kentucky.

The marriage of Emmy's grandmother, Elizabetha Barbara Stroebel, to George Heinlein, took place in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1848, so then I knew that Emmy's mother, Elizabetha Kunigunda Heinlein, was the actual "first generation" American, born in America. I suspect Elizabeth and George knew each other before they got here, either in Germany or on the boat, since there seems to be a George Heinlein on the ship with Elizabeth, with, I think, the right age difference. But some details did not fit.

The object then was to find Elizabetha Barbara Stroebel's parents, born and dead in Bavaria, but I hit the proverbial wall, having searched for what seemed like forever. ( I wish I had kept a time record for the hours I spent searching.) I've since connected with family members who went to Germany searching for the ancestors.

There were many gaps in my search for records, until I decided that only by scanning every Census where I thought the family
should have been would I find them, and found an incredible number of spelling and fact discrepancies along the way. They did live right at the fractured edge of the Civil War. And yet, when I found their records, it was obvious they were the right ones. The names and ages, as well as much of the birth information, was pretty much a fit. (I also decided that one of those Campbell County Census takers was, in fact, dyslexic. Names are included with all the letters, but in somewhat random order, but that's what makes the quest interesting.)

I have not yet discovered anyone on Ancestry who has found my Maria Stroebel. I eventually discovered the Census of 1860 for the
George Heinlein's, and strangely enough, there was a woman living in their household named "Mary Stable", listed as 67 years old.
No relationship was listed, but something said this was Elizabetha's mother, Maria Barbara Stroebel, with a misspelled name. And since she wasn't later included in the 1870 Census for Heinlein, I figured she had died and would be buried in the same cemetery as
Elizabetha's family, but endless repeated searching in records of Northern Kentucky cemeteries and churches did not turn up her name, even though the Heinlein's are there. I decided she was a victim of vanished records and broken tombstones.

It nagged me to know she was somewhere and I couldn't find her... So I took another road, and found a Mary (also shown as Margaret) Barbara Stroebel, who married Friederich Heitmeyer in Cincinnati in 1846 and they were married in the same church as Elizabetha and George Heinlein. Deciding this was Elizabetha's sister, the search for the Heitmeyer's was on.

I had not yet found their Census record for 1870, but in the 1880 Census, 20 years later, living with the Heitmeyer's, is one Maria Stroebel, 20 years older, age 87! Shocking! What are the odds this is Emma Steinhauer's great grandmother?

If you cross the bridge to Cincinnati, and go to the Spring Grove Cemetery, you can find some of the Heitmeyer relations buried there. But Maria Barbara is not next to them, at least as far as I can tell.

If you go to Section 81, Lot 38, Space 7, you will find the grave of John M. Stroebel, Elizabetha Heinlein and Margareta Heitmeyer's brother, who had been a hotelkeeper, along with his wife, Marie M (Grau) Stroebel. When John and Mary retired, his daughter took over the hotel, and he became a "professor of the Violin". It was a relief to know that in addition to all the farmers and grocers in the family, we could learn something about the cultured side of their lives.

If you have time, look next to that grave, at Section 81, Lot 38, Space 6, and you will see the grave of Maria Barbara Stroebel (spelled Strobel), born in Bavaria, 1 July 1792, died 17 July 1890, dead at the age of 98! Her great granddaughter, Emma Steinhauer, may even have known her, since Emma was born in 1885.

The Spring Grove record has many errors and typos, and where the form says "Ordered by" it reads "472 Ract St" (sic). What it really should say is "472 Race Street", her last known address, which is the address where Heitmeyer's were living in the 1880 Census. As I was growing up, I walked past that address all the time, on the way to Shillito's department store, without ever knowing part of my family had lived there.

Her parents' names are listed as "J. & Wilhofer", but I assume that is either a last name of Wilhofer, or the names are either John/Jacob/Josef and Wilhelmina Hofer, although I haven't found a record of them yet, but they are almost certainly in Germany. Given the problems with the lack of precision on these forms, it may not be their names at all.

Oh, and Maria Barbara Stroebel's cause of death at the age of 98 is rather surprising. Her "Disease" was listed as "Old age".
With an immigrant WWII war bride mother, whose family history was also a serious surprise, I've never felt like I really belonged, but finding my great, great, great grandmother, Maria Barbara Stroebel, so close to where I grew up, has changed that. It will be awhile before I can visit Maria's grave, since all my research was done on my home computer in Montana, with no personal family records. I'm glad I could find her and make sense of her story without mindlessly copying someone else's "tree" on the Ancestry website.

Emma died at the age of 89. I still miss her, but I often feel her presence. It gives me peace and courage. And I am forever grateful that my ancestors, especially the women, had the courage to immigrate, or I probably wouldn't be here.

As an afterthought, while writing this, I realized it verified a Census record for John M. Stroebel. I could never understand the place of birth for Elizabetha and George Steinhauer's oldest child, but I think I now know she was probably born where the Steinhauer's were living at the time - in or near Elizabetha's Uncle John Stroebel's hotel. Their first born child, who never married, later died in the house of Emmy's parents, Elizabetha and Friedrich George Steinhauer, where they had retired in Southgate, Kentucky, one half a block from Emmy's home. And I knew her.

She died in 1955. She shared that house with Emma's youngest son, now home from WWII, where he served in Luzon, the Philippines, and his new wife, Nancy Holliday.  I was the flower girl at their wedding.


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