Identifying the Parents of Jacob Knieper

 

JACOB KNIEPER OF MAPLE GROVE TOWNSHIP, SAGINAW COUNTY, MICHIGAN

 

In the early-mid 1880s immigrants Jacob Knieper and his wife Katherine Laven settled in Maple Grove Township, Saginaw County, Michigan, where they bought farmland and spent the rest of their lives.^⁠ [1] Some of their six children remained in Saginaw County (sons Anthony, William, Henry); son Nicholas settled in the Traverse City area; daughter Catherine in Lorain County, Ohio; and daughter Gertrude in Ionia County, Michigan. [2]^⁠

 

Jacob and Katherine’s descendants are numerous and there is a long tradition of interest in the family history and in listing descendants. Sometime during the mid or late 1970s an eighteen-page Knieper family history and compiled genealogy was typed onto ditto masters and distributed to relatives. Sister Wilhelmina Knieper OP, daughter of Nicholas, wrote the two pages of family history; the compiled genealogy was probably the joint work of her and her cousin Sister Frederica (née Louisa) Knieper OP, daughter of Henry. [3]

 

In her discussion of the immigrant couple Sister Wilhelmina acknowledged, “We know very little about the early history of this [Jacob and Katherine (Laven) Knieper] family,” but, “We know that all the children [of Jacob and Katherine] were born in Germany, the youngest being about three or four years old when they came to America in 1882 [sic].” She made no mention of Jacob’s parents or of any siblings he might have had.^⁠

 

Jacob’s American records provide little or no information about his origins beyond “Prussia” or “Germany.” [4] Sister Wilhelmina named her grandparents’ village of origin as “… Illerick, a village south of Koblenz on the Rhine River in Germany. The village, Illerick, which is now extinct, was probably a group of houses clustered around the church.” There are small errors of geography here but enough information to confidently identify the place. Illerich (not Illerick) is not extinct although it is now incorporated into the Verbandsgemeinde of Kaisersesch; and it is not on the Rhine River but it is in Rhineland. [5]^⁠  The village lies a few miles north of the Moselle River and about 24 miles southwest of the city of Koblenz, which is on the Rhine River where the Moselle flows into it.^⁠ [6]

 

Jacob’s death certificate records two additional details critical to placing him in his birth family and identifying his parents: a birthdate of 31 August 1837 and his father’s name Anton. [7]^⁠

 

Many of the public member trees on genealogy sites such as Ancestry and MyHeritage name no parents for either Jacob or Katherine; of those which do name parents, nearly all name Jacob’s parents as Franciscus (or Franz) Knieper and Margareta Sesterhenn. [8]^⁠ I propose a different couple as Jacob Knieper’s parents.

 

 

JAKOB KNIEPER OF ILLERICH, RHINELAND-PALATINATE, GERMANY

 

The imaged parish records of Illerich and neighboring Landkern do not include the years 1832–1847 and so we cannot identify Jacob’s parents from a birth or baptismal record. [9]^⁠ The parish record of his 1865 marriage with Catharina Lawen names him the son of Antonius Knieper and the late [defuncta] Anna Margaretha Kremer and gives his age as 28. Additionally, the two named witnesses to the marriage include “Antonius Knieper pater [his father].” [10]

 

 

Furthermore, the godfather of Jacob and Katherine’s first child Anton [infans primogenitus] is specifically identified as “Antonius Knieper avus [his grandfather].” [11]^⁠

 

Although the parish baptismal records for that critical (to us!) period are not available or are no longer extant, the Familienbuch (family register) for Illerich is and is imaged on FamilySearch. The family of “Jakob Knieper” and “Katharina Lawen” appears on page 391. [12] The entry records Jakob’s birth date as 1 September 1837 and his parents as Anton Knieper and A[nna] Marg[areta] Kremer. Jakob and Katharina’s marriage date of 12 October 1865 is noted. Seven children are listed with their dates of birth:

1.     Anton, 8 August 1866

2.     Peter, 5 March 1868

3.     Wilhelm, 20 October 1869

4.     Nikolaus, 29 March 1872

5.     Heinrich, 1 May 1874

6.     Katharina, 27 July 1877

7.     Gertrud, 18 January 1880

 

There is no post-1880 information in the family’s entry, consistent with a family that emigrated in the early 1880s.

 

See my earlier post here for an explanation of this register's columns

 

Jakob also appears with his birth family in a separate entry of the family register. Anton Knieper and Anna Margaretha Kremer had five children, of whom son Jakob was born 1 September 1837 and on 12 October 1865 married “Kath. Lawen.” Each entry, that of Jakob in his parent’s family and that of Jakob with his wife and children, references the page number of the other. [13]

 

 

JACOB KNIEPER, IMMIGRANT

 

The Illerich family’s names and ages are consistent with a Knieper family that sailed in early 1883 from Antwerp to New York on the Nederland.

 

Name	Date of birth in Illerich family register	Age of Illerich family member in March 1883 / age of passenger on March 1883 manifest	Date of birth of Maple Grove family member in American record
Jakob	1 Sept. 1837	45 / 45	31 Aug. 1837 [14]
Katharina	btwn Oct. 1838 and Oct. 1839 [15]	44 /43	btwn May 1838 and May 1839 [16]
Anton	8 Aug. 1866	16 / [age 16 in May 1882 [17]]	Aug. 1866 [18]
Peter	5 Mar. 1868	15 / 15	5 Mar 1870 [19]
Wilhelm	20 Oct. 1869	13 / 11	20 Oct 1871 [20]
Nikolaus	29 Mar. 1872	11 / 8	29 Mar. 1872 [21]
Heinrich	1 May 1874	8 / [difficult to read, maybe 7]	1 May 1873 [sic]; 1 May 1874 [22]
Katharina	27 July 1877	5 / 4	27 July 1877
Gertrud	18 Jan. 1880	3 / 3	1880 [24]

 

 

JACOB’S PARENTS

 

The identities of Jacob’s parents seem clear, and they are not Franz Knieper and Margareta Sesterhenn.

·     The Maple Grove Township family of Jacob Knieper and Katherine Laven and their children (Anthony, Peter, William, Nicholas, Henry, Catherine, and Gertrude), the family which arrived on the Nederland at the port of New York at the end of March 1883, and the family outlined in the Illerich familienbuch headed by a Jakob Knieper born in late summer 1837, are all the same family.

·     The parish marriage record and the two family register entries for the Jakob Knieper of Illerich name his parents Antonius Knieper and Anna Margaretha Kremer, and his first child’s baptismal record names Antonius Knieper as the baby’s grandfather.

·     The death certificate of Jacob of Maple Grove names his father Anton.

 

Jacob Knieper of Maple Grove Township was the son of Anton Knieper and Anna Margaretha Kremer of Illerich.

 

Next post: so why is that other couple often named as Jacob’s parents?

 

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All URLs cited were current as of December 2020.

[1]  Jacob Knieper owned a 40-acre parcel in section 21 of Maple Grove Township in the 1890s; see the reproduction of plat maps from The County of Saginaw Michigan: Topography, History, Art Folio, compiled and published in 1896 by the Imperial Publishing, Saginaw, in Atlases of Saginaw County, Michigan: 1877, 1896, 1916 (Saginaw County Genealogical Society, 1990s?). Jacob’s and Katherine’s death records place both of them in Maple Grove Township at the ends of their lives. See State of Michigan Division of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death, 1910, registered no. [illegible], Jacob Knieper of Saginaw County; database and images, Michigan History Center, Michiganology (https://michiganology.org/uncategorized/IO_2865f339-086d-4305-8411-fbc8dd6aae79/). Also, FamilySearch (https://www.familearch.org), “Michigan Deaths, 1867-1897,” digital film 00420671, images 733–34, Return of Deaths in the County of Saginaw for the Year Ending December 31st, A. D. 1886, register page 68 [stamped], entry 151 for Kate Knipper.

[2]  Sister Wilhelmina Knieper, “Original Knieper Family History in America (1882–1976),” two mimeographed typed pages distributed to relatives. Its accompanying five-generation genealogy “Knieper Family Tree” was probably compiled and typed by Sister Wilhelmina and her cousin Sister Frederica (née Louisa) Knieper. Both women were granddaughters of Jacob and Katherine (Laven) Knieper.

[3]  “Original Knieper Family History in America (1882–1976).” Also, Sr. Frederica Knieper (St. Michael Convent, New Lothrup, MI) to Julie Michutka (Ann Arbor, MI), letter dated 16 March 1979; family files of Julie Michutka, Burlington, MA. Sister Frederica discussed the work on the various family lines.

[4]  For “Prussia” as his place of origin, see Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897, NARA microfilm publication M237, roll 463, 31 March 1883, SS Nederland, for Jacob Knieper family group on page 7, lines 313–320; image at FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939V-5P8L-D?cc=1849782&wc=MX62-XMQ%3A165885101). For “Germany” see Jacob’s death certificate, cited in footnote 2. Also, 1900 US census, Saginaw Co., Mich. population schedule, Maple Grove Township, ED 40, sheet 12A, dwelling 202, family 205, Jacob Knieper; NARA microfilm T623, roll 739; image at FamilySearch. Also, 1910 US census, Saginaw Co., Mich. pop. sched., Maple Grove Twp., ED 45, sheet 10B, dw. 205, fam. 208, Jacob Knieper “Father” in household of Antone Knieper; NARA microfilm T624, roll 671; image at FamilySearch.

[5]  Verbandsgemeinde: “typically composed of a small group of villages or towns … the individual municipalities still maintain a limited degree of local autonomy” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbandsgemeinde)

[6]  For a present-day map of the area, see https://goo.gl/maps/vBffeLjW6Ban1R3x8  For a 19th century map, see https://mapire.eu/en/map/europe-19century-secondsurvey/embed/?bbox=791754.8672512627%2C6478775.853420781%2C804653.6157743862%2C6483553.167688604

[7]  State of Michigan Division of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death, 1910, registered no. [illegible], Jacob Knieper of Saginaw County; database and images, Michigan History Center, Michiganology (https://michiganology.org/uncategorized/IO_2865f339-086d-4305-8411-fbc8dd6aae79/ : 11 November 2020), search by name. Jacob died 11 November 1910.

[8]  For several dozen examples, search Ancestry.com collection “Public Member Trees” with exact name Jacob Knieper and place of death “Michigan, USA”.

[9]  Illerich was part of the Landkern parish until 1848. For the years covered by the parish records, search by town names at https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog.

[10]  Pfarrkirche St. Vinzenz (Saint Vincent Catholic Parish, Illerich, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany), marriage register 1848–1926, entries in chronological order on unnumbered pages, entry 7 in 1865 for Jacobus Knieper and Catharina Lawen; FHL microfilm 583680; images viewed on FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/), access via Search > Catalog, search by microfilm number; image 279. Note: the imaged parish records for these villages can be accessed on FamilySearch.org only by logging into the website at a Family History Center or a FamilySearch affiliate library. See https://www.familysearch.org/help/fhcenters/locations/centerlocator for a list of those locations.

[11]  Pfarrkirche St. Vinzenz, baptismal register 1848–1915, p. 99 entry 26 for Antonius Knieper; FHL microfilm 584938; images viewed on FamilySearch, access via Search > Catalog, search by microfilm number; image 55.

[12]  Pfarrkirche St. Vinzenz, “Familien-Buch der Pfarrei Illerich beginnend mit dem Jahre 1613,” 494 pages; FHL microfilm 583680; images viewed on FamilySearch, access via Search > Catalog, search by microfilm number 583680; images 2–254. The familienbuch entries were compiled from a variety of other sources including the parish registers of Illerich and Landkern; see imaged notes at the beginning. Some annotations to entries (e.g., went to America) might have been added independently of the register extracts. For Jakob and Katharina’s family entry, see the familienbuch’s p. 391 at image 202.

[13]  Pfarrkirche St. Vinzenz, “Familien-Buch,” p. 273, Anton Knieper–Anna Margaretha Kremer family; image 143. 

[14]  From Jacob’s death certificate, cited in footnote 1.

[15]  Calculated from Katherine’s age (26) in her marriage record of October 1865, cited in footnote 10.

[16].  Calculated from Katherine’s age (47) in her death record of May 1886, cited in footnote 1.

[17]  “Original Knieper Family History in America (1882–1976)”: “The oldest son, Anthony, when he was about sixteen years old, came to America a year earlier than the rest of the family.” This 1882 passenger list entry is very likely Anthony’s: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897, NARA microfilm publication M237, roll 452, 27 May 1882, SS Pennland, 12th page (unnumbered), line 584, Anton Knieper age 16; image at FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939V-RSSS-LF?cc=1849782&wc=MX6L-229%3A165876901).

[18]  Find A Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/), memorial 61298278 for Anthony Knieper, created 8 November 2010 by “richokeefe.” Unsourced obituary-like text names his parents as well as his date of birth.

[19]  FamilySearch, “Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007,” digital film 004714933, Jay [County], 1905-1907 Volume 1, image 243, Marriage License Record, p. 426 for Peter Knieper and Mary Minnick.

[20]  State of Michigan Division of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death, 1938, no. 17317062, William Knieper; database and images, Michigan History Center, Michiganology (https://michiganology.org/uncategorized/IO_180cc641-55b7-4fb0-99ff-0779a1f7e696/).

[21]  Find A Grave, memorial 130933293 with gravestone image for Nicholas Knieper, created 5 June 2014 by Julie Umlor. Full date of birth provided in memorial text; year of birth appears on gravestone.

[22]  For the 1873 date, see: FamilySearch, “United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” digital film 005251430, Michigan, Saginaw County A–Moore William D, image 3514 for Henry Knieper, serial no. 3667, Local Board for the County. For the 1874 date, see: Find A Grave, memorial 82864203 for Henry Knieper, created 2 January 2012 by Helen (Prieur) Gengler. Unsourced obituary text “Services for Henry Knieper” names his parents and provides his date of birth.

[23]  “Original Knieper Family History in America (1882–1976)”: “Catherine married Joe Gilles from Amherst, Ohio. She raised her family and lived there until her death.” See Find A Grave, memorial 70868030 for Katherine Gilles, created 4 June 2011 by “KeepsakeQuilter,” with gravestone image added by “LindaB” showing year of birth.

[24]  Find A Grave, memorial 83423523 for Gertrude Margaret Kneiper [sic] Pfeifer, created 14 January 2012 by N. Sharlene (Rice) Kent. The brief biographical sketch includes her year of birth and names her parents; some sources are included. Year of birth also appears on gravestone images added by “Meauwataka” and “Helen Radtke.”