Saxon Lutherans Genealogy

Notes: On my visit 15 June 2001 to the old upper cemetery of Grace Lutheran Church, Uniontown, Missouri, I observed that Maria's tombstone had broken off just below the inscription of the date of death and was lying face up in front of its base.The inscriptions on the broken slab were much more legible than those on the tombstone base. I photographed the grave stone. "Maria Rosina Hofmann. Geb. 13 Sept. 1818. Gest. 30 Sept. 1885. 67 yrs. old."

Source: 1860 U. S. Census for Perry County, Missouri, published by the Perry County Historical Society, Perryville, MO 1994. pg. 140: the family of John G. and Mary R. Hemmon (Hemmann) includes nine children and this additional person, "SophiaFranzel, female, age 78, place of birth- Saxony, occupation- none." This is very likely the mother of Maria "Rosine" Hofmann who had gotten re-married to a Mr. Frentzel. I believe the Port of New Orleans ship record shows Maria "Rosine" Hofmanntraveling with a Mr. and Mrs. Frentzel (according to Louise Bender Roth of Cape Girardeau).

Source: 1850 U.S. Census for Perry County, Missouri, published by the Perry County Historical Society, Perryville, MO pg. 59: the family of William and Johanna Hayman (Hemmann?) includes two children and a "Sophia Francel (Frentzel?) age 68, born in Germany."

Source: "Hemmann Family" by Louise Bender Roth, Cape Girardeau, Missouri: pg. 3: Gruber's Group embarked at Bremen, Germany on the ship "Johann Georg" in September of 1839. For the passenger list of the "Johann Georg" including the names of Gottfried Hemmann and his six children and Christian Gottlieb Frenzel, his wife, two children, and 21 year old Rosine Mary Hofmann see page three.

Source: My visit with Louise Bender Roth 16 Jun 1996 in Cape Girardeau: Louise explained that originally it appeared from the ship's passenger list that Marie Rosine Hofmann was an illegitimate daughter of Mrs. Frentzel. But when Louise received information from the church records in Germany, Lousie learned that this daughter was her child from a previous marriage.

!BIRTH/BAPTISM: (Copied from LaVerne Boehmke PAF notes) See letter of 14 August 1974 from Dieter Keucher, pastor of the Evangelisch-lutherisch Kirchengemeinde, DDR 9291 Seelitz; "1818, the thirteenth of September morning at eleven o'clock was born and on the sixteenth of September baptized Rosina Maria, first child in the marriage of Johann Gottfried Hofmann, old farmer and (Auszuegler) person on pension or life estate in Seebitzschen. Wife: Johanna Sophia Doberenz from Bödeln (Beedeln), second wife. Godparents: 1.Frau Eva Rosina, wife of Johann Christian Fuhrmann, farmer in Seelitz, 2. Christian Gottlieb Poppitz, (Gaertner) gardener or farmer with a small farm and church elder in Steudten, 3. Miss Anna Rosina, 4th daughter of the first marriage of the farmer and court lay assessor Johann Samuel Doberenz in Bödeln.

!MARRIAGE: (Copied from LaVerne Boehmke PAF notes) Grace Ev Lutheran Churchbook Volume 1, #1, first entry. The banns were read in the churches in Altenburg and Seelitz, Missouri. In the printed translated copy of the Grace Lutheran Church, Uniontown, MO, published by the Perry County Historical Society, Perryville, MO 63775, it says "after church in the parsonage". Perry County Record Book A, 1825-1841: 2 Feb 1840, married at Wilson's place near Apple Creek, by Carl Friedrich Gruber, Lutheran Pastor. They had 12 children. See "The Descendants of Johann Gottfried Hemmann, 1791- 1977," compiled by the Rev. Louis O. Hemmann.

!DEATH/BURIAL: (Copied from LaVerne Boehmke PAF notes) Grace Ev Lutheran Churchbook Volume 2, Year 1885 #211.

!CAUSE OF DEATH: (Copied from LaVerne Boehmke PAF notes) Die Gehirnerweichung, brain fever, or softening of the brain. According to Louise Bender Roth, her great grandmother had been disabled for years before her death. There is a stone with inscription in the old Grace Cemetery.

!IMMIGRATION: (Copied from LaVerne Boehmke PAF notes) Louise Bender Roth writes in her notes that Rosine Hoffmann was a daughter of Johanne Sophie Frentzel by an earlier marriage. She traveled with her step-father Weaver Christian Gottlieb Frentzel and his family on the Barque Johann Georg with the Gruber group. She evidently helped care for the JGH children on the voyage. In the 1860 census, Sophie Frentzel, 78 years, is living with her daughter.

!REMARKS: (Copied from LaVerne Boehmke PAF notes) Louise Bender Roth is on page 92 E 1 in "The Descendants of Johann Gottfried Hemmann, 1791-1977" by the Rev. Louis O. Hemmann. It is interesting to note that Rosine's half-sister, Johanna SophieFrentzel married the oldest son of Johann Gottfried Hemmman.

!GERMAN ZIP CODE: (Copied from LaVerne Boehmke PAF notes) 09306 Seelitz. Seelitz is in Kreis Rochlitz, Land Sachsen

Location: Pastor Gruber's group named the place and congregation in Perry County, where most of the group settled, Paitzdorf. Later during the Civil War the name was changed to Uniontown.