Is Anne Marie Moritz of Friesen Meinrad's wife? Maybe

On Sept 9, 2016, I got an email from a man I've corresponded with via my blog, Bryan Bushue. He is seeking Mary Bushue, the first wife of Meinrad Bushue (Bourgeois) and mother of Jonas Bushue, Bryan's ancestor. He knew from my blog that entries from The Barqilla de la Santa Maria suggest her name was something like Mourite or Moretz, but that I have nothing more: no immigration record, no marriage record, no record of Jonas' birth.  The email was a bombshell; he'd found an Anne Marie Moritz born in Friesen in 1811 to Joseph Moritz and Reine Phillippe. He thought it was a long shot that she was his ancestor, but I disagree. I think he may have found his great-great-great grandmother.  

I can never resist an excuse to rummage in the French archives, so that's what I did, late into the night and the following morning.  I logged into my favorite sites and uncovered a lot of information.  Unfortunately, I found nothing that confirms that Anne Marie is Meinrad's first wife, but I think we have enough evidence that it's a strong possibility.

According to her headstone, Mary Ann, consort of Meinrad Burshow, died 21 August 1845. She was 34 years, 4 months, and 10 days old, which places her birth on11 April 1811, according to a website that does that sort of backward calculation. 

The woman Bryan identified, Anne Marie Moritz, was born 1 April 1811 to Joseph Moritz, 49, mayor of Friesen, and Reine (or Regine) Phillippe, 24. Reine was Joseph's second wife. They married 17 July 1808 after the death of Joseph's first wife, Anne Marie Stein, who died in mid-1807. In addition to Anne Marie, they had a son, Jean, born 1 Jan 1809, (which suggests that Joseph's father's name was Jean), and on 28 June, 1813, they had a second daughter, Anne. On 1 March, 1814, Joseph died, leaving his young wife with three children under 6. Reine (Regina in record) remarried, to Jean Hellbruner, on 19 March 1816. 

There are quite a few Moritz's in Friesen and sorting them out, as always, was a chore. But I read all the original indexes (the civil officials in Friesen almost always created a  handwritten index to their records, created at the end of each year, which makes life lots easier for the researcher) for the births, marriages, and deaths in Friesen (marriages to 1847, deaths to 1840) and found no evidence that Anne Marie married or died in those time periods. So we have a woman born at the right time who then disappeared from the French record. Perhaps she reappeared on the other side of the Atlantic? 

So is she Jonas Bushue's mom?  I have no solid evidence that she is, but some good reasons to believe she could be.

1. Friesen is 5 km. from Mertzen, the Bourgeois home. The Bourgeois men and women often married men and women from surrounding communities, so it's easy to see the families being acquainted.
2. This is especially true since both Joseph Moritz and several of the Bourgeois men were civic officials. So it isn't just that they would have known one another; the families would have been peers.
3. In addition, various witnesses in the Moritz marriage and birth documents include the Flurys, a family that has strong relationships within the Bourgeois family. And various Moritzs marry into families that appear in the Bourgeois records. I didn't check all the names but I think that would be valuable. 
4. Then there's what's missing: a marriage. As the daughter of a prominent man, Anne Marie would have been a hot prospect, and I can't find a marriage record. Just to be sure, I checked for a marriage in Largitzen as well, a town often paired with Friesen. Nothing. If she married, it wasn't in the area around her home, and that would be very unusual.
5. And while nobody should put too much weight on dates, there's the eerie confluence of the information on Mary Ann Burshow's headstone that says she was 34 years, 4 months, and 10 days old when she died 21 Aug 1845. April 11, 1811 is damn close to 1 Apr 1811. 
6. I should note that the transposition of her name when anglicized, from Anne Marie to Mary Ann, bothers me not a whit. My assumption is that she was known as Marie (after all she has a younger sister Anne). 

If Mary Ann IS Anne Marie, when and how did she get here? In 1827 she was 16, unlikely to travel alone, so who was she with? I checked the 1830 census in Perry County for Hellbruner (and variations), the name of Anne Marie’s stepfather; nothing even close. Jonas was born in Sept of 1829 so, assuming no gun-jumping, Meinrad and Mary Ann married around the end of 1828, meaning Mary Ann was here by then. Of course, we don't know when Meinrad arrived so it's still possible that they traveled together. The CRHF has no record of an Anne Marie Moritz emigration. 

The Bourgeois family is listed, with lots of creative names and ages, on a compilation of passenger lists from ships entering Baltimore between April 1, 1827 and Sept 30, 1827. I read the entire list; no Moritz (or anything close) to be found. The Bourgeois register of names lists, in addition to the parents, three young males and two females. The assumption is that Meinrad is the missing male but that's not certain; it could be Michael. One of the females could be Anne Marie Moritz, but then one of the family's young daughters is missing, not unheard of but . . . the immigration record is too messy to help. (See “The Bourgeois Immigration Tangle” for more than you could possibly want to know.)

Passenger records weren't mandatory in 1827 so it's possible that IF Anne Marie emigrated to the US, we won't find a record. And finding that an Anne Marie Moritz emigrated from France to the US in 1827 is not proof she is Meinrad's wife (though it would certainly increase the probability). But I think it would be worthwhile to obtain the original emigration record for Meinrad and family listed at CRHF; perhaps there are details about just who was traveling.

I'd also write Friesen for information. A prominent genealogist, whose name I don't recall, suggests writing to these small communities and asking for the name of the person who is the "town's memory." Every town has such a person, someone who listened to the old stories and remembers them. So I'd write Friesen, ask if they have official information about emigrations, and ask for the name of the story keeper. 

And I would also spread a wider net in the search for Meinrad and Mary Ann's marriage. Somerset and its environs were served by itinerant priests in the 1820s and their records can end up in odd places: I found Johannes Muller and Anna Hierholzer's marriage record in Chilicothe, Ohio. Of course, those old records don't always provide more than the names of those who are marrying, but one can hope.

One final note: Gerard Marck has his ancestry posted at geneanet.org. I've seen his trees before (we share ancestors), and he's pretty reliable. He has Joseph Moritz's ancestry back three generations, to the mid 1600s. Interestingly, he has both of Joseph's marriages but he has only one of his children by Reine Phillip: Jean.

In the process of sorting out names, I looked at a lot of records. Here are a few of the Moritz records checked. These records helped me eliminate possible Anne Maries and Josephs.

1. Jean Moritz, Joseph's older brother, married Marguerite Kohler (another Mertzen name associated with the Bourgeois). They had Marie Margarite in 1806 and Anne Marie 18 July 1813. 
2. Anne Marie Moritz, 33, died 4 May 1821,
3. Anne Moritz, 68, died in 1840
4. Anne Marie Moritz, 27, married Jean Frettig 20 Apr 1841
5. Anne Marie Moritz, 22, m. Jean Colombe 13 Jan 1841.
6. Anne Marie Moritz m. Pierre Pflager 21 Apr 1847. Page is missing in Haut Rhin records. But in 1847, Anne Marie would have been 36, pretty old for a first marriage (though not impossible). I checked the surrounding pages; it wasn’t out of order, the page was missed during scanning.
7. Joseph Moritz, 24, died 5 Feb 1819.
8. Joseph Moritz, 3, died 11 Jan, 1820.