Re: Certainty of religion; just a thought on brick walls and pitfalls. John Ilgen is thought to be Lutheran. This is a good starting point, but ... I have found that religion is one of those aspects about our ancestors that might not match the current religion of the family. Marriages between persons of different religions occur; sometimes people convert; sometimes not, but they raise the children in the spouse's faith. I can only state the religion of the person whose record I have in hand--but it may not match the religion of a parent and of an older generation. Sometimes you need to look everywhere! I am still looking for the father of a group whose religion was Catholic. I found the wife and most of the children, but I cannot find his grave, the cemetery record, nor the church death record. The children were baptized in a particular church; all their records are here, with wonderful regularity, except for the death record of the father. I know the exact date he died from the will of his wife. One of the possibilities is to consider that he might have belonged to a different religion. Another possibility is that something completely strange has occurred and all records are lost. Who knows? I was fortunate that my parents knew of one place where a conversion occurred and one where the man allowed his wife to raise the children in her religion, or I might have looked for the graves of some of my ancestors forever. In the latter case, he and his extended family rest in one cemetery and she and hers in another. Dianne ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Walker" <shuttle20032003@yahoo.com> To: <HESSE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 7:33 PM Subject: [HESSE] JOHN ILGEN from HESSE-DARMSTADT > Hi, Y'all! > > Hope someone out there can help me. This family is turning out to be a brick wall! All I know at this point about John Ilgen is that he was born in (or around) 1825, married a lady by the name of Augusta Deickman, I think probably before he immigrated to the U.S. and that he was from Hesse-Darmstadt - or at least that was the place he listed on the census. Also, I am fairly certain they were Lutheran. > > If you think you may be descended from this man - or his wife - think you may have information on him/her/them or have any suggestions on how I might proceed, I would love to hear from you! > > Best to All, > Gayle Kloesel > > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. > > > ==== HESSE Mailing List ==== > Postal Codes, How to Pay for Research, German Language > Letters, Archive Addresses, German Telephone directory, > http://members.cox.net/hessen/table.htm >

I have a case similar to yours where the family was raised Catholic, but the Father wasn't. ( At least evidence to date says he was a German Lutheran who married a Irish Catholic in the US). I would have a difficult time finding his grave if we didn't have a copy of his Obituary. It stated that he was buried in the Old German Lutheran Cemetery (which no longer exists under that name...) . However, by calling up all the Lutheran Cemeteries in the Town where they lived I was able to find him. -He died while on a business trip & his Death Certificate seems to be Missing In Action.- When I talked to the liberian at the Arch- Diocese about the appernt change in religion of this family, they said that at the time they had sign a form stating that all the children would be raised Catholic. If the didn't sign this contract, a non-Catholic & Catholic couldn't be married within the Catholic Church. I don't know the Lutheran Church would have had the same ruling on interfaith marriages, but it is something to look into. -Corrie wasieerick@milwpc.com wrote: >Re: Certainty of religion; just a thought on brick walls and pitfalls. >John Ilgen is thought to be Lutheran. This is a good starting point, but >... > >I have found that religion is one of those aspects about our ancestors that >might not match the current religion of the family. Marriages between >persons of different religions occur; sometimes people convert; sometimes >not, but they raise the children in the spouse's faith. I can only state >the religion of the person whose record I have in hand--but it may not match >the religion of a parent and of an older generation. > >Sometimes you need to look everywhere! I am still looking for the father of >a group whose religion was Catholic. I found the wife and most of the >children, but I cannot find his grave, the cemetery record, nor the church >death record. The children were baptized in a particular church; all their >records are here, with wonderful regularity, except for the death record of >the father. I know the exact date he died from the will of his wife. One of >the possibilities is to consider that he might have belonged to a different >religion. Another possibility is that something completely strange has >occurred and all records are lost. Who knows? > >I was fortunate that my parents knew of one place where a conversion >occurred and one where the man allowed his wife to raise the children in her >religion, or I might have looked for the graves of some of my ancestors >forever. In the latter case, he and his extended family rest in one >cemetery and she and hers in another. > >Dianne > > > > >