A Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogy

Amazon Associates Link Builder Plugin How to Set It Up and Use It

Kris Hocker on 17 Jan 2017

Amazon Associates Link Builder Plugin How To Set It Up & Use It

Amazon recently released a beta version of its first official free WordPress plugin for the Amazon Associates Program. It allows WordPress users to easily search for products in the Amazon catalog and add real-time information to their blog post. I’m going to show you how to set it up and add Amazon products.

In the past, if I wanted to include an affiliate link to a product on Amazon, I opened a Amazon Associates in another window and logged in. Then I’d search for the product in Amazon’s link builder tool and copy the link that it generated back into my post text. Using this plugin, I can do all that from within my WordPress post.

Setting It Up

It’s not terribly difficult, but it may be intimidating to the average non-techie. I would recommend keeping the instructions page open in another browser window and referring back to it. The set-up only took a few minutes—once I followed the directions and stopped trying to wing it. 😉

Install the Plug-In

You’ll want to install the plugin on your self-hosted WordPress site. If you’ve done it before, skip ahead. If you don’t know how, here’s some information on how to do it, complete with an instructional video.

Once the plugin is installed and activated, you’ll come to the settings page, like this:

Amazon Associates Link Builder plugin settings page

You’ll need to insert the two keys from the next step in the first two fields (yellow). Your associate ID from Amazon Associates goes into the third field. Select a default associate ID, marketplace and template, then save your changes. You’ll need to check that you read the conditions before you’ll be able to save. It’s a short page, so you’ve really got no excuse to read it first!

Get Your API Keys

First, you need to be a member of the Amazon Associates program. If you’re not already, you’ll need to sign-up. If you are, go ahead and log-in.

Next, you’ll need to sign-up for the Amazon Product Advertising API from your Amazon Associates account. Select “Product Advertising API” from the “Tools” menu from within your Associates account (as below).

Product Advertising API

There is a “sign-up now” button on that page that will take you through the process. Once you’ve submitted the form and been approved, select “Manage Your Account” from the “Success” page.

Follow the instructions on this page from #6. After you get to the Access Keys page, click on “Create New Access Key.” There will already be one created by joining. Create a new one for the API. This confused me for a little bit until I read the instructions. Download the file. It will contain the keys you need to set up the plugin.

Now go back to WordPress and enter the required information in the plugin’s settings page and save it. Now you can get started using the plugin.

Using the Plugin

Once the plugin is all set-up, you can start adding Amazon products to your post or page. Here’s how the edit screen looks with the plugin activated and set-up.

WordPress interface with Amazon plugin

The plugin adds a search box to the post interface as show in the image above. Don’t have the second title field? That’s okay. It’s only there because I’ve got a subtitles plugin installed that adds that field.

To start inserting a product or products, enter a keyword in the field beside the Amazon logo, and click search. You can enter a keyword, title, author, manufacturer, etc. I entered my name and here’s what I got back:

Amazon Associates Link Builder plugin search for Kristen Hocker

Only three of those are really what I’m looking for, but… I can select the products I want by clicking on each one, and then the type of template I want to insert, the associate ID (if I had more than one), and the Amazon marketplace. Here are examples of each of the templates using these product(s). ¹

Product Carousel:

Product carousel

Product Ad:

Product ad

Product Grid:

Product grid

You can also set-up your own templates. I did a quick clone of the “Price Link” template, and used just the product title instead of just the price. I wanted to be able to insert a book title into existing text.

Here’s what the output looks like used within a sentence:

It inserted the book title and series information. The shortcode looked like this in my text:

Conclusions

The plugin is still in beta, so there are still updates and changes to come. Amazon is looking for feedback. You can read more, including FAQs, and see more screenshots on the WordPress site.

The set-up is a little more involved than most WordPress plugins, but that’s the cost of working with an API. Still it wasn’t terribly time-consuming, and if you follow directions, not difficult at all.

Philip Kline (1799-1877) 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Kris Hocker on 14 Jan 2017

When Lydia Amanda (Kline) Witmer died, her son Horace named her parents on her death certificate as Philip Kline and Lydia Markley.¹ So, I went looking for Philip and Lydia in census records.

I found the couple together in Marlborough Township, Montgomery County in 1860² and 1870,³ and Lydia in 1880.⁴

It took a little more work to find them in 1850—the only census that could list Lydia (Kline) Witmer by name with her family prior to her marriage in 1854. For that census, I had to scroll page by page until I found the household. The census taker had written their surname as “Klaen.”⁵ The household included:

Philip, aged 51, Farmer
Lydia, aged 44
Cornelius, aged 24, Shoemaker
Ledea, aged 14
Maria, aged 9

Further research showed that Philip was born 6 March 1799 and died 30 January 1877 at 2 p.m.⁶ He was buried in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church cemetery in Red Hill, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. His wife Lydia (Markley) Kline was born 22 October 1806 and died 8 April 1890.⁷ She, too, was buried at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church cemetery. The couple was married at New Hanover Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gilbertsville on 17 July 1825.⁸

Philip wrote his last will and testament on 24 December 1875.⁹ He named his “beloved wife Lydia” and five children: “son Cornelius Kline, Reuben M. Kline, Henry M. Kline… and my Daughter Eliza intermarried with Jonas Brey and Lydia intermarried with Edward Wetemer [Witmer].” He named his three sons as executors. The will was witnessed by George S. Mumbauer and William F. Reed and was proven on 7 February 1877.

Philip and Lydia (Markley) Kline had six children:

Cornelius Kline (3 Jul 1826-18 Feb 1914)
Elizabeth (Kline) Brey (15 Nov 1827-30 Oct 1917)
Reuben M. Kline (12 Dec 1832-12 Nov 1912)
Henry M. Kline (28 Apr 1834-17 Jun 1920)
Lydia Amanda (Kline) Witmer (26 Mar 1836-30 Mar 1926)
Susanna Maria Kline (15 Mar 1841-24 Dec 1853)

The Find A Grave entry for Philip Kline names his parents as Jacob Klein and Eva Heilig Klein, but that will be a post for another day.

This post is part of a blogging challenge entitled 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, created by Amy Crow of No Story Too Small in 2014. Participants were to write about one ancestor every week. I’m revisiting this challenge for 2017. This is my third 52 Ancestors post, part of week two.

Three Generations of Waage Descendants

Kris Hocker on 11 Jan 2017

Eugene Waage, Charles Waage and Helen Wieder, circa 1918-1919

A photo of three generations of descendants of Reverend Frederick Waage: his eldest son Dr. Charles T. Waage (bearded), grandson Eugene Waage (Charles’ son), and great granddaughter Helen Wieder, daughter of Edwin J. and Mary Catharine (Waage) Wieder. Eugene was the son of Charles T. and his first wife Mary Ann Heisler. Mary Catharine, Helen’s mother, was the daughter of Charles and his second wife Lydia Sarah Eshbach.

Helen was born in 1917 and Charles died in 1921, so the photo was taken about 1918-1919, most likely in Pennsburg, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

The Early Life of Rev. Frederick Waage 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Kris Hocker on 7 Jan 2017

I’ve written before about my three times great grandfather Reverend Frederick Waage. However, I recently came across an article written about him by his son Reverend Oswin Frederick Waage (1845-1919). It was published in The Penn Germania in August 1912 and includes details regarding his early life.

Birthplace of Frederick Waage

Frederick, son of Claus Heinrich and Catharine Dorothea (Hoffmeister) Waage, was born on 17 August 1797 in Itzehoe in the Dukedom of Holstein, then part of Denmark and now Germany. He was baptized on 20 August 1797. According to his son, three of this sponsors were nobility: “General and Baron Cay von Ahlefeldt; Ernestine von Brokdorf, wife of the Private Counsellor; and the nobel lady Anna Sophia von Ranzau auf Güldenstein.”¹ His baptismal name as “Cay Frederic Sophus Waage.”

He started school early, attending a “Klipp Schule” when still a boy and learning to read. He greatly enjoyed reading and later in life accrued a large library that included not only theological literature, but also many of the great works of both fiction and non-fiction of his time in the original German or German translation.

A young Frederick Waage

From age eight, he went to the town school and was tutored “by the ‘Schreib und Rechnenmeister Nagel,’ who wore awhite powdered wig, and who was ever ready with the rod to punish misbehavior.” His next school was the Latin school in town where ear-boxing was the preferred punishment. While he applied himself eagerly to his lessons in class, he also learned from those around him in daily life. He became fluent in French due to interactions with those of Napoleon’s soldiers who were quartered in the town.

The eldest of three boys, he was the only one to survive to adulthood. By the age of fourteen, he had born the loss of his brothers and parents. An orphan, he became the ward of an uncle in Flensburg, in the north in Schleswig, in 1811. He was sent to a school there in town and boarded at an old monastery with the other students.

Flensburg 2015-08 img03 Evangelische Marienkirche.jpg

Evangelical St. Marien Church in Flensburg, Germany © A.Savin (Wikimedia Commons · WikiPhotoSpace)

On 7 April 1813, he was confirmed in the Lutheran faith at the Marienkirche (St. Mary’s Church) after receiving instruction from the Lutheran pastor Huesmann. This church is one of the main churches in Flensburg and was first mentioned in historical documents in 1284.² Today it is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

That August, at age sixteen, he went to study at the University of Kiel. The university was founded in 1665 by the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis.³ It was (and is) one of the oldest and most prestigious in Schleswig-Holstein.

Frederick was enrolled there for six years. “Here he applied himself strenuously to his studies, often working until two o’clock in the night. His close association with the professors of the university, and especially the influence of his pastor, the noble Claus Harms, greatly assisted him in acquiring a first class classical education, under these benign surroundings. The desire became strong to be active in some calling in which he might be a blessing to his day and generation.”⁴

A desire to see the world and avoid military service spurred him emigrate to America. In June 1819, he took leave of his homeland, booking passage on the ship Milo from Hamburg to Philadelphia. After his arrival in September, he met Rev. Jacob W. Dechant who introduced him to Rev. F.W. Geisenhainer. For two years, he studied with Geisenhainer until he could be admitted to the Lutheran Synod.

A elderly Frederick Waage

Frederick became a licentiate of the Lutheran Ministerium on 27 August 1822 and he was ordained 10 June 1828 at Reading. Between 1822 and 1829, he served in parishes in Bucks County, then Northumberland, Lycoming, and Columbia counties. In May 1829, he served the Lutheran parish that included New Goshenhoppen. Over the following years, he added churches and congregations, including a congregation at Charlestown, Scheetz’s church, Huber’s church in Montgomery County, and established at church at Ridge Valley.

He married Angelina Garber, daughter of Benjamin and Hannah (Reiner) Garber, in 1823 at Trappe Lutheran Church. They raised a family of ten children: Johanna, Charles Theodore, Angelina, Emma, Andora S., Theodora Rosalie, Franciska S., Oswin Frederick, Atha “Addie,” and Edwin Eugene, who died young.

Rev. Caius Frederic Sophus Waage (1797-1884)

Rev. Frederick Waage (1797-1884)

He retired in 1868, but continued assisting his successor, son Rev. O.F. Waage, for several years. Frederick died 23 August 1884 and was buried four days later at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Red Hill. His wife, Angelina (Garber) Waage, died 11 April 1897 and was buried with her husband. Both gravesites are marked by significant and unique gravestones.

“His independence of thought involved him in brisk controversies with leaders in his own denomination and with clergymen of other faiths, but he was held in high esteem by his congregations.“⁵

Follow Me on Social Media

Kris Hocker on 6 Jan 2017

Do you use social media? You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. I’m sharing posts from A Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogy and from around the web.

Revisiting a Writing Challenge in 2017 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Kris Hocker on 5 Jan 2017

In 2014, Amy Johnson Crow issued a writing challenge called “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” for genealogy bloggers. The challenge was to write about an ancestor every week. My participation was lackluster at best. While the challenge continued in 2015 or 2016, I didn’t participate.

Since my goals for this year are to write more than I did last year (50 posts) and to share more of my research, I’ve decided to revisit this writing challenge. Measuring myself against the stated goal will hopefully be the kick in the pants I need to get me to write more regularly and the need for writing material will result in me sharing more of what I’ve found on my many ancestors.

That’s the plan anyway.

First up, new details on the early life of Rev. Frederick Waage.

Building a FAN Club for Jacob Schneider

Kris Hocker on 3 Jan 2017

On 21 November 1829, Henry Snyder and Catharine Snyder, administrators of Jacob Snyder’s estate, sold his 85 acres in Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County to Michael Gery of Hereford Township, Berks County.¹ This land adjoined that of John George Brey, Michael Griesemer, George Greber, Conrad Brey and Jonathan Trexler.²

Jacob Snyder’s FAN Club

Jacob Snyder purchased this land from Henry Roeder in two tracts—one of 80 acres and one of 5 acres—on 2 April 1810.³ At that time, the 80 acre tract adjoined land of Andrew Graber, John George Brey, John Greaser [Griesemer?], John George Horlacher, Conrad Marks, and Peter Horlacher. It was originally sold to Roeder by Christian and Barbara Horlacher. The five acre-tract bordered land of Henry Roeder and John George Horlacher, and was part of a tract that Peter and Anna Mary Horlacher sold to John George Horlacher in 1801. George and Catharine Horlacher sold five acres from that tract to Henry Roeder in 1809.

Jacob Snyder 1820 Upper Hanover neighbors

If we examine the 1820 census enumeration for Jacob Snyder, we can see some of these names surrounding Jacob in the list.⁴ George Brey, enumerated as Pry, is next on the list after Jacob. Andrew Graber, enumerated as Graver, is two down from George. George Horlacher is on the previous page, enumerated seven households before Jacob. And just before George Horlacher is Adam Snyder and Conrad Brey. “Frederick Cresimer” and “Jacob Cresimer” (aka Griesemer) are also listed between George Horlacher and Jacob Snyder.

Some of these surnames should sound familiar from my previous posts. Griesemer and Brey were associated with Jacob’s estate. Jacob Griesemer was surety on the administration⁵ and Conrad Brey was guardian to the minor child Sarah Snyder, Jacob’s youngest daughter.⁶ I believe these men and the Gerys will be important to understanding Jacob and Catharine’s family.

Conrad Brey was married to Eva Horlacher, daughter of Peter Horlacher.⁷ After Peter’s death in 1816, Conrad purchased 61 acres in Upper Hanover from the estate, making him Jacob’s neighbor.⁸ Eva’s sister Veronica was also married to a Brey. She was married to George Brey, quite possibly the John George Brey who owned land that adjoined Jacob’s.⁹

After Jacob’s death, Catharine is enumerated near some of these same names. George A. Brey is two lines above her, Martin Brey two lines and Conrad Brey five lines after her.¹⁰ John Harlocher is four lines after her. Frederick Greisemer is six lines, Jacob Greisemer four lines and Michael Greisemer three lines above her.

1830 Catharine Snyder enumeration

Researching Eva and Veronica’s father Peter Horlacher, I discovered a connection to a Schneider family. “Adam Snider” served as one of the administrator’s of Peter Horlacher’s estate.¹¹ “Adam Snyder” was listed as a witness to the will of George Horlacher of Lower Milford Township, Bucks County.¹² Were they the same man? Was this the Adam Snyder listed in the 1820 census between Conrad Brey and George Horlacher?

Peter Horlacher’s sister Susanna married Christian Schneider and they had children starting in 1764.¹³ At least five of these children had Schneiders as sponsors at their baptisms at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Red Hill, including three sponsored by one Hans Adam Schneider and his wife Sarah. Johann Adam Schneider, son of Christian and Susanna, was born 5 Feb 1784 and could be the Adam Snyder in the 1820 census in Upper Hanover, as well as the administrator for his uncle Peter’s estate and witness to his uncle George’s last will & testament. If so, could there have been a relationship between Jacob and the Schneiders associated with the Horlacher family? Something more than just proximity?

I guess I’ll need to keep looking.

Happy New Year 2017

Kris Hocker on 1 Jan 2017

Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous new year! May 2017 be the year of breaking down barriers—whether that barrier is a research brick wall or something else that’s holding you back.

2016: A Blog’s Year in Review

Kris Hocker on 31 Dec 2016

Once again it’s the last day of the year. Time to look back and reflect on the past year before looking ahead the the next.

Disappointed in my 2015 writing performance here on this blog, I made a goal to increase the number of posts I’d write for 2016. I did not set a specific goal, other than to write more than in 2015.

Looking Back

So, how did I do?

In 2015, I wrote a total of 17 posts. This year I wrote 50 posts, broken down by calendar month, as follows:

January: 7 posts (2015: 2)
February: 3 posts (2015: 0)
March: 4 posts (2015: 0)
April: 1 post (2015: 0)
May: 0 posts (2015: 3)
June: 4 posts (2015: 0)
July: 3 posts (2015: 0)
August: 5 posts (2015: 3)
September: 5 posts (2015: 2)
October: 5 posts (2015: 3)
November: 4 posts (2015: 2)
December: 9 posts (2015: 2)

That’s significant improvement—although there were a couple of months with little to no posts. So, there’s room for improvement.

Did any of that content make the top ten favorite posts list for 2016? ¹

Making a Deed Map from Old Metes and Bounds (2015: #9)
How to Use Pennsylvania Probate Records at FamilySearch (2015: n/a)
Lancaster County Deed Books Online (2015: #5)
Andreas Huber Origins: Trippstadt, Ellerstadt or Ittlingen? (2015: #6)
Pennsylvania Warrant Township Maps (2015: #8)
5,000 Acres—Where Did It All Go? (2015: #7)
Huber Immigrants (2015: #4)
Friday Finds: Trinity Lutheran Birth and Baptismal Records Online (2015: #3)
How to Use Online Records at the Pennsylvania State Archives (2015:#2)
Pennsylvania Genealogical Map (2015: #1)

Nope. It’s almost the same list as in 2014 and 2015.

What if I only include those posts written in 2016? Here are the top ten from this year only:

Easy Footnotes (April)
Does the Spelling of a Name Really Matter? (August)
Pirated?! (August)
A Beautiful Circle (August)
Shaking Those Little Leaves (July)
Lifestyles of Early Pennsylvania German Immigrants (August)
It’s a Really Small World (July)
Ancestral Birthplace Chart (March)
Was Johann Adam Hacker a Redemptioner? (January)
Ruth Olive Hocker (February)

Three posts about using Ancestry/AncestryDNA, a couple of quick posts, a post about a WordPress plugin, and an obituary for my grandmother. Only two of those posts were planned writing exercises, rather than spur of the moment—”this is what’s happening” type of posts.

Were there any signs that the content I wrote in 2016 related to topics of interest to other genealogists?

I got comments on ten posts out of 50—twenty percent. Not bad for post engagement. Eight posts were shared on social media by readers. Surprisingly, not the posts I would have expected.

Meeting Goals

I had four goals that I believed I needed to work on in order to improve my writing. They were: focus, plan, write, and share.

I wanted to focus on a subject or family line to write about. I picked two topics. My Huber research and using deed records in genealogy research.

I wrote two series about Hubers, granted not my ancestors, but part of my research nonetheless. I wrote only one article that meets my criteria for deed research—“Does the Spelling of a Name Really Matter?”. It was the 9th most viewed of my 2016 posts. And it did not focus only on using deed records.

I started out the year planning my editorial calendar in a Google spreadsheet from a list of topics I’d been keeping in Evernote. However, a number of those articles were crossed out when I didn’t write them. Only one was later incorporated in my post “Lifestyles of Early Pennsylvania German Immigrants” (#5 on the list of top 2016 posts).

I did, however, include more research articles, including three written as a series, made up of eight posts. ² I wrote about Abraham Huber in a three-part series, John Weidman’s pedigree in a two-post series, and Georg and Anna Maria (Hooß) Huber in three posts. None of these were among the most viewed posts in 2016.

I also covered surprise finds from my Hacker-Hocker research and I wrote an obituary for my grandmother who passed away in February. None of which I’d planned.

So, I increased the number of posts I wrote and—with those series—included documentation of some of my research findings.

Just recently I started sharing more. I added a Facebook page for the site and I’ve been sharing posts there and to my Google+, Twitter, and Pinterest accounts regularly. Some of my posts have even been shared by others on social networking.

I also wanted to release another book—maybe two—in 2016. I got An Index to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Online Deeds, Books I-M written, formatted, edited and uploaded for production on Lulu and Amazon, but decided not to go forward when the Lancaster County Register of Deeds released their new online viewer for both deed books and deed book indices. No need for a book when there’s online access 24/7—especially when my earlier ebooks were pirated and distributed online for free—a real motivation killer, for sure.

I’ve been working on several other book projects, but since they’re more involved genealogical works, they’re taking longer. The research is slow going.

All in all, I have to say that although I slacked off here and there, I did fairly well in 2016. There’s room for improvement, of course, but measured against my goals—a good job. Go, me! 😉

How was your 2016?

Looking Forward

My goals for 2017 are not so different than my goals for this year. I’d like to increase the number of posts I write and to share more.

But I’m going to be realistic. There’s no way I’m going to pump out fully fleshed out research reports weekly—or even monthly. It’s just not going to happen. Hello, life!

So, I think I’ve finally convinced myself that there’s nothing wrong with posting an individual record—how I found it, what it includes, how it fits into a person’s life story—rather than waiting until I can write the full story. I’m going to share more bits and pieces. Incomplete research. Ideas I’m working on. I was thinking social media would be the venue for that, but I think it’s better to use my website as the hub and share it from there.

So, a long post to show you where I’m at. Maybe—if I’m feeling really ambitious—I might tackle the idea of regular emails to site subscribers to keep them up-to-date. I guess we’ll just have to see what 2017 brings.

What Can You Learn from a List?

Kris Hocker on 27 Dec 2016

If you’ve been doing genealogy for a while, I’m sure you’ve come across lists. You know those pesky records you thought would actually tell you something about your ancestor and instead you found were little more than a laundry list of names.

What help is that?! How can you even tell if that name refers to your ancestor when all you’ve got is a name on a list of names?

Just what can you learn from a list? Quite a lot, actually.

Working from communion lists, I was able to determine several facts about specific relatives. For instance, I was able to narrow down the marriage date of Anna Christina Lang, daughter of Johann Michael and Christina (Hacker) Lang.

Anna Christina (Lang) Stober

I have not been able to locate a marriage record for Christina and her husband Johann Wilhelm Stober. To the best of my knowledge, marriage records for the church they attended do not exist. However, they both attended communion at Emanuel Lutheran Church in 1775.

On August 27, the 11th Sunday after Trinity, Wilhelm is listed with his parents and siblings, Valentin, Friderich, Barbara, and Christina.¹ “Christina Langen” is also included separately on the list. I know this isn’t her mother Christina (Hacker) Lang or her sister-in-law Christina (Stober) Lang because both are also included on the list—her mother with husband Michael and (future) sister-in-law alone and separate from her brother Michael Lang.

The very next communion list was recorded on 26 November, the 24th Sunday after Holy Trinity. This list includes “Wilhelm Stover and wife Christina.”² This tells me that William and Christina were married—likely at Emanuel Lutheran sometime in the ten weeks between 27 August and 26 November.

Maria Elisabetha (Weidman) Hacker

I don’t have a death date for Maria Elisabetha (Weidman) Hacker and since she was most likely buried on the family farm, I don’t have a gravestone to check either. She was alive at the time her husband’s estate was settled in the Lancaster County Orphan’s Court in 1782. She was awarded £12 yearly out of her dower share of the Hacker farm, which amounted to approximately £200.³ I know she was alive as of 2 August 1790, because she was listed as “Widow Hocker” in the 1790 census enumeration of Cocalico Township.⁴

Elisab. Hacker (#73) in 1806 Communion list

But when did she die?

By examining communion lists, I determined that she was still alive and attending communion at Emanuel Lutheran Church until sometime after 28 September 1806.⁵ At that time, both her daughter and granddaughter named Elisabeth had already married and so would not have been listed under their maiden names. The only other Elisabeth Hacker in the area and old enough to be included would have been her son Jacob’s wife and she was listed with her husband (#58 & 59, see below). Furthermore, Elizabeth (#73) was listed directly after “Jacob Weidman Witt.” This most likely referred to Elisabeth’s brother Jacob’s widow, Barbara (Huber) Weidman. Jacob died 20 December 1802.⁶ Barbara survived until 1828.⁷ I did not find Elisabeth listed on subsequent lists—the next being on Misericordia Sunday 1807, the 4th Sunday of Easter or, I believe, 19 April 1807.

Jacob Hacker & frau in 1806 communion list

Jacob Hacker & frau (#58 & 59)

The important thing to remember with lists is context. In addition to the standard questions of what type of list is it, who made it, why, where, and when, we should also ask questions specifically about the list based on what we know about lists of this type for that location. Who’s on the list? Who could or should be on the list? Who’s not on the list? How does the list change over time? The answers to these questions provide clues that help us to identify the people on the list and therefore draw conclusions about the people on the list.

While I couldn’t get exact dates for events from the lists, the information they provided helped me to narrow down the possible dates. Christina married between 27 August and 26 November 1775. Maria Elisabetha (Weidman) Hacker died sometime after 28 November 1806 and possibly before 19 April 1807.

1/1/17: Updated to include images and minor edits.