Surprise! A New Mom for Catharina Betz

As you know from previous posts, my research has revealed that I am a descendant of Conrad Schneider and Catharina Betz of Upper Salford, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, through their grandson Jacob Schneider. I have not proven who fathered Jacob, though I do have a working hypothesis.

Conrad and family immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1732, arriving in Philadelphia onboard the ship Johnson on 19 September.¹ In 1751, Reverend Lucas Raüs, pastor for Old Goshenhoppen Lutheran congregation, recorded the names and information of the church elders and deacons.

Conrad Schneider was the third entry:

“Conrad Schneider, age 52 years, born 1699 March 17, in Treschklingen, in Swabia, son of Conrad Schneider and Catharina, both Reformed. He came to Pennsylvania in 1732. He married anno 1724 Catharine, born 1700 daughter of Sebastian Betz and wife Eva, from Ferfeld.”²

Old Goshenhoppen Register of the Families and the Names of the Ministers

With the 50% off membership at Ancestry for new and returning subscribers (good thru Jan. 7th), I decided to upgrade to the World Explorer to see what I could find on my German, Welsh, and English ancestors. I spent yesterday looking through the church records from Fürfeld.

Much to my surprise, I found that Catharina Betz’s full name was Eva Catharina and that her mother’s name was not also Eva. Sebastian Betz’s family page showed that his wife’s name was Maria Margaretha Barbara.³

Now, I’m the first to admit that my German reading comprehension is not the greatest—especially when trying to figure out both the handwriting and German. But I can usually find my way through birth, death, and marriage entries in church records and village family books.

The page for Johann Sebastian Betz shows his wife’s [uxor] name was Anna Maria Margaretha Barbara [illegible surname]. Their marriage date is shown as “16 8 1687” [16 August 1687]—confirmed from their marriage entry, as is her date of death: “10, 12, 1716” [10 December 1716]—confirmed through burial records.

Sebastian’s daughter Eva Catharina was born 8 April 1701.⁴ Even though as far as I can tell she is not named as such in the entry, given her date of death, Maria Margaretha Barbara must have been Eva Catharina’s birth mother.

But what about the Old Goshenhoppen entry? Was Conrad—since he most likely provided the information for the church book—just wrong about the name of his wife’s mother?

Nope.

The entry (above) shows that Sebastian did marry a woman named Eva. It took a bit of sleuthing—mostly regarding the information written between her given name and date of death (28 November 1725)—but I determined that she was Eva Strecker of Zottishofen. Their marriage record—dated 23 November 1717—identifies her as the daughter of Johann Conrad Strecker, “bürger zu Zottisshofen” [citizen of Zotishofen].⁵

Therefore, when Conrad married Eva Catharina in 1724, Sebastian was married to a woman named Eva. Maria Margaretha Barbara had already been dead for almost eight years. When he provided the information 27 years later, he likely named the woman he knew when he married.

• Category: Research
• Tag: Family Research, Maternal Line