Although I recovered an image of the baptismal/ birth record of Abraham Wilhelm Ecker, the ink or microfilm had faded badly and I had a hard time reading it, let alone making a good copy to post. Since this is such an important document for us, I went back and gave it another try. Here is my best shot. For comparison, I also show the record of a cousin, confirmed at the same time 14 years later. These wonderful records show how close the families must have been and reinforces my efforts to find others who came to America at around the same time. For comparison, below is the baptismal record (spanning two book pages) for Rosina Catharina Ecker. Her’s is the third birth in 1840. Her parents were Gottlieb Friedrich Ecker; Burger and miller, and Eva Catharina, also a miller. Rosina was born in Unterreichenbach on 23 Jan in the morning at 6 hours. The information on the facing page tells us she was baptized in U. Reich. on 28 Jan. I think the next column tells the name of the minister. Her sponsors were none other than Jacob Ecker, now not a miller but a kraemer (shopkeeper or peddler) here, and Juliana Rosina geb. Fischer. One can speculate that Cousin Gottlieb Friedrich took over at the mill where Jacob worked. (Recall that Jacob was not far from the year of his death in 1845.) The family register is at folio 90. |
Below is the record for our Abraham Wilhelm Ecker. His was the 21st baptism in 1840 in this church-book. His parents are well known to us: Jakob and Juliana. Born in Unterreichenbach 16 July in the morning. The second page is difficult but bless Photoshop. William was baptized in Unterreichenbach 17 July but I cannot make out the third line there. The sponsors were Michael Grossmann?, and Anna Maria (name) Fischer, probably a relative of William’s mother. Since we have the Fischer family registries, I can probably figure out this relationship. For your interest, here is what the second page looked like before enhancement. |
