This is an interesting record. I may have been lucky to have found it. I scanned almost every page of the many dozen volumes of old books looking for the name Ecker. I obviously focused on the main name column or where a main name was underlined. I probably saw this because I had seen the name Öse (Oese) as a godparent for an Ecker. In any case, I have always wondered what became of the Margaret Ecker who immigrated with William in 1854. This might have been her. The pair of 14 year-olds came over with (escorted by?) an Elizabeth Bohnenberger who was 21 and would have been born in 1833. This is 10 years too young to have been Frederic's Barbara. Unfortunately, my initial hopes are not likely, although a more distant relationship is possible. (Addendum: Mystery solved. See below for the answer!!!.) On March 14, 1859, William Öse died. He was the son of Georg Öse a Metzger (butcher) in Orange, Essex Co., NJ; and his wife Katharina Öse geborenn Ecker. William was 3 years and 3 months old. That would give an estimated date of birth of Jan 1857. Witnesses were Johann someone and Christian Ecker. Could Katharina Oese have been Rosina Katharina Eker born Jan 23, 1840? Rosina was first cousin to my Abraham Wilhelm and was confirmed in the same class in Germany. I was quick to assume that it was she that immigrated. However, her family registry page from Unterreichenbach has an asterisk by her name and a notation that there was a illegitimate child born in 1865 that seems to be hers. The name and date make her an unlikely candidate. I found an entry in the index of marriages in NJ for Catharine Ecker and George Christian Oese that has them wed in Newark Nov 13, 1853. Thus, she was here before William. Furthermore, an 1860 census report says that both she and George were born in Hesse, Germany. Catherine was 25 in 1860 which gives her a birth year about 1835. My hypotheses are circling the drain. Still, the large Ecker clan in Rensealler Co, NY, just across the river from Albany and Troy were from Hesse also. It might be that Hesse was an intermediate stop for some Eckers from Unterreichenbach coming to America. (Where is Hesse, and where was it in the mid 1800's?) Addendum 3/8/2008: The answer to the mystery above was right under my nose. Katharina Ecker Öse is Regina Catharina Ecker, the sister of William, Friedrich, Jakob, and Christian. No wonder they were godparents and witnesses for each others children and marriages! Regina Catharina (as her name appears in the Unterreichenbach church book) was born 3 Jul 1835 and was confirmed 22 April 1849. I should have been more alert when I origainally saw that there were no marrige or death dates on her Family Registry Page where she is child #4. Thus it was that all the surviving children of Jakob Ecker and Julianna Rosina Fischer came to America in the middle of the 1800s. Their father died in 1845 and had ceased being a miller before that, perhaps due to illness. Perhaps the loss of the "family business" contributed to the immigration. I point out that several of the Eckers, including Barbara, also settled in Orange and East Orange and were in the grocery business. It is a good fit that butcher Georg and his wife may have been part of the family enterprise. The Oese Eckers and the Bohnenberger Eckers obviously knew each other in Newark. I also got a thrill when I saw the first entry above. I first took it for Elizabetha Hasselbacher, but is is probably Schuellbacher. (Note that the name of the witness for Williams death appears also to be Schuellbacher.) I am missing some Elizabeth Hasselbachers. The tale is told elsewhere on this site. |