Last Updated on 30NOV2000
By James I. Mathias WHAT IS NEW

ACTIVITY LOG



NOVEMBER, 2000

OLD PHOTOS OF FOUCHES LUXEMBOURG

Lewis Mathias was born in Fouches (Offen), Luxembourg. Due to the genrosity and efforts of Claude Schmit, Denise Even and Julian Even as they work trying to preserve the history and records of their hometown of Fouches, a number of old photos are available and can be viewed. Thus giving all of us an better idea of this Frenchtown pioneer's roots. IMAGES OF FOUCHES, LUX.


JUNE, 2000

MAJOR UPDATE ON THE THOM LINE

The number of descendants for Peter Thom and Elizabeth Fetzer on this website has more than doubled. There are now six pages of charts with more to come. This was due to the efforts fo Carolyn Reinbolt. I am not sure how she is able to do so much but once again her assitance is greatly appreciated. Some of the charts are large and may take a while to load. The surname index has been updated to almost 11,000 individuals. Click here to view the THOM Family Charts .


APRIL, 2000

MARIA VICTORIA GUILLAUME'S TWO FAMILIES

Maria Victoria was married twice. Her first marriage was to Johm Mathias and the second to to Francis Collet. Thanks to Loren Beard's research this line has been greatly expanded. The Mathias/Guillaume/Collet chart has grown to two full pages. Cross references can be found to existing Mathias and Reinhart charts.


MARCH, 2000

EXTENSIVE UPDATES

Two existing charts have been updated. The size of each has doubled from 2 pages of data to 4 pages. Mary (Waltermeyer) Zoeller data was responsible for the enhancements to the Louise Reinhart and William Brose charts. She and her mother, Anna (Brose) Waltermeyer have worked hard to stay current with this large family. Mary also has provided a number of wedding photos that have been incorporated into the charts.

The Clara Mathias/Peter Arend/ Nicolas Welter charts were expanded due to the research of Mary Ann Payne. It is truely fortunate that so much of her genealogy intersects with both the Mathias and Reinhart genealogy.


FEBRUARY, 2000

THE NEW MILENIUM

The year 2000 has started off with wealth of new information. The surname index has now grown to over 10,000 entries which resulted in numerous changes to the website. A number of new charts have been added, numerous charts were updated and several had to be relocated to new locations for better management of available storage space. The latter change may require that bookmarks be revised.

Thanks to Richard Duprel and Pierre Mathey for providing data on two other distinct branches of the Mathias family. The Mathias family from Nobressart, LUX definitely had its origins in Fouches, LUX. With Didenburg, LUX half way betweeen these two towns there is every reason to believe the Mathias families in all three towns were related. Richard has identified several other towns with Mathias populations: Mertzig, Autelbas, Bivingen, Feulen, Burange and Monderange. In addition Louise Perl has shared a 1928 family genealogy of the Perls who also came from Fouches, LUX. When Lewis Mathias came to Seneca County with his wife Clara Feck in 1839, he arrived too late to get a government tract of land. Instead he purchased his farm from fellow county man, Nicolas Perl. Clara Feck had an uncle on her mother's side named Lawrence Perl. Four new charts showing these families from Fouches, LUX have been added. Fouches in Luxemburgisch is called "Offen".

Elizabeth Mathias, Paul Ivan and Marcie McCabe have generously new contributed data and photos to the chart showing Dominic Mathias and Theresa Weber's descendants. This chart has now grown to three rather large pages.

The Houck family chart with four pages of data is completely new. Carolyn Reinbolt and Roni Rospert provided virually all of the data. Several photos will be added in the near future.

Almost two pages of data on the Huth family has been added. Although the data has been placed the Nicholas Mathias and Margaret Nepper chart, the Huth family is related to many lines from Seneca County. Don Rogier and Carolyn Reinbolt helped tremendously with the research.


NOVEMBER, 1999

MILESTONE REACHED

There are now over 9,000 individuals in the surname indexes.
Data on the Kaufman Family was added to suppliment several Reinhart family lines. This chart begins with Nicolas Kaufman (1787-1842).


OCTOBER, 1999

THE MATHIAS TREE CONTINUES GROWING

One year ago only two names existed on a chart, that of Dominic Mathias and Theresa Weber. Then a few names were shared, then more, and now thanks Elizabeth (Thacker) Mathias' recent contribution this number has grown to 137 individuals. Sometimes it is hard comprehend the richness of one's heritage but as the sheer number of names grows, one's entire perspective begins to grow. And with the addition of faces to these names the meaning and sense of family grows. The photos submitted by Paul Ivan, David Koscielniak and Agnes (Borer) Mathias have been greatly apprciated by a number of individuals. It is quite special be able to identify 12 generations, especially with a photo as far back as the 7th generation.

NEW DATA ON THOM LINE

Carolyn Reinbolt has once again provided a wealth of new data. This time on the THOM family line. In fact a third chart had to be added. Carolyn has greatly enhanced this line with, of course, information that featured the Reinbolt family. Carolyn is a terrific researcher with a database of over 60,000 names of individuals in it. This, however, seems small compared to her generous and sharing nature.


SEPTEMBER, 1999

LEWIS MATHIAS' BAPTISMAL RECORD

Julien Even in an e-mail received this week indicated that that he had a scanned image of Lewis Mathias' baptismal record and would I like a copy. Two days later it arrived. Although Tom Huelskamp, a couple of years ago, told me where to look I never did find it. This is really exciting and the Lewis Mathias baptismal record is now ready for viewing (and copying). The 1814 Records Book Cover was also scanned by Julien. Just as exciting as this is, Lewis Mathias' maternal grandmother was Anna Maria EVEN. So Julien and his sister Denise are more than likely related and we are looking into establishing that link. Julien says that in the 1700 and 1800's "the mother language was Letzenbuergesch, and children at school were studying German." "They did not speak French at all" even though the official language is French. The irony is that in this county the settlement was called Frenchtown. For those researching the family history the village where the Mathiases originated is in French "FOUCHES", in German it is "OFFEN" and "AFFEN" in Letzenbuergesch. Julien also warns that the town of Fouches is in the district of Hachy and records indicating Hachy do not necessarily mean an individual was born in the town of Hachy. Although the surname MATHIAS has been universally adopted by Lewis' descendants as well as his brothers' descendants. The baptismal record, in Latin, spells it as "Matheÿ". As was the custom the child was given the name of his sponsor/godparent at baptism. In this case Louis Allarding.

THE SCHNUR FAMILY FROM WENIGUMSTADT

In 1782 Margaretha Schnur from Wenigumstadt married Johann Peter Reinhart. Ruth Schieltz, in her latest book, "The Reinhart Family History" traces the Schnur family back to the 1660's. These new findings can be viewed on chart: r0ger dealing with ancestors from Niedernberg, Germany. Ruth's book has supplied enough new information on the descendants of Theresa Reinhart and Michael Welly that an additional chart had to be added. Reinhart/Welly Chart. Not only is the volume of data in Ruth's book impressive but the photocopies of supporting civil documents and original church records also provide the sense of continuity that is important to all of us. There is so much information in Ruth's book that it is going to take a while to assimilate it all.

THANKS FOR THE UPDATES

Numerous charts have been updated as well as the Surname cross-reference indexes. There are now over 8600 individuals charted on this web-site. There are many different individuals who share information each month but Carolyn Reinbolt deserves a special thanks for her generosity.


AUGUST, 1999

167TH ANNIVERSARY

August 8th was the 167th anniversary of Martin Reinharts' birth and well over 100 of his direct descendants met at St Peter's Church in Alvada, OH with many other Reinhart cousins in attendance. The guests of honor were Albert Wagner and his daughter, Sonja from Niedernberg, Bavaria, Germany. Albert is the historian who has generously helped in researching the Reinhart/Hartlaub genealogy for the past two years. Mr. Wagner has now determined the location of house in Niedernberg which Peter Reinhart lived prior to coming to the United States in 1832 and he displayed a photograph of the house. In attendance were a number individuals who's hobby is genealogy. What a pleasure it was to meet many of them for the first time after have corresponded by letter and e-mail for so long. Ruth Schieltz made copies of her new book, "The Reinhart Family History" available. The book is great! It has photocopies of many original church and civil records.

AS ALWAYS

As always new data keeps arriving from numerous individuals. Over 25 charts have been updated and uploaded. The surname cross-reference index now has over 8200 entries.

The newest chart is that of the Welter Family orginating from Essingen and Beaufort, LUX. Page two of this chart begins with Clara Mathias' marriage into the Welter Family.


July, 1999

MARY MATILDA MATHIAS AND MORTZ KIRIAN POHTOS

A photo of Mary Matilda Mathias and Mortz Kirian and ones of Charles Kirian and Mary Eva Thom and their descendants were submitted by Mary Ann Payne with the help of John and Melissa Payne. These have been added to the appropriate charts.

JOES CHRYSOSTOM WELTER (born 1639)

Clara Mathias' second marriage in 1866 was to Nicholas Welter. After entering Nicholas' name into the LDS search engine a hit was made. As a result 6 generations of ancestors dating back to 1639 have been added to Clara & Nicholas' chart. Check it out. .


June, 1999

A NEW RECORD IS SET

David Koscielniak, a descendant of Dominic Mathias, came across this web-site while doing some research and generously sent a photo of his great grandparents along with new names and dates for the Dominic Mathias family from Findlay, Ohio. The new record was set by his grandmother, Agatha Fetzer, who had 18 children 15 of which surived to adulthood and 10 are still living.


May, 1999

SURNAME INDEX & CHARTS UPDATED

There are now 8,052 names in the surnames index. Many of the individuals can be found on more than one chart. It is quite interesting to see how closely knit the individuals really are in Seneca County. A lot of effort has been made to note these links. Many of the charts have been updated and corrected and more will be in June (there is a rather lagre todo list). There are many people who need to be thanked but none more than Carolyn Reinbolt. She has been checking every name on every chart and then e-mailing her additions and corrections.

JUST IMPOSSIBLE

When all the new Guillaume and Long data was charted it was no longer possible to have just one chart for Mathias/Reinhart/Guillaume ancestors. Nor was it possble to reduce the physical size of the charts to speed up access time. There are now three large charts from the Mathias perspective, three charts from the Guillaume prespective and one showing the Reinhart/Hartlaub origins. All the charts actually include elements of the others. Since family lines cross over there has been every attempt to indicate this.

FOUR NEW GENERATIONS ADDED TO THE PFAFF CHART

After many frustrating attempts to work on the new LDS Ancestral Internet site, 2:30AM proved to be the only time the web-site was usable. Then very quickly four new generations and a lot of detail appeared for the Yaney side of Pfaff family. So much information that a second chart had to be added. The new data on the Pfaff Family is now ready.

APRIL, 1999

GROWING BY LEEPS AND BOUNDS

This month more data came in than it was possible process and and put on the web-site. There is a lot great new data planned for May and June.

March, 1999

TWO LIFEGUARDS ON DUTY IN THE GENE POOL

Despite knowing my grandparents had to ask the priest for permission to marry because both the Mathias and Reinhart direct lines had common Guillaume ancestors, I had no idea of how they were related. Mary Ann Payne suggested Dennis Long might be able to help. He had researched and publish data on the Long & Guillaume families a few years ago. What a thrill to see such well documented information. He had researched these lines until there were no more written records sometimes spending hours to just decipher a single word in the old church records. A quick call to Richard LaFountaine, who Dennis refers to as an expert on the Guillaumes, solved the puzzle of how my grandparents were related were to each other. The first draft of a chart on Guillaume & Long Families is now on line. Thanks to all three for helping rescue my heritage and breathing "life" back into my ancestors.

MICRO-FILMING OF NIEDERNBERG RECORDS

The St. Cyriakus church records in Niedernberg have been transfered to Würzburg for micro-filming. The whole process will take 6 to 9 months. So research and verification of data is on halt until until they return around the end of the year. In the long run preserving these valuable records should be a very good thing for everyone.


NEW FAMILY UNITS

Mark Coleman provided updated information on the Coleman family which can be found on page 5 of the Andrew Reinhart and Matilda Droll charts. He has also started up his own web-page that will include the names: Coleman/Kuhlmann, Wagner, Clouse/Klaus, Reinhart, Thom, Droll, Brandstetter, Hoffbauer, Gengler, Kinn/Kin, Genin/Jenning(s), Myers/Mejer, Shilbley, Yost/Jost and Witzel. Mark's Website The Hoffbauer data provided by Mark may have helped identify at least some of the answer to who is in one of the old photos. Old Photos section.

Laraine Elter sent her data on the Thom family which is greatly appeciated. This information combined with Carolyn Reinbolt's should help resolve several issues reguarding names and dates for several Thom family members. The Thom charts have grown to a second page.

TREASURE IN THE ATTIC

Agnes Mathias found some old photos in her attic and had no idea who the individuals in the picture were. After piecing together a few clues the best guess is that the photograph was take in August, 1863. It is a family portrait of John Nicholas Mathias (brother to Lewis) and his wife Mary Barbara Peter and their five children Peter, Joseph, Lewis, Dominic and Catherine. What a find! When the photo is digitally enhanced a little bit more, Agnes' treasure can be shared by all. I have seen it stated in print that there are no known photos Of Lewis Mathias (John N.'s brother) but now I am not so sure. The Mathiases seemed to have shared photos with other family members and every spouse knows that we never thow anything away so maybe there is a group photo in someone else's attic. The most elusive of all images remains that of Lewis but this one if John Nicholas represents the earliest photo of a Mathias born in Luxemburg. Checkout Agnes' family chart.

SHARE YOUR PHOTOS AND GET HELP IDENTIFYING WHO IS IN THE PICTURE

The more eyes that see those old photos and the more names and dates added to the family charts, the more chance there is to identify people in those old photos. If you scan a photo and e-mail it I will put on this site and hopefully someone will help identify who is in the photo. Sharing those old treasures can benifit everyone. Old Photos Area.

UPDATED MATHIAS/HEINEN CHART

Jodi Kornbau has provided more names and details reguarding the Josephine Mathias & Anthony Heinen family tree. In particular the descendants of Mercedes Josephine Lucius and Ocscar Monroe Jones. The updated chart is ready to view and the cross-reference will be in a few days. See the Mathias-Heinen chart.

February, 1999

OTHERS ARE GENERIOUSLY SHARING THEIR EFFORTS

Laraine Kirian has add so much new data on the Kirian family that a fourth chart had to be added to this line. Her additions focus on Mary Matilda Mathias and Mortz Kirian although looking at these charts you will see references to Reinhart, Thom, Heinen and Lucius family lines. New Mary Matilda Mathias & Mortz Kirian charts.

Paul Ivan is researching his mother's family and sent a picture of his great grandfather Nicholas Mathias. He has not confirmed it yet, but in the picture are what we belive to be his great-great grandparents Dominic Mathias and Theresa Weber and the rest of the family. We could use help in identifying the other brothers and sisters of Nicholas. New Dominic Mathias-Theresa Weber chart.

Carolyn Reinbolt has uncovered more information on the Thom family and the updated charts are ready for viewing. Updated Thom family charts.

Since many of the charts refer to other charts a list of all available charts has been added to help in researching. At this time due to the size of some of the charts it was not possible to embed links to anther chart. I am working on this problem but for now here is the temporary solution. Chart of Charts.


January, 1999

LOTS OF CHANGES FOR THE NEW YEAR

Everything is now on AT&T's server. Almost all of the genealogy charts have been updated with corrections and a lot of new data to make them better. Best of all there is room to spare. There are now 100 pages of charts and over 7,500 names in the surname index.

There are two new pages on the Strasser line. It took a while but all of Jack Brunner's data plus a little more is on line. New and updated Strasser family chart.

Thanks to Eileen Cook a new family chart has been added with data on the Pfaff family. It was Eileen's mother, my aunt, Theora Pfaff, who started my life long addiction to oatmeal cookies. New Pfaff family chart.

Joan Hartlaub was checking out the web-site looking for a connection to her family and one was found back in Niedernberg, Bavaria. A rather impressive chart on Peter Reinhart and Maria Anna Hartlaub's ancestors is starting to take shape when Joan's new information is combined with Albert Wagner's data. Hopefully this will be on-line by the end of January.

Sometime on 29th the 1000th log-in occured. It took 14 months to reach that number with 500 occuring in the last 4 months. I hope this number indicates that the web-site is providing useful information. There certainly has been many individuals sharing data that they have spent many long hours aquiring. Thanks to everyone for their generous contributions.


December, 1998

Maxed Out!

Mary Ann Payne continued to submit more and more new information. As a result there was no space available for updating charts or the surnames cross-reference index. Then Carolyn D. Reinbolt began emailing data. Not only did Carolyn send in new names and dates but she proofed almost every chart providing updates as well as corrections.
A couple of days before Christmas AT&T gave all their Internet customers 25 MEG of additional storage space. This means that total storage space more than doubled and if the data is transfered from GeoCities and those annoying advertizements can be avoided. Hopefully the lockups that some people experience will end too.

November, 1998

The cross-reference list is finished at last.

There are almost 6800 names with a link to the chart on which they can be found. Some individuals are linked to as many as four charts. I hope this is of help to everyone doing genealogy research.

Strasser Data

Jack Brunner of Toledo has shared his Strasser data. Two of Peter Reinhart's sons, Johann Karl and Thomas married Strasser sisters. Jack has taken this line back to Theodor Stroesser, 1724-1772 and his wife Maria Lucas, 1730-1803 in Fischbach, LUX. Jack indicates that the Strasser sisters came from Meysembourg, LUX. Some of the Reinhart books point to Mosenburg. The Mathias family came from nearby Fouches, LUX. However, the German name for Fouches was "Offen". This, of course, had cause a lot of confusion. Maybe the same thing has happened with Meysenbourg and Mosenberg. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. The link to the Strasser chart is located in the Reinhart genealogy page and the surnames are in the Reinhart list.

Mathias & Kirian Data

Mary Ann Payne of has shared a lot of information on the Charles Kirian family. She also supplied new data on Mary Matilda Mathias. When Mary Ann's information was compared to that of Steve Frank's the result was a chart that spans 11 generations and goes back to the 1600's. Mary Ann says she has more to come. The three resulting charts are now up with the new names added to the surname index. The charts can be accessed thru the Mathias genealogy page.



  • RETURN TO THE SITE-MAP.

  • INDEX OF SURNAMES WITH A LINK TO GENEALOGY CHART(S).

  • MATHIAS FAMILY GENEALOGY

  • REINHART FAMILY GENEALOGY

  • HARTMAN FAMILY GENEALOGY

  • BADER FAMILY GENEALOGY

  • WIKTOROWSKI FAMILY GENEALOGY

  • OTHER RELATED SITES AND CONTACTS