A Book Review, Mike Rager, & St. Louis Stumpfs

How I spent July 3rd, 2022 sending myself on a fool's errand.

Book Review

Image by Trish Stumpf Garcia (scan)

Last July, I was reading the book The Names of John Gergen: Immigrant Identities in Early Twentieth-Century St. Louis by Benjamin Moore.  This interesting study on a Donauschwaben immigrant starts when the author comes upon some 1917-1918 schoolwork in a dumpster.  This dumpster-retrieved treasure led to a quest to find out who the young student was who created them.  Moore discovers John Gergen was a German-Hungarian from  Nagyszentmiklós / Groß St. Nikolaus with a complicated identity, in that Gergen was his unofficial adopted name.  In addition to John Gergen's life, chapters cover things like the immigrant neighborhood in St. Louis called Soulard, the treatment and exploitation of immigrants, education and its failings in the early 1900s, immigration from Europe in the early 1900s especially the steamship passage, how ethnic German immigrants from Hungary were not fully German nor Hungarian, socialist and workers movements in the early 1900s, and the forgetting of these individuals and their lives by their families.   The author uses a lot of social history to string together the unknown parts of the lives of the subjects.  In the end you feel like you know about John Gergen without really knowing him.

I do recommend the book to anyone who finds any of these things interesting, even though it was a slow read for me.  It is also a good example of how to write about a person who didn't leave a lot of personal context to their lives.

My Quest for the Day

The book mentions Mike Rager who ran the Soulard saloon and dance hall called Neumeyer's Hall, which was named after its original owners.  It was a gathering place for Banat Schwabians in St. Louis (135).  

I recognized the Rager name as I had a Michael Rager in my database of Stumpfs of Kathreinfeld and Klek.  I was excited that a Stumpf descendent was chronicled in this book, even it it wasn't with the Stumpf name.  Maybe it gave me a sense of something tangible from the Stumpf line.

Listed in the Kathreinfeld family book is Elisabeth Stumpf married to Johann Rager and their kids (Anna *abt 1877, Michael *abt 1888, Barbara *09 Jan 1894, Elisabeth *18 Aug 1895).  This family book uses baptismal records starting in 1894, so births before this date are either not listed as they are unknown or they come from other sources, such as marriage, immigration, or death sources.  Anna's info likely came from a marriage entry.  Michael was listed as one of their kids, also without a birthdate, along with the detail that he went to St. Louis (Egert, 210).  Dave Dreyer's Ship Data says he was going to St. Louis to his uncle, Anton Stumpf.  The mother Elisabeth has a nephew Anton Stumpf who went to St. Louis.  The inclusion in the family book is likely from this information.

Looking for Confirmation

I spent that July 3rd tracking down Mike Rager in the U.S. records to confirm his parents. I found a passport application (parents are not listed), a passenger list from 1924 when he returned from a visit to his homeland, his naturalization application (after paging through the digitized images, parents not listed of course), and a FindaGrave page that didn't make sense when I first saw it.  The FindaGrave page says he was born in Germany; he shares a headstone with his brother Nick and his sister-in-law; he was the son of Nick Rager and Katrina Andra and a restaurant proprietor.  Was this the right Mike Rager?  On his WWI draft card, he gave St. Georgen as his birthplace rather than Kathreinfeld.  At the literal end of the day, I came upon his 1940 death certificate.  His brother Nick was the informant.  Although Mike and his parents' place of birth is listed as Germany, which should be Hungary - or, in 1940 Yugoslavia, his parents are listed as Nick Rager and Katrina Andra, agreeing with the FindaGrave page.  I'm figuring if Mike's brother Nick was the informant, the parents' names are probably correct.  

Source: Findagrave photo by frankseyffardt, used with permission.

Some Disappointment

So, Mike Rager, proprietor of Neumeyer's Hall, the gathering place for Banat Schwabians in St. Louis, is not the son of Elisabeth Stumpf.  In the Kathreinfeld FB, Michael was likely added to the Johann Rager family based on the immigration record and some assumptions.  Based on some of his U.S. documents, especially the WWI draft registration, it is likely he was born in St. Georgen, which does not have records available — outside of the archive — to  review.  

Sigh.  Another pit of unavailable records.

Was he really the nephew to an Anton Stumpf?  

Checking for Stumpf Deaths in St. Louis

So, now that I know where the Missouri death certificates are, I searched them for St. Louis Stumpf deaths.  I found one that matches with one in my database, Josef Stumpf who married Magdalena Stein, and added that information.

I also found Frank Stumpf, born 1908 in Yugoslavia, who died in 1969. He was married to Katharina, and was the son of Joseph Stumpf and Elisabeth Hoffman. I can find nothing else on him in general searching, so I don't know where in Yugoslavia he was born, and none of these people are already in my Stumpf database.  (In case I need it again. Content warning: suicide)

It looks like Ancestry.com also has the Missouri death certificates.  I didn't have access to that last July.

Disclaimer

Other than driving through St. Louis in 2011 which hardly counts, I don't have any connection to St. Louis and, as far as I know, I don't have any ancestors who were in St. Louis.  

Books Cited

Egert, Roswitha, compiler. Familienbuch der katholischen pfarrgemeinde Kathreinfeld im Banat: 1893/1895/1915-1947 (Teil 2). Villingen-Schwennigen: Herausgegeben von der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Veröffentlichung Banater Familienbücher (AVBF), 2006.

Moore, Benjamin. The Names of John Gergen: Immigrant Identities in Early Twentieth-Century St. Louis. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2021

Other sources are hyperlinked in the text and not fully cited here.

Locating Dörlesberg and Bronnbach

Last week's post connected the Jakob and Melchior Stumpf of the Banat with their parents and family in Dörlesberg and Bronnbach in Baden. 

Historical Gazetteers and Maps

Meyers Gazetteer, originally compiled in 1912 to catalog all the locations in Germany as it was in 1871 to 1912, is now available to search online.  An entry on a location includes: a clip from the original text - in Fraktur font, a map, and the governmental units the location is a part of (state, district, etc.).  There is a tab for map and religious locations nearby.

Map with Dörlesberg marked with a red location marker, Bronnbach, Schafhof, and Wagenbücher Hof marked with red dots. Reicholzheim is to the north. Reicholzheim and Bronnbach are on the Tauber River curving from south to north. (snip from MayersGaz.org)

Using the online Meyer's Gazetteer, we find Dörlesberg is listed as a Dorf, or village, in the Wertheim district of Baden.  Its civil registration office is in Dörlesberg.

Bronnbach is listed as Weiler, or a small village or farm.  It also is in Wertheim district of Baden, but its civil registration office is in Reicholzheim.  From Wikipedia, it seems that Bronnbach is actually an abbey or cloister or monastery.  The monastery had a few farms that it managed including Wagenbücher Hof and Schafhof.

Maps and Orienting in Today's World

Today, Dörlesberg and Bronnbach find themselves in the state of Baden-Württemberg in the Landkreis of Main-Tauber-Kreis, and in the district of Wertheim. 

Modern Day Germany with States outlined. The red region is Main-Tauber-Kreis in Baden-Württemberg (TUBS, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Landkreis of Main-Tauber-Kreis showing district of Wertheim in yellow. The river flowing through Wertheim is the Tauber River. (Franzpaul, Lencer and Kjunix, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Based on the maps shown, you can see that the village of Dörlesberg and the abbey of Bronnbach are in the northern-most tip of Baden. 

OMG is this Jakob and Melchior!?

Did I just find the family in Dörlesberg and Bronnbach, Baden?

The forebears for the Stumpf families in the Zrenzanin/Großbetschkerek region of Vojvodina were Jakob and Melchior. I explored what was known about those two men in Jakob and Melchior: What is Known on the Banat Side and explored where their descendants went in Jakob and Melchor: Their Descendants.

An Oktoberfest Miracle

Over the years, I’ve randomly tried searching genealogy databases for a Jakob and Melchior Stumpf who were (probably) brothers, Catholic, born around 1739 and 1742 and I wasn’t coming up with any decent leads.  Sure, there were a smattering of Stumpfs in varous places in southwest Germany and Alsace, including Jakobs and Melchiors, but not connected to each other ...until a Geneanet offer came across my radar last October: free full member search functionality for German research! This let me perform some very refined searches there, and I must say Geneanet's premium search tools were really good. I played around a bit and found a Jakob born around 1745 who was married in Bronnbach in Baden.

Since the Geneanet data was from the FamilySearch index, I jumped over to FamilySeach, found this marriage record, and found indexed entries for a Joannes Jacobus Stumpf born 12 October 1739 in nearby Dörlesberg . I then found his brother, Joannes Mechior Stumpf born 4 April 1745 also in Dörlesberg!

✨Jackpot!✨ 

But let me verify this. Jakob and Melchior appear in the Banat out of a fog.  I don't want to be over-eager and connect them to the wrong people on the other side! 

I jumped over to Verein für Computergenealogie's website to see if they had any online family books in the area of Bronnbach or Dörlesberg. They have an online family book for nearby Reicholzheim with Stumpf entries. It’s not a complete family listing, but these Stumpfs seem to be in Bronnbach for a time, and it includes a Jacob, who married there and matches the original finding, as well as younger siblings born in Bronnbach all with their parents' names.

Pulling all the Stumpf events from Bronnbach and Dörlesberg listed in the FamilySearch index, I assembled a spreadsheet and visited the local Family History Center to view and download the restricted-access digitized microfilm images, since they weren't accessible from home.

Family Groups

I have constructed the following family groups of the newly discovered Jakob and Melchior’s family with their parents and siblings and Jakob’s family with his wife and children. I mostly used the Latinized names as found on the church records. Since the baptism date is what was recorded, I used ~ to indicate baptism versus * for the birthdate. Baptism was probably the same day or within a few days of birth. Other abbreviations are Ꝏ for marriage and † for death. I’m also using the German abbreviation of Sv. for “Son of” and Tv. for “Daughter of.” It just fits better in the formatting than in English, or maybe that’s just what I’m used to now.

 

STUMPF Jacob                 Sv. Petri S. & Anna Maria EITEL 

 *11 Mar 1709 Dörlesberg               †13 Apr 1761 Bronnbach 

 Ꝏ 10 Oct 1736 Dörlesberg 

 LÖHR Eva Cordulae           Tv. Francisci L. & Margaretha 

                                      †08 Jul 1760 Bronnbach 

   1. Joannes Thomas      ~24 Mar 1737 Dörlesberg 

   2. Joannes Jacobus     ~12 Oct 1739 Dörlesberg 

   3. Maria Margaretha    ~06 Jul 1742 Dörlesberg 

   4. Joannes Melchior    ~04 Apr 1745 Dörlesberg 

   5. Wendelinus          ~28 Jan 1748 Bronnbach      †05 Feb 1748 Bronnbach 

   6. Maria Clara         ~04 Apr 1749 Bronnbach 

   7. Anna Maria          ~17 Jun 1751 Bronnbach 

   8. Maria Eva Genofeva  ~26 Oct 1753 Bronnbach 

   9. Eva Elisabetha      ~21 Mar 1756 Bronnbach 

STUMPF Johannes Jacoubs      Sv. Jacob S. & Eva Cordulae LÖHR 

 ~12 Oct 1739 Dörlesberg 

 1.Ꝏ 20 Jan 1760 Bronnbach 

 AMEND Catharina             Tv. Joannis Adami A. & Anna Margaretha 

 *16 Apr 1736 Reicholzheim 

   1. Joes                ~09 Nov 1760 Dörlesberg     †14 Dec 1760 Dörlesberg 

 2.Ꝏ 

 NN Anna Maria 

 * 

   1. Margaretha          *01 Feb 1762 Dörlesberg   

Analysis 

After my reasonably exhaustive research and discovery, this is my attempt at determining if these are the same Jakob and Melchior. See Jakob and Melchior: What's Known From the Banat side for more details of this info.

Banat Side Knowledge or Assumptions	Dörlesberg & Bronnbach Knowledge	Analysis
Jakob probably born around 1739 or maybe 1745	Joannes Jacobus born 12 October 1739	✅Match
Melchior born around 1742	Joannes Melchior born 4 April 1745	✔Pretty close.
Origins are stated as “Pfalz” “Schwaben” and “Reich” a term meaning the Holy Roman Empire. All are very broad regions.	Both born in Dörlesberg, Wertheim, Baden	Dörlesberg would have been in the Holy Roman Empire and very near Pflaz. ✔Close enough.
Jakob and Melchior are Catholic	Jakob and Melchior are Catholic	✅Match
Jakob is listed with wife Katharina in the Gakova family book, but everywhere else with wife Anna (before he marries Sabine in 1772)	Jakob married Catharina Ament/Amend in 1760. He had a child with her in 1760.  He later had a daughter, Margaretha in 1762, whose mother is Anna Maria.  A death of first wife Catharina, nor a marriage to Maria Anna was not found in the Dörlesberg or Bronnbach records.	✔This mostly fits, especially that both wives' names appear and match
Jakob has daughter Margaretha born about 1762	Margaretha is born in 1762 to Jakob and Anna Maria	✅Match
There is an Eva Elisabeth Stumpf listed in the Gakova family book with estimated birth of 1754	Jakob and Melchior have a sister Eva Elisabeth born 21 Mar 1756	✅Name is a match and birthdates are close enough!
Arrive in Banat by 1764	Their parents died in 1760 and 1761. No mention of Jakob or Melchior in Dörlesberg church books after 1762.	✅This lines up

Conclusion: This has to be them!! ...especially due to some of the details that match, such as Jakob's daughter Margaretha, their sister Eve Elisabeth being with them in Gakova. And, there isn't any conflicting information.

Dörlesberg Coat of Arms

Rediscovered Heimat 💖

Sources:

Katholische Kirche Bronnbach (A. Wertheim) (Bronnbach, Baden). Kirchenbuch, 1641-1900. Digitized Microfilm. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, familysearch.org : 2022. Index available at https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/294152, but images must be viewed at a Family History Center or the Family History Library.

Katholische Kirche Dörlesberg (A. Wertheim) (Dörlesberg, Baden). Kirchenbuch, 1674-1922. Digitized Microfilm. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, familysearch.org : 2022. Index available at https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/293098, but images must be viewed at a Family History Center or the Family History Library.

Masters, Michael. "Ortsfamilienbuch Reicholzheim." Online family book. Verein für Computergenealogie e.V. (CompGen). Genealogy.net. https://www.online-ofb.de/reicholzheim/: 2021.

Other Villages Full of Stumpfs: Stumpf Settlers in the Banat Determined to Not Be Related to Jakob and Melchior

A Disambiguation Project 

With the thought that I might find some of the sons of Jakob and Melchior who only have birth info, I set out locating other villages with Stumpf families to determine their Stumpf founders.  What I found were other villages full of Stumpfs. Identifying and eliminating candidates is also helpful. This is a list of villages, in annotated bibliography format, with Stumpfs whose founders didn’t have any connections back to Jakob and Melchior, who were in the Zrenzanin/Großbetschkerek region of Vojvodina. I have included the citation for the sources I used as well as my thoughts and my unvetted conclusions. The research here was quick and not comprehensive, but, I hope, accurate. 

Visit the Focus & Locations tab for a map.

General Sources mentioned in the following analyses

Some of the sources listed here I obtained by visiting the Family History Library (now the FamilySearch library, I think) in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Others I obtained by using their remote look-up service. [1]  Still others were available online and I have included a hyperlink for convenience.

Stader, Stefan, compiler. Sammelwerk Donauschwäbischer Kolonisten. 9 volumes. Sindelfingen, Germany: Donauschwäbischer Familienforscher, 1997-2017.

A nine volume work started by Stefan Stader and completed posthumously. Entries are on individuals identified from various sources as immigrating to the Banat from central Europe. Sources used include settler lists for Banat villages, the registration in Vienna, and village family books that had been compiled before this work was completed. There are 20 Stumpf and Stumph entries.  I will refer to this as Stader's Sammelwerk.

Connor, Martha Remer, transcriber. Germans & Hungarians: 1828 Land Census. 25 volumes. [Las Vegas]: M.R. Connor, 1991.

The 1828 Hungarian Land Census was transcribed by Martha Remer Connor. This census only lists land owners and not every resident.  Volume 3 is Torontal County, volume 5 is Temes County, and volume 14 is Arad County. Available online as digitized books at FamilySearch.

Billed & Detta: Vilhelm/Wilhelm Stumpf

Wilhelm and Caspar in Billed

Wikete, Hans, compiler. Ortsippenbuch Billed: 1765-2000. Online. Heimathaus Billed. https://www.heimathaus-billed.de/geschichte/ortssippenbuch/159-daten-a-z : 2021.

There are many Stumpf families in Billed. Vilhelm seems to be the oldest and first (family no. s1360), so suspect others are related, or, likely descended. Although the Billed family book does not list children for him, there is a Casper (family no. s1365) born abt 1775 that could be his, and two of Casper's sons are there with families.

The first Stumpf event in Billed is in 1802 when Vilhelm's wife, Catharina, dies. Vilhelm remarries in 1803 (to a widow named Catharina) and Casper also gets married in 1803.

Vilhelm's birth is estimated as 1753 from age 60 at death. (The wife that died in 1802 is estimated to have been born in 1738, 15 years older! Is this the inaccuracies of estimated age at death or a lack of prospective brides in early 1700s Banat?  Probably the former.)

There are two Stumpf men in the 1828 Census for Billed: Joseph and Caspar.

A different or the same Wilhelm in Detta? 

There is a Wilhelm Stumpf (55174) in Stader’s Sammelwerk who was in Detta in 1762.

Arbeitskreis donauschwäbischer Familienforscher (AKdFF). "Ortsfamilienbuch Detta." Online family book. Verein für Computergenealogie e.V. (CompGen). Genealogy.net. https://online-ofb.de/detta/: 2021.

The online family book for Detta lists a Wilhelm Stumpf who might have married the widow Barbara in 1762 in Detta; the location isn't clear in the online family book. They had a son, Johann, in 1768 and the wife Barbara died in 1775. Could this be the same Wilhelm as in Billed? If it is, the estimated birth of 1753 is off and it would be earlier by about 10 years, which would better line up with the spouse Catharina's age at death mentioned in the Billed analysis.

Conclusion: This Wilhelm (if the same man) or these Wilhelms (if different men) are not descended from Jakob nor Melchior. The Stumpf families in Billed and Detta can be eliminated from the puzzle of Jakob and Melchior’s descendants.

Kleinjetscha

A different Wilhelm:

Giel, Dietmar, compiler. Familienbuch der katholischen Pfarrgemeinde Kleinjetscha im Banat: 1772-2000. Karlsruhe, Germany: HOG Kleinjetscha, 2001.

There is also a Wilhelm Stumpf listed in the Kleinjetscha settlers list. He is the only Stumpf listed in the Kleinjetscha family book. Kleinjetscha isn't far from Billed. He is from "Uttenheim/Pfalz." He died in Kleinjetscha in 1788. Uttenheim is now in Lorraine near the border with Pfalz.

Could this be the same as the Vilhelm/Wilhelm discussed above? He could have been in Detta by 1762 until 1775 moved to Kleinjetscha in 1788 and moved to Billed by 1802, perhaps? Oh, except the Kleinjetscha Wilhelm died in 1788. Never mind.

Conclusion: This Wilhelm is not descended from Jakob nor Melchior. Note the origin of Uttenheim in case it comes into play when finding the origin of Jakob and Melchior.

Kudritz

Heimatortsgemeinschaft. Kudritz: 1742-1910. Work in Progress. Gross-Scham: 2021. Pdf file in 2 parts. Genealogie - HOG Groß-Scham. http://clandata.sytes.net/wordpress/genealogie/ : 2021.

The Stumpfs from Kudritz descend from Andreas, born abt 1709, place unknown. He is also in the Sammelwerk by Stader.

Andreas had 3 sons: one son who died in infancy, one son had 3 daughters, one son's fate is unknown ("JoesLudw").

Conclusion: These Stumpfs do not descend from Jakob or Melchior. Since the origin of Andreas is unknown, it is not known if related in "the old country," but he is at least a generation older than Jakob and Melchior.

Liebling

Heimatortsgemeinschaft. Liebling Eine Gemeinde im Banat: 1786-1910. Work in Progress. Gross-Scham: 2021. Pdf file. Genealogie - HOG Groß-Scham. http://clandata.sytes.net/wordpress/genealogie/ : 2022.

The Stumpfs in Liebling descend from Johann Georg Stumpf, born about 1750 in Nieder Saulheim. First Stumpf event in Liebling was the marriage of a son in 1806.

There are two entries in the Sammelwerk by Stader for Johann Georgs, not sure if either/both are the Johan Georg who went to Liebling. Both registered in Vienna in 1786. One entry (55161) says his wife and kids will follow, registered in July, and is joining his brother who went to Hungary. The other entry (55162) registered in May with wife and two daughters and a mother-in-law .

In the 1828 Hungarian Land Census index, there is a Christian, a Tobias, and a Jacob Stumpf listed.

There are pages of descendants in the Liebling family book.

Conclusion: The Johann Georg(s) in Sammelwerk by Stader immigrated in 1786, whereas Jakob and Melchior immigrated in 1764, 22 years earlier. Seems like too long of a time for a brother to follow. The Liebling Stumpfs are not descended from Jakob or Melchior. There is the potential to be related or from the same place.

Sanktmartin & Elek

Fackelmann, Bernhard. Familienbuch der katholischen Pfarrgemeinde Sanktmartin im Arader Komitat (1724-1992) : und deren Filialen Matscha und Kurtitsch (bis 1920) sowie die dazugehörigen Prädien, Kutas, Lököshaza, Sofronya, Topilla. Sanktmartin, Austria : Heimatortsgemeinschaft Sanktmartin, 2011.

Anton Stumpf, birth estimated to be around 1700, came from Krautheim and died in Sanktmartin in 1744. The rest of the Stumpf entries are from his son, Johann Georg.

Anton is not in Stader’s Sammelwerk Stumpf entries. The Sanktmartin family book puts Anton in Elek around 1733 when was married and in Sanktmartin when his son was born in 1735, so really early!  

Sanktmartin, also called Arad St. Martin and Aradsanktmartin, is near the village of Elek, both of which were then in Arad county; now Sanktmartin is in Hungary and Elek is across the border in Romania. The Sanktmartin family book includes some, but not all Elek events. The FamilySearch website has indexed Elek church books. [2]  There are baptismal records for children of Joannes Stumpf and Margaretha (Anna Maria *1763), Adam Stumpf and Martha Langin (Josephum *1766 and Josephum *1769), and Petro Stumpf and Barbara Sturm (Anna Mariam *1770) and Johann Georg, who is in the Sanktmartin family book. Not sure why the others weren’t also included in the Sanktmartin family book.

The 1828 Hungarian Land Census lists several Stumpf individuals in Elek: Johan, Melchior, another Johan, Anna, Andre, Lorenz and Josef.

Conclusion: The Stumpf families in Elek are most likely from the same stock as the ones in Sanktmartin. Since they were in this region as early as 1733, it can be assumed that these Stumpf families are unrelated to Jakob and Melchior.

Glogowatz

I have reason to believe, but have forgotten why, that there are Stumpfs in Glogowatz. I have not yet investigated this.

Radna

According to the 1828 Hungarian Land Census, there is an Ignatz Stumpf in Radna. I have not yet investigated this either.  The name doesn't match any of the unaccounted for Stumpf sons.

Villages in Tolna County

Reviewing the digitized 1828 land census index for this post I found a bunch of other Stumpfs in Tolna County in: Bikacs (Joannes), Cziko (Joannes), Kakasd (Thad.), Nagy Szekely/Großsäckl (Henricus), Ozora (Gasparus), Udvari (Conradus). Tolna is in the region designated as Swabian Turkey and is west of the Banat.

This list is not extensive. There are Stumpfs in Hungary listed in other counties in the 1828 land census index.

Final Thought

Except for the Vilhelm/Wilhelm puzzle discussed earlier, the Stumpf families from these villages are also not connected to each other.  So although I was interested in any connections to Jakob and Melchior who went to Grabatz, I didn't see any connections between them.  They each had their own origin story.

Footnote:

[1] You can make requests from the FamilySearch Family History Library on their online request form. 

[2] FamilySearch has digitized church books for Elek.  You can also search the church books by clicking the magnifying glass next to the date range you are interested in.  The oldest ones cover 1734-1813.