In John Newton Boucher’s, A century and a half of Pittsburgh and her people, Volume 3, there is a biographical sketch of Frank Jacob Orth (son of my great grandfather Jacob Orth)—first direct Orth ancestor born in the US. It says this:
“Johann Orth, grandfather of Frank Jacob Orth, was a blacksmith in a village in Alsace-Lorraine, which was at that time a French possession, and was also the Lutheran minister of the district in which he resided. He left his home in France for America in 1848, taking with him his family, consisting of his wife and three children—two boys and one girl. On the voyage toward his new home he died and was buried at sea. The mother landed in New York with her children and died two weeks after her arrival here. The sons were: Jacob, of whom see forward, and George, who with his sister and brother located somewhere in New Jersey.”
Later in the piece, it says this: “Jacob Orth, son of the minister, was born in Alsace-Lorraine July 4, 1836, and was but twelve years of age when he arrived in this country. He was the youngest of the children, and with his brother George learned the trade of glass-blowing.”
This account is wrong in several ways for sure, which is not surprising, given it is a third-hand narrative account. According to the birth records in the Archives in Strasbourg, France, (whose reliability is high), Jacob’s family was as follows:
Parents:
Jacob (Johann) ORTH
b: 2 Mar 1803
Magdalena Schneider ORTH
b: 14 Jul 1801
Children:
Magdalena ORTH
b: 1829
Elizabethe ORTH
b: 1831
Salomea ORTH
b: 1834
d: 1839
Jacob ORTH
b: 4 Jul 1836
Georg ORTH
b: 1838
Inconsistencies between the narrative account and the birth records:
—Georg Orth was Jacob’s younger brother, not his older brother as it says in the narrative piece.
—Jacob and George were two years apart in age, which would have made them 12 and 10 years (respectively) in 1848 (not 12 and 8 as it states in the narrative piece.
—It also means that only one of the three daughters would have come to America—this is a reasonable assumption since Salomea died at age 5 and Elizabethe would have been marriageable age in 1848 (17 years old) and very likely could have stayed behind.
Searching through the New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, I found no groups of Orths that arrived in 1848 and fit the profile of our Orth family. However, there is a record on 2 Jul 1849 that shows the following 5 people traveling together from Germany, on a ship named the Virginia, master: Salisbury, route Le Havre, France to New York:
J. Orth, age 47
Mg. Orth, age 48
Magd. Orth, age 17
Jacob Orth age 12
Georg Orth age 8
This could be consistent with both the birth records (which we know to be true) and the narrative account in Boucher’s book in several ways:
— Jacob Johann and Magdelena, the parents, would both have been that age in 1849.
— The names and birth order of the children are correct (assuming that Elizabethe either was married or deceased and did not come).
— Jacob was 12. Jacob is likely to have provided the information in the narrative to his son Frank, who was likely interviewed for the narrative account. Jacob’s own age is likely the be one of the more memorable and therefore correct details in the story.
Inconsistent with the birth records:
— Georg would have been 10 not 8 years old.
— Magdelena would have been 19 not 17. (Elisabethe would have been 17)
Inconsistent with the narrative account are the following:
—This would indicate that they arrived in 1849 not 1848.
— J. Orth (the father) was not listed as having died on the voyage. This is a standard column on these ship manifests. However it should be noted that this particular ship’s manifest was messily written and had many empty fields. So this could have been omitted.
I have also now found a census report where Jacob Orth lists his date of emigration as 1849.
All of this leads me to the conclusion that my great grandfather, Jacob Orth, landed in New York on 2 Jul 1849, at the age of 12, with his two siblings (older sister, Magdalena age 19 and younger brother, Georg age 10). His father died on the voyage; his mother died shortly after.
While there is reference to Jacob and Georg learning the glass blowing trade in New Jersey (later in the Boucher piece), there is no mention of where their sister Magdalena went, and of how the three children managed to make their way in a new country, on their own.
No comments:
Post a Comment