Amanuensis Monday: Nicolas STROESSER’s birth certificate

Again we return to the growing family of my great-grandparents, Peter STROESSER and Barbara THINES, residing in Heispelt, Wahl, Redange, Luxembourg. Time has passed since the last time we visited them, and it is now January of the year 1880. Their four children have grown a bit: Michel is six years old, Baltasar is four, Anna is three, and little Johann—who will much later become my great-grandfather Harry—is fourteen months.

On January 9^th, the family grows by one more member: Johann Nicolas arrives.

This image has been trimmed from the original at FamilySearch.

Transcription (the italicized parts were handwritten on the record):

Im Jahre tausend acht hundert achtzig, den zehnten

des Monats Januar um vier Uhr Nach mittags ist vor Uns

Theodore Welbes Bürgermeister Beamten des Civilstandes

der Gemeinde Wahl, im Kanton Redingen, Gross=

herzogthum Luxemburg, erschienen Peter Stroesser Eisenhändeler

alt vierzig sechs Jahre

wohnhaft zu Heispelt, welcher Uns ein Kind männlichen

Geschlechts vorgestellt hat, geboren zu Heispelt Gestern

um zwei Uhr Nach mittags, im Hause Nr. ----- Gasse,

erzeugt von seiner Ehefrau Barbara Thinnes ohne Gewerb

Alt dreißig fünf Jahre wohnhaft zu Heispelt

und welchem er den Vornamen Johann Nicolas

geben zu wollen erklärt hat.

Diese Erklärung und Vorstellung sind geschehen in Gegenwart des Philippe

Hendel Ackerer, alt dreißig neun Jahre

wohnhaft zu Kuborn und des Peter Simon

Pächter, alt fünfzig vier Jahre

wohnhaft zu Kuborn und haben die Comparenten diese

Urkunde, nachdem sie ihnen vorgelesen worden, mit Uns unterschrieben.

Line by line Translation:

In the Year one thousand eight hundred and eighty, the tenth

of the Month of January at four o'clock After noon is before Us

Theodore Welbes Burgermeister Officials of the Civil State

of the Commune of Wahl, in the Canton Redange, Grand-

duchy of Luxembourg, appeared Peter Stroesser Iron Merchant

aged forty-six Years

residing in Heispelt, which to us a child of the male

Gender has presented, born in Heispelt Yesterday

at two O’clock After noon, in House No. ----- Street,

begat by his wife Barbara Thinnes without Occupation

Aged twenty-five Years residing in Heispelt

and which he the First Name Johann Nicolas

has declared to want to give.

This Statement and Presentation are done in the Presence of Philippe

Hendel Farmer, aged twenty-nine Years,

residing in Kuborn and Peter Simon

Leaser, aged fifty-four Years

residing in Kuborn and the Appearing Parties have this

Deed, having been read to them, with us signed.

Nick, as he was later called among my family, though I rather doubt if any of them (apart from his brother, of course) had ever met him. He traveled to to U.S. aboard the S.S. Finland, which left Antwerp on 13 July 1907. He seems to have traveled alone on that long voyage; no other STROESSERs appear in that ship’s manifest. He lists his brother H STROESSER (my great-grandfather Harry) as the relative he will be joining. Interestingly, this is the only document I have yet seen that records Harry’s residence as Estherville, Iowa. This may be a clue for where to find some of those records for which I still seek. Even more interestingly, this manifest records that Nick has been in the U.S. before, in 1905. Apparently Nick was doing well enough to travel back and forth across the Atlantic.

By U.S. Navy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

He waited until he reached U.S. before marrying, therefore his birth certificate is the only Luxembourgish record I have regarding Nick STROESSER. His children were born in the U.S., and he probably also died in the U.S.

Sources:

Wahl, Redange, Luxembourg, birth certificate no. 3 (1880), Johann Nicolas Stroesser; digital image #166 of 1475, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, “Naissances 1867-1890 Mariages 1796-1797, 1800-1804, 1805-1823, 1796-1803, 1805-1890 Décès 1797-1803, 1805-1828,” FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 30 May 2010).

“New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957,” online images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Feb 2010), manifest, S.S. Finland, 24 July 1907, Nicholas Stroesser, line 21, pages 102-103. Citing Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, Microfilm Roll: Roll 0950. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.