It’s been a long road searching for the parents of my 4th great-grandmother Caroline BIRKHOLZ. That winding road has finally reached its destination.
Caroline was born in about 1819. She married twice, first to Carl NAX, my direct ancestor, in 1842 in Mühlen, Kreis Osterode, East Prussia. They had a daughter Amalie NAX, also my direct ancestor (great-grandma of my grandma Rita), in Ludwigsdorf in 1845. Carl passed away in 1848, and Caroline married a second time to Adam RAPKOWITZ in 1850 in Rauschken, Kreis Osterode.
Neither marriage record provided her parents’ names. And I still haven’t found her birth record. But nevertheless, what I did find clinched her parents…
One of the great things about Prussian records in the 19th century is that burial records for adults often (but not always) provide surviving immediate family members in the far right margin. What a blessing for genealogists.
The burial record for Carl BIRKOLZ in Heeselicht Parish, Kreis Osterode on 9 Feb 1852, stated that he died on 6 Feb 1852 in Jankowitz (a village in Heeselicht Parish). The far right margin notes survivors: Wife Anna, nee SCHWAN; children Caroline RABKOWITZ (!), Louisa SEBASTIAN, and Wilhelmina. The last child had no surname so she was likely unmarried, still a BIRKHOLZ. (Yes, I was looking for any and all BIRKHOLZs and stumbled on this.)
RAPKOWITZ/RABKOWITZ is an extremely uncommon surname, so I knew that was it. The parish made perfect sense too. My Caroline BIRKHOLZ had a son named Ferdinand RAPKOWITZ on 9 Sep 1855 in Heeselicht Parish, just three years after her father passed in the same place.
Just five years after Carl’s burial, another clincher: Anna BIRKHOLZ, nee SCHWAN, of Faulen, died 14 Mar 1857 in Moschnitz, buried on 17 Mar 1857 in Rauschken, age 70. It notes her husband had been Carl BIRKHOLZ, Jäger (Hunter or Infantryman) of Jankowitz. Then, to the far right margin, it records 3 surviving children: Caroline, Köllmer (coal miner) REBKOWITZ of Klein Czerlin; Louisa, Lapner(?) SEBASTIAN of Moschnitz; and Wilhelmine, Gärtner (Gardener) MÜNTZ of Faulen. Interestingly, it provides occupations for her son-in-laws and their surnames.
Klein Czerlin was another slam dunk piece of evidence. According to Meyers Gazetteer, an outstanding resource with old Prussian maps, Klein Czerlin was a not a town or a village, but it was a Vorwerk (Residence or Farm). And yet, I had seen it before. Caroline (BIRKHOLZ) NAX’s daughter Amalie NAX, also my ancestor, was listed as a resident of Klein Czerlin on her marriage record in Marwalde Parish in 1864. (I originally had this transcribed as Klein Berlin, but looking again in light of this new evidence, it is clearly Klein Czerlin.) It all connected perfectly.
Not to mention the Wilhelmina listed above. My Caroline (BIRKHOLZ) NAX had a daughter Wilhelmina NAX whose godmother was “Mina Birkholz,” clearly a shortened version of Wilhelmina.
Everything clicked together once those burial records were found. Not a traditional birth record. Not a traditional marriage record. A pair of burial records placed my Caroline Birkholz in the correct family grouping, establishing her parents as Carl BIRKHOLZ and Anna SCHWAN.
The brickwall has fallen.
Source for the above discoveries: Ancestry.com’s Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages and Burials Collection, 1500-1971. Full citations added to the WikiTree profile page of Caroline Birkholz, and her parents Carl and Anna.
Craig Kanalley 
68 responses to “Breakthrough At Last: The Birkholz Family of Kreis Osterode, East Prussia”
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