Re: Trying to locate origin of Duchman/Toothman -- France?
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In reply to:
Re: Trying to locate origin of Duchman/Toothman -- France?
Mike Toothman 10/01/02
Diederich's only wife of record is Barbara, who was apparently born c1770 and + after 1840. The 1830 and 1840 census make her too young to be the mother of the older children, and I believe Diederich was married at least twice. No bp records survive for any of his children, which is annoying. However, at St Peter's Lutheran, in Frederick Co, MD, 1775, there was confirmed one DUCHMANN Elisabetha "marita", age 17 or 19 (I can't tell which it is in the Zacharias transcription). It seems likely this is his first wife. Diederich's brothers John and Michael were confirmed at the same time, and most of the Frederick Co church records re: the family are at this congregation.
There's really no one else but Diederich to whom this Elisabeth might have been married. If she were a 2nd wife of Christman (there is no record of Anna Maria by name past 1769), given that she was so young you would expect to find additional children by her. But Christman's heirs were the 8 surviving children he had by Anna Maria. It's remotely possible she was the wife of Johann Georg, b 1755, but he clearly predeceased his father leaving no issue and there's no reason to think he was ever married.
Circumstantial clues suggest the second wife Barbara was probably the same one in the 1816 will of Andrew RICE Sr of Allegany Co. He doesn't give surnames of his 3 married daughters, and there is no administrative account on his estate to show to whom the legacies were paid. As with Diederich, he left his land to one child and bequeathed cash payments to all of his other heirs. One clue is that Andrew RICE Jr (both of whose wives were daughters of Frederick VALENTINE, from my other post) had a sonDiederich RICE, whose name almost certainly comes from Diederich DUCHMANN. Where Diederich got it, I have no idea, as this name is absolutely not found anywhere else among the DUCHMANN family, back to c1550. It does make him easy to spot, as are his father Christman and grandfather Adam, since their names are also unique in the family!
Tentatively I think the children of the first wife are Maria Magdalena (m Jacob MARTZ), Christina (probably m BOYER), Michael, John, Elisabeth, and George, and that the others, from Andrew (b c1786) down, are by a second marriage. Barbara is named as the mother in death records of John, Elisabeth and George (that's only 2 records, not 3, since John andElisabeth were both reported at the same time by the same person, John's son-in-law PITZER). If, as I think, their mother + abt 1785, none of the grandchildren would have had any personal knowledge of her and Barbara would have been the only Granny any of them ever knew.
I'm also reminded of the old Jacob HAUGHT in Fayette Co, PA, who, per family lore, always refused to say which of his 2 wives any of his numerous children were by. "They are all *my* children," was what he would answer. Of course, his wives were sisters and the children of the deceased first wife were named as heirs in the orphans court docket re: inheritance from their maternal grandfather, so we do know which go to which wife and so much for your close-lippedness, Jake HAUGHT!
It seems reasonably sure to me that Diederich's first wife, presuming there was one, came out of the same REISS group that is so closely interwoven with the early DUCHMANN. There would only seem to be 3 potential placements for her:
1. daughter of VELTIN/VALENTINE Jacob and REISS Catharina Barbara. No evidence on the makeup of this family and it is still mostly my presumption that they are actually found here.
2. daughter of FUCHS Jacob and REISS Eva Catharina. Possible. Only one child of this family is documented, through a bp record in Frederick Co, MD. I have not yet found any bps for others, and I haven't done anything in Bedford Co on this family. Secondhand reports from others are that nothing has been found there, however.
3. daughter of REISS Friederich and first wife Christina. Friederich appears to have had a dau Elisabeth by his second wife, who married David MUMMA and moved to Knox Co, OH, with some of the other connected families. That doesn't necessarily rule out his having had a dau Elisabeth by the first wife, but the very sparse documents re: his estate don't answer the question at all, and as with the others, bp records are equally sparse. I think 3 of his children, all by the first wife, are recorded in bps. His son John, who is not recorded otherwise, is identified in his marriage to Diederich DUCHMANN's sister Eva Maria in 1774. But of course Diederich's own marriage is not written down!
No proof of all this, just the distillation of 40-odd years of mulling it over and trying to arrange it.
RT