Re: Wise family (IN, MI, OH, and Germany)
-
In reply to:
Wise family (IN, MI, OH, and Germany)
Brittany Wise 1/21/14
Wise is not a German spelling for the surname. It was almost certainly Weis or Weiss. The Katy you list as a second wife for Frank is just a nickname for Catharine so I rather doubt he was married to two different women.
According to what others have posted on Ancestry, Jacob Wise was Philip Jacob Wise aka Jacob Wise (don't be thrown by the him being known by his "middle name", it was common in German families). He was born June 14, 1817 and died July 16, 1866 in Huron County. Elizabeth Swartz (probably Schwartz originally) was born circa 1825 and died Nov 17, 1880. In Jacob's will he mentions his brother Adam. Adam was born March 15, 1830 and died in 1915. His death certificate lists his parents as Jacob Weise and Katherine. But don't assume any of this is correct verify it.
While this gets you one generation back further you still have the problem of making the leap across the Big Pond. Unfortunately for you Weis is a very, very common German surname as is Schwartz (about as common as Smith is here).
Having said that if you go to familysearch.org they list an Joannes Adamus Weis born March 13, 1829 to Jacobi Weis and Cathrinae Muller baptized in a Catholic church in Kuebelberg, Pfalz, Bavaria. Coincidentally this same couple seems to had a son Joannes Jacobus born June 14, 1817 (don't be thrown by the Latinized spelling of the names, that's how the priests spelled their names in Latin). This may or may not be the right Adam and Jacob, but it certainly is a good possibility.