In my last post, I paid tribute to Schuyler Brossman, a legend to many of us that have ancestors that settled in Berks County, PA. I also brought up an ancestor that Schuyler couldn’t quite get his finger on, Justina Brossman. I too have had many roadblocks with Justina in regards to her actual name, specifically her middle name. In some cases she is known as Justina Catherina and others as Justina Christina. There are also some cases where there are two Justinas as apparent sisters.
For many of our Germanic ancestors dating back at least to the 17th and 18th centuries, it was not uncommon for children from the same family, both male and female to have the same first given name to them such as Johan or Maria, so the possibility of sisters sharing the first name of Justina can be a reality.
The records I’d like to show you now are the problems I encountered when researching Justina.
The first record is a secondary record from Ancestry showing one of the 1739 immigration records for Frantz Brossman with his family:
Courtesy of Ancestry© – Source Bibliography – Annette Kunselman Burgert, Eighteenth Century Emigrants from German-Speaking Lands to North America. Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society, 16/19. Birdsboro, PA: The Pennsylvania German Society. Vol. 1: The Northern Kraichgau 1983. 461p.
It has been difficult at best to find any records that specify a middle name or substitute name for Justina. The record above is the only one that mentions a Christina and matches the timeline for Justina. She was born in 1737 just before the Brossmans immigrated.
Also, in my previous post, I mentioned a book I called “The Brossman Book”. This is a misnomer. There is no actual name for this book, but the title for each page is called “Descendants of Nicholas Brossman” with a date of 31 December 2011. There is no acknowledgement of the compiler. There is only the family tree of the Brossmans starting with Nicholas and ending with and including the eleventh generation. There are also indexes of names and places in the back. It has a total of 336 pages. I believe this was a compiled report from someone’s family tree software that I found somewhere out on the internet when I first began researching the Brossmans back in 2012. I have linked the book here.
With that said, this book states a Justina Catharina Brossman was born to Frantz and Corlis Brossman on 7 Jun 1727 and was married to Johan Henrich Ketner. If this daughter is actually part of the Frantz Brossman family, why isn’t she recorded in the immigration record above? Was this Justina the elusive Brossman daughter that Schuyler Brossman was attempting to verify?
In the same book there is another daughter stated as Justina Christina Brossman, born 3 May 1737 and married to a Jacob Miller that I had presented in my previous post.
There are more contradictions out on the internet, both on Ancestry and Familysearch regarding Justina Christina Brossman. There are many that say she was married to Johan Henrich Rohn (Rhone). I have found no evidence or records that support a marriage between them, only links to Find a Grave and many assorted family trees on Ancestry and Familysearch and others that show no record of their marriage. Only that the name of John Rohn’s wife was Justina. I’m not saying they are wrong, but I’m not saying that they are right either. What I am saying is nothing has been proven with records (at least I haven’t found any), which tends to be a very common occurrence and major problem when researching ancestors.
Feeling frustrated, I decided to go back to my source of inspiration, Schuyler Brossman and his “Our Keystone Families” one more time and I found what I was looking for…Schuyler’s apparent roadblock for Justina that is stopping me.
From The Daily News, Lebanon, PA – Wednesday, October 20, 1982 – “Our Keystone Families” – Schuyler is listing the children of Frantz and Corlis Brossman. Numbers 5, 6 & 7 are very interesting:
Just wanted to show this one since this is Schuyler’s ancestor – Justina’s brother Johannes:
This one definitely caught my attention:
Courtesy of Newspapers.com
As you can see, Schuyler and I are of the same mindset. The one thing that Schuyler may have never found out was the fact that Justina Mueller moved away from Berks Co., PA sometime after 1798 to Cumberland Co., PA where her daughter Justina Fenical either lived or was moving to. Justina Mueller died there in 1816.
Justina Mueller’s probate record proves this in a previous post. There is also supporting evidence of Justina’s relocation to Cumberland County, PA found in the book “Churches between the Mountains” – A history of the Lutheran churches in Perry County, PA (1862).
Justina Mueller, her sons John, Jacob and George are named as well as Justina’s daughter and son-in-law, Justina and John Adam Fenical in the congregation at the Loysville Lutheran Church or the Lebanon Lutheran Church.
Interesting fact, Justina and John Adam Fenical had a daughter in 1788 and guess what they named her?
Secondary record taken from the records of Rev. Casper Stoever “Notes and Queries, Historical, Biographical and Genealogical, relating chiefly to interior Pennsylvania” – Wm. Henry Egle, 1899. – Harrisburg Publishing Co.
Now why do you suppose they named their daughter Christina?
For now, these are my final thoughts and words for Justina, (Catharina or Christina?) Brossman Mueller and then, I am letting it go. There are times that you have to present the facts and records as they are and let them “speak for themselves”. Whether her middle name was Catharina or Christina, I can’t make that call (yet). What really matters is that I was able to prove something about her life…that she did not pass away the same year as her husband or was buried next to him, but that she had continued on and left her mark of where she was for the rest of her life, surrounded by her family.
If there are any readers out there that may have any records that prove one way or the other of Justina’s full name, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share it.
Please remember that records are the foundation of what we build our family trees on. If there aren’t enough records to go on, we should always wait until more records and evidence provide a clear proven, solid relationship to an ancestor.
One last surprise…in looking back on the maternal family of Schuyler Brossman, the Deck family, Schuyler’s ancestor Matthias Deck was married to Elizabeth Zerbe, a descendant of Martin Zerbe. Martin Zerbe is also my ancestor.
Sources:
Ancestry©
Newspapers©
“Notes and Queries, Historical, Biographical and Genealogical, relating chiefly to interior Pennsylvania” – Wm. Henry Egle, 1899. – Harrisburg Publishing Co.
Acknowledgements:
Romaine Stauffer – Find a Grave contributor and page manager of Johannes Mueller’s memorial page (1733-1796). Romaine is also an author and a member of the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society.
Jeff Lightner – Find a Grave contributor and page manager of Justina Catharina Brossman Miller’s memorial page (1737-1816). Jeff is a cousin through our Miller family.
Carmen Merritt – Find a Grave contributor and page manager of Justina Christina Brossman Rhone’s memorial page (1738-1796). Carmen is a cousin through our Miller family.
Cheryl, my wife, friend and love of my life…thanks for everything, always!
Your Ancestors Demystified 