My immigrant third great grand uncle Christian Gerbing was born in 1834 in Vieselbach, Germany to Martha Nicolai and Johann Friedrich Gerbing and emigrated to the United States in 1852 with the rest of his immediate family at the age of 18. He was the second oldest brother of my 3rd great grandmother Louisa Anna Elisabetha Gerbing Schuttler.
When Christian was born, his namesake was his paternal grandfather, my 5th great grandfather, Johann Christoph Gerbing. Johann Christoph was a laborer living in Vieselbach around 1800. At his baptism, Christian’s full name was recorded as Georg Istoph Eduard Gerbing. His father’s occupation at that time was listed as bricklayer. After finding this record, I wondered if his name was Americanized to Christian.
The first record I found for Christian in the United States was when he was listed as the godfather of my 3rd great grandmother, Christine Katharina Schuttler at her baptism in 1854. She was his niece – the child of his sister Louisa Gerbing Schuttler. This record was from St. Paul’s First Lutheran Church of Chicago.
The next record I found related to Christian in the United States was the baptism of his nephew, Louisa’s son, Charles (Karl Wilhelm) Schuttler in 1856. I know now that Christian’s sister-in-law Katherine Bauer was listed as his godmother. This record was also from St. Paul’s. This indicates that Christian was likely already married to German immigrant Anna Bauer, at the date of the baptism, December 25, 1856. Can anyone else researching this family confirm this? Anna was the daughter of Sebatian Bauer and a lady named Anna Elisabetha.
The third record I found for Christian in Chicago was the baptism of his eldest daughter Emma Gerbing in the St. Paul’s First Lutheran Church of Chicago records from 1859.
On the 1860 Federal Census, Christian and Anna were living with the Bauers and Christian was working as cabinetmaker. Subsequent censuses and Chicago City Directories all list Christian’s occupation as carpenter or cabinetmaker.
One of those Chicago City Directories bears mention. The 1861 Chicago City Directory entry for Christian Gerbing showed that he was working as a carpenter at Peter Schuttler Wagons. This means he was likely making artillery and supply wagons for the Grand Army of the Republic along with Louisa’s husband, his brother-in-law, immigrant Johann Schuttler.
Christian and Anna Bauer had 16 children all born in Chicago. 11 of those children survived to adulthood and they each had families of their own, making the research of Christian’s descendants a huge task!
They are as follows – in order of birth:
- Christian b. September 1, 1857, d. September 1, 1857
- Emma b. 1859, d. 1924, married German immigrant Carl Findeisen
- Amelia b. 1861, d. 1893, married German immigrant Maximillian Stockmar
- Ida, b. 1862, d. 1947, married William Kriegsmann and German immigrant Joseph Spanheimer
- Anna, b. 1863, d. 1935, married Frank Wedell and according to her obituary a Mr. Lester.
- George Lincoln, b. April 1865, died July 18, 1865
- John, b. 1866, d. 1934, married Josephine Cote (daughter of French-Canadian immigrants)
- Clara, b. 1867, d. 1868
- Clara, b. 1868, d. 1938, married James Alexander Thomlinson (son of Canadian immigrants)
- Hattie Marie, b. 1871, d. 1951, married William Gluek and Jacob Dietz
- Maria, b. 1874, d. 1880
- Charles, b. 1875, d. 1933, married Amanda Krick (daughter of German immigrants)
- Laura, b. 1878, d. 1944, married Herman Sieger
- Edward Carl, b. 1880, d. 1937, married Lillian Haberkamp
- Baby Gerbing, stillborn, April 23, 1882
- Frank Peter, b. 1883, d. 1950, married Hattie Siebold (daughter of Austrian and German immigrants)
Thank you researcher KStockmar for adding and sharing the Graceland Cemetery plot card to Ancestry that contained most of these vital facts!
I could not locate the 1870 or 1910 Censuses for Christian. That fact could be caused by an indexing or transcription issue at Ancestry.com like I’ve encountered in the past.
Interestingly, in 1880, Christian’s and Anna’s daughters Amelia and Clara were recorded in two different census entries in Chicago. The first – living with their parents, and the other – living with their grandmother Bauer and uncle Sebastian Bauer, named Sebastian after his father. Now if you look at the date of death of one of their siblings(Maria), you can see they lost a sister that year. Does that have something to do with it?
I did find one mention of Christian on newspapers.com. In 1874, he sued Charles Matthai for trespass for damages of $2,000.00. I do not know the outcome of that matter.
One of the last records I found for Christian was his 1890 Voter Registration. It reflects that he became a citizen of the United States on October 2, 1956 in Cook County Courthouse. Also, he was the 18th person to vote in his precinct that year.
Christian died in 1911 at age 77 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery. I encountered trouble while digging around for his death notice or an obituary in the English language newspapers. I found neither. His wife Anna passed away at the age of 83 in 1922.
Christian is related to me through my 100% German-American grandmother. He was the brother of her immigrant great grandmother Louisa Gerbing Schuttler.
Do you have any comments, corrections, or additions? Do you have questions about my sources? I would love to hear from you – cinziarosagenealogy@comcast.net.
This is Part I of Namesake. I have a paternal Namesake entry for later this week.