The First American Haitz

The first Haitz family member who could call herself an American citizen was Elizabeth, daughter of Frank and Elizabeth (Germann) Haitz. Elizabeth was born December 20, 1859 in Boston just nine months after her parents were married in the same city. She was born at 100 Everett Street which I assume was the house where the family lived. Frank was employed at the sugar house.

If you search for Everett Street in Boston on Google Maps, there are several roads and avenues which are named Everett. After researching where the sugar house might have been located in 1859, I determined that it was most likely the Boston Sugar Refinery in East Boston on Lewis Street between Webster and Sumner Streets. There is still a Lewis Street today, although Webster and Sumner Streets no longer extend as far as they did in 1859. Nearby, a street called Everett is still in existence. Going on these two facts, I would place the Haitz family residence in East Boston. There is no way to tell which house Frank and Elizabeth lived in as address numbers have most likely changed since 1859, but Everett Street today is a narrow road with houses lined up side to side. A current look at the street can be seen here - Everett Street, East Boston, Massachusetts

To view the birth record of Elizabeth Haitz, please follow this link to Family Search. You may need to register for a free account to see the actual document. 

The Beginning of the Haitz Family in America

1859 Marriage Record -  F. Xavier Haitz and Elizabeth Germann
Boston, Massachusetts

On Sunday, March 6, 1859, F. Xavier Haitz and Elizabeth Germann were married at the Holy Trinity (German) Church in Boston, Massachusetts. The Reverend Father Ernest Reiter officiated. 

Frank Haitz, who was born in France, was thirty-four years old while his bride was twenty-two. She named her birthplace as Germany. It was the first marriage for both of them. The marriage record states that his parents were John U. and Elizabeth F. Haitz while John G. and Mariana M. were named as the parents of Elizabeth. Unfortunately, there are no maiden names given for either of the mothers. 

A History of Holy Trinity German Church, Boston

Death of Joseph Haitz

The Ripley Bee

Joseph, or Joe as he referred to himself, died on Valentine's Day in 1960.  He was 82 years old while I was three and half months shy of being just 3 years old.  I have no memory of him.  At the time of his death, his sixteen children had given him 37 grandchildren, and I was just one of his 10 great grandchildren!  He was the patriarch of a very large family and, in fact, they had been photographed and featured in local newspapers as one of the largest in the area.    

Joe was no stranger to large families.  He was one of ten children born to Frank Haitz and his wife, Elizabeth Germann.  A devout Catholic family, they attended St. Michael Catholic Church in Ripley, Ohio where Joe would later become a member of the Holy Name Society and the Ripley Council of the Knights of Columbus.  Of his siblings, there remained only one sister, Anna Serwna, to mourn his passing.  She would live three more years reaching the grand age of 100!

A requiem high mass was intoned on February 17 in St, Michael's by the Reverend Father Charles Moore.  Joseph was  buried in Maplewood Cemetery, Ripley, Ohio.  He lays to rest with his wife who followed him just three years later.

Maplewood Cemetery, Ripley, Ohio

2015 - copyright Lynn Ann Wayson Koehler.  All rights reserved.

Evidentia and the Obituary of Joseph Haitz

My Genealogy Do-Over is going to take me forever!  I decided to concentrate on my maternal grandfather’s Haitz family in hopes that I will have a lot of it correctly cited, proven, and entered into Family Tree Maker Mac 3 before the reunion in the fall.  I would really like to be able to take a large chart of some sort, possibly a descendent chart, to show all the relationships between the children and grandchildren of Joseph and Henrietta (Koewler) Haitz, my great grandparents.  They were the parents of sixteen children so it gets a little confusing to someone like me who did not grow up in Ripley, Ohio where they lived all of their lives!  As an Army Brat, my family only visited Ripley about once a year when we were stateside and, even then, I don’t remember getting together with any of my great aunts, great uncles, and their children or grandchildren.  With the exception of my Great-Aunt Elizabeth, I only knew some of their names and I had no faces to go with most of those until pretty recently.  In the past couple of years, I have been fortunate to connect with some of my Haitz family members through social media and my husband and I have enjoyed going to a couple of the annual Haitz family reunions where I met some of them in person.  It’s a huge family to try and get to know!

Death Claims Father of 16, The Ripley Bee, 18 February 1960,
page and column unknown;
copy in possession of Lynn Ann Wayson Koehler.

Today, I entered the information from Joseph Haitz’s obituary into Evidentia.  I was able to enter 28 claims and 97 subjects!  With sixteen children to document, it got rather tedious and I will admit that I was never so happy to hear my washer and dryer go off periodically so that I could take short breaks from all the data entering.  Now, granted, a lot of people probably would not have used Evidentia for an obituary for their great-grandfather whose information is already well known, but I kind of like the idea that all my sources, their citations, and the facts that are in the documents will be located and organized so neatly in one place!  

These are just two screen shots of what I entered into Evidentia from the obituary of Joseph Haitz

One of my to-do list additions is to go back to the Union Township Public Library, find the correct microfilm, and write down the page number of The Ripley Bee where the obituary was published.  It really bugs me that my citation is incomplete!  Oh well, the things I didn’t know enough to do back in the day is why I am now doing this Do-Over!