First American Anhalt Family, aka
“Portrait of The Holy Family” *
Note: Estimated date of this photo is 1913 around the time of Augie’s wedding to Garnet Kittle. If so, then Esther would have been 8 years old and Emma would have been 12.
*Third generation grandchildren referred to this heirloom photograph as the “Portrait of the Holy Family”
Adam Anhalt and Anna Kaiser grew up during politically turbulent times and experienced firsthand the unification of the German Empire. The German Empire as depicted in the map below shows the condition when Adam was twenty years-old and Anna was eleven years-old.
Adam Anhalt (father George; mother UNK) and Anna Kaiser (father Franz; mother Sylvia) were born a short distance apart in adjacent states of Germany and grew up during a period of Prussian militarism, wars of expansionism, and the volatile unification of the German Empire. As part of the princely Family of Anhalt, Adam was expected to take a commission as a captain in the Prussian army, but that was not his style.
Vicinity where Adam and Anna met, married, and started their family:
– Muehlhausen
– Wachstedt
Adam avoided compulsory military service in the German Army by “hiding out” a short distance away in Thuringia where Adam labored as a hired man on the farm of Franz (Frank) & Sylvia Kaiser. Adam fell in love with the farmer’s daughter Anna. They married in Thuringia on 26 Aug 1877.
Rudy and Anna Marie were born in the German state of “Thuringia” nearby a tiny hamlet called Wachstedt
Anna Marie was born in Gleichenstein Castle, near Wachstedt, in the district of Kreis-Mühlhausen, Thuringia on 28 Dec 1879
Notes on Anna Marie:
The location of Anna’s
birthplace is verified by an
affidavit signed by her mother Anna Anhalt stating the location to be “Waschstedt, Kreis-Mühlhausen, Thuringia in Germany”
During a trip to Germany in October 2019, my wife and I discovered Anna’s birth and baptismal record at the Archive of the Bishop Diocese in Erfurt, Germany. indicating Anna’s birthplace was the lovely Burg Gleichenstein (Castle) which is just 2 miles from Wachstedt.
Rudolf was born in
Wachstedt
on 3 Nov 1878
Notes on Rudolf (Rudy):
The location of Rudy’s birthplace was also in Wachstedt according birth and baptismal records obtained by David Anhalt in 2019 while visiting the Bishop’s Diocese archive in Erfurt, Germany, where birth and baptismal records of St. George’s church in Wachstedt are kept on microfiche.
Rudolf Anhalt birth record obtained from the Bistumsarchiv Erfurt, Herrmannsplatz 9, 99084 Erfurt in October 2019
Anna Anhalt birth record obtained from the Bistumsarchiv Erfurt, Herrmannsplatz 9, 99084 Erfurt in October 2019
Views of Burg Gleichenstein, two miles from Wachstedt, Germany:
Anna’s Birthplace
Later in life, Anna Anhalt signed an affidavit verifying some of the factual details surrounding the family’s emigration from Germany.
Notes regarding spelling on Affidavit:
Regarding Anna Marie’s affirmed birthplace of “Waschstedt, Kries-Meuhlhausen, Thuringia,” I believe there are three minor misspellings quite common in the challenge of translating German (with its umlauts) into English . . . which lead to frustrations in the modern age of internet browsers for genealogical research:
- The German u-umlaut (ü) is properly translated to “ue” so Mühlhausen should have been spelled “Muehlhausen” on an English typewriter. Thuringia is the proper English spelling; in German the state of Thuringia is actually spelled as “Thüringen.”
- Kries should have been spelled “Kreis.” Unlike English, Germans pronounce the last letter of a two-vowel combination, so legal secretaries drafting afficavits who only knew English could have easily made this clerical spelling error.
- Finally, there is no town named “Waschstedt”; however, the German pronunciation of the town spelled properly as “Wachstedt” sounds like the misspelled version appearing on the affidavit signed by Anna Anhalt in 1944.
Regarding Discrepancy between Affidavit and Immigration Logs. the Anna believed that she arrived in the United States “on the 6th day of June, 1881.” However, the processing documents show arrival on 4 June 1881. Both of these dates are probably correct. The Castle Garden processing center documented that the passenger ship Baltimore docked in the New York harbor on Saturday, 4 June 1881, but the immigrants were probably not allowed to disembark the ship until Monday, 6 June, 1981 when normal business hours returned.
Tracking down the location of the town of “Wachstedt” where Anna-Marie was born according to her mother’s affidavit prepared on 7 Jan 44
Der Kreis Mühlhausen im Bezirk Erfurt“ translates in English to the Township of Mühlhausen in County Erfurt
Mühlhausen means mill home or mill house. The word “kreis” in Kreis-Mühlhausen is a designation of a district or area of a larger administrative region like what we think of as a township or county in U.S. local government structure. The word “kreis” actually translates to “circle.” But when used as prefix to a city name it is really a shortened version of the German governmental designation of “Landkreis” which translates to “district.” So, Germans would think of (Land)kreis Mühlhausen as a designation of a township or county.
According to German records, the city of Mühlhausen was in fact the seat of administration for (Land)kreis Mühlhausen. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreis_M%C3%BChlhausen
So, Anna was born in “Wachstedt” which was a tiny town within the district of (Land)kreis Mühlhausen which was part of a larger designated region known then—as now—as Thuringia. When this district was part of East Germany, there was an intermediate district shown in yellow on the map to the right known as “Bezirk Erfurt.”
