Ancestors
Johann Riethmüller
b. 1838 · Neu Elft, Bessarabia
Born 1838, Neu Elft, Bessarabia
Father: Andreas Riethmüller
Mother: Margaretha Christmann
Children include Katherina
Johann Riethmüller was born on 10 February 1838 at Neu Elft, a German Lutheran village in the Akkerman district of southern Bessarabia, then part of the Russian Empire, and baptized the next day. He was the youngest son of Andreas Riethmüller, a colonist from Hopfau in Wurttemberg, and Margaretha Christmann. The colony was the eleventh of its group, which is where the German name Elft, eleven, comes from; its Russian name, Fère-Champenoise II, recalled a Russian victory over Napoleon in France in 1814. His mother died when he was four.
On 23 November 1856 Johann married Rosina Hillius in the Lutheran parish of Fère-Champenoise. The parish book gives his age as 19 and his father as Andreas, and gives Rosina as 18, the daughter of Friedrich Hillius, whose family had come from Kishinev. Six days later, in the same parish, a Johann Hillius married a Christina Riethmüller, so the two families were joined twice that month. Johann and Rosina's first child, Karolina, was born on 13 December 1857. Their son Jakob was born on 17 November 1859 and died on 18 February 1860, aged three months and one day. A daughter, Katharina, followed on 31 December 1860 and was baptized on New Year's Day 1861.
Rosina died before the summer of 1862. On 10 August 1862 Johann, a widower of 23, married Maria Krause, eighteen, the daughter of Christoph Krause of Neu Elft. Their son Johann died in 1874, and his burial entry calls his father deceased. A Johann Riethmüller died at Neu Elft on 21 October 1867, and by October 1868 Maria was a widow and married again; the 1867 burial is probably his.
His daughter Karolina married her cousin Johann, a son of Peter Riethmüller, at Neu Elft in January 1877. Katharina married Samuel Radke of Neu Elft in 1878 and left with him for Kansas two weeks after the wedding. She farmed with him at Milberger in Russell County and died at Hoisington in 1934, with sixty-three grandchildren.
Sources
Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates, 1833-1885, Neu Elft baptisms 1861, no. 55, FHL film 1884084 item 2, p. 443; FamilySearch ark 61903/1:1:6THK-CN32; Bessarabian Village Birth Records 186x, Odessa3 (odessa3.org/collections/stpete/bess/link/bes186xb.txt).
Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates, 1833-1885, Fère-Champenoise marriages 1856, no. 46, FHL film 1884101 item 1, p. 272; Bessarabian Village Marriage Records 185x, Odessa3 (odessa3.org/collections/stpete/bess/link/bess185m.txt).
Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates, 1833-1885, Neu Elft burials 1860, no. 11, FHL film 1884080 item 1, p. 324; Bessarabian Village Death Records 186x, Odessa3.
Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates, 1833-1885: Fère-Champenoise marriages 1856, no. 46 (FHL film 1884101 item 1, p. 272); Neu Elft burials 1860, no. 11 (film 1884080 item 1, p. 324); Neu Elft baptisms 1861, no. 55 (film 1884084 item 2, p. 443; FamilySearch ark 1:1:6THK-CN32). Bessarabian village birth, marriage and death extractions, Odessa3.
Alt Elft parish marriages 1856, entry of 23 November (FHL film 1768314), extracted by Ralph Ruff, Alt Elft Marriage Records 18xx, Odessa3 (odessa3.org/collections/bess/link/altelft/ae18xxm.txt).
Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates, 1833-1885: Neu Elft baptisms 1838, no. 3, FHL film 1882648 item 2, p. 27; Bessarabian Village Birth Records 183x, Odessa3.
Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates, 1833-1885: Neu Elft baptisms 1857, no. 44, FHL film 1884105 item 2, p. 237; Bessarabian Village Birth Records 185x, Odessa3.
Alt Elft parish marriages 1862, entry of 10 August (FHL film 1768314), extracted by Ralph Ruff, Odessa3; Fère-Champenoise marriages 1862, no. 29 (FHL film 1884095 item 3, p. 270), Bessarabian Village Marriage Records 186x, Odessa3.
Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates, 1833-1885: Neu Elft baptisms 1838, no. 3 (FHL film 1882648 item 2, p. 27); Fère-Champenoise marriages 1856, no. 46 (FHL film 1884101 item 1, p. 272); Neu Elft baptisms 1857, no. 44 (film 1884105 item 2, p. 237); Neu Elft burials 1860, no. 11 (film 1884080 item 1, p. 324); Neu Elft baptisms 1861, no. 55 (film 1884084 item 2, p. 443; FamilySearch ark 1:1:6THK-CN32); Fère-Champenoise marriages 1862 and 1868 (films 1884095, 1884092); Neu Elft burials 1867, no. 18 (film 1884091, p. 315) and Alt Elft 1874, no. 34 (film 1884120 item 1, p. 202). Alt Elft parish marriages, 1820 to 1900 (FHL film 1768314), extracted by Ralph Ruff, Alt Elft Marriage Records 18xx, Odessa3 (odessa3.org/collections/bess/link/altelft/ae18xxm.txt). Bessarabian village birth, marriage and death extractions, Odessa3.
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Cite: Heirology, "Johann Riethmüller (b. 1838)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/johann-riethmuller-1838-f6a766.