Grandma’s line 3

The first post in this series began with Grandma’s parents; the second moved to her grandparents on her mother’s side; this third one introduces her grandparents on her father’s side. The relationships can be represented visually as follows:

Isaac G. Franz

Gerhard Franz

Anna Peters Franz

Grandma’s father Isaac G. Franz was the son of Anna Peters Franz, who was born on 16 September 1853 in the village of Fürstenau in Molotschna (just east of the Russian village of Tokmak on the north of the Molotschna colony; see the map here). She was baptized at the age of twenty, on 27 May 1873. A year and a half later she emigrated to the U.S. on the S.S. Vaderland, arriving in Philadelphia on the day after Christmas. She bore five children (three girls and two boys) over a fifteen-year span. Isaac was her middle child. She passed away in Henderson on 14 June 1915 and was laid to rest in the Faith Evangelical Bible Cemetery (aka Ebenezer Cemetery or Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Cemetery), which is one-half mile south of the Henderson golf course.

Gerhard Franz, Grandma’s grandfather on her father’s side, was born on 7 July 1853 in the village of Gnadenfeld (right and below center of the map previously linked). He was baptized at age eighteen, on 4 June 1872, and emigrated to the U.S. a year later on the S.S. Tuetonia, arriving in New York on 3 September 1874. After Anna passed away in 1915, he married Maria Dueck, a widow, on 23 October 1919. Gerhard passed away 3 January 1924; like his first wife, he was buried in the Faith Evangelical Bible Cemetery.

Much of the information about Gerhard and Anna Peters Franz is taken from the church register of the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Church of Henderson (earlier known as the Ebenezer Church). Why this is important will become clearer when we meet Anna’s parents in a following post.