Just about every family has a "How We Got Here" story. I told our family's story to Miss Marge Marple, Detective Extrodinaire, and she agreed that it's a DILLY!
The "HOW WE GOT TO AMERICA" myth (with apologies to the late Alex Haley) (This story was told to me by my Momma, Marguerite POHL, who heard it from HER Momma, Martha WESSLING, who heard it from HER Momma, Maggie DORR, daughter of the emigrants.)
"Our family lived in Germany. They were persecuted because they were Catholic. The whole family group moved to Saarbruecken (or Elsass) where it was OK to be Catholic, but NOT OK to be German. Then the whole family moved to Cuba. Here it was OK to be German and OK to be Catholic, but there were no German Catholic bachelors for the daughters to marry. So the whole family moved to Boston. The End."
Miss Marge looked VERY skeptical. "CUBA?"
"Momma was SURE that it was 'CUBA'", I replied. "And one did NOT argue with Momma, not if one wanted to avoid Great Physical Pain!"
Thus it was that Our Favorite Detective took upon herself the Awesome Job of de-bunking our family myth - here's how she did it...
First, Miss Marge had to decide WHICH family group the myth described. She reasoned that If indeed it was Maggie DORR's family (as Momma told me), the family involved thus had to be either DORRs or KRATZs. Fortunately, she was able to find emigration information for Maria Anna KRATZ that led to the identification of her birthplace and subsequently the church register that contained her Baptismal record and records of several generations of her ancestors. Maria Anna KRATZ and her brother, Andreas, emigrated from Baden to New York and then to Boston. No mention of "Cuba" or hints of any extended family group were located.
This left the DORR family.
The 1855 MA State Census contained the information that Nicholas, his bride, Maria Anna KRATZ, her daughter from a previous marriage (misnamed by the census enumerator as "Dorothy DORR" rather than "Dorothy GRAM), his two sisters and their husbands and children and Mathias DORR (age 72) and his wife, Mary, were living in a three-family dwelling in Boston's 10th Ward. The birthplace of a child living with one of the sisters is given as West Indies! (The census does not state the relationship of the child to the family, however; the couple with whom she was enumerated were married in Boston, so possibly the child was either from an earlier marriage, or not directly descended from this couple.)
"FINALLY", Miss Marge said, "a clue that mentions, if not 'Cuba', then at least a locality in the Caribbean!"
Next, she examined Nicholas DORR's naturalization records, found his date of emigration and port of entry, and successfully found the ship's passenger list that bore his name! There he was, Nicholas DORR, accompanied ONLY by Mathias DORR, entering Boston, FROM TRINIDAD! No "extended family group" was found; indeed, the ship's list bore the names of only 19 passengers!
"Might Nicholas and his father been some sort of 'advance guard' for the rest of the family?", she wondered.
Trying to find the German origin of the DORR family has been quite a challenge for Miss Marge. Nicholas DORRs naturalization papers say "Magerbach, Prussia" as his place of birth. More experienced researchers, familiar with the early days of Boston's German Catholic community, have told us that "our DORRs" most likely were from The Rhineland. We know that they were Roman Catholic, that the "paterfamilias" was named "Mathias", and that at least three of his children emigrated to Boston. Nicholas and his two sisters were all married at Holy Trinity Church; Boston Vital Records give no specific place of birth. Death records for Nicholas DORR, his father, Mathias, and his mother, Maria, likewise contain no specific birth locality.
Has Miss Marge proven the family myth? Has she debunked it? Well, we now know that PARTS of it are true - Nicholas DID have two sisters who emigrated and then married. Most exciting discovery was finding evidence that the strangest part of the myth MAY have some validity!
Any ideas for further searches?
Marge Reid--[email protected]
This page was created 29 January 1999.
copyright © 1999 - Margaret V Reid