The weekly prompt is provided by www.amyjohnsoncrow.com. The prompt for the week of November 9 is "An Ancestor Who Took a Risk."
I know it's a cliché, but my blog post for this week's theme is the risk that my great-great-grandparents, Peter and Margaretha Kolb Hillenbrand, took by leaving Germany with two small boys and immigrating to the United States. It was a massive gamble: leaving a booming industrial river city in Germany with a toddler and a baby to arrive in a crowded, tenement-heavy Brooklyn with zero safety net.
The 1883 civil marriage record from Ludwigshafen am Rhein establishes their marriage on July 4, 1883. It also provides birth details: Peter Anton was born on May 16, 1857, in Kallstadt, District of Dürkheim, and Margaretha was born on July 11, 1865, in Erbach, District of Homburg.
Soon after, their son George was born in October 1883, followed by my great-grandfather Frank, who was born on September 17, 1885, in Ludwigshafen am Rhein. Frank's naturalization record indicates that the family emigrated from Germany and arrived in New York on April 29, 1887.
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| Frank Joseph Hillenbrand's 1917 naturalization record, which preserves the detail that the family arrived in New York on April 29, 1887. |
We next see the family—now including a third son, Peter, born in the U.S. around 1889—anchored in Brooklyn, New York per the 1892 New York State Census.
Fast forward to the 1905 New York State Census, and the family had expanded further with the births of John (born ~1892), Paulina (born ~1894), and Valentine (born ~1899). However, missing from the household at 54 Bremen St. was the father, Peter. A search of New York City Historical Vital Records turned up a death certificate for Peter on April 26, 1905—a mere 36 days before the census taker recorded the family. Margaretha bore the ultimate cost of that immigration risk—raising a large family alone in a foreign country after losing her husband.
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| The 1905 New York State Census entry for 54 Bremen Street in Brooklyn, showing Margaretha Hillenbrand listed as head of household following Peter's untimely death. |
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| New York City Certificate of Death for Peter Anton Hillenbrand, documenting his passing on April 26, 1905—just 36 days before the 1905 New York State Census was taken. |
Family research for Margaretha previously pointed to an unsourced death date around 1945. While I haven't found a death certificate for that specific year, I found an entry for a Margaret Hillenbrand at Pilgrim State Hospital in Islip, New York, in the 1950 U.S. Census. Furthermore, the New York Death Index lists a Margaret Hillenbrand who died on November 29, 1950, in Islip, New York, with a calculated birth year of 1865—which aligns perfectly with the 1883 marriage record. While I am still working to secure the official certificate and locate a Find a Grave memorial, a 1940 U.S. Census record previously placed Margaret living with her children John and Paulina in Nassau County.