This is a baptism certificate for the daughter of Gustav Leutz & Maria "Warsha". Let's review for a moment here. Gustav Leutz and Mary Theresa Washa were married June 11, 1881 in Ottawa County, Ohio. They had five children:
- Oscar N. Leutz, born March 22, 1882.
- Myrtle R., born November 18, 1883.
- Lorenz, born December 18, 1887.
- Leon, born November 6, 1890.
- Berlin L., born December 1, 1893.
Just to be sure, I double checked and in the 1900 & 1910 census Mary is listed as the mother of five children with four of them living. (Lorenz died in 1889.) Therefore it would stand to reason that all of the children are listed. So, who is this baptism record for? Well, they only had one daughter and so this baptism record is for . . . . Martha Rebecca? According to the record Martha Rebecca was born on November 18, 1883 in Oak Harbor to the spouses Gustav Leutz and Maria Warsha and was baptized at the Evangelical St. Paul's Church in Oak Harbor on June 8, 1884. (Although when I looked through the records of the Evangelical St. Paul's Lutheran Church of Oak Harbor there is no record of this baptism.) My guess is Myrtle is actually a nickname for Martha but I had never even heard it implied that Myrtle wasn't her given name, have you?
Timeframe: Since it is dated I am going to go out on a limb and say 1884.
Where It Fits: Martha Rebecca is the daughter of Gustav Leutz & Mary Theresa Washa. Obviously she is the sister of Oscar, Lorenz, Leon & Berlin. Martha is the wife of Peter Madison and the mother of Bethel. I believe the sponsors, Carl & Louise Leutz, are the siblings of Gustav Leutz. Gustav has a brother Charles that was in the area and Carl was a very common nickname/translation of Charles. Gustav and Charles also had a sister, Louise. Louise was born in Oak Harbor and I don't believe she was married until late 1884 - early 1885 making her still a Leutz.
1 comment:
Are you aware there are 2 St. Paul churches in the Oak Harbor area. Both are old churches. The one in town was, for a short time, was called a Lutheran Church. Rev August Langhorst was there from 1880-1885. The other St. Paul Lutheran Church is about 4-5 miles SE of town. Hope you went to the one in town and looked at its records. If you did, it is strange that the baptism was not recorded.
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