Thanks to the great G2G feedback I received after my post yesterday, it was obvious that I had tapped into the wrong family. My mistake was assuming that my Anna Getz was the same person as Anna Marie Goetz, because their birthdays are one day apart, same year. That was foolish on my part. I have adjusted my question as a result.
Christian Henry Getz was a clockmaker, and he and his wife had five children:
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->Anna Getz (b. ca 1858)
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->Zelma Etta Getz (b. ca 1860)
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->Max Henry Getz (b. 1861)
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->Hulda M. Getz (b. ca 1863)
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->Lillie B. Getz (b. ca 1865)
Verbal family history says that Christian Henry Getz was born 9 Jan 1837 in “Rheinland, Preussen.” Zelma Etta (Getz) Shannon’s obituary says that she was born in “Reinholdshain” – her gravestone says simply “Saxony” - and that the Getz family lived in “Leipzig.”
In 1864, Christian Henry Getz left his family behind and took the ship Therese to the USA. He arrived at Castle Garden, New York, USA, with the ship’s manifest noting him to be from “Prussia.” Three years later, the mother and Getz children departed from Bremen, Germany to join Christian Henry Getz in the USA. They took the ship Northern Light, and arrived in New York, USA on 29 Aug 1867.
Shortly after the Getz family reunited in the USA, verbal family history says that the mother died, with the date and place unknown. Christian Henry Getz subsequently remarried to Carolina Shultz, who was born in Illinois, USA. The Getz family eventually relocated to Nebraska, USA, where both Christian Henry Getz and Zelma Etta Getz (his daughter, my great-grandmother) died. At least as an adult in Nebraska, USA, Zelma Etta Getz was a Presbyterian.
Where I need help is determining who the mother of Zelma Etta Getz is (which would presumably help me find record of Zelma Etta Getz’s birth). When the ‘Gatz’ children emigrated to the USA in 1867, the only two adults accompanying them were Carall Gatz (about 33 years old) and Ernestine Gatz (about 19 years old). [Christian Henry Getz would have been about 30 years old in 1867]. So it’s logical to assume that “Carall Gatz” is the biological mother of the Getz children, including Zelma Etta Getz, my great-grandmother. But, I really blundered on my last assumption!
So who is the mother of Zelma Etta Getz? Is it ‘Carall Getz', maiden name unknown, who accompanied my great-grandmother to the United States?
Previous G2G responses have shown that Elisabeth Oswald (b. 7 Jan 1822) is not the mother of Zelma Etta Getz, as her children's names do not match 'my' Getz's children's names at all.
