Michael Kaltenberger (abt. 1726)

Born about 1726 in Germany

Descendants

Died [date unknown] in Grimm, Saratov, Russia

Profile manager: Julie Mangano [send private message]

Biography

Michael Kaltenberger is a Volga German.

Michael Kaltenberger has German Roots.

Germany-Denmark-Russia

A20-7 in <The Immigration of German Colonists to Denmark and Their Subsequent Emigration to Russia in the Years 1759-1766.

B-773 in The Immigration of German Colonists to Denmark and Their Subsequent Emigration to Russia in the Years 1759-1766.

Rus14-21 in The Immigration of German Colonists to Denmark and Their Subsequent Emigration to Russia in the Years 1759-176.

Family #61 in the 1775 Grimm census.

Family #25 in the 1798 Grimm census.

While not confirmed, all records seem to point to Michael and Rosina Kaltenberger being the parents of Anna Margaretha Kaltenberger. The couple were Lutherans from the Baden-Durlach Margraviate. A surname search of Kaltenbergers in all of Germany shows there aren't many, but there are Kaltenbachs which may have at times been spelled Kaltenbacher for male family members.

I may have found the christening record for Michael Kaltenberger:

Name Johannes Michael Kaltenbach

Gender Male

Christening Date 06 Jan 1731

Christening Place Haslach (A. Wolfach), Baden, Germany

Father's Name Gervasius Kaltenbach

Mother's Name Francisca Negel

Alternatively, Michael may have been Anna Margaretha's older brother. Both immigrated first to Denmark and then to Grimm, Russia. Anna Margaretha accompanied Alexander Meisner as his fiancee and they married in the town of Kropp.

Michael and Rosina Kaltenberger were scheduled to leave for Denmark on May 5, 1761, with Johann Andreas Kirchhof leading their convoy, but for some reason they remained behind. It was most likely to witness the marriage of daughter Anna Margaretha to Alexander Meisner. The newly wed Meisners arrived in Denmark on May 18, 1761, and Rosina and Michael probably tagged along in that convoy, even though they are not specifically mentioned on that transportation list. They obviously arrived in Denmark one way or another and are listed in Danish records of German immigrants.

Although the couples arrived together, they lived in different cities. Michael and Rosina lived in Friderichsfeld, while Anna Margaretha and her husband lived in Julianenebene. Anna Margaretha had at least two children while she and her husband lived in Denmark.

The marshlands were very inhospitable to farmers. Although the Germans were good farmers with typical farm land, it was far more difficult to convert these former wetlands and grow crops. Most of the German immigrants barely reaped enough to feed their families, let alone to provide food for others in Denmark. When Catherine the Great invited Germans to immigrate to Russia, the two couples decided it offered them a better opportunity to provide for their family.

Michael's last directory update for Denmark was 12 January 1765. The Meisners requested to leave Denmark on 16 May 1765. While both couples probably traveled to Grimm together, Alexander's name does not appear in the departure records. Anna Margaretha's name alone is listed immediately above Michael's name. When looking at the entire list, it is not specifically alphabetical; it appears that families are grouped together.

Michael's wife Rosina Kaltenberger passed away prior to 1775. She is not specifically mentioned in the 1775 census, but her husband is. She probably departed from Denmark by 1765, but it's not clear if she survived the trip to the Volga River. If she did survive the perilous journey, there is no telling how much time passed before she died.

By the time the census was taken in 1775, her husband had remarried Juliana Wittman, 17, and the couple had a 1-week old baby named Johann Michael. Because of Juliana's age, she probably hadn't been married to him for more than a year. This means that Rosina could have survived up to 1773 or 1774. However long she lived, she did not have any more children with Michael, as there are none listed as belonging to her in the 1775 census. Her only possible child known thus far is Anna Margaretha.

Research Notes

In the possible birth record above for Michael Kaltenberger shown above, it states that he was from the town of Haslach (A. Wolfach). I did an Internet search for the town of Wolfach. It is a small town in southwestern Germany near the French and Austrian border. I did a search on the town, and found this description in the German version of Wikipedia:

Wolfach is a town in the middle of the Black Forest and

belongs to the Ortenaukreis in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). ^[1]

This is important because my grandfather, Alex Kaiser Kaiser-1024, told me personally, many times, that his family was from the Black Forest region of Germany. This is something that was passed down from generation to generation, and he was passing that information down to me, the new keeper of the family genealogy information. Thus far, none of his ancestors was from a town in the middle of the Black Forest. I know this story sounds anecdotal, but Alex Kaiser was a veritable scholar about all things Volga German. From 1940 to 1970 he made many speeches around the midwest United States about the Volga Germans and their history, and this Black Forest detail has always remained the same.

I believe this could be the Kaiser family's connection to the Black Forest area. But this link to the area is through a Kaiser spouse, not directly through the Kaiser line.

Additional support for a connection with this family is the DNA report for two family members that shows French heritage. No other family members account for that DNA. The town of Wolfach was near the French and Austrian borners. The border between France and Germany was porous and people went back and forth across it through the years in search of food and work. Intermarriage with someone of French heritage could explain the DNA markers that appeared in those DNA test results.

The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) commissioned researchers to search for the origins of the Volga Germans in Germany. Their German Origins project has these notes on Michael Kaltenberger:

Kaltenberger{Michael}: Lutheran, fromUC Baden-Durlach Margraviate

arrived Schleswig city, Schleswig Royal Duchy in May 1761. In January

1765 with his wife {Rosina} he last reregistered in Denmark. Before

1775 they had settled in Grimm (1775 census #61) (EEE p.467) K ^[2]

Michael was old enough to be the father or brother of Anna Margaretha Kaltenberger, age unknown. Anna Margaretha married Alexander Meisner in Kropp, Germany, in May of 1761, shortly before the couple immigrated to Denmark. Alexander Meisner was 28 years old that year. If Anna Margaretha was a young 16-18 years old, Michael could have been her father. If she was older, he was more likely her brother. That they both ended up in Grimm, Russia, does not seem coincidental, especially with their unique surname.

While in Denmark, Anna Margaretha and Alexander had three children:

• Elisabetha, born 1762
• Wendel, born 1765
• Katharina Margaretha, born 1767

Alexander Meisner died while in Denmark. He is not listed in the Volga Colony Departure Lists in The Immigration of German Colonists to Denmark and Their Subsequent Emigration to Russia in the Years 1759-1766. Anna Margaretha is listed in entry Rus 14-20 on page 673, right above the entry for Michael Kaltenberger, Rus 14-21. The list is not alphabetical, but it appears to keep families grouped together: The Tumlers, the Fritzlers, The Ramigs, the Schaefers, and the Kaltenbergers, for example. Anna Margaretha's second married surname is included in the entry (Keiser [sic]), but it appears that is for the researcher's convenience, so they can track her once she arrived in Grimm. There is no Johannes Kaiser/Kayser/Keyser/Keiser anywhere in that reference material.

The birth of her third child in 1767 doesn't seem to match up with the year her husband Alexander probably died. There are several possibilities:

• If her birth year was off by a year, it's possible that Anna Margaretha immediately became pregnant again after the birth of Wendel, her husband died, and later the baby was born in 1766.

• It's also possible that the baby belonged to her second husband, Johannes Kaiser, but was born out of wedlock so the child was given the Meisner surname. Possible but not plausible since he would have only been 14 years old at that time.

• The child could have belonged to some other man that Anna Margaretha had brief relations with and, once again, the child was given the Meisner surname.

• It's possible that Alexander Meisner did not die until he reached Grimm and that it is an error in the Danish records for him to be omitted from the list of German immigrants going to Russia.

Anna Margaretha and Johannes Kaiser's first child wasn't born until 1784, when Johannes would have been 31 years old.

Even though she arrived in Grimm by 1766, she may not have remarried until 1775, when she would be listed in the census as Johannes' wife and her Meisner children as his step children. It is likely that Michael and Rosina helped her raise her children during the years in Grimm that she remained unmarried, either as grandparents or as an uncle and aunt.

Unfortunately I can find no other information about Michael's children with Rosina or his parents. This means no German birth record for Anna Margaretha has been found yet. I also cannot locate a marriage record for Michael and Rosina.

I will continue to research these people along with Johannes Kaiser, Anna Margaretha's husband in Grimm.

Sources

1. ↑ https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfach
2. ↑ http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.ahsgr.org/resource/resmgr/German_Origins/Ka.pdf

• The 1775 and 1798 Census of the German Colony on the Volga, Lesnoy Karamysh, also known as Grimm; Published by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, Lincoln, NE, USA; Published 1995.

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