Christina Barbara Kerbel (abt. 1843)

Born about 1843 in Grimm, Saratov, Russia

Ancestors

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Biography

Christina Kerbel was a Volga German.

Christina Kerbel has German Roots.

Family #26 in the 1857 Grimm census.

Birth Date and Place

• 1843
• Grimm, Saratov, Russia

Parents

• Johann Philipp Kerbel
• Katharina Elisabeth Unknown

1857 Grimm Census ^[1]

Family # 26

Head of the Household Philip Kerbel, age 58

Wife Anna Regina Kerbel, age 53

Child #1 Konrad Kerbel, age 20

Child #2 Philipp Kerbel, age 17

Child #3 Christina Barbara Kerbel, age 14

Child #4 Barbara Kerbel, age 12

Child #5 Jakob Kerbel, age 3 months in 1850, deceased 1853

Research Notes

It is difficult to determine which of her father's last two wives was her mother. Typically, the census taker made a note next to the child's name, such as "child from first mother," and "child from second mother." The census taker makes this kind of a notation in the 1834 census for this family, identifying the mothers of his first four children. In the 1857 census, there is no such notation. It appears at first glance, that these are all the children of current wife Anna Regina.

In this case, I took a closer look, since we already had his children divided between two possible mothers. Usually I look for gaps between the birth years of children as an indicator for when a spouse/parent died. There was a five-year gap between Katharina Margaretha, born in 1832, and the next child, Konrad, born in 1837. Because of this gap, I initially felt that his second wife must have passed away and he remarried in 1836, to Anna Regina. Anna Regina would have then been the mother of his five youngest children.

There are, of course, two ways to look at this. Mainly, I skimmed over the gap after the birth of his last child and when the census was taken in 1857. There was a longer gap during this time segment between 1850 and 1857. Plus, his youngest son died in 1853, probably from the third cholera pandemic that swept across Russia from 1846 to 1860, killing more than 1 million Russians.

I finally realized that his second wife could have also been a victim of cholera. What if Johann Philipp Kerbel didn't remarry until between 1854 and 1857? This appears to be more likely since she didn't have her last child with her second husband Mr. Brester until 1844, which eliminates the possibility of Anna Regina being the mother of all but the youngest child in the 1857 census. Since there are no gaps between those five births, it seems unlikely that she is the mother of any of those children. This means Anna Regina (Unknown) Kerbel was simply the step-mother of his children.

Sources

1. ↑ 1857 Census of Grimm in the District of Saratov, Russia, dated 5 November 1857; Translated by Brent Mai, Concordia University, Portland, Oregon; Published by Dynasty Publishing, Beaverton, OR, USA; Published 2005; page 12, family #26, Philipp Kerbel family.