New to Me: Civil Death Records in North Rhine Westphalia on My Heritage

Once the unification of the various German states in the German Empire in 1871, all areas of the German Empire now had civil registrations. I discovered a new database with images at My Heritage, “Germany, North Rhine Westphalia (Arnsberg, Detmold, and Münster), Deaths 1874-1938.” My Hork family came from the towns of Oberhundem, Kirchhundem, Altenhundem, and Elspe. This database covers those locations.

I found quite a few entries for Hork. One entry was for Maria Catharina Hork, who was born Kremer. She married Franz Joseph Hork in 1865 in Elspe. He was the brother of my great-grandfather, Johan Anton Hork. I have found their baptism and marriage records but did not know when they died. So, this is a great database.

What I can cipher out of this document (not in the exact order) is:

Maria Catharina Hork died on 17 January 1903 in Elspe at 3:30 in the afternoon. Peter Hork reported her death on the eighteen of January. She was sixty-two years old, which matches her birth of 17 May 1840, and she was Catholic. She was born in Elspe which agrees with the marriage record, too. She was the daughter of the deceased day laborer, Johan Kremer, and Klara Jungermann, who were both from Elspe.

There is no mention of her husband, so likely he died before her. She died at the home of the notifier, who would be Peter. Here, I have two clues that Peter is a likely son. He reported the death and she died in his home. If he was a son, he was born after 1874, which is the limit of the church records I had found on FamilySearch. I have only four children born to the couple in my database.

I am close to figuring out all the words which I need to do before entering the information into RootsMagic. I worked out Peter’s occupation as a Steinbrucharbeiter, which means he worked at a quarry. I used the chart of gothic handwriting from the Brigham Young University website and plugged in the German words into the German dictionary, Leo. This document’s handwriting is pretty good and is clear to read.

A new-to-me database is helping me add more details about my German ancestors and their families. I also have the record of her husband, Franz, and others.

#52Ancestors-Week 38: New to Me

This is my fifth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week on one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

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