Is this his birth record in Germany?
Name Christian Schuerle
Event Date 1835
Gender Male
Birth Date 04 Oct 1835
Birth Year 1835
Christening Date 06 Oct 1835
Christening Place EVANGELISCH, KONIGSBRONN, JAGSTKREIS, WUERTTEMBERG
Father's Name Johann Georg Schuerle
Mother's Name Maria Barbara Widmann
1909 [Indianapolis News] Deaf Tailor Killed at Crossing
- Hamilton O. February 19. Christian Shirley, seventy-one years
old, a widower was killed at the Hanover-street crossing by a
south-bound Lindenwald car last night. He was deaf. Shirley was
a tailor.
married Elizabeth or Bertha Ahles by at least 1861
(Elizabeth Ahles named in church records, Bertha Ahles named
in death cert of son George). Elizabeth Schirli, born Ahles'
burial was recorded in the register of the Saint Stephens Roman
Catholic church in Cinncinatti, Hamilton Co OH in 1866, She was
age 29 years, 3 months of age. She was born in Oldenburg Germany
(son's death cert)
children:
1(i). Lena E Shirley born 3 October 1861 at Franklin
Warren Co OH (death record). The christening record for Helena
Elizabeth Shirley was christened 1861 to Christiano Surle and
Elisabeth Ahls at Saint Stephens Catholic church, Cinncinatti
Hamilton Co OH. She was enumerated as a single woman, school
teacher in 1900 Warren Co Ohio (indexed as Shemley),1910, 1920
and 1930 Warren Co Ohio census, age 69. She died 16 August 1943
at Franklin. She was a retired school teacher. Never married.
(father named in death record)
1(ii). George W Shirley born 6 March 1866 (death cert).
Lived in Hamilton Butler Co Ohio in 1900, 1910 and 1920 census.
He was a retired salesman for Standard Oil at the time of his
death on 7 February 1940 at Hamilton, Butler Co Ohio; Buried
St Stephens Cemetery
married Lillian May Hull on 21 August 1888. Her mother
Rachel Hull lived with the family in 1920 census. She died in
1955
children:
2(i). William C Shirley born 1888 in Hamilton, Butler
Co Ohio, age 12 in 1900 census. He live at Hamilton, Butler Co
Ohio. He died 7 October 1950 (death cert, parents named)
married Olga Louise Braun on 1 August 1892 at Butler
Co Ohio
2(ii). Louise Veva Shirley born 1894 in Ohio, age 6
in 1900 census, She married Arnett Clair Thomas
November 2019 - Research comments
from a very knowledgeable professional genealogist:
I was able to look a bit more at your Christian Shirley today.
I am
inclined to think that Christian Shirley would have been from
Wurttemberg since it's listed on a census when he was living.
His son
George's death certificate would be a less accurate source since
it
would been someone else filling out the death certificate and
possibly a
couple of generations removed.
The Hamilton County Genealogical Society has an index of death
notices
and obituaries and it includes the German newspapers in the Cincinati
area, but unfortunately I didn't find Christian or Elisabeth
in those
indexes.
Christian was buried in the Saint Stephen Cemetery. According
to
FindaGrave, this cemetery is part of the German Saint Stephen
parish,
which was a church established in 1849:
Since Christian was buried in the cemetery next to the church,
it's likely he
attended church there. The records for this Saint Stephen church
are
digitized and indexed on FindMyPast.com as part of their Cincinnati
Roman Catholic parish records.
I looked through the records for Saint Stephen and found a
few records
about the family. The records are all in Latin and so the names
are in
Latin as well. I found the marriage of George Shirley to Elizabeth
Hull.
The witnesses were Joseph and Elisabeth Zeller, so I wondered
who the
Zeller family is and if they are connected somehow?
I found a burial record for Elisabeth Schirli, born Ahls,
age 29 years
and 3 months. This gives us her age. I think that Elisabeth was
very
likely the mother of both of the children of Christian Shirley
since
he's not living with a wife in the 1870 census and his children
aren't
living with him either. Though George's death certificate lists
his
mother as Bertha I am less inclined to believe this because again,
secondhand information and his mother had died years before.
I think it
was instead he mother was probably Elisabeth Ahls Shirley who
died in
1866.
I found a christening record for a Helen Elisabeth Shirley
in 1861 and
her parents are listed as Christiano Surle and Elisabeth Ahls.
I asssume
this is Lena E that you have in your tree. The godparents are
Conrad and
Helen Hiugsberger. Are these relatives or from the same place
in Germany
perhaps? It would be worth looking at them to see what you can
learn
about them.
The notation on this christening record says "pater acatholicus"
which
when I searched for this term in Google, it says that this means
that
the father was not Catholic. At first I thought that since Christian
was
buried in a Catholic cemetery that he would have been Catholic,
but he
was Protestant. The birth record you found for a Christian Shirley
in
Germany was from Protestant records so that part seems to line
up.
Oddly I didn't find a christening record for George in the
Cincinatti
Catholic records on FindMyPast.
Often when a person immigrated they would at first live with
a relative
or someone that they knew in the old country. In the 1860 census,
Christian is listed next to a Martin Strom. Perhaps learning
more about
Martin could be helpful.
It's odd that Christian isn't in the 1900 census, though according
to
the city directory, he's living on the same street as his son
George and
George is listed. Sure wish we had that record since it would
say how
long he's been in the U.S. and if he naturalized.
If Christian was from Wurttemberg, then he would be likely
be listed in
the emigration record for Wurttemberg. I searched these and found
a
Christian Schuerle who applied in Feb 1852 (the date of application
isn't necessarily when the person emigrated but can be later):
there's also a Christian Shirley from Wurttemberg that settled
in
Indiana and he could also be the guy born in Altbach: .
It's important to note that the indexed records for Wurttemberg
are not
complete, so Christian may not appear in those records or the
records
for the town he came from may not be indexed online yet. So we
can't
assume that he's the guy born in Altbach necessarily without
more to
pinpoint him there.
In your tree you've got a potential brother for Christian
named Johann
Geoge David Schurle. He died in 1901 in Eaton, Vermont. Is there
a death
record that names his parents? Can it be proved he's the one
born to
those parents in Germany? If there's an obituary for him in Eaton,
perhaps it would list living siblings he had in the U.S. at the
time? It
may be worth spending a bit of time on Johann to see if you get
something there.
Another thing I noted is that in the death notices for Christian
Shirley
it says he left a widow and several children. So maybe he married
again
later on and had other children? If so, can you learn about them?
I found George Shirley in the 1880 census in Franklin, Warren
County,
though he's listed as a female, the image lists him as a male.
It says
both of his parents are both in Wurttemberg, which is more evidence
that
Wurttemberg was the place his parents were from:
s=10
It's interesting that George and his sister were living with
families
that were not from Germany after their mother died. It makes
me think
that there were not close relatives living nearby at the time.
I looked
for guardianship records in Warren County to see if there might
be
something on this but nothing listed.
I wonder if there would be a death notice for Elizabeth in
1866?
Another thing we can look for is a naturalization record for
Christian.
It will likely just say he's from Germany and not give a hometown,
but
it may have witnesses listed which may be helpful. FamilySearch
has the
naturalization records for Warren County and Christian isn't
coming up
in the index there. It looks like the Butler County naturalization
records have to be requested from the county.
Christian Shirley