Biography of Mary Bohn

Mary Bohn (Armbrust) née Voss (or Fuss) is Bruce's great great grandmother. Mary's daughter Catherine Bohn married Thomas Ballard. Catherine and Thomas' daughter Mary Barbara Ballard married John Kirsch. Bruce's mother Delores is Mary and John Kirsch's daughter.

Birth, Marriage to Pierre Armbrust, Emigration, and Death of Pierre

Mary Voss was born in November of 1823 in the town of Riedseltz, France to Joseph Voss and Anna Heintz. Most records give Mary's name as Anna Maria Voss, but she seems to have been known as Mary. Also, some sources spell her maiden name Foos or Fuss -- probably a transliteration of how Voss was pronounced.

Riedseltz is in the Alsace region in the northeast corner of France, close to the German border, about an hour's drive north of Strasbourg.

In January of 1845, when she was 21, Mary married Pierre Armbrust in Riedseltz. They had two sons, Pierre (Peter) and Edward, before sailing for the United States in the Fall of 1853 when Mary was 29 and pregnant with their third child.

Ten days before reaching New York, Mary's husband Pierre died. Five months later Mary gave birth to her daughter, Barbara Armbrust, in the town of Sheldon, Wyoming County, New York. Sheldon is about 35 miles southeast of Buffalo, not far from East Aurora.

Pierre Armbrust's Family

..about the family...

Marriage to Jacob Bohn, More Children, and Widowed Again

On October 17, 1854, when her daughter was six months old, and less than one year after the death of her first husband, Mary married Jacob Bohn in Sheldon. Jacob, who was born in Riedseltz ten years before Mary, was a widower. He had married his first wife, Elizabeth Kolb, in 1839 in Riedseltz. Elizabeth died in 1852 in Sheldon, about two and a half years before Jocob and Mary's wedding.

Mary and Jacob Bohn had five children, including Catherine, who married Thomas Ballard. Mary Barbara "Mamie" Ballard, Delores' mother, was one of Catherine and Thomas' children.

Jacob died in 1875, leaving Mary a widow for the second time at age 51. Mary lived another 40 years, dying in the home of her daughter Barbara -- the baby she was pregnant with during the voyage to America -- about a month and a half before her 92nd birthday.

The Rittling Family: Connections to Both Sides of the Family

Charles A. Rittling was born in 1851 in Alsace, France. We do not know when he left Europe, but he was in the US by February 25, 1873 when he married Barbara Lux at St. Michael's Church on Washington Street in Buffalo. At the time of the 1875 New York State census, Charles, 22 years old and working as a carpenter, and Barbara were living with Barbara's widowed mother in her home in Buffalo's 6th ward, together with Barbara's siblings.

Charles and Barbara Lux's son Joseph was born Aug 24, 1879. In 1903, when he was 24, he married Delores' aunt Catherine Kirsch.

Charles Rittling's wife Barbara Rittling nee Lux died on Dec 3, 1887, and is buried in United German and French cemetery, Cheektowaga. Two years later Charles married Barbara Armbrust, the daughter of Mary Bohn (Armbrust) nee Voss. Charles died March 19, 1898 at age 47. At the time of his death he and Barbara were living at 825 Elm Street -- the location today of Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Barbara Rittling nee Armbrust lived until about 1930, when she was about 76.