France

Buffalo, NY

**Finding an Ancestor**<br> "When I was growing up", my mother said, "I heard about a death at sea. The husband of one of my ancestors died on board ship while they were immigrating to America. Now that you're researching our family history, maybe you can find out something about her." I filed Mom’s request in the back of my mind and went on with my research into my father’s side of the family. From time to time the ancestry.com software presented me with “hints” -- documents with information about an ancestor - both paternal and maternal. Eventually a ship’s passenger list came up, a list that included my mother's maternal great grandmother, Mary Armbrust (later Mary Bohn). Mary is listed on the ship's manifest along with her husband Pierre and their three children. There is a handwritten note next to Pierre’s name: *Died 2nd Nov*. I had found the ancestor from the story my mother heard as a child. Mary Bohn lived nearly ninety two years. Married and widowed twice, she had nine children, including my mother’s maternal grandmother Catherine Ballard nee Bohn. The world saw dramatic changes during Mary’s lifetime, a lifetime that reached from the first quarter of the nineteenth century into the first quarter of the twentieth. Mary was born eight years after the Battle of Waterloo, and two years after the death of Napoleon. James Monroe was president of the United States when she was born, and both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were still alive. In Vienna, Beethoven was working on his ninth symphony. Decades would go by after her birth before Darwin's theory of evolution and Pasteur's germ theory were proposed. <Queen Victoria’s reign?> When Mary, died Woodrow Wilson was president, Europe was in the middle of World War I, Einstein had published his Theory of General Relativity, and the Wright brothers' first flight was 12 years in the past. **Early Life**<br> Anna Maria Voss (later known as Mary) was born in 1823 in the town of Riedseltz in northeast France, a town of about <1,500 people>. Nineteenth and twentieth century wars... Tucked into the upper right corner of France… The German border is less than four miles north of Riedseltz, and the Rhine is thirteen miles to the south east. The closest town of any size is Baden-Baden in Germany's Black Forest, about a 40 minute drive from Riedseltz. After WWI… M. Line… One of the forts of the Maginot Line -- now a museum -- is a ten minute drive from the center of Riedseltz. <marriage, children> **In The United States** My great-great grandmother stepped off the ship Corinthian, and onto United States soil, on Tuesday, November 15, 1853. Traveling with three children under the age of ten, she was four months pregnant with her fourth child, and did not speak English. It was three days after her thirtieth birthday, and she had been a widow for thirteen days. <second marriage, children> **--Summing up--** My great great grandmother Mary Bohn nee Voss lived nearly ninety two years, dying 1915 in her daughter's home [44 Best Street, Buffalo] -- the daughter she was pregnant with during her voyage to America. She had been married twice and widowed twice, and had given birth to nine children, including my mother's grandmother. When Mary, died Woodrow Wilson was president, Europe was in the middle of World War I, Einstein had published his Theory of General Relativity, and the Wright brothers' first flight was 12 years in the past. **Early Life**
Anna Maria Voss (later known as Mary) was born in 1823 in the town of Riedseltz in northeast France, a town of about <1,500 people>. Nineteenth and twentieth century wars... Tucked into the upper right corner of France… The German border is less than four miles north of Riedseltz, and the Rhine is thirteen miles to the south east. The closest town of any size is Baden-Baden in Germany's Black Forest, about a 40 minute drive from Riedseltz. After WWI… M. Line… One of the forts of the Maginot Line -- now a museum -- is a ten minute drive from the center of Riedseltz. **In The United States** My great-great grandmother stepped off the ship Corinthian, and onto United States soil, on Tuesday, November 15, 1853. Traveling with three children under the age of ten, she was four months pregnant with her fourth child, and did not speak English. It was three days after her thirtieth birthday, and she had been a widow for thirteen days. **--Summing up--** My great great grandmother Mary Bohn nee Voss lived nearly ninety two years, dying 1915 in her daughter's home [44 Best Street, Buffalo] -- the daughter she was pregnant with during her voyage to America. She had been married twice and widowed twice, and had given birth to nine children, including my mother's grandmother." required>