In 1880, when my great great grandparents Agathe Maria Lang and Matthias Manock were married in Karlsruhe, Agathe provided this information for their marriage certificate:
She had been born in Zizenhausen on 29 December 1852. Her occupation was ‘maid’ (Dienstmädchen, domestic servant). Her mother was Anna Maria Lang, a washerwoman, who lived in Zizenhausen.
Agathe did not name her father.
In 1852, when Agathe Maria Lang had been baptised at Zizenhausen, only her mother, Anna Maria Lang, was named on the certificate.
Five other children of Anna Maria Lang were baptised in Zizenhausen with with no father named:
- Paulina baptised 14 January 1844, buried 28 July 1844
- Eleonora baptised 30 October 1845, buried 14 November 1845
- Crescentia baptised 18 November 1847, buried 5 January 1848
- Johannes baptised 6 December 1848
- Josef baptised 18 April 1850, buried 19 July 1850
I think it is likely that these children were Agathe’s siblings.
Johannes, son of Anna Maria Lang, married in 1875 and had four children, three of whom died young. I have not found a record of the death of Johannes, nor of his wife Anna and his daughter Frida (born 1876).
I have not been able to find birth, marriage, or death records of Anna Maria Lang, at least those that I am confident refer to my great great grandmother. I have, however, found records of other women with the same name.
An Anna Maria Lang was born in January 1829 to Josef Lang and Maria Lang née Einhart. She married a Kaspar Schästle in 1859 in Konstanz. They had at least eight children. However, I believe that if this Anna was the mother of Agathe and Johannes then her married name would have been given on their marriage certificates.
Another Anna Maria Lang, born in 1814 to Thomas and Caecelia Kun, married Matthaeus Pfeifer at Zizenhausen in 1853. They had a daughter. As with Anna Maria Schästle I feel if this was the mother of Agathe her married name would have been mentioned on Agathe’s marriage certificate.
A third Anna Maria Lang, daughter of Georg Lang and Magdalena Lehri, was baptised at Konstanz on 17 September 1823. Nothing suggests this was the mother of Agathe.
I seem to have reached a dead end with this. But not to worry, these little puzzles are fun. I’ll persevere with it.
Zizenhausen is in the district of Stockach, a kilometre north of the town centre and about six kilometres north-west of Lake Constance. In 1852 the population of Zizenhausen was 1171: 621 female and 550 male. In 1974 Zizenhausen was incorporated into the City of Stockach.
Related posts
Wikitree and FamilySearch:
- Wikitree profile for Agathe Maria (Lang) Manock (1852 – 1926)
- FamilySearch profiles for
Anne's Family History 
Anna Maria Lang would seem to have had a dreadful life. No husband, all those dead babies and a job as a washerwoman. Let’s hope you can find some more information about her. Congratulations! We did it! We have reached the end of the A to Z 2022!
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Isn’t it convenient that she was born there, just so you could write a Z post in 2022! How handy! Congratulations for making it to the end.
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It was indeed useful to have a post for the letter Z, in fact it was sort of the other way round, I wanted to write about this bit of the family and it fitted nicely into the A to Z challenge.
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Congratulations on making it through April… snd just look at all the new info you’ve put into story form. We have much easier lives than our ancestors.
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Thanks for visiting throughout the challenge and congratulations to you too.
I have found the challenges great for adding to the family history.
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Congratulations on a successful 2022 A to Z challenge Anne. Happy writing.
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How very sad, all those dead children. I hope you find more about her.
And Congrats on finishing up the A – Z Challenge again!
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I too thought it tragic that all except Agathe and Johannes died within weeks or months of being born. Those were hard times.
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A great ending to A to Z its Zizenhausen and I love the image! Congratulations on a successful and interesting series.
Re the mother’s married name issue, I’ve found with the Bavarian group I’ve researched that the women seem to have retained their maiden names in documents eg George Kunkel son of Adam and Katherine Happ (he was Kunkel, she was Happ). This has even muddled up some of the parents’ names on immigration records. No idea if this was common across “Germany”. The significant number of infant deaths per family was also very apparent in the local history. So sad. Hope this may help.
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