This post is a bit of an update with additions to a previous feature on Johann Thielen from October 2017. At the time of the original post I only had one photo of Johann and his wife. Since then a distant cousin placed another online of the whole family! Another reason why collaborative genealogy and working both your direct ancestor lines and collateral lines as well is advantageous. By this I’m referring to not just a family tree with your parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on but including their siblings and siblings children. Andrew is my fourth cousin, we share third great-grandparents, Wilhelm and Johanna (Verhaaren) Thielen. Since Johann died on 2 December 1929 and a daughter, Catherine died in 1907, I’ll call this circa 1907-1929.
Johann Thielen Family-Front row, L-R: Johanna, Catherine & Johann, Elizabeth (my great-grandmother). Back row, L-R: ?, Gertrude, ?, Theodore, Clara, ? (the questions marks could be either George, William or John). Can anyone can help me identify George, William and John?
Another item I want to share is Johann’s baptismal record from Germany, once again, thanks Andrew and a website called Matricula Online. The text is hard to decipher and it’s written in a Latinized form of German which I am not familiar. The record is from the Catholic parish of St. Lambertus in Appeldorn, Germany which explains the inclusion of Latin.
Johann’s baptismal record in full (line 720) and a cropped version below.
The first line reads “22 November” and not sure after that. Second line is “Joannes, filius (son), legitimus (legitimate), Wilhelmus Thielen and Johanna Hedrina Verhaaren”. I can’t read the third and fourth lines, maybe godparents?
Both of these are great additions to the Thielen Family story. Using this Matricula Online website, which contains thousands of records for free, I hope to find Wilhelm and Johanna’s baptismal records. Andrew has already found their marriage record but will save that for a future feature. Thanks for reading!