Finding Lost People Message Forum

Disappearing Ancestors - Tonawanda Settlement, Erie County, NY - early 1850s

Posted By: JP (cpe-74-77-70-12.buffalo.res.rr.com)
Date: Saturday, 12 February 2011, at 2:59 p.m.

I'm trying to figure out what happened to two of my ancestors - Christian Marthia and his wife, Caroline Mertz.

They were born in 1816 in the Alsasce Lorraine area of France. The last name was originally Mathia. They came to the NY from Le Havre in 1846 with three daughters (Caroline, Catherine, and Marguerite). In the 1850 census, they are living in Tonawanda Settlement with four children: Caroline, Catherine, Christian (b. 1848), and Philip (b. 1850). Then in the 1854 census, the last name for the children is magically Marthia and each of the children is living with a different family - three in Tonawanda and one in Amherst. The parents are not in the census. I'm trying to figure out if one or both of them had died or if something else had happened (maybe alien abduction? - ha ha) to cause the children to be placed with different families. I do not know what happens to the daughter, Caroline. Catherine ends up marrying Peter Jacke/Yockey and stays in Tonawanda. Christian marries Mary Fix and ends up in Buffalo. Philip marries a woman named Sophia and ends up in Buffalo.

Before we eneded up with the Marthia spelling, the last name was generally one of the following - Mathia, Mathias, Matthia, Matthias.

Thank you!

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