I've created this blog to share information with my cousins in the Adler and Hess families, and to attract the attention of potential family members who may recognize their own ancestors in these entries.
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| Friedrich Hess |
My grandparents were Markus Hess and Bertha Adler Hess, born in Florstadt, Hessen, Germany in the 1860s. Markus was a Metzgermeister, a master butcher. After he and Bertha married in 1886, they moved to Frankfurt and had 13 children. My father, Friedrich, was one of them.
Thanks to information provided by local historians in Florstadt, augmented by documents and family trees on Ancestry.com, I've learned a great deal about the previous generations of the Adlers and the Hesses. I have found and corresponded with many cousins whom I had not known previously.
It's not easy to share genealogical information among a far-flung family, but I'm hoping that this blog will serve the purpose. Email broadcasts work to disseminate information among people I know about, but I'm hoping that extended family whom I don't know about will find this blog and get in touch.
To that end, here is a brief overview of the ancestral Hess and Adler families. In subsequent posts, I'll provide more detailed information about them.
Hess
Most of the information about my Hess ancestry was provided by the local historian of Nieder-Mockstadt, a community within the town of Florstadt. Because I don't have all the source documents, and because there are some anomalies in the data, this is not as solid as I would like.
The Hess family of which I'm a part appears to have lived solely in Nieder-Mockstadt. The oldest generation I know about consists of four siblings born around 1800 -- Markus, Marius, Joseph, and Jettchen. (chart - oldest Hess generation)
When I visited the Jewish cemetery of Nieder-Mockstadt, I was surprised to find only one gravestone for a member of the Hess family. Most of the 45 stones in the cemetery were illegible, which may explain the lack of Hess gravestones. To my great good fortune, though, the one legible Hess stone I found was for my own great-grandfather, Aron Hess.
Adler
The Adler family of which I am a part is all descended from Salomon Adler of Nieder-Florstadt, another community within Florstadt. Salomon was born about 1805 and had
three wives and a total of five sons and a daughter. (chart - Salomon's family)
With his first wife, Hilde Liebmann, he had sons Liebmann and Michael. With his second wife, Pauline Isaacs, he had a son Noah, and with his third wife, Hannchen Strauß, he had sons Abraham and Benjamin and daughter Bettchen.
Salomon, Michael, Abraham, and their families lived in Nieder-Florstadt. Liebmann and Bettchen lived in the nearby town of Friedberg, and Benjamin lived in Frankfurt am Main. Born in Nieder-Florstadt, middle son Noah emigrated to the United States at the age of 20.
Much of my information about the descendants of Salomon Adler was provided by the local historian of Nieder-Florstadt. In this case, the documentary evidence is strong.
Stay tuned
I plan to use this blog to share what I've learned about the Hess and Adler families of Florstadt. If you are -- or may be -- a descendant of one of these ancestors, I hope you'll get in touch with me.
I will be sharing information only about deceased family members. If you contact me, I will not use your name in the blog. This initiative is to share information about our ancestors only.
I will be delighted, however, to correspond with you privately, so please do get in touch. My email address is in my profile.
Milt Hess
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