Sunday's Stories, 52 Ancestor Weeks, Week # 2, Margret (Marguarita) Zinkann Ruthig.

Copyright 2014, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

This is week 2 of my participation Amy Johnson Crow's, once a week challenge to blog about one ancestor a week, tell their story, biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on that one ancestor. More about the challenge can be found at her Blog, No Story Too Small.

Last week I wrote about Katharina Ruthig Gerth.  Today, I am going to chat about her mother, Margret.  Her name has been found recorded in records or indexes as:   Margaretha Zuikann, Margarita and Margaret.  Again, being of German heritage, the spellings are found any number of different ways.

Margret (Margarita) Zinkann was born on Mar 27, 1831 in Germany, her parents were, well, there is a problem, I am not sure.

At one time I had believed her father to be John Zinkan(n) and Eliza Norgang (also found spelled  Nahrgang) Zinkan(n).  Then, another researcher contacted me and they swore that Margaret's father was one Henry Zinkan(n) and  Anna Catherine Nahrgang Zinkan(n).  I believe this researcher sent me some kind of proof, except, you guessed it, I do not seem to have a copy of same attached to my data base at this time, which means, it probably is back in SE Michigan in a pile.  (Please no lectures, I am not perfect, I get busy with real life, and, I fail to get everything recorded correctly.  Yep, imperfect.)

If you search at RootsWeb.com, you can find an entry for Henry and Anna Zinkann that lists Margaret as their daughter.  (This same researcher has a child William born 1855 as a son of Margaret and Valentine Ruthig, I have a child William as well, but, born in 1873, SIGH.)

I have no record of Margaret on the 1842 census in Canada.  A review of the records available (Upper Canada, probably not the correct area, but, hey, I looked anyway, ya never know what surprise you might get!)  at FamilySearch found nothing for Zinkan(n) or Ruthig (Rudig).

Margret married Valentine Ruthig\Rudig, son of Johannes (John) Ruthig and Maria Eva Molder in 1847 in Hamburg, Wilmot Township, Wellington District, Upper Canada.  My source for this marriage is Don Walker and Fawne Statford-Devai, compiler, "Marriage Registers of Upper Canada/Canada West" (Delhi, Ontario: NorSim Research and Publishing, 1997.  I do not have a digital copy of the entry in their compilation attached to my data base.  The data I extracted follows:

"Valentine Ruthig and Margaretha Zuikann were married by Rev. Schuler, witnesses to the marriage were Peter Rotherwel and Frederick Krinkze.  They were married by the Minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hamburg in 1847."

Here is a screen capture from FamilySearch of their indexing of the 1851 Canadian census:

It is a bit difficult to read, but, you will note there is a Margaret Zinkan listed. Our Margaret is married to Valentine Ruthig by now, and indeed appears with him on the 1851 census:

"Valintine Ruthig, born Germany, age 28; Margaret Zinkan, born Germany, age 22; Mary, age 3, born Canada; John, age 2, born Canada."  (From the  1851 census, Easthope Township, Perth County, Ontario, Canada, extracted by Moi.)

Note it says she is Margaret Zinkan, that is because in this area of Ontario, many of the brides were recorded with their maiden names stated.  Yes, we do have a gold mine of data here!

So, is the Margaret Zinkan indexed above, the bride of Valentine?

Here is the 1851 census, what do you think?  Note:  This image has been cropped and edited for use here.  The full page is NOT shown.  They are down at the bottom of the page.

I have yet to locate Valentine and his bride Margaret on the 1861 Canadian Census.

Let me correct that to, I have never found them on the 1861 census UNTIL now.  Many hours after starting this post, as I was about to schedule it, I tried ONE more time.  At the Library and Archives of Canada site.  I searched ruth* and val* And, lookie see what popped up!

Search Results: Census of 1861 (Canada East, Canada West, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia)
Digitized page of Census of 1861 (Canada East, Canada West, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) for 4391951_00301
Census Year: 1861
Item Number: 1941430
Surname: Ruthey
Given Name(s): Vallentin
Age: 40
Province: Canada West (Ontario)
District Name: Perth
Sub-District Name: North Easthope

Vallentin  RUTHEY.   Really?  WOW!

Here is a bit of the 1861 census, just a screen capture for now.

The data I extracted from the 1871 census is:

North Easthope, Perth County, Ontario, Canada: Valentine, age 48, born Germany, Lutheran, of German heritage, farmer; Margaret, age 40, born Germany, Lutheran, of German heritage; John, age 18, born Ontario; Elisabeth, age 17, born Ontario; Catherine, age 15, born Ontario; Josephine, age 13, born Ontario; Margaret, age 11, born Ontario; Henery, age 9, born Ontario; Louise, age 7, born Ontario; Annie, age 5, born Ontario; Helen, age 3, born Ontario; Hedwig, 10 months old, born May, born Ontario.

I do not seem to have a image of the 1881 census entry for Valentine and Margaret, but, here is the index entry from FamilySearch for this family:

Valantine Ruthig, "Canada Census, 1881"
Name: Valantine Ruthig
Name Note:
Gender: Male
Age: 59y
Birth Year: 1822
Birthplace: Germany
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Farmer
Ethnicity: German
Religion: Lutharian
Head of Household Name: Valantine Ruthig
Born During Last Year:
Event Place: Easthope North, Perth North, Ontario, Canada
District Number: 172
Sub-District: D
Division: 1
Page Number: 10
Household ID: 825827
Family Number: 48
Digital Folder Number: 4467152
Image Number: 00579
GS Film number: 1375907
Affiliate Film Number: C-13271
  Household Gender Age Birthplace
Valantine Ruthig M 59y Germany
Margret Ruthig F 50y  Germany
Henery S Ruthig M 19y Ontario
Louisa Ruthig F 17y Ontario
Anna C Ruthig F 15y Ontario
Helena C Ruthig F 13y Ontario
Hedwig K Ruthig F 10y Ontario
William H Ruthig M 7y Ontario

Margaret and Valentine had 12 children: Mary, John Henry, Elizabeth, Katherina, Josephine, Margaretha, Heinrich (Henery) Peter Valentine, Louisa, Anna Caroline, Helena Caroline, Hedwig Marie Katherine, and William Heinrich.

Margret died on Aug 12, 1889 in New Hamburg, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada at age 58, and was buried in Riverside Cemetery, New Hamburg, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada.

This is her death record, please note I have digitally removed other death records on the same page, retaining only that of Margaret.  No parent's names are recorded.

My wish list for Margret/Margaret, birth record (any record actually) showing her parent's names (would require more work to determine where in Germany she was born).  

A copy of her marriage record. 

1861 census information, which must be indexed/written so horribly that I will only find by a line by line search.  See new information found, hot off the presses, err, internet.  One small victory for Carol!

Look for copies of the 1871 and 1881 census reports in my queue of images and documents that are not linked, or procure same.  

Lutheran church records from Ontario.  Any newspaper articles, obituaries, marriage notices, anything would also be welcomed with happy dances and little yelps of joy.

And, of course, what researcher would not desire a photo of the ancestor?  So, my wish list would include a photo of Margret.

* Additional source data can be obtained by contacting me, see the right hand column for a yahoo email address.

** 52 Ancestors Weeks Button courtesy of Amy Johnson Crow.

*** I use many resources to research, FamilySearch.org is a free site.  Ancestry.com is a pay site for which I pay, no discounts, etc. The Library and Archives of Canada site is a free site.  None of these sites have asked me to review them, or use them.  See my Disclaimers page for further details.

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