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- Gurney Surname
Entries: 4720 Updated: 2004-06-27 23:23:02 UTC (Sun) Contact: Karen Gurney khguerney@yahoo.com
BIOGRAPHY: http://www.itcs.uiuc.edu/users/beaumont/HTMfiles/EHRSTEIN.HTM
Michael Ehrstein was a farmer.
The Messenger carried his obituary: After a requiem High Mass, for the repose of his soul, the body of Michael Ehrstein was laid to rest in Grand Chain (Pulaski County, Illinois) Monday, November 8, 1920. The deceased was afflicted by paralysis in December of 1918, while at the home of his eldest son Michael, and for two years and eleven months he was a helpless invalid at the Sisters Hospital of the Holy Cross in Cairo, Illinois. He succumbed to a third stroke shortly after midnight Friday November 5, 1920. The son of Anton and Christina Ehrstein, he was born on November 9, 1851 in Rochester, New York in Monroe County. His wife preceded him to the grave in 1904. At his funeral were his two surviving brothers and his children. The funeral was largely attended -- a real tribute to the old timer. Non-Catholics alone filled the church, while St. Catherine's people stood in the aisles and on the steps.
Three sources, Michael's wedding license, death certificate, and Messenger obituary, list his birthplace as Rochester, New York. I believe this is accurate. However, there is no proof from birth records in Rochester and there is considerable uncertainty over Michael Ehrstein's exact birth date. According to his death certificate he was born January 6, 1849. However, if Christina's birth date (June 17, 1848) is correct, it would be impossible for Michael's birth date to be January 6, 1849 -- just seven months later. Also, if the passenger list is correct, the Ehrsteins entered the United States August 1, 1851, and Michael was not listed there.
Michael's obituary in the Messenger reported his birth date as November 9. However, Michael's family would certainly have remembered the day he celebrated his birth, and that was reported as January 6 by Michael's eldest son, Michael, on his death certificate.
St. Catherine's in Grand Chain reported that Michael died at age 69 years, 9 months and 29 days and that his birth date was January 6, 1851. Again, if the passenger list is correct, the Ehrsteins entered the United States August 1, 1851, and Michael was not listed among the passengers, so I believe the January 6, 1851 date is wrong.
The 1860 and 1880 U.S. Census for St. Clair County, Illinois, taken during the month of June, listed Michael as 8 and 28 years old, respectively. Michael's mother, Christina, was alive for the 1860 Census and she would have certainly remembered the year of his birth. Also, Michael's marriage certificate from St. Clair County reported his age as 26 in June 1878. These three sources, together, suggest a birth date between August 1, 1851 (Ehrsteins' arrival in the United States) and June 4, 1852. And practically, this narrows his birth date between August 1, 1851 and January 6, 1852, the date on his death certificate.
If Michael was born in January of 1852, he would have been conceived in April, 1851. Christina would have been pregnant with him just prior to leaving Germany and three months pregnant on the voyage across the Atlantic. No doubt, she would have been miserable on a sailing ship crossing the ocean. These voyages were difficult enough for the healthiest of passengers, but they would have been extremely difficult for a pregnant woman. Furthermore, in 1851, the journey from New York to Illinois would have required traveling by boat on the Hudson River, the Great Lakes, and then the Illinois River. Maybe once they reached Rochester, New York, they decided to stay there until Michael was born, or perhaps he was actually born on the trip to Belleville somewhere near Rochester on Lake Erie, accounting for the family story that "he couldn't wait to get to Illinois so he was born on the voyage," according to Irma Huber, nee Plogmann.
Michael married Mary Stoeckel in Belleville on June 4, 1878. She was born on December 8, 1858 and she died December 25, 1904 in Grand Chain, Illinois according to Clayton Ehrstein who lived in Grand Chain. There does not seem to be a death certificate in either Pulaski or Alexander Counties. The death was not reported in the Cairo Citizen or the Pulaski Enterprise, either. But she is buried beside Michael, her husband, in Grand Chain's Masonic Cemetery.
These Ehrstein children were born in the Belleville, Illinois area, not in Grand Chain. However, no birth certificates exist in St. Clair County. They moved to Grand Chain, Illinois between Frederich Anton's death in Belleville on August 20, 1886 and Katie's death in Grand Chain on September 10, 1898. Anton Ehrstein died March 31, 1887 leaving Michael a farm. Michael never seems to have lived on the farm he inherited. Instead, he probably sold it to finance his move to Grand Chain were he purchased land. Clayton Ehrstein reported that several families from Belleville moved to Grand Chain around this time.
St. Peter and Paul's Church, 720 Main Street West, Rochester, New York, found Michael's baptismal record. It says he was born January 6, 1852 and that the baptism was witnessed by Michael Wegmann and Clara Metzger.
OBITUARY: EHRSTEIN, Michael 69y. Mary STOECKEL Nov. 12, 1920, p. 1
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1852 - 1920 (68 years)
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