Entry #46

In entry #45, I alluded to a bombshell discovered within the marriage certificate of my great grandfather, Emil Heirich Max Lindner. I was expecting to see Christiane Charlotte Püschel listed as my great grandfather’s mother; but, she was not. Here is the top half of the marriage record with the translation below:

The stone mason Emil Heinrich Max Lindner, Lutheran, born 8 February 1858, residing in Dresden, Dürersterstr. 36e. Son of Friederike Emilie Hachnert, residing in Grossenhain, now married Koekel, and of the carpenter Emil Heinrich Max Lindner, residing in Dresden.

What?!!! Who was Friederike Emilie Hachnert  (Hänert)?  I had never heard this name before. I was pretty sure that I was always told my two times great grandmother was Charlotte Püschel. Did I misunderstand somewhere along the way? I went back to my sources. In a previous post, I also talked about being descended from Martin Luther, the Reformer. First, I checked the Luther Familienblätter for July 1936. This is a bulletin that ran Luther family news and updated his family tree as submissions were accepted from descendents with a proven heritage. I am reproducing the portion that pertains to this particular generation of my family:

I believe this information came from Uncle Gus, my great grandfather’s brother. It distinctly states that Max Lindner and Charlotte Püschel had the following children:

1. Emil Max Heinrich
2. Heinrich August Gustav
3. Clara Pauline Minna

There is no mention of Friederike Emilie Haehnert.

My next source was my aunt. She is very sharp for her 93 years. I phoned her and asked her point blank if she knew who Grandpa’s grandmother had been. She said her name was Püschel We talked about how her dad, my grandfather, Otto Lindner came to the United States in 1912 after his grandfather died to be with his grandmother in Cincinnati. He lived with her for a while.

Charlotte Püschel

Except, Otto’s grandmother was not his grandmother. The marriage document tells us otherwise.

Finally, I searched for the photo of Charlotte Püschel. I have just one. I wanted to see how it was identified. As I remembered, it says, Uncle Gus’ mother, Grandma Lindner, R.O. Lindner’s grandmother, died 1913; Grave at Vine Street Hill Cemetery. There can be no doubt that Otto was saying that this is Charlotte Püschel and his grandmother. Also, I distinctly remember him telling me that she was.

So, I think I stumbled across a secret that was more than a century and a half old. Max and Gus had different mothers and were half-brothers. Obviously, Max knew this. The marriage record says that a birth certificate was provided. There are so many questions, though. Did Gus and Minna know, or was it kept from them. Who gave the information in the Familienblätter. I always thought that it had come from Gus, but perhaps it came from his father. Or maybe Gus knew the truth, but it may have been a shameful secret. This makes me wonder about the relationship between Friederike Emilie Haehnert and Emil Max Heinrich Lindner. Was it a conjugal one, were they divorced, or perhaps they were never married. Clearly, on 7 May 1887, at the time that my grandfather’s parents married, both of Max’s parents were living in different places (Grossenhain and Dresden) and married to different people.

There are serious ramifications to this discovery. I have a boxful of photos and postcards from Buchholz, Chemnitz, Charlotte Püschel’s home. I have not been able to read much of them because the script is so difficult. I have a well-researched branch on my tree for Charlotte. None of these people are related to me!

Will I ever be able to find out anything about Otto’s real grandmother? Did my great, great grandfather’s christening certificate survive the air raids in Dresden? Trying to find the truth will be my next genealogy adventure.