A Gerhard Mayer Discovery

My mother's maternal grandfather, Gerhard Mayer, was born somewhere in Germany on June 1, 1864 and immigrated to the United States aboard the Noorland on May 11, 1892 at the age of 28. He married Margaret Dahm on February 12, 1896. Gerhard was a grocer by trade and ran a small store in Chicago. My grandfather, Al Loebach, worked for Mr. Mayer in his grocery store. There he met their daughter Clara. Al and Clara married, and my mother followed not long after.

Gerhard Mayer's naturalization record is dated September 19, 1914 and states that he was born in Germany on June 1, 1864, and that he immigrated in May of 1892. The ship's manifest for the Noorland, which arrived in New York Harbor on May 11, 1892, lists him as Gerhard Maier, age 28, laborer, carrying one piece of baggage. His naturalization record shows that he had a brother named John Mayer who also lived in Chicago in 1914. The first census in which Gerhard took part occurred in 1900 and listed his occupation as a molder of iron; by 1910, he was listed as a grocery store prospector. His death certificate, dated February 8, 1949 also lists his birth as June 1, 1864 in Vittledorf, Germany. The informant was his son John A. Mayer. My mother, his granddaughter, had hand written notes stating that he was born on the same date, but in Schoenecker, Germany.

Recently however, I made a couple interesting discoveries. I found posted on Ancestry.com a scanned copy Gerhard and Margaret's marriage register taken from page 35 of the marriage book for St. Peter's Church, which is located in Niles Center, Illinois (written in Latin) which names his parents as Joannis Mayer and Catharinae Reicherts. The record also lists Margaret Dahm's parents as Johannis Dahm and Catharinae Wagner. Both of Margaret's parents were known from other records, however, Gerhard's parents are a new discovery. All four parents names can be seen clearly in the second entry below.

I also found the 1920 census record of John Mayer, Gerhard's brother. I am sure it is the correct record, because the address listed matches that found on Gerhard's naturalization record for John Mayer. Using this I was able to determine that John's wife was named Susan, that he immigrated in 1883 and that he was born about 1859. This led me to his 1900 census record which lists his birth date as June of 1858. Next, I was able to find an abstract of his death certificate which lists his birth as June 16, 1857 [probably 1858]. The record also names his father as John and his father's birthplace as Burbach, Germany. The record also lists his mother's name as Catherine and her place of birth as Nettledorf, Germany. Lastly, I also found on Ancestry.com a scanned copy of the St. Alphonsus Church baptism record for Gerhard and Margaret's son Ernest Gerhard Mayer, dated, June 17, 1906 (also written in Latin) that lists Gerhard Mayer's birth place as Wetteldorf, Germany. Neither Vitteldorf, Germany or Nettledorf, Germany appear to be valid names as a Google search comes up blank. It would appear that these are misspellings of Wetteldorf. I was not surprised then when I found that Wetteldorf, Germany is located near Burbach, Germany.

With these new records, we now have the names and places of birth for Gerhard's parents. Further research will be needed to determine their birth dates.