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grandson, Frank A. Riehlmann. Mr. Frank Seitz, whom we mentioned earlier, had a couple of photos of her, and we have made copies of them for our records.
We found her marriage record to George Riehlmann at the Jackson Avenue Evangelical Congregation (Lutheran Church) located at the corner of Jackson Avenue and Chippewa Street, in New Orleans, LA. It was written in old German script and parts are difficult to read. It says they married there on December 4, 1859, and George was age 23 while “Maria Anna Flennicko” was age 18. Witnesses were “M. Lobe, Ambrose Fritz,” and a third person whose name is unclear. Their places of birth are listed, but poorly written. An older German priest in Bay St. Louis studied the record and determined that George was from Oberweiler im Tal, Germany, and Maria Anna was form Bellheim, Germany. Bellheim is a small village located in the region of Rheinland-Palatinate (old Bavaria/Bayern), Germany. The marriage record states that George Riehlmann’s occupation was “Leichenbestatter” which translates to undertaker or mortician. This fits with the 1860 and 1861 city directories of New Orleans that show “G. and Leitz A. Riehlman, undertakers.” The current owners of this old Funeral Home in New Orleans now call it “Leitz-Egan.”
This same Lutheran church on Jackson Avenue also has the baptism records for several of George and Maria’s children that will be covered soon. These baptismal records also give the parents place of birth which also fits in with the above marriage record. The civil marriage record and application to marry are also found in the New Orleans public records. Of interest on the civil marriage application, Christian Sellmann signs and states that he is the “Uncle and guardian” to “Mary Ann Henniko,” and gives her “his consent to marry.”
Mary came to this country at age 16, and most likely had some relative to meet her upon arrival in New Orleans. We know it was not her parents, for they both died in Germany. The most likely person was her “Uncle,” Christian Sellmann that signed for her to get married in 1859. He married Mary Walter and started having children in New Orleans in 1848. We later find his wife as a widow in the 1880 Chicago, Illinois census with her children. She is listed as a native of Prussia (this included Germany at that time) and was 55 years old (1825). Christian and his wife are most likely the ones who met her upon arrival in New Orleans. Anna Maria Henecko’s mother was Maria “Margaretha” Walter, bom in 1835. It is our guess that the above Mary Walter and Margaretha Walter were sisters, which would make Christian Sellmann her uncle.
We will now go into the siblings and ancestors of our Anna Maria Henecko.
We now know that Anna Maria Henecko was bom on March 11, 1841 in Bellheim, Germany and baptized the next day at St. Nikolaus Catholic Church that also houses many of our Henecko family records. Bellheim is a town with approximately 9,000 people in the district of Germersheim, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate (old Bavaria), Germany. Its history goes back to 1090. In 1983, we made contact with the local parish priest who researched this family and sent us his findings. This along with some of our own research, we present the following:
Anna Maria Henecko was the daughter of Georg Adam Henecko and Maria “Margaretha” Walter. Georg Adam Henecko was bom on September 4, 1812 in Bellheim and died there on May 5, 1891. He married Maria “Margaretha” Walter in
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