I have a number of women I’d call strong women in my genealogy. I’m picking one not at random, but also understanding that there are other strong women in my tree too.
Today, I’m focusing on my 3x great-grandmother: Anna (Dexler) Hagerl. She’s actually one of the women in my website’s header:
She’s sitting in the front row, 2nd from right. Her husband, Frank Hagerl, is in the front row 3rd from the right. Surrounding them are all of their children (my 2nd great-grandmother is in the back row, 3rd from the right).
Anna was born in Germany, likely Bavaria, on 23 Nov 1849. ((Michigan, “Death Records, 1921-1947,” database and images, Library of Michigan (http://seekingmichigan.org : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Anna Hagerl, 20 Feb 1932, state office no. 73 4155, Michigan Department of Community Health.)) Her mother was also an Anna – Anna (Stockner) Dexler, but I’m not sure who her father was just yet. ((Michigan, “Death Records, 1897-1920,” database and images, Library of Michigan (http://seekingmichigan.org : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Anna Dexler, 18 Jan 1901, registered no. 21, Michigan Department of Community Health.))
She met and married Frank Hagerl sometime in Bavaria and before the birth of their first son, Andrew, in 1872. Then came Mike in 1875, Anna in 1876, Frances in 1878, Joe in 1880, and Margaret in 1886. ((1900 U.S. Census, Saginaw County, Michigan, population schedule, James Township, ED 37, sheet 1, page 237 A (stamped), dwelling 4, family 4, Frank Hagerl household; image Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 March 2018); citing NARA microfilm T623.)) Whew!
I’m still not sure what drew them out of Bavaria. Where they ended up in Michigan had a large Bavarian population, so it’s likely they had friends and neighbors who helped pull them to the area.
Either way, it is likely that Frank left first. He’s not on the passenger list with Anna and the children, so it’s very likely. On 25 September 1889, Anna arrived with her children in tow in Baltimore, Maryland. The record shows that:
- Anna Hagerl, 40, female, wife – from Germany and Baltimore was her destination.
- Andreas – 14, male [he would have been closer to 17]
- Michael – 11, male [he would have been closer to 14]
- Anna – 11, female [she would have been closer to 13]
- Frances – 10, female [she would have been closer to 12]
- Josef – 8, male
- Marget – 3, female
Anna and her family were in steerage, which was a likely crowded and without much fresh air. Steerage has never been shown to be a fun nor easy way to travel. But it was cheaper and with a large family, it was likely their only option.
The family had 3 pieces of luggage total. Here you are, completely removed from not only your family and friends, but your entire country, language, and customs and thrown into a new world. Voluntarily, of course, but that had to be a large shock. They left everything behind that didn’t fit into three pieces of luggage. ((“Baltimore Passenger Lists, 1820-1948,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Anna Hagerl, aboard Main, Breman to Baltimore.))
Can you imagine what that must have been like? Six children with you? The youngest only three? Grant it there were older children to help take care of the others, but what a journey!
Thanks to the 1900 census, I do that Anna’s mother made the journey around the same time as she did. I have yet to find her passenger list! And I know that two more children came after she arrived – John and Thresa. She was 41 and 43 when she had those last two!
Besides making that journey, leaving behind everything she had ever known and coming to a new country, she faced more tragedies after she arrived. Out of four of her daughters, she lived to see three of them buried.
Her oldest daughter, Anna, died in 1914 from shock following a tonsillectomy. ((Michigan, “Death Records, 1897-1920,” database and images, Library of Michigan (http://seekingmichigan.org : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Anna Breidenbach, 28 July 1914, registered no. 468, Michigan Department of Community Health.))
Six years later, her daughter Margaret (my 2nd great-grandmother) died of puerperal septicemia, which was common after childbirth.((Michigan, “Death Records, 1897-1920,” database and images, Library of Michigan (http://seekingmichigan.org : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Margaret Ann Almy, 26 July 1919, registered no. 545, Michigan Department of Community Health.)) There was no child mentioned though (no death certificate either), so perhaps she had gone into labor much too early. Although my great-grandmother did talk about her siblings and family often, there wasn’t any mention of what happened here.
Lastly, Francis died in a horrible accident in 1921. She had been run over by an car and killed. The cause of death on her death certificate states: “every bone in [the] upper part of her body was broken.” ((Michigan, “Death Records, 1921-1947,” database and images, Library of Michigan (http://seekingmichigan.org : accessed 15 March 2018), entry for Frances ryder, 28 Nov 1921, registered no. 807, Michigan Department of Community Health.))
Anna, however, lived to be 82 and died in 1932, in her adopted country and home in Saginaw, Michigan.
The things this woman had seen and been through make her my spotlight for strong women. Although I’m sure to her it was just what you did in life: carried on, kept going, stayed strong, etc. I also got the impression that they were a large and loving family through the stories from my great-grandmother. That, to me, shows a lot more of her strength of character than these records can really do justice.
Besides being on my website as they are, my great-grandmother always made these amazing lebkuchen cookies every Christmas that I know have a suspicion may have been her mother’s recipe and could have even come from Anna. I have to see if I can track that down…
