My 3-2-1 Ragu Challenge

My issue was figuring out who the challenge should revolve around. I've been rebuilding my Family Tree and this week I am working on my Popkin-Opferkuch line. The birth of Anne Eva, my great-great-grandmother, seemed perfect. However, I am using 4 sources among the many I have for her.

Anne did not have a birth record. The only record with her actual birth date is her baptismal record so I will start with that. 

St. Paul's (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), Ontario, Roman Catholic Church Records, 1760-1923, "Baptismal Register," Annie Opferkich; digital images, image 117 of 180, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family Search (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 10 Nov 2013). Cit. Date: 25 Apr 2014.  

 

Most of the children of Joseph Opferkuch and Eva Rosina Kohler were baptized at St. Paul's Catholic Church, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The baptismal records were indexed so at first I thought it may be easy to find who I was looking for. I quickly realized the error in my thinking. Joseph and Eva were German immigrants and having children baptized in a mostly Irish and Scottish church. Due to the fact that the priest normally had a last name like Kelly I believe there were language barriers causing the variations in the surname. Annie's was fairly close but another of her siblings was actually written as Applecoke. Through browsing the images page by page looking for children with parents born in Germany I was able to locate records for all but their oldest child.

Next is the 1881 Canada Census.

1891 census of Canada, Toronto, Ontario, district 119, sub-district 2 St. Thomas Ward, Toronto, p. 88-89, family 389; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com(http://home.ancestry.com/). 

 The reason I am adding this to the sources is that it verifies that Anne, the daughter of Joseph and Eva (Rosina) Opferkuch, was born about 1874 and alive in 1891. She emigrated to New York between 1891 and 1896. Her sister Louisa had emigrated to N.Y. before 1891 so Anne could have gone to live with her.

New York, New York, (City of New York, Department of Health, ), marriage certificate no. 14353 (1896), Louis Popkin-Anna Opferkuch; FHL microfilm 1,493,576. 

Third is her 1896 marriage to Louis Harold Popkin. She was 19 at the time, giving her a birth year of 1877. I believe the difference in her age could be as simple as she didn't want to admit she was 2 years older than her husband. The place and parents are a match to her baptismal record and the census. Even though the 1881 census gives her birth year I still went through the church registers to see if the 1874 Annie died and Joseph and Eva had another one in 1877 named Anne. There were no other children listed for them.

The last record I am going to cite is her death record.

Queens, New York, (City of New York, Department of Health, ), death certificate no. 3177 (1937), Anna Popkin; FHL microfilm 2,184,786. 

The informant is her daughter Ruth (my great-grandmother). Her age at death is 57 which puts her birth year as 1880. See explanation above for possible cause of age difference. The father's name is correct and the mother's maiden name is close enough to see it was Eva Kohler.

Given all documents, including records not given here, I am fairly certain of the birth information for Anne Eva Opferkuch.