Researching Johann Christian Hagner

The following article was written by my friend, Debbe Hagner:

Challenges in researching my great great grandfather – Johann Christian Hagner and Family
by Debbe Hagner AG

Thirty years ago, when I began researching my great-great-grandfather, Johann Christian Hagner, I had a copy of his military record dated 1866 from the King of Württemberg, Germany. It listed his full name as Johann Christian HAGNER von Neckargartach, Oberamt Heilbronn.

Since this was prior to computerized information, I located his name in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) database in the FamilySearch. I didn’t understand what the microfiche was telling me. So, I wrote a letter to Germany, and was fortunate enough to locate a man willing to help me. He found Johann Christian Hagner’s parent’s name as well as his siblings, but was unable to furnish the proof or documents. He did, however, furnish me with a copy of the Family Register, which was in German.

In 1987, I went to Salt Lake City to the Family History Library. My first stop was at the reference desk on the International floor, where I obtained information on where to begin my search. I found that there were films on Neckargartach containing baptismal, marriage and death information from 1627-1900 , written in German. Since I was unable to read German, the reference desk personnel assisted me on what to look for and would translate when I thought I found something. I began to become familiar with German words (Taufen for baptismal), (Heiraten for marriage), (Tote for death) and their record keeping system. The lady at the reference desk would point out different things on the film. I now had some proof of what the German man had sent me and I was able to get the Family Register translated.

I decided to utilize the time by taking home correspondence classes in genealogy from Brigham Young University (BYU). One of the classes was on German Research. I learned so much from that class, and I ordered my own copies of films from the local Family History Center here in New Port Richey, Florida. This allowed me to be able to go back over the film as often as I needed, enabling me to find many records. I was able to trace the HAGNER and back to Elias, born in 1661 in Neckargartach and married in 1684 to Apollonia SCHMIDT. While I was analyzing the films, I found an interesting thing; there were 3 generations of Johann Martin HAGNER. One of them had 21 children and was married 3 times, and I found two generations of Johann Christian HAGNER.

I struggled to find Elias Hagner’s parents’ name, but according to his marriage record, his father’s name was Christmann HAGNER and wife not mentioned. In my research of the Neckargartach I found that baptismal records started in 1627, marriage started in 1674 and death started in 1693. I was struck by the fact that they don’t always start recording at the same time. Sometime later, when I was working on another line in a town called Böckingen, I came across some HAGNERs! I immediately wondered if this was connected with my line of HAGNER or just a coincidence.

I located the connection to Elias Hagner’s marriage and his children. He had 10 children by the second wife. His first wife died two years after marriage. I needed to go back and find if any children had come from his marriage to his first wife. I was able to find Christmann’s parent’s name – Hans Hagner and Margaretha Vielhauer. The Böckingen records started in 1581! I needed to spend more time on that family. Sometimes you get so excited by a new fact that you tend to jump around!!!

I decided to go back and work on Johann Christian Hagner’s history in the United States. I had several questions:

1. When was he naturalized?
2. When did he come to America?
3. When and where did he marry Fredericka Bätzner?

From my research, I knew that Johann Christian Hagner was the SAME person as Christ or Christian Hagner in the United States. After finding her baptismal records, I found that Fredericka Bätzner was known as Luise (Louise) Fredericka in Germany. In Chicago, I located there a burned naturalization record for Christ Hagner which was filled out after the fire(1871), proving he was a American Citizen. There was no genealogical information as to when and where he arrived or what port he left from.

I had not received Christ Hagner’s son Gustav F. Hagner’s birth records. My research had shown that he was born in 1866 and was from Heilbronn. I had his marriage and death records. I found him in 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920 Federal Census in Chicago, Illinois. In one of the census records, I found him as August Hagner. Many times I had passed over that record thinking that it was not the right family. Finally, I took a closer look at the family units (or other family members).

I was unable to find out much about his brother, Fritz Hagner, who was born 1869. I found him in both of the 1880 and 1900 Federal Census. My father did not have any information on him. He found a sexton record or cemetery plot with a list of all the HAGNERs buried in Graceland cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. Fritz Hagner was mentioned on that list, showing that he died when he was 21 years old. I finally located his death certificate and found that he died of alcoholism.

I had no information on when Gustav and his brother Fritz Hagner came to the United States. I had been looking for Johann Christian, Christ or Christian and Fredericka Hagner and the children on the Ship Passenger lists for 20+ years without luck until around three years ago. One midnight, I decided to get creative on Ancestry.com. I typed Fred* and NO last name with the birth year. I knew that Christ or Christian and Fredericka were here before the Chicago Fire in October, 1871 because I had traced the family in the city directory and Christ Hagner was first mentioned in 1869.

To my shocking surprise, I found Fredericka Betzner, NOT a Hagner, with the correct birth year and also that she arrived before the fire and was with Fritz(he was listed under Betzner and not Hagner)….

At this point, I realized I now had even more questions: When did my great grandfather Gustav F. Hagner come to the United States? Why was his brother a Betzner? Where was Christ Hagner? I was told in German genealogy class that families did not always arrive together.

One spring while I was in Salt Lake City, I decided to look at the Heilbronn (knowing that it was a big city) and there were several films for that town. I looked at the Heilbronn baptismal records for Gustav Hagner, 1866, and Fritz Betzner or Hagner in 1869. When I got to 1866, I found a Gustav who was an illegitimate child (father denied) showed his name as Gustav Gottlieb Friedrich Bazner (which was very close to his mother’s maiden name). I was shocked and I had to double check with one of the German experts who helped me completely translate the entry. I immediately found Fritz Bätzner under Frederick Bätzner. So what about the HAGNER line where I traced it back to 1640 – does that make it all wrong and a waste of time? Not really because the Hagner line gets picked up again through another line. I needed to change the family group sheet and pedigree chart to reflect that… So now I began to wonder; when did Gustav become a Hagner? Is Johann Christian Hagner really his biological father? I now had more questions to solve. One thing always seems to lead to “a can of worms”.

Another midnight research (I frequently do my best work late at night), I was so determined to FIND my great-grandfather Gustav. I now knew he must have come over under the name Bätzner and not Hagner. In Ancestry, I put in Gust* Bat* and I indicated that he came to the United States between 1870 and 1880. I found that Gustav came with Fredricka’s mother, Catharina Bätzner in 1879. She was 69 year old when she boarded the ship. I jumped up and down for JOY!!! A name like Bätzner can be spelled several different ways: Baetzner (the ä is same as ae in United States), Bazner, Bezner and Betzner…

Johann Christian Hagner died at the age of 36, one year after Gustav arrived in Chicago, Illinois. He was a butcher. I found his name in the 1880 Illinois mortality schedule. Louise Fredericka Hagner died six years later at the age of 41 in Chicago, Illinois. Gustav and Fritz were raised by their grandmother, Catharine, who lived until 1907 and died at the age of 97 years old. I have a copy of her will which mentions her two grandchildren.

On another one of my midnight journeys about two years ago I decided to search the ship passenger list for Christ Hagner. I located one possibility: a Christ Hagen that matched the year of birth, his occupation as a butcher and indicated that he arrived before the Chicago Fire (1871)! He had come in 1868 so he could not be the father of Fritz. He left from LaHavre, but the departure records were destroyed. It was the only match I found that was close, but I am not completely satisfied yet. When I was studying about German Research, I found that most Germans had to get “Permission to Leave” the country. To this day, I have not found his “Permission to Leave” as there are a number of films to go through. I already eliminated several of the films. He was not listed in Wuerttemberg Emigration Index by Trudy Schenk. However, I talked with the author and she indicated that the Index is not complete. I just recently located a cousin in Germany on the Internet and asked him if he could help me locate Johann Christian Hagner’s “permission to leave”.

The cemetery records that I have in my possession show that Christ and Fredericka had three children born after the fire between 1872 and 1873:
1. Charles Hagner born 6 Jan 1872
2. Minnie Hagner born 25 Dec 1872
3. Pauline Hagner born 14 Sep 1873

It is sad to say that, according to the cemetery records, they all died on the same day of smallpox on 5 Oct 1873. They were originally buried in German Wunders Cemetery and moved to Graceland to be buried next to the parents. This must have been devastating for the parents to bury three children.

Chicago has Birth and Death Index records from 1871–1915. I have looked at them several times. I decided to look at the death records for the timeframe as they didn’t appear in the index. I discovered the childrens’ names were misspelled as HAYNER and they were listed under that spelling in the index. I had not thought to look for misspellings.

I attempted several times to look for Christ Hagner and Fredericka Bätzner’s marriage in Neckargartach, where he is from, and Heilbronn, where she is from. I even looked to see if they were married in Chicago. I have not yet found their marriage information. It is possibly that they never got married, but I doubt it. Or they may have been married in Indiana, Wisconsin, or New York or even outside of Cook County, Illinois. These areas will need to be explored.

One time I visited the Chicago Historical Society to see if I could find something about where they were living when the Chicago fire took place. According to the map I found, the fire stopped one block from their house! I was sorry to find that the staff was not as helpful as I had hope; they seem preoccupied. I even wrote out for several requests, but they went unanswered.

I found the Voter Registration for Gustav Hagner in 1888 and 1890, which indicates that he was naturalized(no year mentioned). I still have not found his citizenship papers. There were several court houses where he could have filed. One must look at every court house record, for example County, District, City, Supreme Court. I had to keep an open mind that it could be under Bätzner. I searched all records available at the Family History Library, but now I needed to check at the National Archive in Chicago. More and more records from the National Archive are being released to the public, so I have also been checking the internet.

One of the greatest resources is checking the German newspaper, called Illinois Staats Zeitiung that is available from the Family History Library. It covers from 1871-1900. The newspaper is written in German Gothic script. It is not too difficult to read once you learn what the letters are. I found Johann Christian and Fredericka Hagner’s death notice and I also found Fritz Hagner’s death notice in the Chicago German newspaper. It is interesting that each one of them says something different, which leads to more investigation.

So am I done yet after 30 years on this line? NO!

➢ I need to change Gustav F. Hagner (Bätzner) Family Group Sheet as I have Johann Christian Hagner as his father, which is not correct. Same for his brother Fritz.
➢ Try to find if there are any business records for the butcher shop
➢ Go back and look to see if I can find the three children’s obituaries
➢ Roll up my sleeve and try to find their marriage records again – expand the area of research
➢ Find out more about the military award that Johann Christian Hagner received — I believe it was called the Prussia-Austria War.
➢ Look for Gustav’s naturalization
➢ Need to see if Gustav F. Hagner and Johann Christian Hagner left a will
➢ Need to find Gustav F. Hagner’s obituary
➢ Check to see if I can find Johann Christian Hagner in the 1870 Federal Census – I did find a Charles Hagner, is that him?

Moral of the story
1. Get documents –birth, marriage, death on each person and each generation
2. Don’t skip a generation – as it could lead you down the wrong path or line
3. Know your history of the area you are researching
4. Keep working on reading German documents – it is easy to forget so keep on practicing it. Keep on practicing transcribing the various German handwritings.
5. Review all documents and see if it makes sense and fits logically or overlook anything
6. Keep on learning from books, on internet, take classes and attend conferences
7. Be creative and check unusual places and documents, such as land records, wils, etc.
8. Be creative on spelling of the names — spelling it out phonetically
9. Know German and English translation of names
10. Don’t give up!
11. Don’t be afraid to ask questions
12. Record the result of your research.
13. You can always hire a German researcher or find a researcher in Germany.

Endnotes:

• Neckargartach Evangelische Kirche (Neckargartach, Wuerttemberg, Germany), Taufen [Baptismal], Archive Stuttgart, LDS film 1860414-1860416.
• Böckingen Evangelische Kirche (Böckingen, Wuerttemberg, Germany), Taufen [Baptismal], Archive Stuttgart, LDS film 816315.
• http://www.chicagohs.org/history/fire.html
• Chicago City Directory,1869/70 Edwards’ annual directory… by Richard Edwards, LDS film 1376662.
• Heilbronn Evangelische Kirche (Heilbronn, Wuerttemberg, Germany), Taufen [Baptismal], 1866 & 1869, Archive Stuttgart, LDS film 1055552 & 1055558.
• 1880 United States Census, Chicago, Cook Co., Illinois, Mortality Schedule, p. 67.
• Cook Co., Illinois Birth Index, LDS microfiche 6016532 Fiche 27.
• Cook Co., Illinois Death Index, LDS microfiche 6016533 Fiche 23.
• Chicago, Illinois, Voting Registration (1888 & 1890): XX
• Illinois Illinois Staats—Zeitung, Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago, Joseph Regenstein Library