| Back to Main Page |
THE FUCHS/FOX FAMILIES |
 Email Me |
| Back to Main Page |
THE FUCHS/FOX FAMILIES |
Email Me |
 |
The following information was obtained from the church records
(Kirchenbuch) of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church, Oberneissen
Parish, Germany; from cousin,
Dieter Weigang of Oberneissen, Germany, a Fuchs descendent;
from the Ahnentafel
(ancestor registry) of Dieter's mother, Erna Fuchs; and various
cousins here in the States. The Fuchs family lived in Netzbach, Hessen-Nassau, Germany, about 35-40 miles northwest of Frankfurt. This is within a few miles of Niederneissen where the Birlenbach family lived and Burgschwalbach where the Ohlemacher and Schoenborn families lived. However, there are no Fuchs records prior to the marriage of Johann Jost and Anna Maria Bieberichin (1788) so it is likely that he moved to Netzbach from somewhere else at that time. Click to see a drawing of the Fuchs' Family Home. Direct ancestors of the author are shown in bold type below. |
| I. Johann Jost Fuchs (abt.
1760) and Anna
Maria Bieberichin (1760 - ????) the author's g-g-g-g-grandparents. Anna Maria is the daughter of Johann Friederich Bieberich. (Bieberichin is the feminine form of the name.) They had six documented children: Anna Maria Fuchs (1788 - 1832) married Andreas Birlenbach Johann Wilhelm Fuchs (1790 - 1935) married Anna Margaretha Birlenbach (see below) Johannes Fuchs (1791 - ) Johann Heinrich Fuchs (1793 - 1785) Maria Magdalena Fuchs (1795 - 1852) was unmarried and had one child: Anna Maria Magdalena Fuchs (1819 - ) Johann Ludwig Fuchs (1797 - 1879) married Maria Magdalena Kaempfer (or Kaempler). Johann Ludwig's birth record lists his father as Johann Georg Fuchs with the same mother. However, his marriage record lists his father as Johann Jost Fuchs. Is it possible that Johann Georg was the brother of Johann Jost and married his widowed sister-in-law prior to the child's birth but that Johann Jost is the biological father? |
|
II.
Johann
Wilhelm Fuchs, 1790 - 1835 and Anna Margaretha
Birlenbach, 1793 - 1862 |
|
III.
Andreas
Fuchs, 1830 -
1888 and Anna Catharina Ohlemacher, 1835 - 1889
Christiana Philippina Fuchs (1860) died at age 6
months |
|
IV. Georg Philipp Friedrich Fuchs, 1861 - 1930 and Anna Margaretha Schoenborn, 1863 - 1933 A.k.a. Fred G. Fuchs (the author’s great grandfather). He was apprenticed in Germany and became a bootmaker at the age of 16. See Fred's Birth Certificate and his Graduation Report. At the age of 17 he departed Germany aboard the ship Lessing. I doubt if Fred was traveling alone although there were no other family members listed on the passenger list. There were, however, several other single young men listed after him, ages 16-28, who could have been friends traveling together. Nevertheless, a trip to America was a very brave adventure for an 17 year old boy. He arrived at the port of New York on May 7, 1879 and came to Bremer County, Iowa. In the 1915 Iowa State Census, Fred stated that he had been in the country for 36 years and in Iowa for 34 so he must have spent a couple of years traveling and looking for a place to settle down. It is curious why Fred didn't settle in the Springfield, Illinois area with his cousins. Perhaps he knew that his future wife was coming to Bremer County a couple of years later. |
 Anna Margaretha Schoenborn and Fred G. Fuchs |
In 1883 he married Anna Margaretha (a.k.a. Margaret) Schoenborn, the daughter of Johann Jacob Schoenborn and Maria Elizabeth Demareé, in Plainfield, Bremer County. She was from Burgschwalbach, Hessen-Nassau, Germany, also the home of Fred's mother. Perhaps he even knew her in the old country. They and their son Arthur appear in the 1885 Iowa State Census as living in Sumner, Bremer County. Fred opened a bootmaking business in Sumner, Bremer County, and lived there for 2 years. He then purchased a shoe store in Waverly, Bremer County, and in 1895 he moved to Waterloo, Black Hawk County, Iowa where he worked for a couple of shoe stores before opening his own in 1895. The Fox shoe store remained in the family until it closed in 1989. They appear in the 1900, 1910, and 1920 censuses. Interestingly, in the 1930 census Fred and Margaret were enumerated at the homes of two of their sons, Oscar and Ralph, whom they were visiting in California. Another son, Arthur, also lived inCalifornia. While there, he |
|
|
contracted the flu which caused paralysis of the throat and likely contributed to his death three months later after his return to Iowa. In 1920 Fred was still using the surname Fuchs, but at some point his sons convinced him to change it to Fox (English for Fuchs) because of the similarity of Fuchs to a particular epithet. Another family source states that the name change was because it was easier to spell and pronounce in English. The Illinois branch of the family retained the original spelling. Fred and Margaret had eight children. several of whom later relocated to California. Arthur
Frederick Fox (1883 - 1953) married Edith Marie Christofferson and had three
children: In the 1915 Iowa State Census, Fred stated his income for the year as $1000 and that he owed $2500 on a home worth $6500. In 1909 Fred took a trip home to Germany to visit his family. He traveled on a brand new steamship, the S.S. Cincinnati. He returned 10 days later so he couldn’t have seen his family for very long . The picture of Fred and his siblings was taken during that trip. Fred was a member of the Board of Trustees of the First Evangelical Lutheran Church, and a member and treasurer of the IOOF (International Order of Odd Fellows). He became a naturalized citizen in 1884.
|
||