Happy Birthday, Christina [Orth] Herr - November 17th 1876

Last Tuesday, November 17th, would have been my great, great grandmother's 139th birthday. She was the mother of Lydia Herr, grandmother to Annette Roehm and great grandmother to my mother, Carole Connors.

George Orth and Maria Delger Orth, Christina's parents

Christina Orth was born November 17th 1876, in Odessa, Ukraine. At the time she was born, it was considered a part of Russia. The Orth family has been hard to find a paper trail on. What is interesting is Christina is not even listed on the passenger list to New York from Hamburg that the rest of her family is on. At this point, it is unknown if she left before or after them to America, but either way, she got here! I will need to review a few census records and her death record to see what it states as how long she'd been in America.

There is little known of Christina's childhood in the Ukraine. Her parents were also German's from Russia, so they did not have any Russian in their ethnicity despite being born in that country.

There is a rumor (unconfirmed) that Christina met her future husband, Jacob Herr Jr, at the Chicago World's Fair (aka World's Columbian Exhibition)  in 1893. If this were true, it would seem to make sense, as they were married and had their first child by 1896 and this would have given them enough time to meet one another and have a formal courtship, although both were very young. Even if this is not how they met, it is a little romantic to think that's how it happened!

The photo below is the youngest photo we have of both Jacob and Christina Herr from about 1896-1897, holding their first born, Lydia Herr (my great grandmother). Christina's clothing is very practical. It's a dress, but it's hard to place of what time frame. It is embellished with lace at the top and a brooch in the center of the neck. She is also wearing earrings. She has an interesting looking belt across her dress which is hard to make out why she has it, but it could be for maybe an expanding belly and she could have been pregnant with her next child when this photo was taken.

Jacob Jr. once asked Christina if she'd like to go back home to visit family in Russia by boat, and she said "No". The ship she was on when coming to America (around the age of 13) made her so sick because it rocked back and forth so much, she said. They had to be at the bottom of the ship, in the steerage area.

Christina and Jacob would continue to have 12 more children, until the last one was born in 1921. Seen below, Christina is holding her first granddaughter Doris (Lydia's first born), with her own two younger sons Soloman and Orville Herr in 1916. In this photo, her hair appears to be a light brown. Her clothing had style looks different in this photo and is more befitting of the Edwardian era. It looks like she is wearing a cameo on her neck and that there may be some lace on the neck line of her dress. In this picture, she would have been 40 years old.

This photo is of Christina [Orth] Herr holding her grand-daughter Doris Roehm, circa 1917, However, part of me thinks this photo was taken in the 1920's. She looks older in this picture than the one above. She may actually be holding Lydia's other daughter, Joyce, who would have been about this age in 1920.

Here is another photo of Christina holding her grand-daughter and her grandson is to the right. That may be Alwin Roehm to her right and she may possibly be holding my Grandma Annette, circa 1930-31. Her younger sons would be sitting on top of the car.

Donald Babitzke, Alwin Roehm, Douglas Babitzke, Doris Roehm, Christina [Orth] Herr, Sophie Babitkze, Louise Babitzke, Annette Roehm (dark hair), Izetta Roehm, Hank Wolf and Yvonne Babitzke, circa 1936-37, on the North Dakota Prairie.

Lydia [Herr] Roehm, mother Christina [Orth] Herr, Joyce [Roehm] Wolf, with her daughter Doris Jean Wolf, circa 1938-39 - Wishek, North Dakota.

Izetta Roehm [Purviance], Sophie [Herr] Babitzke, Christina [Orth] Herr and Christ Babitzke in Wishek, where the Babitzkes lived.

Lydia [Herr Roehm] Murphy with her mother, Christina [Orth] Herr, inside Sophie and Christ Babitzke's home in Wishek, ND, circa 1959-60.

One of Christina's last photographs, circa 1961-63, in Wishek, ND.

Christina died on October 1st, 1966, just a little over a month shy of turning 90. Before she died, she lived with her youngest daughter, Sophie Babitzke. 

Christina, I hope you had a wonderful birthday! 

Surname Saturday - Are the Roehm's from Ancient Rome?

One of my closer family surname's is that of Roehm. It's my grandmother's maiden name. It is likely not pronounced as "Rome," but that is often the pronunciation we hear. I believe is should be pronounced as "Rahm" 

There are many variations on how it's spelled, as well: 

Rohm

Rehm

Roehm

Romer,

Rohmer

Roehmer

Roemer,

von Roemer

von Romer

Romayer

Raumayer

Raumair

Raum

Roem

The meaning, per Ancestry.com - 

Rohm Name Meaning

From the Germanic personal name Ruom (Old High German hruom ‘fame’), a short form of Ruombald and similar personal names containing this element.(Röhm): see Roehm.

Another website (http://www.pronouncenames.com/pronounce/roehm) allows you to see how it is pronounced:

r OH m

And they also give the meaning behind it:

Fame

Wow, that's a lofty meaning behind a name. 

Others battle out on message boards whether Roehm really does have any ancient Roman ties to it, since the name is so similar in spelling and in pronunciation? 

4crests.com seems to go with the idea that Roehms, and all of their variations, were truly once Romans. They also give a fairly elaborate account of the name which is mostly unseen elsewhere on the internet:

This surname ROHM is of German origin, a regional or ethic name for a Roman, or more generally for an Italian. The name was originally rendered in the Latin form of ROMAEUS. It was also a nickname for a pilgrim, and the name came to mean this because it was originally applied to travellers from the Western (Roman) Empire who had to pass through The Byzantine Empire on their way to the Holy Land. Later the name was used of pilgrims to Rome and to Santiago de Compostella. The name is also spelt ROMERO, ROMEO, ROMEI, ROHMER, ROMER, ROOMER and RUMMER. Surnames having a derivation from nicknames form the broadest and most miscellaneous class of surnames, encompassing many different types of origin. The most typical classes refer adjectivally to the general physical aspect of the person concerned, or to his character. Many nicknames refer to a man's size or height, while others make reference to a favoured article of clothing or style of dress. Many surnames derived from the names of animals and birds. In the Middle Ages ideas were held about the characters of other living creatures, based on observation, and these associations were reflected and reinforced by large bodies of folk tales featuring animals behaving as humans. Surnames which were derived from ancient Germanic personal names have the same meaning in many languages. The court of Charlemagne (Charles the Great, king of the Franks (742-814) was Christian and Latin speaking). The vernacular was the Frankish dialect of Old High German, and the personal names in use were Germanic and vernacular. These names were adopted in many parts of northwest Europe, particularly among the noble ruling classes. Hereditary surnames were found in Germany in the second half of the 12th century - a little later than in England and France. It was about the 16th century that they became stabilized. An infamous member of the name was Ernst ROHM (also spelled ROEHM) (1887-1934) the Nazi leader, born in Munich, Germany. He became an early supporter of Hitler, and the organizer and commander of the stormtroopers (Brownshirts and Blackshirts). He became state commissar of Bavaria, but in 1934 his plans to increase the power of this force led to his execution on Hitler's orders

This is by far the most interesting account of the name ROEHM. 

It's hard to say what is right without some deeper research. 

For now, I would like to say I have a little Italian in me *haha*

Surnames - Orth

On my mother's maternal side, the name, Orth, belongs to my great, great grandmother, Christina Orth Herr. 

The name is peculiar - it doesn't seem to fit any one kind of ethnicity - which made me wonder its origins. 

In it's most basic definition, Orth stands for the following: 

North German: variant spelling of Ort 3.German and French: from a short form of a compound personal name formed with ort ‘point (of a weapon)’, as the first element (source: Ancestry.com) 

However, another source indicates that the name Orth actually has deeper roots going beyond it's German origins. The name appears to have connections to Spanish and Portuguese origins, as it was adopted by them prior to the 5th century A.D. when the Visigoths conquered certain parts of Spain and Portugal. 

According to Surname Database, there are at least 40 variations of this name and many of the variants are found in France, Spain, Mexico and of course, Germany. Surname Database gives a slightly different definition of the name Orth:

In this case the surname is topographical and generally describes a person who lived in an 'ort', this being a settlement on the top of a hill, or in the case of the French nameholders, in a walled area, probably a defensive fortress. In some case the surname may have been descriptive for a soldier who carried an 'ort', this being a spear or lance.

Source: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Orth#ixzz3TUJHfTmE

Here are some variants of the name Orth and their origins:

Orta (French)

de la Heurtas (Mexico)

Huerta (Mexico)

Ort (French)

Orto (German)

Imort

Delort

Houseofnames.com gives even more variants of the Orth name:

Ohrt

Orthmann

Ohrtmann

Ordemann

Here is the family crest motto information: 

Motto: Sine Macula

Translation: Without Stain

I recently ordered the Death Certificate of Christina's father to help determine where who his parents were, as I have too many that don't quite fit his profile and the death certificate may give some answers. It will be interesting what road this may take me down.

Year to Remember - 1942

When my maternal grandmother was just 13, the family uprooted from her hometown of Wishek, North Dakota, a very tight knit town in which about 90% of the people there were from Russia. However, these were a unique set of people from Russia. They were German in ethnicity, but had left their homeland to live in parts of Russia - especially chosen by Catherine the Great in the 1700's, who was of German descent herself. She had her German fellows come to Russia to work the land and cultivate it. These parts of Russia were especially difficult to grow much in, but they still came to a foreign country. What drove them to do so? To look for a new life? Escape hardship they were already facing in Germany? It's hard to say why someone would go hundreds or thousands of miles from their home, especially if they'd never been there or had never seen it.

But, this is a whole blog post in itself, so I will have to delve into this at another time.

Back to 1942, my grandmother, her mother and father, and a baby on the way, drove out to California, for her father to find work in the Richmond shipyards. Once there, her father worked for the Kaiser shipyards, the same Kaiser who developed what we know as today Kaiser Permanente HMO healthcare. As a side note, I recently learned that her older sister worked as a typist for Kaiser.

My grandmother would start a new life in the new town of Richmond, CA. Fortunately, her sister lived not too far away in a town called Linden (near Stockton). She was married to one of the Purviance sons, who were known for their oil drilling in the area. My grandmother would often go down to visit her sister and see her nephew and spend time with the Purviance family.

Here are a few pictures during this time in the early 1940's when they were knew to the area and new to California. However, I think they adapted well to California. The weather was far more milder than North Dakota's harsh winters; the scenery was not quite as flat and of course, there was the beach! And, dance halls - where she'd meet my grandfather (sometime in 1947) who was a native to El Cerrito and part of a very large Irish family.

Grandma with her youngest sibling, James (Jimmy), Richmond, CA, 1945

Grandma at the kitchen table, Richmond, CA

Grandma outside their Richmond, CA home, a common spot for poses, circa 1942-43

 She is holding a flower (not a cigarette - Grandma never took up smoking)

In Linden with her nephew

Not long before they headed out to California, circa 1941, Wishek, ND

Grandma with her close middle-school and HS friend, Babe, circa 1942-43

Grandma at age 15, circa 1944