The Heuertz and DeViche Connections

The last name Heuertz provided a possible clue. Opening the census record, I see that Angeline Heuertz is Stephania’s daughter by her first husband.

When I was searching for who Kathryn might have been living with in Remsen, I found that John DeViche’s parents were Catharine Heuertz and Constantine DeViche so this must be where the connection is. I just need to do some more digging to find it. It may not be a blood connection, but I felt like I was closer to solving the mystery of who Aunt Kathryn was!

John DeViche is the Key

Since Kathryn lived with John DeViche; was listed as his cousin in the 1920s census; and his mother’s maiden name was Heuertz, the same last name as Stephania’s daughter, Angeline, I figured he would be my best chance at finding the connection.
 
So, I started a new tree in Ancestry.com just to track his family. I put him as the main person and worked back through the Heuertz side of his family tree to see what brought the Wellman, Lorenz, and Heuertz names together in one household in 1880.

I was hopeful that Ancestry.com would have John’s grandparents’ names in the database to see if the relationships I was looking for wasn’t a direct descendant. Ancestry came through! John’s father Constantine’s parents were listed as Alexandre Joseph DeViche and Marie Oda Moreau.

I went back to search on Kathryn and Elizabeth’s grandmother Stephania, and found a marriage record for a Stephania Josephine Maria DeViche and Henry Gaus. This was the first time I’d seen a record with her maiden name. It listed her parents as Alexandre Joseph DeViche and Marie Oda Moreau and that she was born in 1819 in Belgium. So, Stephania and Constantine DeViche were siblings, and Stephania is “my” John DeViche’s aunt.

Wow! A whole family I didn’t even know existed, and from Belgium, which I never would have dreamed. My entire life I’ve known about my German, Irish, and Dutch roots. Discovering a new ancestry to add to the mix was kind of cool.

Another Heurtz Connection

I also found a record of Stephania DeViche’s first marriage to Jean Mathias Heuretz. Her brother Constantine married Catharine Heuertz, which left me wondering if she and her brother married siblings. I didn’t want to waste time going down a dead end, but I also wanted to explore Heuertz connections, in case they led me to solving my now-growing mysteries.

After digging, it seems that the same last name was a coincidence or perhaps even a distant relation since Jean Mathias Heuertz and Catharine Heuertz don’t have the same parents.

All of this was very interesting to me, and I was very glad to have found the connection from John DeViche back to at least one person in the 1880 Census record that started my search. 

But, I still hadn’t come any closer to finding out the connection to Aunt Kathryn Lorenz, or “Katie Lorentz” as she was called in the Census record. So, I decided to take another angle and find out more about the head of the household, Henry Gaus.