Heinrich Werdann - Sophie Balz Family Group

What We Know About This Family

An Overview of Their Lives

Henry and Sophie Werdann may have had more children. Sophia and five of them were immigrants arriving in New York in about 1846. Her son, Phillip, died at only 20, but the other three sons settled in the New York area, and each had many children. The information we have about the family other than our direct ancestor, Katherine, comes courtesy of one descendant from each of Katherine's, brothers, Henry and Jacob. I believe Sophia's husband died in Germany before his family immigrated to America. Sophia died in New York at 57 years of age.

Proof of Relationship

Some of Heinrich and Sophia Balz Werdann's descendants had knowledge about their Werdann ancestors and shared it with each other, cooperating to build the family's tree. Discovery of our Werdann cousins came with the appearance of Katherine's niece, Caroline, on a census in Egg Harbor. Caroline was then found in the previous census with her father in New York.

About the Children

• Henry was married to a German woman, Catherine.  He and his brothers set themselves up as fruit vendors on the city streets, and Henry was able to purchase an apartment building on East 37th Street in Manhattan where he lived with his wife until they died.  Henry died in 1890, and Catherine was married to her second husband, an Irishman, Dan Bohen, for 20 years until he died in 1914. She followed in 1917. Henry and Catherine had 7 surviving children:  Henry, Jr. (born 1852), Theodore F (born 1869 , George (born 1876) and Frederick (born 1879).  Henry and Theodore married, had big families and maintained apartments in the building with their parents until their mother died.  At that time they sold the building, which was part of an area then razed to make way for construction of the telephone company headquarters. Louis was single and died there when he was only 27.  Charles and Frederick married and raised their families in New Jersey.  George raised his in Brooklyn.  Elizabeth probably married and the rest of her life is lost to us for now.


• John took a German bride, Hildegart.  Her will was probated 30 Jan 1865. The 1870 Census shows John and his second wife, Elizabeth living with seven children: John (born 1855), Henry (born 1857), Edward (born 1859), Rudolph (born 1861), Otto (born 1865), Charles (born 1867) and Cornelia (born 1869). Analyzing the birth dates, we assume Elizabeth was the mother of Charles and Cornelia. Without knowing the month of his birth, we don't know if Otto was the child of Hildegart or Elizabeth. He was born in the same year she died. It's possible, she died giving birth to him. The last two died as infants or young children as they do not appear on the 1880 census. The same census shows John and Elizabeth had two additional children: Amelia (Emily) (born 1874) and Gustav Ernest (born 1878). Otto was living with them in 1880, but I couldn't find him after that census. According to the the 1905 New Jersey State Census, John and Elizabeth with three of their children had moved to Newark. New Jersey.


• Jacob married Caroline Schlecht.  They had eight children: George (1859), Charles (born 1859), Jacob (born 1861), Frank (born 1863), Caroline (born 1865), Albert (1867), Henry (1869) and Philip (born 1870). Caroline died subsequent to the last childbirth.  Jacob went on to marry Elizabeth Rickerich, but they had no additional children on the next census. George married and died at the age of about 32. Charles and his wife, Caroline, had several children in New Jersey. Jacob and Frank more or less disappear from records. Albert was married, widowed and remarried in the Stamford, Connecticut area.  He might have had a daughter Ida.  It's possible that his first wife was the widow of his oldest brother George, a woman (or possibly two separate women) named "Clara". Henry and Philip also disappear from records. Jacob's only daughter Caroline went to Egg Harbor City to live with her Aunt Katherine Kuehnle when she was 15. She can be found on the Census there. She met and married a man there by the name of Henry Huth, and they had two daughters, Gertrude (middle name Kuehnle) and Edna.  Caroline died from an infection that seems to have arisen as a result of childbirth.  That was in 1894 - she was only 29. 


• Katherine married a top-rated chef, Louis Kuehnle, in New York. They had their sons Henry, George and Louis, Jr, (later to be known as "Commodore" Louis Kuehnle) in New York City before moving to Atlantic County, New Jersey, where their fourth son, Henry, our direct ancestor, was born in 1859. The first Henry died young and was buried in New York). Louis, Sr. died in 1885. After her husband's death, Katherine moved to Atlantic City and lived with their son, Louis, until her own death in 1909. More about the Kuehnles can be found on their family group page.

The Werdann tree structure appeas below:

What Else We Need to Learn

The goal of this project is to trace every line of ancestry to the arrival of its first immigrant to America. The basic information of each couple is considered complete when we know the dates of birth, marriage, and death for both spouses. their parents' names (or whether they were the immigrant), and the child or children in our ancestry line. Although many census records exist for this family, there exists a lack of authenticating birth, marriage, and death records. In my experience this could be for one or more of these reasons: 1) records were not kept at this time; 2) the records exist, but have not been compiled and released to such resources as Ancestry; 3) the name "Werdann" may often have been misspelled. I've seen Katherine as Catharina and Katherine, and her maiden name as Werdran and Werdrann. "Werden" or some variation would also be a possibility. With only census dates of birth available, the certainty of matching a record to an individual is diminished.

The research on this family is basically complete. Estimated dates may be turned into actual dates if there are more records released,