LUDWIG AND WALBURGA SEIFLOH

Ludwig Seifloh was born in 1794, probably in Coblenz; we know nothing about his parentage. He married Walburga Bergrath probably around 1820. He died in Coblenz in 1867 aged 73. Walburga was born in around 1795, the daughter of Joseph and Maria Barbara Bergrath. She died in 1866, a year or so before her husband. Ludwig and Walburga Seifloh were our great-grandparents.

The archives contain an 1867 copy of the 1824 birth certificate of their son Ludwig Andreas, in which Ludwig is described as "Unteroffizier* in zwanzig funften Infantrie Regiment" stationed in Coblenz; but in 1854 Ludwig Andreas is described in his marriage certificate (1854 - we have a copy made in 1868) as the eldest son of "Herrn Ludwig Seifloh, Kasem-Inspektor*" in Coblenz, suggesting that Ludwig had changed his occupation, possibly to civilian status.

Their only recorded children were:

Ludwig Andreas (1824-1872) who married Marie Reuleaux (1832-1917); they were our grandparents;

Anna Christine (known as Christine, 1834-1883) who married Hermann Ratzek;

Susanna Maria (1837-) who initiated the "1858 St Croix Correspondence".

This seems an improbably small and spread-out family for those times, and it could be that there were other, unrecorded, children. We have no birth dates, only the the baptism dates of Christine and Susanna as recorded in the Latter Day Saints' genealogical archive. Christine's name appear in the Family Bible as godmother to three of the children of Ludwig Andreas and Marie.

* "Unteroffizier" isa non-commissioned officer or NCO; "Kasern-Inspektor" ("barracks inspector") is not identified in any of my dictionaries - it could perhaps be a rank akin to a police inspector.