Anna Maria POTTHAST

Several family records indicate that Josephine was born "About 1873" and that her sister, Maria, was born on August 26, 1877. However, I now believe that these names and dates have been reversed. "Anna Maria Potthast" is listed in the LDS Family Search database: born April 13, 1873, the daughter of Franz and Karolina. I believe that this is the aforementioned Maria, and I have used the birth date formerly associated with "Maria" as the birth date for Josephine. There is also some confusion regarding her death date and place. Family records indicate that she died on January 6, 1929 in Cologne, Germany. Liz Murray lists her death as March 23, 1947 in Borgholz -- which is documented to the church records in St. Mary's in Borgholz. I have since discovered that this 1947 date is the death date for Anna Maria's sister, Josephine. Three of Anna Maria and Fred's children died as infants: Fritz, Herman (the first of two children named Herman) and Therese. Although it seems that Maria and her husband Fred Epping never immigrated to the United States (both were born and died in Germany), five of their children did come to America and settled in California. They were Karola "Caroline," Frederick "Fritz," Sybilla, Herman (the second) and Elizabeth. Why they settled in California while they had four uncles living in Baltimore remains a mystery.

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