Sundheimer Research

This page describes the status of research into the Sundheimer family, centered on immigrants Fred (1805), Adam (1805), and Adam (1814). If you know more about this family, please contact us.

Background

Sundheimers are in the village of Ransweiler, in what is now called (in English) the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany since at least 1620. They live elsewhere, too, but the Sundheimers in Tuscarawas, Holmes, and Coshocton counties, Ohio, United States starting around 1840-50 are from Ransweiler. Nearby villages include Bisterschied, Meisenheim, Waldgrehweiler, and several others, but the church in Ransweiler is where most of them are christened and married, so I use Ransweiler generically for the area. Other family names intermarrying in the area in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries include Scheu, Conrad, Lahm, Bernhard, Mueller, and Bayer, among others.

The Sundheimers of Ransweiler, neighbors and relatives to the Rheinheimers, become the Suntheimers, Sunthimers, Suntimers, Sontimers, Sondheimers, etc., of Ohio and Indiana, neighbors and relatives to the Rheinheimers in those places one hundred years or more later.

Johann Friedrich (Frederick) Sundheimer, 1805

Johann Friedrich Sundheimer was born 7 Dec, 1805, in Bisterschied, Germany, to Friedrich Sundheimer and Maria Catherina Conrad. Conrad is likely but not certain. There is only one real candidate Friedrich as his father, and he was married to and having children about the same time with Maria Catherina Conrad. Also, one of the witnesses at the christening Of Johann Friedrich is Elisabeth Conrad. The other witnesses are named Lahm or Sundheimer.

Elisabetha Catherina Corell was born around 1808.

Friedrich and Elisabetha Catherina married 15 Sep 1832 in Ransweiler. They have several children (Philippine, Andreas, Philipp, Carl) in Germany. Phillipine died in childhood, but the rest (Andrew, Philipp, Charles) emigrated with Fred, at least, and possibly Catherine to Ohio between 1842 and 1845. There’s a possibility (1860 Census) daughter Catherine was born in 1845 in Illinois, but it seems unlikely.

I say “maybe Catherine” because, of the US-born children, Catherine, John, Philippina, and Henry, Catherine and John both have Fred listed as father on their death certificates, but Catherine’s lists mother as Unknown and John’s lists his mother as Catherine Barnhardt. I haven’t found any indication of specific parentage for Phillipina (who appears to die young) or Henry. Catherine Corell is the mother of the older Sundheimer children, but possibly not the mother of the younger children.

Johann Adam Sundheimer, 1805

Johann Adam Sundheimer was born 30 Dec 1805 in Ransweiler to Johannes Sundheimer and Maria Catharina Pitz.

Catherine Bernhard was born 27 Sep 1809 in Ransweiler to Erasmus Bernard and Caroline Elisabetha Huff.

Adam and Catherine were married 15 July 1831 in Ransweiler and had emigrated to Ohio by 1860. I can find no evidence of children in either Germany or the United States. This couple appears together, without children, in three successive censuses (1860-1880) in Clay Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, United States. There is another Adam Sundheimer listed as being born in 1806 in the 1880 census with Bina and two daughters, but his story is below.

Two Adam Sundheimers with wives Catherine die in Ohio in 1891, one in February and one in April. I don't know which one this is.

Johann Adam Sundheimer, 1814

Johann Adam Sundheimer was born 17 Jun 1814 in Ransweiler to Johann Friedrich Sundheimer and Maria Catharina Conrad. He is the younger brother of the Fred Sundheimer described above.

Catherine Scheu (also Schey) was born 5 Nov 1815 to Frederick Scheu and Elisabetha Scheu (Elisabetha's maiden name is specifically Scheu in several records).

I can find no marriage record for this couple, which means they probably did not marry in Germany. However, they did have a son, Adam, who lived for only a couple of months in the summer of 1835 in Ransweiler. His birth is specifically noted as unehelich, or out of wedlock. Adam and Catherine emigrated shortly thereafter. Son Friedrich (Fred) was born in Wheeling, Virginia, in November, 1836. Daughter Catherine and son William were born in 1837 and 1838. Death records for Fred and Catherine list Adam Suntheimer and Sundheimer and Catherine Shy and Scheu, respectively, as father and mother. Catherine Scheu is probably also the mother of William, given the timing.

After that, the situation is less clear. The family with an Adam and a Catherine are in Ohio in the 1850 and 1860 censuses, though Catherine's birth year varies; it's listed once as 1814 and once as 1817. Henry is born in 1843 and Caroline in 1845, but Adam, born 1847, is the key to the mystery of this family.

Adam Sundheimer, 1847-1923, is pretty well documented, but at his death his obituary refers to a full sister, Barbara (1850-1923), and two half-sisters, who turn out to be Mary Ann (Anna) Sundheimer (1867-1942) and Mary Sundheimer (1875-1952). Further, his death certificate lists his parents as Fred Sundheimer and Mary Hostetler. Inconsistencies abound. The two half-sisters tie Adam's (1847) father Adam Sundheimer (1814) in the 1870 census with Bina (Philippina) Sundheimer and daughters, which could be the Adam Sundheimer born in 1814-but the census says this Adam is 65, so born in 1805. Any Adam born in 1805 is 24 years older than his wife and having multiple children in his sixties, so maybe the age is off by ten years.

Adam's full sister, Barbara, doesn't show up with the family in the 1850 census; she's born in October, and the census date is November, so she should. If Barbara is Adam's full sister and Adam's mother is Mary Hostetler, then the mother in the 1850 census who has just given birth to Barbara ought to be Mary, but it's Catherine. On top of that, Barbara doesn't show up with the family of Adam and Catharine in 1860, either. There is a ten-year-old daughter, Philippina, but she was already 2 years old in the 1850 census, so is probably actually 12 in 1860.

The only self-consistent solution to the facts I have would seem to be another Adam, born 1847, with father Frederick Adam, born 1806, who had Adam and Barbara with Mary Hostetler and four daughters later with Philippina Lambright (Lembrich, from Ransweiler, but that's another story). I can't find any trace of that alternate set of people. I need help from someone closer to this family or with better research skills to lay out the real story. My suspicion is that the names of the parents on death certificates cannot be fully trusted, especially when the stated cause of death is "Senility", but it could be that I'm missing something.

In any case, something bad seems to happen to Adam's (1814) family after 1860. There are younger children Philippina, Louisa, Eva, and Andrew. Andrew is born in 1860, and by 1870, he is with the Hacar family as A. Sundimer. The Hacars are really the Haagers, and the wife, Charlotte, is a relation from Ransweiler, Charlotte Sundheimer. I see no further record of the younger girls, the older children are out on their own, and Adam the father has started his new family with Philippina Lembrich (Bina Lambright) by 1865.

If I've followed the correct Adam throughout, he dies between 1875 and 1880, or at least has left the family of four daughters by the time of the 1880 census.