Life in New Orleans, Part I

Once in New Orleans, the Jürgensen family soon made its home in New Orleans' Third District, where numerous German and other immigrants settled. (The Third District was that section of the city "below," or downriver from the French Quarter. Part of this area was once known as "Little Saxony" because of the many German immigrants who made their homes there.)


City directories, beginning with Cohen's New Orleans Directory of 1856, show that Gustav Jürgensen and his family lived on Congress Street near Love (Love Street was later renamed Rampart). Gustav was listed as "G. L. Jurgens."

He was also listed in the 1858, 1859, 1861, and 1866 directories, living at the same address. (There were no directories published during the Civil War, 1862 - 1865.)

The exact address at which the Jürgensen family lived on Congress Street is not known. On the 1883 Robinson map to the right, Congress Street runs down the middle of this detail.




Detail from 1883 Robinson Map, Plate 20
Detail from 1883 Robinson Map, Plate 20.


The Jürgensens soon associated themselves with the nearby German Evangelical Orthodox Church in New Orleans at Port and Burgundy Streets (today's St. Paul Lutheran Church). There on 19 April 1855 Alvina's older sister Friederica married Carl Vosgerau (or Voschera). Alvina and Hinrich Hellmers were witnesses.

On 9 February 1856, Hinrich and Alvina were witnesses to another marriage, that of Johann Wilkens and Wilhelmina Bommarius. Wilhelmina's brother Friedrich Bommarius married Alvina's sister Maria.

A confirmation record for Alvina has not been found, nor any record that she attended school once she was in New Orleans.


Alvina and Hinrich Hellmers were married at the church on 4 September 1856. The records says:

                       Heinrich Hellmers
                       aus Bremen, Preussen.
                                 Mit
                      A. Henriette Jürgensen
                      aus Friedrichstadt,
                      Schleswig-Holstein

The complete record can be found here.
 Detail from 1856 marriage record.
Signature of Gustav Ludwig Juergensen.
Gustav Ludwig Jürgensen had to sign the marriage license for his daughter Alvina, since she was under age.
Based on city directories, Gustav Jürgensen continued his work as a carpenter until at least late 1865. He is listed in the 1866 city directory as "Gustave Jungsen," and apparently was living or worked at 775 St. Claude Avenue (near the corner of St. Claude and Louisa). Based on his absence from city directories after 1866 and his not being in the 1870 federal census, it appears that Gustav Jürgensen died between 1865-1866 and certainly before 1870. A civil or church death record has not been found.

In the years after Gustav's death, his three youngest children were married:
          Maria Jürgensen married Friedrich Bommarius on 9 January 1869.
          Johanna Jürgensen married Bartholomew "Henry" Vallory on 31 January 1869.
          Hinrich Jürgensen married Julia Ury on 9 October1873. Hinrich Jürgensen used the name Henry Johnson.

Marie Petersen Jürgensen also used the name Johnson. At the time of the 1870 federal census, she was living with her daughter Mary Bommarius, and was listed as "Mary Johnson." She presumably continued to live with her children until her death on 23 February 1891, when she was living with her widowed daughter, Frederica Vagts.


Death notice from the Tägliche Deutsche Zeitung.
 A death notice was placed in the Tägliche Deutsche Zeitung of 24 February 1891.

                                                  Died:
   Jurgensen—Yesterday evening at 8:30 [?] o'clock, Marie Dorothea Petersen, widow of the late Gustav Jurgensen, at the age of 81 years and 9 months, born in Schleswig Holstein and for the last 37 years a resident of this city. Friends and acquaintances of the family, as well as the members of the Ev Luth. St. Paul's Church and of the Women's Organization of St. Paul's Church, are respectfully invited to attend the funeral, which will take place this afternoon at 3 o'clock beginning at the residence of her daughter, Widow John Vagts, corner of Louisa and St. Claude Streets. The grieving, surviving 4 children.


Marie Petersen Jürgensen was interred in St. Vincent de Paul Cemetery, possibly in the tomb of her son-in-law, John Vagts.


Go to: Alvina Jürgensen's Life with Hinrich Hellmers


Return to Jürgensen Family History Opening Page