Carolina Leonhard's Roots in Germany

At about two o'clock in the morning of Sunday, 31 December 1843, Carolina Leonhard was born in the small town of Jettenbach then located in Rheinbayern, a province of the Kingdom of Bavaria [Königreich Bayern]. Rheinbayern—separated geographically from the main area of Bavaria—was located in a hilly region known as the Pfalz (referred to in English as the Palatinate). Today, Jettenbach is in Kreis Kusel in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz.

 
Jettenbach and nearby Reichenbach, ancestral villages of the Leonhard and Göttel families, can be seen near the center of this 1830 map of Rheinbayern in the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Reichenbach is in Kreis Kauserslautern and is known today as Reichenbach-Steegen.






A larger section of this map can be found here.
 Detail of 1830 map of Rheinbayern region.


Civil birth record of Carolina Leonhard.
 At about noon on the same day as she was born, her father, Ludwig Leonhard, reported her birth to the civil authorities in Jettenbach.







Here is a reduced copy of her civil birth record. A larger image can be found here.


A week later, on Sunday, 7 January 1844, Carolina Leonhard was baptized in the Evangelical Church [Evangelische Kirche] in Jettenbach. Carolina was the fifth child in her family. An image of the baptism record as found in the Jettenbach churchbooks can be seen here.


The church in Jettenbach where Carolina Leonhard and her siblings were baptized was demolished and replaced by the current church in 1896.

No photographs have been located of the old church, which dated from the Middle Ages. This watercolor was painted by Christian Ott of Zweibrücken.
 Painting of church in Jettenbach.


Carolina's father, Ludwig Leonhard, had moved to Jettenbach, where the family of his wife Louisa Göttel was from. Ludwig and the Leonhard family were from nearby Reichenbach and were associated with the Evangelical Church there.

The Reichenbach church dates back to at least 1291 A.D. The original 13th-century structure was destroyed in 1675, and the current building was constructed in the 1700s, although the tower is said to date from Roman times, when it was used as a jail.

 Photograph of church in Reichenbach.


Carolina was the daughter of Ludwig Leonhard (born 9 December 1807 in Reichenbach) and Louisa Göttel (born 20 December 1815 in Jettenbach). The villages of Reichenbach and Jettenbach are less than three miles apart. Even though these communities had their own churches, there was obviously communication among the citizens. Carolina's parents were married in the church in Jettenbach on 5 February 1835. After their marriage, Ludwig and Louisa Leonhard made their home in Jettenbach. In Jettenbach, the Leonhards had five children, two of whom died young. Carolina was the last of their children born in Jettenbach.


1963 photograph of Leonhard house in Jettenbach.
 This 1963 photograph shows the house in Jettenbach where Carolina and her siblings were born. Ludwig and Louisa Leonhard lived here from the time of their marriage in 1835 until they emigrated.

Before the Leonhards lived there, the house was used by Louisa's parents, Heinrich Göttel and Maria Katharina Schneider.

Jettenbach, 1348-1998, Ortsgeschichte und Hausbesitzerchronik
by Michael Cappel and Klaus Leonhard (1998)


The period of 1830 to 1845 was one of great out-migration from the Pfalz region of Germany. Increasing population and lack of economic opportunities forced many to seek a better life in America and elsewhere. Ludwig Leonhard and his family were among them.



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