Anna Luise (Seeling) Spielmann, 1854-1911

 

ANNA LOUISA/LUISE (SEELING) SPIELMANN was born in Alt Schwedenhöhe, Bromberg, Posen, Prussia on 6 December 1854 to parents Ferdinand and Therese (Misch) Seeling.  She was baptized on 1 January 1855 in the Protestant religion. [1]  When she was 22 years old, on 27 December 1876, she married Catholic Constantinus Leo Spielmann per the civil record of Klein (“county”) Bartelsee in Posen.

Anna and Leo had four children, all girls, born while they lived in the Schondorf suburbs of Bromberg:

• Anna, born February 1880[2]
• Elizabeth Emma (Lise), born 15 December 1882[3]
• Clara Augusta, born August 1884[4]
• Emma E., born May 1885

On 24 June 1893, Leo bought five tickets from the Rosenbaum Steamship Co. for “Louise” and his four daughters (Leo had already arrived in the Philadelphia area earlier in the year.  Tickets for Anna Louisa and the oldest daughter Anna cost $29.50 each, while the younger three girls’ tickets cost $14.75 each.[5]  They traveled together on the SS Dresden, sailing from Bremen, Germany to the port of Baltimore, Maryland, arriving on 30 August 1893.[6] 

“The SS Dresden was laid down on Saturday, January 12, 1888 at the Fairfield Govan Ship Building and Engineering Co. in Glasgow, Scotland at Yard No. 336. She was launched December 1, 1889 under the name SS Dresden for Norddeutscher Lloyd of Bremen, Germany. She was built as a passenger-cargo vessel with a single screw and her steam engines gave her a speed of 13 knots.”[7]

S. S. Dresden

In good weather, at 13 knots, it would have taken almost two weeks for the SS Dresden to sail from Bremen to Baltimore.  Anna Louise and the girls joined Leo in Philadelphia after their journey, by making their way up to Philadelphia. 

In December 1895, daughter Mary E was born to the couple in Philadelphia, but she died just 8 months later on 6 August 1896 of enterocolitis, which primarily impacts babies when they are premature, and which causes holes in the intestines.  Mary was the first of the family to be buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon, Pennsylvania.[8]

In 1900, Anna and Leo, with the three younger girls, are shown living at 1310 Grove Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[9]  They continued to live there through 1910.[10]  However, on 15 August 1911, Anna Louisa died of uraenmia (or kidney damage) at the age of 56.  At that time, the family had moved to 6332 Saybrook Avenue in Philadelphia.[11]  She was buried three days later at Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon, Pennsylvania, in section H, range 13, lot 44.[12]  Her gravestone has fallen over, and because it is made of delicate limestone, it cannot be reset safely. 

 

Anna Louisa / Luise (Seeling) Spielmann’s gravestone at Holy Cross Cemetery.  Photo taken by Dawn Vanderwolf, 2019.

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[1] Bromberg Evangelisch (Bromberg, Prussia now Bydgoszcz, Poland), "Tauf Register, 1853-1855," page 334, no. 3, Anna Louise Seeling; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61250/images/0245341-00175 : viewed 25 Nov 2020), image 176.

[2] 1900 U.S. census, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Philadelphia ward 36, enumeration district (ED) 942, sheet 10A, dwelling 189, family 183, Charlie Kokal [sic] household; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7602/images/4115219_00193 : viewed 21 May 2022).   See also Pennsylvania, Department of Health, death certificate no. 7907 (1951), Anna Kokol; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/42410_2321306652_0846-02678 : viewed 21 May 2022).

[3] Birth book, registry office in Bydgoszcz ("Ksiega Urodzen Urzad Stanu Cywilnego Bydgoszcz") - Male Bartodzeje, Nr 1-185, no. 177, Eliz. Spielmann (1882); Family History Library microfilm 008023183, image 845; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSXJ-G9FZ-Q : viewed 22 April 2021), image 845.

[4] For both Clara and Emma’s birth dates, see 1900 U.S. census, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Philadelphia ward 36, enumeration district (ED) 942, sheet 12A, dwelling 228, family 227, Lev Speilman [sic] household; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/42410_2321306652_0846-02678 : viewed 21 May 2022).

[5] Rosenbaum Steamship Company (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), "Ticket purchase books, 1890-1934," book 2, page 31 (1893) for Louise Spielman and daughters, ticket no. R.121, Family History Library microfilm 1,550,639, image 348; image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS64-Z9HL-2 : viewed 31 March 2022

[6] New York Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957, microfilm publication M237 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1962), SS Dresden, 30 Aug 1893, for Louise Spielman and daughters, passenger no. 168-172; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7488/images/NYM237_617-0027 : viewed 28 Nov 2020), image 22.

[7] Joe Hartwell, “SS Dresden (I),” RootsWeb (http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~cacunithistories/military/SS_Dresden_(I).html : viewed 12 October 2021).

[8] City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Return of a Death, no. 3368 (1986), Mary E. Spielmann; Family History Library microfilm 004009627; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DRSQ-T9L : viewed 12 October 2021), image 917.  For information on enterocolitis, see https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/10026-necrotizing-enterocolitis

[9] 1900 U.S. census, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Philadelphia, ward 36, enumeration district (ED) 0942, sheet 12A, dwelling 228, family 227, Lev. Speilman household; NARA microfilm T623, roll 1478; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7602/images/4115219_00197 : viewed 23 Nov 2020), image 23.

[10] 1910 U.S. census, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Philadelphia, ward 36, enumeration district (ED) 0901, sheet 10A, dwelling 152, family 166, Leo Speilman household; NARA microfilm T624, roll 1407; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/4449316_00534 : viewed 23 Nov 2020), image 19.

[11] Pennsylvania Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certficate no. 20198 (1911), Anna Louise Spielmann; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DZW3-WVJ : viewed 24 Nov 2020), image 234.

[12] Holy Cross Cemetery (Yeadon, Pennsylvania), "Burial Register Number 4, 1910-1915," (1911), Anna L. Spillman; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2451/images/42154_329910-00428 : viewed 25 Nov 2020), image 1280.