A Weigant History
A Weigant History
By Patricia Reinhardt
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By Patricia Reinhardt
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Introduction
My interest in these families began because my mother, Violet Theis Richter, and my grandmother, Anna Weigant Theis, were storytellers. They never tired of recounting tales from their childhood. As a little girl I thought, someone should write down these stories, someone should write a book about the Weigants. I grew up to be that someone! And my emotions have ranged from laughter to tears as I explored the lives of my family.
When I went to Germany in 1987, Mom gave me a document prepared in 1853 listing Anton Peter and Agnes Weigant and their eight children. I wondered if I could discover what happened to each of those eight Weigant children in the United States. This book answers that question and much more.
Keeping track of all these ancestors wasn't easy. Some families used the same names generation after generation. The Theis family offers an example. Hold on, here we go! It began in Germany when Nicholas Theis and a son whom he named Nicholas. This Nicholas had two sons named Nicholas and Christian. Nicholas married Anna Sinsel and had nine children, three named Christian, Anna and Nicholas. Christian married Mary Noel and had fourteen children including an Anna and a Nicholas. These Theis families lived less than two miles apart in Nebraska. When Nicholas, son of Mary Noel and Christian Theis, married Anna Weigant and moved into a house nearby, there were two couples named Anna and Nick Theis within one mile! What a headache for the mailman.
Accuracy is important in genealogy. I've collected birth and death certificates, church, land and probate records. I've studied county histories and census records. It was a delight to interview and correspond with many relatives whose splendid memories enriched this book. The terms, "It is believed" ... or "The family story is" ..., alerts the reader to the fact that some information cannot be documented. Despite careful editing, there will be mistakes and for this I apologize.
Those of us who are descendants of the families researched in this book have many reasons to be proud of our heritage. Our ancestors were unwavering in their faithfulness to God in the Catholic Church. They took risks, survived tragedies and faced the world with bravery, humor and kind-heartedness.
This book is divided into three parts. The first part is the story of the Weigant family as they moved from Germany to Illinois to Nebraska. The second part contains biographies of two generations of Weigants and their spouses. At the beginning of each biography, look for the family information sheet. The final section lists the descendants of Peter Weigant and Susanna Steil. If you look at the states in which they reside, you will see that the footprints of the Weigant descendants are now in many places.
And finally I ask you, don't let your footprints in the sand be washed away. Tell stories, write things down, speak your memories into a tape recorder, keep photographs, and letters that help record your history. Someday, someone may be looking for your footprints.
Patricia J. Reinhardt
Recently, I had a chance to walk on the beach and was struck by how quickly the waves washed away footprints. For the past six years, I have been busy reconstructing the footprints of those who have walked before us.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions,
please send them to ReinhardtWebsite@yahoo.com.