Peter Theisen 1828 – 1913
My second great-grandfather, Peter Theisen, was born March 19, 1828, in Bertrange, a small town about 4 miles west of Luxembourg City. He was the sixth child and fourth son of Peter and Anna Wirth Theysen. His father, age 33, was a farmer. Peter was baptized as Pierre (French for Peter) the day he was born.
Registres de l’état civil de Bertrange (Luxembourg), 1796-1923 accessed at FamilySearch.org
The next record I found for Peter was the 1843 census of Bertrange when he was 14 years old. His father was still a farmer and there were eight living children in the family.
Bertrange street scene about 1910. These typical buildings would have been standing while Peter Theisen lived in Bertrange.
Peter’s father, also Peter Theisen (Theysen) who was born at Aspelt on May 1, 1794, died at Bertrange on October 5, 1846, when Peter was 18 years old. No cause of death is given in the record.
The December 1846 census of Everlange, Useldange (about 14 miles northwest of Bertrange) lists a Pierre Theisen, born 1826 at Bertrange, occupation domestic, in the household of Julien Drohm, a farmer. Despite the age difference, this could be our Peter. He does not appear on the Bertrange 1846 census with his family. His older brother Joseph was a farmer probably on the land his father had farmed.
The December 1855 census of Bertrange does not list Pierre Theisen. His widowed mother with his siblings Nicholas, Anne, Susanne, and Joseph and Joseph’s wife and children were all living in the Theisen house.
Peter Theisen and Maria (Mary Ann) Lux were married on October 16, 1856, at Holy Trinity Church in Dubuque. Their witnesses were Nicolaus Theisen–Peter’s younger brother, and Elisabeth Lux–Mary’s younger sister.
Holy Trinity Church, Dubuque, Iowa
When did Peter come to America? Both the 1900 and 1910 U.S. censuses list his immigration year as 1855. On the 1900 census, Peter’s younger brother, Nicholas who settled near Dubuque, Iowa, indicated he immigrated in 1855. However, Nicholas is listed on the December 1855 census of Bertrange. They were both present in October 1856 when Peter was married in Dubuque. I searched ship passenger indexes and searched some 1855 months person by person and have not found Peter Theisen or his brother Nicholas on any passenger list.
A brief history of Luxembourg during the early 1800s will shed some light on why Peter immigrated.
In 1815 European powers met at the Congress of Vienna and decided that Luxembourg would be a duchy ruled by King William I of the Netherlands as grand duke. William levied heavy taxes and treated Luxembourg like his personal property. In 1830, Luxembourgers helped Belgium revolt; after that, both King William and Belgium claimed Luxembourg. In 1839 Luxembourg was split with the western French-speaking part becoming Luxembourg Provence in Belgium. What remained still belonged to the Netherlands but had more independence. Educational standards were raised, good roads were built, and agricultural methods were improved.
However, the country was still dependent on agriculture and wine production. There was little work and times were hard. Harvests in 1851, 1852, and 1853 were barely adequate. In 1854 the region along the Belgium border suffered a crop failure. The harvest in 1855 and 1856 was far below average.
The poor economy resulted in the emigration of young people searching for opportunities. Twenty residents of Bertrange immigrated to the USA in 1852, and from Jan thru March 1854, 77 persons left the town. On April 12, 1855, 414 persons left Luxembourg for America. These numbers came from “Luxmbourgers in the New World” Vol. 1 by Nicholas Gonner, published in 1889.
An emigration record may exist in Luxembourg, but unfortunately, those are not available online.