Susanne Meurer Research

The story surrounding the parents of Ernest Louis Meurer (born Gensungen in 1830, 191 years ago) has been a long process of finding records, examining them, and drawing various conclusions. For many years the story back in time stopped at Ernest, the first Meurer to arrive in Australia in 1858.

His parents were thought to be Susanne (Susannah) Weiand and Christian Meurer. Ernest’s Australian death certificate shows his father was a Clergyman, and interestingly there is no surname shown for his mother Susannah. #Clue 1

Ernest and Augusta’s marriage certificate shows Ernests’ father as a Schoolmaster. They possibly came from the town of Gensungen, Hessen, Germany as this was where Ernest, his son, was born. The surname Weiand appears to be incorrect but we will reference that name later Clue 2.

Christian Meurer (if there really was a Christian Meurer) would be the GGG Grandfather to the current ‘generation X’ family out there.

Research has revealed some issues with Christian Meurer’s identity. There is a possibility that Ernest’s father’s first name was Christian but it was not Christian Meurer.

The evidence that creates a Christian Meurer in the first place comes from his son (Ernest Meurer) marriage and death records in Australia. Research in the German region of Hesse from where Ernest originated (Gensungen & Gottingen) finds no evidence of a Christian Meurer #Clue 3. However, the records have been found for a matching Susanna Meurer and baptism source records positively connecting her to the Meurer family from Gottingen #Clue 4.

This proves that Susanne Meurer (her proven birth name) was Ernest’s mother and he took her last name as his. Ernest’s baptism records show he was born illegitimately #Clue 5.

There is also a Meurer family tale that there was an illegitimate relationship involving the Clergy in Germany that preceded or perhaps caused the departure of the family from Germany to Australia so this correlates to the actual baptism record #Clue 6.

So the data now confirms that the Meurer name passes down the generations from Susanna Meurer, the daughter of Johan Conrad Meurer. 

Tracing Ernest’s father, let’s call him Christian, will be impossible as his name was not recorded on his son’s birth record. The only possibility might be that DNA will provide some connection in the future?

Clue summary

• clue 1 – no mothers surname on sons death certificate – hinting at a cover-up about no father
• clue 2 – Susanne’s surname shown as Weigand on son’s marriage certificate, only Weigand found in the region was Susanne’s witness at her Baptism document who was Wiegand, Sophie Maria.
• clue 3 – no records found for a Christian Meurer in that region
• clue 4 – records found for a Susanne Meurer the daughter of Johann Conrad Meurer and the mother of Ernest Meurer
• clue 5 – baptism record for Ernest states he was born illegitimately to a mother named Susanne Meurer and no father listed on the document
• clue 6 – family oral history tells of a scandal in the family involving the Clergy

Sources

Some correspondence [see documents here] with a Genealogy researcher in Hessen, Germany provided some small possible clues.

More recent research in Hessen provides new data on the Meurer family in Germany. See the summary here.