A Mayer Family Genealogy
Being the family and descendants of Agatha Mayer (unknown - unknown) of Häg, Baden, Germany.
The name Mayer may be related to the same root of the word mayor, meant to represent someone with official or leadership duties. Or similarly may mean ‘the better, the greater’ or to describe the family as being holders of land. These family records show variations including Maier, Meier, Myer, and Meyer. After the family came to the United States in the late 1800s it seems some legal names changed to Meyer.
During the period where we have records, starting from the early 1800s, the family was Catholic, with christenings happening typically only a few days after the record of birth, and marriage and death records being recorded in Catholic churchbooks.
Most of the German records of the family are from the region Lörrach, a Landkreis (district) in the southwest of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Common place-names include Häg, Zell Im Wiesental, Höllstein and Fetzenbach.
The Children of Agatha Mayer (unknown - unknown) and Unknown Father
Little is known about Agatha Mayer, other than that she was the mother to two children in Häg in the decade of the 1810s. Mayer may not have been her maiden name, and more might be found out if we were to locate her own birth or marriage record or the surname of her childrens’ father.
The Household of Meinrad Mayer (1818 - unknown) and Konstantia Wasmer (1823 - unknown)
As this is the first time we’ve encountered the given name Meinrad (sometimes in the records as Meinerd, Meinard, Meinradus) - the name means strong counsel, or strong advisor, from the German magan ‘strong’ and rad ‘counsel’. It may also have been a namesake of a popular and venerated Catholic Saint of the region, St. Meinradus (797 - 861 AD). Konstantia means ‘steadfast’, from the Latin constantia. Her maiden name, Wasmer, is topographical, referring to an inhabitant dwelling near a water-meadow.
Though Konstantia Wasmer was born in Fetzenbach, she was married to Meinrad at Häg and their family resided there, or near there, as their childrens’ records are from the same church.
The Household of Robert Mayer (1852 - 1934) and Marie Zimmermann (1856 - 1941)
Robert Mayer was born as Trudpert Mayer (also spelled Trudgert, Trudbert, Trupert or the latinized Trupurtus), his name later Anglicized after immigrating to the United States. This was likely a name after the St. Trudpert of the 7th c. AD, who had been a missionary along the Rhine and established a church south of Freiburg in Baden. Marie’s maiden name, Zimmermann is a trade name for a builder or carpenter.
Trudpert and Marie married in 1876 in Zell Im Wiesental in the Catholic Church there, and had one child, Gustav Robert, in 1877 before immigrating to the United States in 1880. They sailed together with their son aboard the steam-ship Labrador from Le Havre, France to New York, New York, arriving on June 24th of that year.
The family stayed for a time in or around Mansfield, Ohio - Louise (b. 1882), Mary (b. 1882), Emily Constance (b. 1884), Henry (b. 1885), and Clara (b. 1889) were all born in Ohio, and a record from 1886 shows the household at 97 Spring Mill Street in Mansfield with Trudpert (now Robert) working as a machinist. But by 1892 when Cecilia Catherina May was born, the family was living in or around Buffalo, New York. The youngest two, Leo Meinrad (b. 1894) and Josephine (b. 1899) were also born in New York state.
