| _BIOG |
\pard\tx560\tx1120\tx1680\tx2240\tx2800\tx3360\tx3920\tx4480\tx5040\tx5600\tx6160\tx6720\pardirnatural\partightenfactor0
\f0\fs24 \cf0 Name: Anna Maria Christina /Brammertz/\
\
Christina was born in K\'f6ln to a father who was occasionally unemployed. She appears to have lived in K\'f6ln until at least 1850. In early 1853 she gave birth to her only child (so far as we know), Maria, in Brussels. In those days, the mother was not required to divulge the name of the father, and his name does not appear on the Brussels birth certificate or the baptismal record (which appears to have been transcribed from the birth certificate.) It is likely that Christina travelled to Brussels to have the child, and immediately returned to (possibly) K\'f6ln. She began attempting to regain her child around 1861. She may have still resided in K\'f6ln in 1862, although that is not certain. She married Franz Peter Preu\'df in Wiesbaden in 1865, after the death of his presumably first wife. The two of them succeeded in receiving permission to reclaim Maria in 1866.\
\
Christina reappeared in New York City when she married Charles Rabb there in 1868 (her marriage record listed her as not previously married.) It is possible that she and Maria emigrated to the U.S. in 1867, without F. P. Preu\'df, whose whereabouts are unknown after that point. At least one of his children, Emil, emigrated to the U.S. and married in Iowa in 1882, but probably did not emigrate with Christina or her daughter. Neither F. P. nor any of his children died in Wiesbaden after 1862. A possible explanation for all of this is that the Preu\'df-Brammertz marriage was a marriage of convenience. According to the Brussels archivist, this seems plausible and perhaps even likely given a review of the documentation preserved which granted Christine and F .P. the right to reclaim Maria. Another explanation is that the entire Preu\'df family emigrated from Wiesbaden to the U.S. intact, but there is no documentation to support this.\
\
Christina left no record in Brussels, other than the birth certificate of her daughter. Her address as of the birth of her daughter is known to have been, in that time, a house of ill repute. In the 1856 Brussels census (in which Christina did not appear), about half the residents of the boarding house where she lived in 1853 were prostitutes (they are registered by the police). Some time during that period, an individual possibly named Catherine (but not Christina) Brammertz lived in that area and was a prostitute. It is possible that that Catherine is Christine's sister, but there is no way to know. The archivist mentioned above believes it is unlikely the Christina herself was a prostitute - she was not registered, and according to the archivist a typical scenario for a "fallen woman" in that time is that of a domestic servant working in a household of a well-to-do family who is impregnated by a family member and sent away to have the baby.\
\
Christina and Maria probably immigrated to the U.S. in 1867 (they are known to be in Germany and Belgium in 1866, and she in New York in 1868). Maria may be in Chicago by 1870; there is a possible record of Charles and Christina Raab in the 1880 Census in Chicago. Nothing further is known of either of them. Charles was a painter in New York City during 1875-78, and immigrated from Stuttgart in 1863.} |
1829 - 
[1, 2]