I took another look at my Siffrinn line and noticed something that I had overlooked previously. Caroline Siffrinn lived in Kane, Pennsylvania and was married to a man named William Siffrinn. In the 1910 Census it showed that she and William had been married for 22 years and that she had 12 children, 7 of which were still alive. The next thing that caught my eye was the 3 after the M for married on Caroline’s record. I had been guessing that she had been married twice, from what I was told my great-great grandfather’s name was Louis, his wife was Caroline. The name and location were so unusual along with the occupation of glassblower that I have been pretty sure that I had the correct Siffrinn. I had looked at this document many times and never clued into what was right in front of me.
My guess is that Caroline married Louis in Germany around 1877. She would have been about 27 years of age when they were married and by the time they immigrated to America in 1882 she had 3 living children, including my great grandfather, Peter Lewis Siffrinn, born in 1880. She would have my great aunt Louise in Pennsylvania, born about 1883; John would be born after 1888 when she was married to William.
William immigrated to the states in 1886. Would it be possible that he had immigrated to marry the widow of his dead brother Louis? After digging through immigration records I found one that could be a possible match dated 27 Aug 1886 from Antwerp, Belgium to New York. The trade was recorded as glassblower and origination as Germany.
Could Caroline have been married prior to marrying Louis in Germany?