It’s time to finish my 12 for ’22 series with a look at my husband’s 5X great grandfather, Nicholas Krieger and his wife, Catharina Maria (Borger?).

I thought I had shared a family sketch here several years ago, so I was quite surprised to find that I somehow overlooked this family. However, I’ve known about the Kriegers for 30 years.

Better late than never, as my mom always used to say, so here is the background on the family of Nicholas Krieger.

Today’s post will cover various records and bits of information uncovered about the family with next week’s post covering the family members as a unit.

To begin, finding records for this man isn’t easy, given that Krieger can be spelled several different ways, right down to Crecor and Kruger.

Nicholas and Catharina Maria are said to be from Germany, which I don’t doubt. However, their ancestral home is proven with some saying they hail from Hanover and others from Hanau.

I have to admit I am very suspicious of the similarity in the place names. If someone were to abbreviate Hanover and poor writing was found in a document, HanAU could easily be mistaken for HanOVer, which happen to be more than 200 miles distant from each other. Regardless, I’ve not found any documentation that the Kriegers lived in either place.

The Kriegers were Lutheran – both Nicholas and his wife are buried in the churchyard of the Nazareth Lutheran Church near Rural Hall in today’s Forsyth County, North Carolina.

However, their three sons all joined the Moravian Church, first based in Surry County, North Carolina, so there are several Moravian records that help tell the family’s life stories.

Nicholas Krieger was born c1709, based on the short 1804 Moravian memorial, which state that he was 93 3/4 years old when he died on  26 January 1804, placing his birth in April 1710:

Br. Pfohl held in the German Church at Beaver Dam the funeral of the married man, Nicholaus Krieger, whose three sons and their families belong to our congregation. He himself never belonged to us. . . He was ninety-three and three quarters years old, and lived fifty-four years with his wife, now his widow.

Catharina Maria survived him by six years, passing away on 11 January 1810, aged 81 years. Her gravestone still stands and states “geboren” (born) 1729.

Catharina Maria’s maiden name is widely stated to be Borger, but I have not found a single record that confirms it. Her death is also noted in the Moravian records:

Jan. 15. In the German church at Beaver-Dam Br. Pfohl hled the funeral of the widow Catharina Maria Krieger, who fell asleep day before yesterday. she was the mother of Heinrich, Jacob and Joh. George Krieger, who belong to this congregation.

One more thing must be mentioned here. Most online trees refer to Nicholas wife as “Maria Catharina.” However, precisely two documents have been found that name his wife.

Nicholas left a will written in 1785 and proved in 1804 in Stokes County. He calls her “Catharina Maria.” Second, notice the death announcement transcribed above when his wife died. She is again called “Catharina Maria.” Both records were created by people who knew her and her family and both call her Catharina Maria, not the other way around.

The couple reportedly married in Germany and at least one child, their son Johan Heinrich, is said to have been born there before the family emigrated to Pennsylvania c1754.

There is a huge gap of 20 years difference in age between Nicholas and Catharina Maria, but no evidence has been found that Nicholas had a previous marriage.

Furthermore, there is some question about the birth places of their other sons, too. Johann Jacob, born 19 April 1755, might have been born in Berks County, Pennsylvania or Frederick County, Maryland.

However, the Moravian memorials again come to the rescue:

Our brother Johann Jacob Krieger, who entered into his eternal rest on September 30, 1824, was born near Reading, Pennsylvania on April 19, 1755, and his parents took care that he was blessed with the holy water of baptism.

In time he moved with his parents to Maryland, and in his 12th year with them here to North Carolina, where his father farmed some three miles from Bethania, where the Hennings and Daubs live now. (along Bashavia Creek).

This clears up the mystery of Pennsylvania vs. Maryland – the family left Berks County, Pennsylvania and removed to Maryland sometime after April 1755 and then left Maryland for North Carolina c1766-1767, where all of the family lived out their lives.

There is much more to be shared about Nicholas Krieger (1709-1804) & Catharina Maria (Borger?) (1729-1810) and their five children.

Elizabeth’s birth year is unknown, but, based on the order of children named in her father’s will, Elizabeth was born between the births of Jacob and George.

Children:

1. Johan Heinrich, born 24 June 1753, reportedly in Germany
2. Johan Jacob, born 19 April 1755, Berks County, Pennsylvania
3. Elizabeth, born c1757
4. Johan George, born 13 July 1759
5. Rosina, born c1761

Next is the story of the family’s life in Rowan County, North Carolina, which split to become Surry, then Stokes and finally Forsyth County, which the area is today.