Civil record of the marriage of Paul and Anne-Marie Reinert

My 3rd great grandfather Paul Reinert was born in Filzen, Germany* on 13 April 1784. He was a son of Nicholas Reiner (1741-1817) and Angela Louis (also spelled Luy or Lay, ~1739-1790), who owned vinelands near Filzen and made wine. At age 28, on 3 February 1812, Paul married Angela Lambert in the neighboring town of Hamm. Angela was from Wasserbillig, Luxembourg (spelled Waasserbëlleg in Lëtzebuergesch), having been born there in 1792. The couple then lived in Wasserbillig, a somewhat larger town that had more trade activity because of its location at the confluence of the Sauer river (spelled Sûre in Lëtzebuergesch) into the Mosel river (Moselle). Paul Reinert was called a linen weaver (linitextoris) in one of the church registers. The occupation likely included growing and harvesting flax, retting the fibers into thread, and making cloth or rope from the thread.

They had one son, Nicholas, in October of 1812, and Angela died during the birth of their next child in December 1813. The second child who died was not recorded with a name. Paul was left with a 14-month-old to take care of, and he found a caretaker in his town, Anne-Marie Weis. She was the same age as Paul and the daughter of a tailor, Johann Weis and his wife Maria Elisabeth Gustinger-Weis.

Civil registry of the Paul Reiner
and Anne-Marie Wies marriage.

Paul married Anne-Marie on 3 May 1814, witnessed by Nicholas Hubert (39-year-old resident of Wasserbillig), Christoph Reinsbach (38 Mannebach, Germany), Jean Baptiste Daun (32 of Wasserbillig), and Valere Bernd (34 of Wasserbillig) in the civil record administered by the mayor.

Parish registry of the Paul Reiner
and Anne-Marie Wies marriage.

Their holy matrimony was celebrated in the Roman Catholic church of St. Martin by the pastor Prost and witnessed by the tailor Johann Weis and the vintner Valerius Berend.

Anne-Marie would give birth to four boys and six girls, although only one, my 2nd great grandfather Johann (1822-1871), is known to have survived beyond childhood, along with his step-brother Nicholas (1812-1865). Johann Reinert followed his father's occupation, growing and processing flax into linen rope and cloth until he took his wife and family to America in 1867.

Paul and Anne-Marie remained in Wasserbillig while their son Johann relocated to Igel, Germany and married there. Paul died about 1842 in Wasserbillig. Certainly his death occurred before Johann's 1866 marriage, as he is mentioned as deceased in the marriage record. Anne-Marie moved to Igel to live with her son in her advancing years. She died there on 2 May 1866, at age 81.


* I use modern names for countries, states, and counties to simplify cross-reference to maps that are more likely available to non-specialists. I also tend to use standard German spellings of town and river names.

Both Filzen and Hamm are historical "suburbs" of today's Konz, Germany.