th<\/sup> century. (And of course, how different things were when we had no internet.)<\/p>\nSo, here is the story of Martin Kaffitz and his wife Hattie Fritts, with the help of records available on Ancestry.com and Find-a-Grave.<\/p>\n
As the notices made clear, Martin Kaffitz came to New Jersey from Germany. He was born on May 29, 1865 at Marnheim, Bavaria, and baptized in the Lutheran Church there on June 11, 1865. His parents were named in the baptismal record as Johann Kaffitz and Katharine Margarethe Kaffitz. When Martin was only 15 years old in 1880, he emigrated to America, which is too bad because that means he missed being counted in the census of that year.<\/p>\n
Kaffitz found work as a blacksmith in Lebanon Township, and became acquainted with the Fritts family. They were also originally German, but had emigrated a hundred years before Martin Kaffitz did.<\/p>\n
David Fritts, born August 1, 1828, was the son of Jacob Fritts (1799-1866) and Elizabeth Apgar (1803-1886). David probably married his wife Mary Elizabeth around 1851 or 1852.<\/p>\n
In 1870, David Fritts was a 41-year-old farm laborer in Bethlehem Township. His wife Elizabeth was 39. He owned some real estate, worth $1500, which may have been a property sold to him by George Osmun in 1864.