#52Ancestors #Week29 Happy Birthday to Phil

Happy Birthday!

I've learned over the years of research that immigrants (and other individuals that didn't always know their dates of birth) often chose January 1st or The Fourth of July as their preferred date, the latter being especially popular with those wishing to show their loyalty to their country.

My 3rd great-grandfather Philip Pfeffer chose January 1st, and the year of his birth seems to be 1854, although I have little in the way of confirmation of this. The man is said to have emigrated from Germany (then Prussia) to the U.S. as a 12 year old stowaway, placing his arrival shortly after the end of the Civil War. No arrival record has been found, which makes it unreasonably difficult to ascertain his origins, the names of his parents, or his actual date of birth. It's certainly possible that he was born at the dawn of the new year, but...

I have no reliable indication of him residing in the U.S until his 1874 marriage in Illinois, although I do have documentation of relatives in Indiana and Kentucky prior to this date. Without proof of any of the relevant parents of three men in three different states (Philip did reside in Kentucky, and later Missouri), after several decades I still do not know their relationship to each other, but they were definitely intimately involved in one another's lives. Whatever the case, I can imagine these men, in their new land, enjoying a winter holiday free from most chores, perhaps giving thanks for the new year at Mass, and maybe a special treat baked for the man who was a year older that day, although in Victorian times, the Pfeffers earlier years in Kentucky predated the “Happy Birthday” song.

Philip’s date of birth, chosen or not, is only recorded in the St. Henry Catholic Church (Charleston, MO) records from shortly before his death. He was only able to celebrate 45 years before he left his wife and children, possibly to some form of what was then called brain fever. He was buried near the Mississippi River, far from the rest of his family (but possibly with one infant daughter). As of this writing, his grave has never been marked with the dates of his life, something I would like to do one day.

We do have an excellent remembrance of him in a photo that is now approximately 130 years old, and has been passed down to me.  I think I may need to begin offering a toast to my progenitor on the 170th anniversary of his birth this winter!