This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

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give a flip! This record was found at the New Orleans Public Library. Also aboard this ship is ?Heinrich Sunder?, age 38 (born in 1816), also born in Bavaria. He is traveling with his wife, Eva Sunder, age 34, and children - Heinrich 10, Jacob 9, Conrad 8, Suzanna 4, and Gottfried 3/12. This Heinrich Sunder will later be identified as Susanna's half-brother. Records in Germany show this Susanna and Heinrich Sunder made application to immigrate on October 5, 1854.
The next record we have of her is on Karl Heitzmann's marriage application in New Orleans on July 14, 1855 where she is listed as ?Johanna Sunder? over age 21. This was only seven months after her arrival in the United States. Her first name error can be explained in a number of ways. Keep in mind that she was probably not present when the application was completed and the clerk misunderstood ?Johanna? for Anna. Anna is the common nick-name for both Johanna, and Susanna. Karl/Carl Heitzmann surely had yet to master the English language making the pronunciation of his words difficult to understand. Or perhaps, he had only known her for a few months as ?Anna? and assumed her correct name was Johanna instead of Susanna. The name Anna is often pronounced as ?Hannah? and this could have caused the confusion. This is the only record of her being called ?Johanna.? In all subsequent records she goes simply by ?Anna.? Anyway, we feel comfortable that the wife of our Carl Heitzmann was Susanna Sunder.
The next record of Susanna is on the birth/baptism records of her children as covered in the previous section on Carl Heitzmann and his children. She also appears in the census records with her husband as already covered. The last record we have is her obituary. She is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Summit, MS with the inscription ?Anna, wife of C. Heitzmann, born Aug. 24, 1838, died Feb. 24, 1886? We have a pencil tracing of this headstone and photographs. The stone cutter made an obvious error when he put the year of birth as 1838 rather than 1833 as shown in her obituary which also turned out to be incorrect.
When we began searching for her baptism record in Germany, we had some difficulty. Her obituary gave her name ?Anna Heitzman, nee Sander's, born on Aug. 24, 1833 in Ebinger, Baden, Germany.? From this and other records, we knew she was from the state of Baden. We wrote every church (Catholic and Lutheran) and civil authority in Baden that listed the city of ?Ebinger? (and any spellings close to it) and found nothing. Then we discovered the city of Eppingen in Baden. We contacted the Protestant Church (Lutheran) of Eppingen, and they found the baptism record for ?Susanna Sunder? bom on ?August 24, 1831? (Bapt. Book 1826-1844, p. 105, act 55). In this church, we also found the baptism record of ?Heinrich Sunder? and his children that arrived in New Orleans on the same date as Susanna. This same Heinrich Sunder settled in and had a family in St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, St Clair Co., Illinois (both cities adjoining each other). Susanna's other half- brother, Jacob Sunder settled, had a family, and died in Clay Co., Indiana (adjoining Green Co., Indiana). Remember in Susanna Heitzmann's obituary where the Summit Sentinel asked for ?papers in New Orleans and Indiana please copy?? Now we know why!
Please note that Susanna's year of birth is correct up through when she was on the ship coming to America. After that the month and day are consistent, but the year of birth varied by two or more years. This is not unusual in census records. People often forgot their year of birth because they did not celebrate birthdays as we do today - there was little need to remember one's birth year.
The city of Eppingen, Germany is located in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, Administrative Region of Stuttgart. As of 2008, it had a population of 21,408. This city was first recorded in 985 when Otto HI gave the settlement to the Church Diocese of Worms. In 1695 large walls were built around the city to defend against the French raids at the time. Today, Eppingen consists of nine surrounding small villages. It is a very old city with numerous historic landmarks and buildings. The city is on a special historical route for the pleasure of tourists.
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