Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ernest married Mary Elizabeth Koch on 19 Jun 1923 in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio, USA. Mary was born on 20 Jan 1905 in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio, USA; died on 17 Nov 1972 in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Ottilia Mathilda Kress on 27 Oct 1874 in Ohio, USA. Ottilia (daughter of Anton Kress and Eva Wehner) was born on 18 Aug 1851 in Fulda, Enoch Township, Noble County, Ohio, USA; died on 10 Jan 1926 in Washington County, Ohio, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Franz Jacob Singer immigrated with his family to the United States in April 1843 on board the packet ship La Duchesse d?Orleans. Jacob and Magdelena already had three children, and Magdelena was pregnant with a fourth child when they left for America. While attempting to board ship in Le Havre, France, they were delayed because of a question regarding their origin and citizenship. (In 1843 "Germany" did not exist, as we know it now. It was a conglomeration of independent states.) As a result of the postponement of the family's travel plans, and Magdelena's advancing pregnancy, Jacob and Magdelena's daughter Catherine was born during the Atlantic crossing on 20 Mar 1843. Fellow passengers took up a collection and presented the Singers with the equivalent of about $200 to celebrate Catherine's birth. La Duchesse d'Orleans arrived in New York on 22 Apr 1843. The route by which the family traveled to Ohio is not known, but Jacob Singer eventually brought his family to Monroe County, Ohio. He used the $200 given to him by his fellow passengers along with other money to purchase a tract of several hundred acres of land in what is now Lewisville, Ohio on Willis Creek. He turned this area into a prosperous farm.
Despi te its name, the Duchesse d'Orleans was an American ship, according to Robert Greenhalgh Albion, Square-Riggers on Schedule: The New York Sailing Packets to England, France, and the Cotton Ports (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1938), p. 286. She was built in New York in 1838 by Webb & Allen, and from 1838 to 1852 belonged of the Havre Union Packet Line, and belonged to the Baltimore registry in 1866. Her measurements were as follows:
ton nage: 798 (old custom house measurement)
length: 155' 6"
beam: 34' 2"
depth of hold: 20' 6"

The master, from 1838 to 1849, was Addison Richardson (d. Brooklyn 1872). Ibid., p. 340. The Duchesse d?Orleans was still in service as late as 1891. White, James Terry, The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time (J.T. White, 1895), vol. 2, p. 263.

Gi ven that La Duchesse d'Orleans is described as a "ship", it is important to recall the distinction between sloops, schooners, brigs and ships. The sloop, which was generally the smallest type, had a single mast, supporting a large fore-and-aft sail. The schooner likewise had fore-and-aft sails, generally with two masts but occasionally, even then, with three. The brig had two masts, but was square-rigged; that is, each mast supported several sails, which crossed from side to side of the vessel instead of lying fore-and-aft. Finally, the full-rigged ship had three masts, all of which were square-rigged. The nautical purists are careful not to use the word "ship" as a synonym for vessel, when brigs or schooners might be included in the term. A fifth type, the bark, began to be common in the 'thirties [1830's]. It had three masts, the first two of which were square-rigged and the third fore-and-aft. In size, it usually fitted in between the brig and the ship. On the whole, the relative size of the four main classes ran up-wards from the sloop through the schooner and brig to the ship. There was considerable overlapping, however, for the largest vessels in a lower category were generally of greater tonnage than the smallest in the next higher grade. Albion, p. 13.

A "packet" does not represent a "type" of vessel, but its function ? i.e., a vessel that sails a set course on a regular schedule. In this
respect the packet differs from the "transient" or "tramp" (which picks
up cargoes wherever it can find them and carries them to whatever port business at the moment directs, with no set course of predetermined schedule) and from the "regular trader" (which limit itself to trade between two or more particular ports, but follows no fixed schedule). In order to maintain a regular schedule, more than one ship (all true packets were full-rigged ships) was required, and packets were organized into "lines" (the origin of the term "liner"); the earliest true line was the "Black Ball" line between New York and Liverpool, and the first sailings took place in January 1818. The Havre Union Line, to which the Duchesse d'Orleans belonged, was initiated in 1823.

Franz married Maria Magdalena Zwick on 2 Oct 1834 in Bruchweiler-Bärenbach, Pfalz, Bayern. Maria (daughter of Franz Zwick and Margaretha Erhard) was born on 9 Jun 1815 in Bruchweiler-Bärenbach, Pfalz; died on 2 Jan 1896 in Fulda, Enoch Township, Noble County, Ohio, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Anton married Eva Wehner. Eva was born on 14 Apr 1811 in Hessen; died on 9 Oct 1884 in Fulda, Enoch Township, Noble County, Ohio, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]