Katharina Nigon

FAMILY LINE AND HISTORY

Katharina Nigon
3rd of 13 children of Nicholas Nigon & Barbara Leinen
Born: Sep 14, 1876, Hilbringen, Saarland, Germany
Died: Dec 18, 1876 (age 3 months), Hilbringen, Saarland, Germany
Buried: Saarland, Germany

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Timeline and Records

Spellings and information in the census and other records
are retained as in the original documents.
(italicized clarifications or corrections are in parentheses)

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Thirteen children of Nicholas Nigon & Barbara Leinen:


1. Barbara Nigon
1873–1937
2. Lena Nigon
1874–1915
3. Katharina Nigon
1876–1876
4. Maria “Mary” Nigon
1878–1966
5. Nicholas “Nick” Nigon
1880–1968
6. Michael “Mike” Nigon
1882–1971
7. John “Jack” Nigon
1884–1969
8. Katherine Nigon
1885–1940
9. Anna Clara Nigon
1887–1948
10. Francis “Frank” Nigon
1890–1953
11. Margaret Mary Nigon
1892–1992
12. Teresa Anna Nigon
1894–1990
13. Elizabeth Susanna “Jane” Nigon
1897–1930

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Sep 14, 1876: Birth of Katharina Nigon, the 3rd of 13 children of Nicholas Nigon & Barbara Leinen, in Hilbringen, Saarland, Germany

Sept 14, 1876: Katharina Nigon birth certificate:

Sept 14, 1876: Katharina Nigon birth certificate, English translation using ChatGPT:
No. 63
Hilbringen, on September 14, 1876

Before the undersigned registrar appeared today, personally known,
Johann Theobald Schweinlingen, midwife,
residing in Schweinlingen,
and declared that the farmer Nikolas Nigon,
residing in Ripplingen,
of Catholic religion,
and his wife Barbara Nigon, née Leinen,
of Catholic religion,
residing with him in Ripplingen,
on the 13th of September of the year one thousand eight hundred seventy-six
at 5 o’clock in the morning,
had a female child born,
who was given the first name Katharina.

Read aloud, approved, and signed:
[signed] Nigon
The Registrar
[signed] Sitz
Certified to match the main register
Hilbringen, September 14, 1876
The Registrar

Dec 16, 1876: Death of Katharina/Catherine Nigon (age three months), the 3rd of 13 children of Nicholas Nigon & Barbara Leinen, in Hilbringen, Saarland, Germany

Note: Katharina’s official birth certificate reflects Sep 14, 1876 as her birth date; her death record reflects Dec 18, 1876 as her date of death. This Baptismal Certificate may be incorrectly transcribed.

Dec 16, 1876: Saarland, German Deaths:
Name Katharina Nigon
Age 3/12
Birth Date abt 1876
Death Date 16 Dez 1876 (16 Dec 1876)
Death Place Hilbringen, Saarland, Deutschland (Germany)
Civil Registration Office Hilbringen
Father Nikolaus Nigon (Nikolas/Nicholas Nigon)
Mother Barbara Nigon (Barbara (Leinen) Nigon)
Certificate Number 79
Note: Katharina’s death record below reflects Dec 18, 1876 as her date of death

Dec 18, 1876: Katharina/Catherine Nigon death certificate:

Dec 18, 1876: Katharina Nigon death certificate, English translation using ChatGPT:
No. 74 
Hilbringen, December 18, 1876

Before the undersigned civil registrar appeared today, personally known, the farmer Nikolas Nigon, residing in Ripplingen, and reported that his daughter Katharina Nigon, aged 3 months, of the Catholic religion, residing in Ripplingen, born in Ripplingen, daughter of the informant and his wife Barbara Leinen, residing in Ripplingen, died on the sixteenth of December of the year one thousand eight hundred seventy-six at four o’clock in the afternoon.

Read aloud, approved, and signed.
Signed: Nigon
The Civil Registrar
Signed: Sitz

The conformity with the main register is certified.
Hilbringen, December 18, 1876
The Civil Registrar

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Saarland, Deutschland (Germany)

Saarland state, Germany: Ripplingen is a village in Merzig, Saarland. Ripplingen is situated near the village of Rech, as well as near Schwemlingen.

Saarland is in the southwestern portion of Germany. It is bounded by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate to the north and east, by the countries of France to the south and southwest, and Luxembourg to the northwest. The capital is Saarbrücken. The area consists of 992 square miles (2,569 square km). 

Geography
Bend in the Saar River above Mettlach, Saarland, Germany
The heart of Saarland is an area of thickly forested hills that is crossed from southeast to northwest by the valley of the Saar River. This lowland is framed to the north by the edge of the Hunsrück highland and to the south by the scarps of the French région of Lorraine. The small Blies and Prims rivers flow into the Saar River. The state’s highest point is in the Weiskircher Heights (2,280 feet [695 metres]). The climate is largely continental in character, but a maritime influence is quite evident in Saarland’s moderately warm summers and mild winters. The annual precipitation is about 31 inches.

The majority of Saarland residents are Roman Catholic; the bulk of the remainder belong to the Evangelical and other Protestant churches. Most of the state’s settlements are small agricultural or mining towns. The only area with a pronounced industrial character is a 9-mile- (14-km-) long strip along the Saar River valley between Brebach, a suburb of Saarbrücken, and Völklingen, where several of the state’s large smelting works and steel mills are located. The growth of the mining and iron-producing industries that started during the 19th century attracted workers from all over Germany, greatly increasing the region’s population. 

History
The Celts and Germanic Franks were the earliest known inhabitants of the area, which subsequently became part of the Carolingian empire and the eastern Frankish empire. By the Middle Ages, Saar consisted of several small territories, the largest of which was centred on the city of Saarbrücken. From 1381 to 1793 Saarbrücken was ruled by the counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken. The territory around Saarbrücken, though inhabited by German-speaking people, was much influenced by France in the 150 years following the Peace of Westphalia (1648). Saar became a French province in 1684 under the Truce of Regensburg, but in 1697 France was forced to surrender all of Saar except the town of Saarlouis under the Treaty of Rijswijk. From 1792 to 1815 France again occupied Saar, together with the entire west bank of the Rhine. With the final defeat of Napoleon I in 1815, France was forced to cede most of Saar to Prussia, which made the area part of its Prussian Rhine province. When Alsace-Lorraine was added to the German Empire in 1871, Saar ceased to be a boundary state and experienced rapid industrial development based on its own coal deposits and the iron-ore deposits of Lorraine.

After World War I, Saar’s coal mines were awarded to France, and Saarland was placed under the administration of the League of Nations for 15 years, at the end of which time a plebiscite permitted the inhabitants to choose between being part of France or Germany. In the plebiscite, held on January 13, 1935, more than 90 percent of the inhabitants of Saar voted for its return to Germany.

In 1945, following World War II, French military forces occupied Saarland, and two years later the first Saar state parliament adopted a constitution that called for an autonomous Saar in an economic union with France. By 1954, however, West Germany’s renewed prosperity was attracting the sympathies of most Saarlanders, and in that year France and the Federal Republic of Germany agreed to a statute that provided for Saar’s autonomy under a European commissioner. The new status was to be approved by a referendum; however, 68 percent of Saar’s voters rejected the statute and, by implication, the separation of Saar from Germany. The French subsequently agreed (1956) to the return of Saar to West Germany, and on January 1, 1957, Saarland finally achieved its present status as a federal state of Germany.
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

2025: Researched and compiled by siblings Catherine (Clemens) Sevenau and Gordon Clemens. Thank you to Dana (Walker) Conway for the German records and translations.