Josef and Josefa Rusch
Josef Rusch
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Josefa Rusch (née Jager)
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According to the Dornbirn, Austria city archives, Josef
Rusch is born on April 17, 1858 to Maria Katharina Rusch in Dornbirn, Austria.
We believe that he was born out of wedlock, as Maria Katharina was not married
at the time of his birth. We also believe that he received his name after his
grandfather “Anton”, which was Maria Katharina’s father. We also believe that
he became a member of the Zoppel family once Maria Katharina married Josef
Anton Zopel, two years after his birth.
According to the city archives, Josef married Josefa Jager on July 4, 1881. The name Jager in German directly translates to “Hunter”. The couple quickly started their family just seven months after their marriage, and eventually had a total of six children. However, we believe the first child may have been a miscarriage since no living members have any memory of Josefa Elizabetha.
At the time of their first child, Josef was age 24 and Josefa was age 19. |
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A Laborer by Trade
Although not much is known about Josef Anton, we do know that he worked as a laborer and likely worked many odd jobs to help support his growing family. During our search for clues about Josef Anton's life, we uncovered about one dozen job certificate documents of his. The following two job certificate documents regarding Anton's work have been translated.
When researching this document, we discovered that Arbon is a town in Switzerland. Arbon, Switzerland is a neighboring town located about 30 minutes from Dornbirn where Anton was from. Find where Arbon, Switzerland is on the map in relationship to Dornbirn.
When researching this document, we discovered that Bludenz is a neighboring town in Austria, and again located about 30 minutes from Dornbirn where Anton was from. Find where Bludenz, Austria is on the map in relationship to Dornbirn.
Big Family Met With Big Loss
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By 1889, the couple had their last child, Josef Anton Rusch. This means Josefa had six children in approximately 8 years.
Unfortunately, just 10 days after Josef Anton was born, Josefa died. She was just 26 years old. And, the family suffered another great loss when Josef (Josefa's husband) died just two years later in 1891. He was just 33 years old. This left the five living children as orphans. To the left, Josef Rusch is pictured with four children, who we believe are Berta (the oldest), Rudolph (in the back right), Karl (striped clothing), and Rosina (on the left). We assume that Josef Anton (b. 1889) is not pictured. |
The causes of both Josefa and Josef’s deaths are unknown. For Josefa, we suspect there were complications during her pregnancy and at birth, which we assume to be common during that time. For Josef, we believe he died of a disease or some other type of illness as he was only 33 at the time of his death.