TWO CLOSE FAMILIES IN PITTSBURGH

There was a close relationship between my grandparents, Joseph Rhein and Louise Laeng Rhein, and the two families following.

Centner

Joseph Peter Centner (brother of Philomena Margaret Centner married to Marcus Laeng, uncle of Louise Laeng Rhein) and his wife, Mary Ann Schneider Centner. They were members of St. Augustine Parish in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh. Joseph Peter Centner was a sponsor at the baptism of Joseph Rhein at St. Augustine Church on July 23, 1893. Mary Ann Schneider Centner was a sponsor at the baptism of Louise Marie Rhein at St. Augustine Church on August 31, 1902. Joseph Peter Centner was born in Pitt Township, Allegheny County, on October 13, 1844. He is the son of Joseph Centner, born February 25, 1805 in Kandel then a part of Bavaria and who immigrated to the United States, with his wife Margaretha Rectenwald, sometime during the 1830’s settling in Pitt Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

Joseph, born February 25, 1805, is the 3rd great-grandson of Johannes Zentner (Baron von Cententhal) who came to Kandel from Bonn with his four sons sometime after 1677. George Zentner of Panama City, Florida, advised that “Johannes Zentner (Czentner, Czententhal) was born about 1635. He was elevated to nobility in 1659 while with the Silesian Military in the Province of Austria. There is the possibility that he was among the Silesian Army Staff that came to Bonn during the siege of Castle Godesburg south of Bonn in the late 1660’s during the rebellion of the Palatinate.”

Kandel was located in the Lower Palatinate (Lower Pfalz am Rhein) in the Holy Roman Empire in the 17th century and most of the 18th century. Today it is part of the Rheinland-Pfalz. Kandel is slightly northwest of Karlsruhe, Germany and slightly east of the Rhein River, about 50 miles northwest of Strasbourg, France.

Bonn was located in the Lower Palatinate (Lower Pfalz am Rhein) in the Holy Roman Empire. It was the residence of the electors of Cologne to the Holy Roman Empire from 1238 to to 1794. It was destroyed by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg during the Palatinate Succession War of 1689. It was rebuilt, largely in the baroque stlye. It was occupied in 1794 and later annexed (1798-1814) by France. In 1815 it passed to Prussia.

Gless

Felix Gless born in Herrlisheim January 7, 1861 (son of Jean Michel Gless and Marie Anne Schohn) and Sabina Pfaff Gless, daughter of John Pfaff and Barbara (nee unknown) Pfaff of Germany.

Felix Gless arrived Port of New York from Le Havre, September 23, 1880 on the ship Amerique. Sabina Pfaadt Gless came to the United States with her mother and married Felix Gless on February 11, 1888.Felix and Sabina owned and operated a garden farm of 12 acres in Shaler Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It was located about 10 miles west and north across the Allegheny River from the residence of Joseph and Louise Laeng Rhein in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh.

There is a Michel Gless in Herrlisheim as early as the 1690’s. See descendants, signatures of residents, for their signatures.

I have included the above families and their forebears in the Surname Index.