Julius Karl Proeger

Julius Karl Proeger

WürttembergConfirmed

The immigrant · 1844–1924

Born

15 April 1844

Died

6 January 1924, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Parents

Georg Melchior Julius Prüger

Sources

14

Images

5

Life in the order the records give it

Birth1844

Born 15 April 1844 at Kirchberg an der Jagst, Oberamt Gerabronn, Württemberg

the register writes the place Gerabronn, Kirchberg u. Oa., and his siblings' entries read Kirchberg (OA. Gerabronn) — and baptised Carl Julius Prüger at that Lutheran parish on 28 April — the Württemberg church book S69, matched to the exact birth date on his Pennsylvania death certificate S68

Death1924

Died 6 January 1924, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, aged 79; buried Smithfield East End Cemetery, Pittsburgh S19

Arrival1874

He was naturalized in 1874, at Pittsburgh

his own 1920 census line reads immigrated 1865, Na 1874, and his son's sworn 1919 passport application gives the same year and says the certificate was presented S179S180. The certificate is still unlocated; the passport file's own pointer is passport no. 50070 of 16 June 1917.

Census1920

In January 1920, widowed, he owned 711 N. St. Clair Street, Pittsburgh, with his daughter Gertrude and her husband Godfrey Murfin S179; Gertrude was still in the house when she died in 1956 and was buried at Smithfield S181. A son, Julius Jr, born Pittsburgh 29 July 1867, married Ida Waggoner S180.

Census1880

In June 1880 he was a machinist on Virginia Street, Pittsburgh Ward 32, with Mena and four children: Julius 12, George 8, Frederick 6 and Mena 2 S183.

Ten Proeger arrivals from Bremen, Hamburg and Rotterdam between 1857 and 1891 are indexed S2. The nearest fit by age is "PROEGER, JULS., from Germany, age 21, laborer, New York, 1 November 1865, ship Saxonia" — a 21-year-old in 1865 was born about 1844. That is arithmetic, not evidence. He has deliberately not been attached to it.

Six United States glass patents, 1876–1919, all his — a pattern maker and molder, never his clerk son (the attribution argument):

• US D8,942, 1 February 1876 — Design for a bird relish dish
• US D20,079, 1890 — Design for glass vessels
• US D21,113, 13 October 1891 — Ornamentation of glassware
• US D21,181, 24 November 1891 — Design for tableware — "Pioneer's Victoria"
• US 580,716, 13 April 1897 — Hollow glassware
• US 1,320,091, 28 October 1919 — Sheet glass

Family parents, marriages, children, siblings

Names—

Also recorded as Carl Julius Proeger and Julius Proeger. The middle initial "H" appears on a NUMIDENT but belongs to the father, not the son; it does not distinguish them.

Siblings1838

🔑 Sister: Christiane Juliane Prüger, b. 25 Oct 1838 Kirchberg an der Jagst, m. 28 May 1861 Johann Georg Fux of Schwieberdingen, d. 3 Feb 1911

the first sibling of the immigrant ever documented, named with both of his own parents on a Württemberg family register S159. She stayed in Württemberg.

Parents1844

Parents, both on the baptism register: Georg Melchior Julius Prüger, Bürger und Schuhmachermeister

the death certificate says the father is unknown, so this name exists on the register alone — and Elisabeth Catharina, née Lösch. Her given name is read three ways: Elisabeth Catharina on the 1844 register, Elisabethe Sabina on the FamilySearch index of the 1835 Triensbach marriage, Lossetta on the 1924 death certificate. The register is contemporaneous and is preferred; the surname Lösch is identical on all three S69S68S122

Parents2026

His grandparents, new on 20 September 2026 and Probable

named on three FamilySearch index entries and on no image: Johann Leonhard David Proeger ⚭ Eva Barbara Schmidt, and on his mother's side Joh. Friedrich Melchior Lösch ⚭ Maria Dorothea Wolf of Crailsheim S122S123. ⚠️ Corrected 26 September 2026: Eva Barbara was his father's stepmother; the 1804 birth register names his father's mother as Anna Maria Busch S591

Children1930

🆕 Two of his children in 1930, added 24 September 2026. His daughter Caroline was married to Charles W. Ross, a food-products salesman in Pittsburgh, with their children Karl P. and Katherine S355. His son Lewis W. (Walter) managed a laundry and owned his house at Swissvale, with his wife May and their children May and Walter S356.

Open questions what is probable, weak or missing — confirm or correct it

Not found

This is the immigrant generation of the Proeger line. Parish of origin, port, ship and date of arrival are all on record. Naturalisation is still Not found

and it is not on FamilySearch: a full-text search of Allegheny County naturalisation and citizenship records returned nothing at all on 20 September 2026, the corpus holding no Allegheny images. It is now a NARA Philadelphia or Allegheny County Division of Court Records request. He owned property in Pittsburgh by 1887, so it had already happened.

Photos & documents 0 photos · 5 documents

Documents (5)

Documents · 5 page images all documents

Retrieved from the UNT Libraries' Portal to Texas History, or — for the University of Texas Cactus yearbooks — from Texas ScholarWorks. Each thumbnail opens the full page scan, which can also be downloaded. The quoted text is the OCR that ships with the scan, copied verbatim; the page image is the authority.

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1880 United States Federal Census — Pittsburgh Ward 32, ED 169, p. 26 (Ancestry coll. 6742, record 28666117) · **S183** — page p. 26

Federal census schedule · 7 June 1880

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Julius Proeger Jr, son of Julius Karl Proeger (Earl's 3rd great-grandfather) — U.S. passport application, 1919

Passport application · 25 November 1919

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1920 United States Federal Census — Pittsburgh Ward 11, ED 471, sheet 5A (Ancestry coll. 6061, record 99550057, image 4385023_00859) · **S179** — page sheet 5A

Federal census schedule · 1920-01

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Pennsylvania death certificate no. 677 — Allegheny County, filed 8 Jan 1924 (Ancestry coll. 5164) · full resolution 3124 × 2964 px — page no. 677

Vital record — death certificate · 6 January 1924

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Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., Samson Funeral Home Records, 1866-1982 (Ancestry coll. 63100, record 105004976, image 63100_c8afcfcb_0102-00683) · **S181** — page sheet 39

Funeral home record · 21 March 1956

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In the record Generation 5 — the immigrants and the frontier

1. S2Texas Marriage Index and Washington State Archives, republished verbatim at SortedByName.com — sortedbyname.com/letter_p/proeger/index_2.html and /index_1.html. Also the source for the Social Security NUMIDENT extracts and the immigration arrival index.
2. S19FindAGrave memorials 85739377 (Julius Karl Proeger, 1844–1924) and 85739357 (Minnie Margaret Kochendoerfer Proeger, memorialised 1848–1912; the year is superseded by [S137]), Smithfield East End Cemetery, Pittsburgh — findagrave.com/memorial/85739377.
3. S68Julius Proeger — Pennsylvania death certificate, 6 January 1924. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, file no. 677, registration district Pittsburgh, Allegheny County; Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906–1972 (Ancestry collection 5164), Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Read on the certificate image 16 September 2026. Date of birth April 15, 1844, age 79, widower, retired; birthplace Germany; maiden name of mother Loesch, her birthplace Germany. The certificate names the mother and not the father — line 11 reads unknown Proeger. The father's given names came from S69, a different record on a different continent. This is also the record whose 15 April 1844 birth date made that match provable rather than plausible.
4. S69Carl Julius Prüger — Lutheran baptism, Kirchberg an der Jagst (Oberamt Gerabronn), Württemberg, 28 April 1844. Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500–1985 (Ancestry collection 61023), retrieved 16 September 2026. Born 15 April 1844, between 11 and 12 noon, baptised 28 April 1844 at Kirchberg an der Jagst, Oberamt Gerabronn, Württemberg — the register writes the place Gerabronn, Kirchberg u. Oa. (today Baden-Württemberg); father Georg Melchior Julius Prüger, Bürger und Schuhmachermeister dahier; mother Elisabeth Catharina geb. Lösch. Entry no. 22, original scan 5759 × 4607 px. The record that ended the "somewhere in Germany" wall on this line, and the origin of the Prüger spelling that was anglicised to Proeger in America. The identification rests on an exact birth-date match with S68, not on the name alone. ⚠ Superseded note, corrected 20 September 2026: this entry previously said the mother's name was lost in the binding fold and that her surname came from S68 alone. That was a limitation of a low-resolution screenshot, not of the record — at full resolution the line is legible, and the Schrift im Falz verdeckt flag on the film refers to a gutter this entry sits clear of. The register names the mother, and it is the best of the three readings of her given name — see S122. The parish is Kirchberg an der Jagst and the Oberamt is Gerabronn: the siblings' entries read Kirchberg (OA. Gerabronn), and Julius gave Kirchberg as his home to the Hamburg clerk in 1865.
5. S122Georg Melchior Julius Proeger & Elisabethe Sabina Lösch — marriage, Triensbach, Crailsheim, Württemberg, 1835. Germany, Marriages, 1558–1929, FamilySearch ARK 1:1:NZMF-P6V (bride's entry 1:1:NZMF-P6F), read 20 September 2026. Groom born 1804 at Ertenbrechtshausen, single; bride born 1803 at Crailsheim. His parents: Joh. Leonhard David Proeger and Eva Barbara Schmidt. Her parents: Joh. Friedrich Melchior Lösch and Maria Dorothea Wolf. This is the record that names a seventh generation on the Proeger side and a sixth on the Lösch side. It is an index entry, not an image: everything it supplies is Probable until a parish register page is read at Triensbach or Crailsheim. ⚠ Three readings of one woman's given name. This index says Elisabethe Sabina; the 1844 Kirchberg baptism register, written at the time and read at full resolution, says Elisabeth Catharina [S69]; Julius's 1924 Pennsylvania death certificate says Lossetta [S68]. The surname Lösch is identical on all three, and this record takes the contemporaneous register as primary. ⚠ The birthplace is a lead, not a finding. The FamilySearch shared tree says Schwäbisch Hall; both index originals say Erten- or Entenbrechtshausen, two readings of one hand, and Erkenbrechtshausen is a real hamlet 3½ km from the Triensbach church. The place-standardiser separately mangled the baptism entry into "Kirchberg an der Iller, Biberach", 150 km south. Always read the original place field, never the standardised one. ⚠ Corrected 26 September 2026: his 1804 birth register [S591] names his mother as Anna Maria Busch. Eva Barbara Schmid(t) was his stepmother, his father's second wife from 1806, and she raised him.
6. S123Georg Melchior Julius Proeger — birth 1804 and death 1870, Württemberg. Germany, Births and Baptisms, 1558–1898, FamilySearch ARK 1:1:NNGB-R2B: born 25 July 1804, died 4 February 1870; father Joh. Leonhard David Proeger, mother Eva Barbara Schmidt. Corroborated by Germany, Deaths and Burials, 1582–1958, ARK 1:1:J7HM-PXK: died 1870, born 25 July 1804 at "Entenbrechtshausen". Both read 20 September 2026. Two more index entries, agreeing with S122 on the parents and adding the dates Julius's father had never had. Probable: no image read. ⚠ A fourth ARK, 1:1:J7HM-PX2, displays as "Joh. Leonhard David Proeger, Father … Birth: Entenbrechtshausen". Do not cite that as the father's birthplace — it is almost certainly the indexer propagating the principal's birthplace onto the relationship row. Johann Leonhard David Proeger and Eva Barbara Schmidt as people — their own baptisms, their marriage, their dates — remain Not found; their FamilySearch profiles are hollow and carry no source but these. ⚠ Corrected 26 September 2026: his 1804 birth register [S591] names his mother as Anna Maria Busch. Eva Barbara Schmid(t) was his stepmother, his father's second wife from 1806, and she raised him.
7. S159Württemberg family register — Ev. Landeskirche SCHWIEBERDINGEN, Familienregister Band 25, opening pp. 366b/367: the household of Johann Georg Fux, whose second wife is a DAUGHTER of Georg Melchior Julius Prüger and Elisabeth Sabina Lösch. Ancestry collection 61389, records 3576174 and 3576173 (one image closes both hints), image 1056758-00638, film stamp 000262. Read from the image at full resolution — 6447 × 4585 px, 117/117 DeepZoom tiles, 22 September 2026. Hausvater: Johann Georg Fux, kath., Gürtlermeister hier, b. 7 Jul 1821, d. 14 Okt 1910, son of Matthäus Fux and Barbara geb. Hornung. Copulation I, 25 Nov 1850: Maria Ana geb. Pfrogg (1822–1857). Copulation II, 28 Mai 1861, zu KIRCHBERG a. d. Jagst: Christiane Juliane Erdlin, geb. PRÜGER, evang., born 25 Okt 1838 zu Kirchberg, died 3 Febr. 1911. Her parents are written out in the register's own rows: "II V." — Georg Melchior Prüger, B[ürger] u. Schuhma[cher] in Kirchberg a. J., and "II M." — Elisabeth Sabina geb. Lösch. 🔑 THE FIRST SIBLING OF THE IMMIGRANT EVER DOCUMENTED. Until this page the Proeger line held Julius Karl Proeger and his parents and nothing beside him — no brother, no sister. Christiane Juliane Prüger, born at Kirchberg on 25 October 1838, is his elder sister, five and a half years before his own 28 April 1844 baptism in the same parish S69. She stayed in Württemberg, married a Schwieberdingen belt-maker, and died there in 1911. 🔑 The identification does not rest on the surname. It rests on four points in the two parent rows that agree with the 1844 Kirchberg baptism: the given names Georg Melchior; the trade Schuhmacher; the town Kirchberg an der Jagst; and the wife's full name with maiden surname, Elisabeth Sabina geb. Lösch. A parish 80 km away, with no access to the Kirchberg book, wrote all four. 🔑 "Sabina" is no longer index-only — and the name is still not settled. Her given name was Elisabeth Catharina on the 1844 Kirchberg baptism S69, Elisabethe Sabina on a FamilySearch index of the 1835 Triensbach marriage, and Lossetta on her son's 1924 death certificate S68. This is a second ORIGINAL register giving Sabina. Two originals now disagree, written by different parishes for different purposes, and neither is overturned here. The existing hedge stands with a second witness cited. ⚠ Ancestry indexes the parents' surname as Sträger. The image reads Prüger at 4×, same hand, same word — but the initial cluster is not beyond dispute even at 4×, and this is flagged rather than quietly corrected. Nothing above depends on it. ⚠ "Residence Place: Schwieberdingen" is REJECTED for both ancestors. Ancestry offers it as new. Schwieberdingen is the parish of the book and of the daughter's married household; Georg Melchior and Elisabeth Sabina are named as absent parents, at Kirchberg. Neither ever lived there on this evidence. ⚠ "Erdlin" is a MARRIED name. She was already widowed or once married before 28 May 1861 at twenty-two. That first marriage is not on this page and has not been looked for. ⚠ The third given name "Julius" is not on this page — a family table abbreviates. Not a conflict, but not corroborated here either. ⚠ The children block for the second marriage is EMPTY. That proves none were entered in this book, not that there were none.
8. S1791920 U.S. Federal Census — Julius Proeger, 711 N. St. Clair Street, Pittsburgh Ward 11. Ancestry collection 6061, record 99550057, image 4385023_00859; SD 24, ED 471, sheet 5A, enumerated January 1920. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. Julius Proeger, head, 75, widowed, owns the house free, immigrated 1865, naturalized 1874, born Germany (Württemberg) as were both his parents, speaks English, no occupation; daughter Gertrude P. Murfin, 32; son-in-law Godfrey Murfin, 43, born England, commercial traveller in linen; and a granddaughter. 🔑 He was naturalized in 1874 — the year the index drops. His son's sworn 1919 statement gives the same year [S180]; the certificate itself is still unlocated. 🔑 Immigrated 1865, in his own household's answer, agreeing with the Saxonia crossing. ⚠ Gertrude is marked alien: under the 1907 Expatriation Act a US-born woman took her English husband's nationality.
9. S180Passport application of Julius Proeger Jr — New York, 25 November 1919. U.S., Passport Applications, 1795–1925, Ancestry collection 1174, record 600918579, image USM1490_995-0672; application no. 143646. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. Julius Proeger, native citizen, born Pittsburgh on or about 29 July 1867, sales manager, travelling with his wife Ida Waggoner Proeger, born Pittsburgh 3 October 1869, to sell for export in Central and South America. "My father Julius Proeger was born in Germany (Wurtemburg) and is now residing at Pittsburgh, Pa.; he emigrated to the United States from the port of Hamburgh on or about October 15, 1865 … resided 54 years uninterruptedly in the United States … naturalized … at Pittsburgh, Pa., on 1874." 🔑 A son of Julius and Minnie not otherwise on this site: Julius Jr, born 1867. 🔑 Sworn, and the father alive at the time: Hamburg, mid-October 1865, and naturalisation at Pittsburgh in 1874. The disposition line reads Father's naturalization papers on passport No. 50070, 6/16/17 — the file that should hold a copy of the 1874 certificate.
10. S181H. Samson funeral home ledger — funeral of Gertrude (Proeger) Murfin, Pittsburgh, 21 March 1956. Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., Samson Funeral Home Records, 1866–1982, Ancestry collection 63100, record 105004976, image 63100_c8afcfcb_0102-00683. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. Funeral of Gertrude "Croeger" Murfin (the clerk's C for P), charged to the estate of Gertrude C. Murfin c/o Mr. Godfrey Murfin, 711 N. St. Clair St., Pittsburgh; services 21 March 1956, 2 P.M., Smithfield Cem.; total $1,194.95, paid 6 April. 🔑 Julius's daughter, still in his house 36 years after the 1920 census [S179], and buried in the cemetery where her parents lie. ⚠ The personal-details face of the sheet (age, parents, informant) was not fetched; Ancestry's Julius and Wilhelmina come from that face and are not read here.
11. S1831880 U.S. Federal Census — Julius "Prager" household, Virginia Street, Pittsburgh Ward 32. Ancestry collection 6742, record 28666117, image 4244222-00374; SD 4, ED 169, page 26, enumerated 7 June 1880. Read from the image at full resolution, 22 September 2026. Julius, 35, machinist, born Württemberg ("Wertenberg"); Mena, 32, wife; sons Julius 12, George 8, Frederick 6, and Mena 2, all born Pennsylvania. 🔑 Three children not otherwise on this record: George (c.1872), Frederick (c.1874) and Mena (c.1878). None is at home in 1900. Mena's 32 fits Minnie's November 1847 birth [S184]. ⚠ The family is indexed as Prager.
12. S3551930 U.S. Federal Census — Charles W. Ross household, Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Ancestry record 48461677. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed Charles W. Ross, 49, b. Indiana, salesman of food products, renting at no. 5601; wife Caroline, 42, b. Pa., both parents b. Germany (Württemberg); son Karl P., 14; daughter Katherine, 12. Caroline is Julius Karl Proeger's daughter: her son Karl P. Ross was the informant on her 1958 death certificate, which names Julius as her father. Her age of 42 fits the tree's 1888 birth.
13. S3561930 U.S. Federal Census — Lewis W. Proeger household, 1107 La Clair St., Swissvale, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Ancestry record 49140072. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed Lewis W. Proeger, 49, laundry manager, owns his house ($18,000), first married at 35; wife May, 49, b. Ohio; children May, 11, and Walter, 9. The first record of his marriage; May's maiden name is not known. The index's “Praeger” is wrong: the image reads Proeger.
14. S591Württemberg, Germany, Lutheran Parish Registers — Triensbach, births 1804, p. 9, no. 10: Georg Melchior Julius Proeger, 25 July 1804. Ancestry record 16796853, image 1860313-00512. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed Son of Johann Leonhard David, Tüncher Mstr. at Erkenbrechtshausen, and Maria geb. Büschin (Anna Maria Busch); born at Erkenbrechtshausen. This is his birth register, and it names his mother as Anna Maria Busch, not Eva Barbara Schmid. The 1835 marriage index and the 1870 burial name Eva Barbara, his stepmother, who raised him.