Any Seab Family Out There?

I am back in town so we shall be doing some more posting over the weekend. I am putting this post up just to see if anyone bites in the future.

I have a interest in genealogy. I am now starting in my spare time to sort of it map it out. Also I am a Catholic convert. Catholic converts of course at times can be mighty weird ducks. I think many of us at times wonder when our various lines lost our Catholicism. Because at some point we were all Catholic for the most part. That is a sideline to my research but something I enjoy exploring.

Anyway, one of family lines is traced back to our German(Prussia) ancestor Joesph Seab and his wife Helena Nieneber. Joesph Seab according to family tradition stowed away on a ship bound for New York. He was from Oldenburg Germany. He became a merchant/peddler and went all over the United States. He ended up in glorious Natchez Mississippi. He later married Marie Helen Nieneber who happened to also be from Oldenburg Germany. There is speculation that they knew each other in the Old Country and once he was established he sent for her.

He was naturalized according to my Grandmother's Uncle John Graves(who wrote all this stuff up)under the name Seab. According to one source like many immigrants he shorten the name to Seab. Uncle Graves thought the name might have been Seabachorline. That very well could be. However google does not produce much of a result on that name.

One fun aspect of family history is the guessing game. It has not gone unnoticed that he picked up a very Jewish like profession when he came to the US. Many merchants and peddlers in the Suuth were Jewish. Could he have been Jewish? His future wife was a very devout Catholic. Did they fall in love in Germany and plan to start a new life in America? Who knows at this point. It is clear though that if was Jewish he did not practice the Jewish faith in Mississippi. I intend to do some research into this later on. Anywho my Great Great Great Grandmother(and probally Grandfather) were Catholics.

They settled near what is now Roxie Mississippi on Franklin Country not too far away from Natchez. They produced the following line from which most of the "Seab" family appears to descend. Their Children ,according to the 1860 Census, were Augustus, Marg, Franck, Louisa, Helen, and Mary.

My line comes from Helena Marie Seab that happened to marry a Graves. We know that Helena was raised in the Catholic Faith and attended the Catholic school in Natchez. However once she married she joined the faith of her Husband and became Baptist!!! Ah one might wonder if she had held on a little, if the Catholic lines would have continued. However that is what happened. I cannnot tell at this point if the Catholic Faith held on to any other degree in the other family lines. It appears it did not from what I can see on the obits so far. This also might indicate again the possibility of that Joesph Seab was not a Cradle Catholic and thus did not have such a devotion to it. One cannot tell at this point, but I do intend to see what Chruch records have survived form the Diocese of Natchez and see what I can find.

Anyway, the Catholic sideline is but a small interest I have in all this. Most of my family information I have available goes and concerns itself with the "Graves" family history. A fascinating history in itself I intend to explore. Howeever, when one looks at the Social Security Death Index it appears that most Seabs have a connection to the Joesph Seab line. That is good because it is easier to make connections.

However, it does seem that I keep hitting a dead end as to family and Cousins in Germany. That is either on the "Seab" line or the the "Nieneber" line. It should be noted that Oldenburg Germany suffered very little damage during World War II. It would be interesting to see if any Seabs have found any information about our orgins there. If are one give me a holler.

Ok on to other topics