Anna Wanderscheid née Reisch, 1868-1938

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 16 April 1868, Luxemburg or Germany      

Death: 5 March 1938, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Frank Wanderscheid 

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None.

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standard

Anna Wanderscheid née Reisch was born on April 16, 1868, in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to John Reisch and Mary Boden. She grew up in a small, agricultural nation that, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, was marked by poverty and sweeping economic change. During this period, Luxembourg experienced one of its most significant waves of emigration. As reported by RTL Today, “In a time of overpopulation and economic change, the newly independent Grand Duchy saw one of the most significant waves of emigration. Between 1841 and 1890, a third of the population left the country, of which nearly 50,000 emigrated to the United States.” Like so many of her countrymen, Anna chose to seek opportunity abroad.

In 1889, Anna immigrated to the United States, settling in Chicago, Illinois. She likely traveled with her younger brother Christopher. Her brother John followed in 1902, and in 1908 her married sister, Margaret Hipp, and Margaret’s husband also made the journey. There is no record indicating that Anna’s parents ever came to the United States. In 1894, Anna became a naturalized American citizen.

In 1900, Anna married Frank Wanderscheid, who had also been born in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on December 6, 1861, to John Wanderscheid and Ann Smith. He had immigrated to Chicago in 1889 at the age of twenty-eight and was naturalized in 1894. Together, Anna and Frank shared not only their homeland, but also the immigrant experience in America.

Soon after their marriage, Anna and Frank moved west, eventually settling in Seabeck, Washington. The 1910 census records them living at Lone Rock on Pioneer Road. Anna’s siblings later left Chicago as well and joined her in Seabeck, reestablishing close family ties in their new community. Anna and Frank were both multilingual, able to speak French, German, and English—an asset that reflected both their Luxembourgish heritage and their adaptability in America.

In Seabeck, Frank worked first as a farmer and later as a laborer in a logging camp, contributing to the developing economy of the Pacific Northwest. Although Anna and Frank did not have children of their own, they remained closely connected to their extended family and community.

Frank died on April 9, 1936, at the age of seventy-four, at Sunnyvale Hospital in Port Orchard, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage and spending five days under care. Anna continued living in their Seabeck home until her death on March 5, 1938, when she suffered a heart attack.

According to Fred Just’s plot map, Anna and Frank are buried side by side in unmarked graves next to the Rostad family in the southwestern corner of Seabeck Cemetery, near the fence line. Their graves were likely once marked with metal nameplates that have since been lost, but their shared journey—from Luxembourg to Chicago and finally to the Pacific Northwest—remains a testament to the resilience and determination of their generation.