Catharina Maria Dorothea Lorette Reimers - Parents are wrong.

Hi Katherine:

There indeed seems to be confusion on the Australian side. The only thing really known of the wife of Hans Heinrich Fritz Koops from Australian records is that she was named Mary and died in 1870, supposedly aged 48 (see for example Australia Death Index: https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/5782182:1779)

Their son Ernest Heinrich Fritz Koops was indeed born 15 Oct 1845 in Mecklenburg, Germany - but not as "Ernest Heinrich Fritz Koops", but as "Hans Heinrich Fritz Reimers", the illegitimate child of Hans Heinrich Fritz Koops and Catharina Maria Dorothea Reimers. The birth took place in Soltow, which belonged to the parish of Boizenburg. One of the godfathers was a Hans Reimers from Soltow. Baptism can be seen here, third entry on right: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61229/images/00690.... For the location of Soltow, see https://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=SOltow%2C%20Boizenburg#m...

By the time their second child Franz Heinrich Joachim Wilhelm Koops was born, the parents were married. This birth also took place not in Adelaide, but in Soltow, with baptism in Boizenburg, and with a Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Reimers of Soltow as one of the godparents (second entry on right-hand side here: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61229/images/00690...)

It appears that Australian genealogists have just randomly picked candidates from several tens of miles away - both your Catharina Maria Dorothea Loretta from Mölln and another Catharina Maria Dorothea born 1822 in Sankt Georgsberg parish appear in Australian Ancestry trees. I believe a more likely candidate is the Catharina Maria Dorothea born 9 Dec 1818 as the illegitimate child of Johann Heinrich Lange of Timkenberg and Catharina Maria Reimers of Resin and baptised in the parish of Blücher - the next parish to the east from Boizenburg (fourth entry from bottom on left side here: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61229/images/00690...). But the appearance of two Reimers from Soltow as godparents at the baptisms of the two children born in Germany suggests that there was also a Reimers family right there in Soltow, and perhaps Catharina Maria Dorothea Reimers should be looked for right there.

In any case, it appears to me that Catharina Maria Dorothea Lorette Reimers should be detached from the parents currently assigned to her, and the birthdate and birthplace currently listed for her should be wiped out until the correct Catharina Maria Dorothea Reimers in or near Soltow has been identified, and meanwhile a new Catharina Maria Dorothea Lorette Reimers, daughter of Johann Bernhard Reimers and wife of a Grimm, should be created. I don't have the powers to do that, but perhaps a curator can help with this.