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a pleasure - enjoyed it!!!!

Hi Ann of Green Gables

Many thanks for all your info on Richard Wagner. You really do work hard - and I am very grateful for all the information you have given me.

A big thank you

Rosalyn

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RICHARD WAGNER Pedigree
Male


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Event(s):
Birth: 22 MAY 1813 Leipzig, Leipzig, Sachsen

Christening:
Death: 13 FEB 1883

Burial:


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Parents:
Father: FRIEDRICH WILHELM WAGNER Family
Mother: JOHANNE ROSINE PAETZ

In 1833, Wagner's older brother Karl Albert managed to obtain Richard a position as choir master in Würzburg.[18] In the same year, at the age of 20, Wagner composed his first complete opera, Die Feen (The Fairies). This opera, which clearly imitated the style of Carl Maria von Weber, would go unproduced until half a century later, when it was premiered in Munich shortly after the composer's death in 1883.[19]


Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer (1835), by Alexander von OtterstedtMeanwhile, Wagner held a brief appointment as musical director at the opera house in Magdeburg[20] during which he wrote Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. This was staged at Magdeburg in 1836, but closed before the second performance, leaving the composer (not for the last time) in serious financial difficulties.[21] In 1834 Wagner had fallen for the actress Christine Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer. After the disaster of Das Liebesverbot he followed her to Königsberg where she helped him to get an engagement at the theatre.[22] The two married in Königsberg on 24 November 1836.[23] In June 1837 Wagner moved to the city of Riga, then in the Russian Empire, where he became music director of the local opera.[24] Minna had recently left Wagner for another man[25] but Richard took her back;[26] this was but the first debacle of a troubled marriage that would end in misery three decades later.

By 1839, the couple had amassed such large debts that they fled Riga to escape from creditors[27] (debt would plague Wagner for most of his life).[28] During their flight, they and their Newfoundland dog, Robber, took a stormy sea passage to London,[29] from which Wagner drew the inspiration for The Flying Dutchman (with a story based on a sketch by Heinrich Heine).[30] The Wagners spent 1839 to 1842 in Paris, where Richard made a scant living writing articles and arranging operas by other composers, largely on behalf of the Schlesinger publishing house. However, he also completed his third and fourth operas Rienzi and The Flying Dutchman during this stay.[31] His relief on leaving Paris for Dresden was recorded in his "Autobiographic Sketch" of 1842 – "For the first time I saw the Rhine – with hot tears in my eyes, I, poor artist, swore eternal fidelity to my German fatherland."

In 1829 he saw the dramatic soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient on stage, and she became his ideal of the fusion of drama and music in opera. In his autobiography, Wagner wrote, "If I look back on my life as a whole, I can find no event that produced so profound an impression upon me." Wagner claimed to have seen Schröder-Devrient in the title role of Fidelio; however, it seems more likely that he saw her performance as Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi.[13]

He enrolled at the University of Leipzig in 1831 where he became a member of the Studentenverbindung Corps Saxonia Leipzig. He also took composition lessons with the cantor of Saint Thomas Church, Christian Theodor Weinlig.[14] Weinlig was so impressed with Wagner's musical ability that he refused any payment for his lessons, and arranged for Wagner's piano sonata in B flat (which was consequently dedicated to him) to be published as the composer's op. 1. A year later, Wagner composed his Symphony in C major, a Beethovenesque work performed in Prague in 1832 [15] and at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1833.[16] He then began to work on an opera, Die Hochzeit (The Wedding), which he never completed.[17]

In 1833, Wagner's older brother Karl Albert managed to obtain Richard a position as choir master in Würzburg.[18] In the same year, at the age of 20, Wagner composed his first complete opera, Die Feen (The Fairies). This opera, which clearly imitated the style of Carl Maria von Weber, would go unproduced until half a century later, when it was premiered in Munich shortly after the composer's death in 1883.[19]


Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer (1835), by Alexander von OtterstedtMeanwhile, Wagner held a brief appointment as musical director at the opera house in Magdeburg[20] during which he wrote Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. This was staged at Magdeburg in 1836, but closed before the second performance, leaving the composer (not for the last time) in serious financial difficulties.[21] In 1834 Wagner had fallen for the actress Christine Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer. After the disaster of Das Liebesverbot he followed her to Königsberg where she helped him to get an engagement at the theatre.[22] The two married in Königsberg on 24 November 1836.[23] In June 1837 Wagner moved to the city of Riga, then in the Russian Empire, where he became music director of the local opera.[24] Minna had recently left Wagner for another man[25] but Richard took her back;[26] this was but the first debacle of a troubled marriage that would end in misery three decades later.

Birthplace of Richard Wagner in the Brühl (Leipzig)Wilhelm Richard Wagner was born at No. 3 ('The House of the Red and White Lions'), the Brühl, in the Jewish quarter of Leipzig, on 22 May 1813, the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service,[1] and his wife Johanna Rosine (née Paetz), the daughter of a baker.[2] Wagner's father died of typhus six months after Richard's birth, following which Wagner's mother began living with the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer, who had been a friend of Richard's father.[3] In August 1814 Johanna married Geyer, and moved with her family to his residence in Dresden. Until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly suspected that Geyer was his natural father.[4]

Geyer's love of the theatre was shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography, Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel.[5] The boy Wagner was also hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Weber's Der Freischütz. In late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzel's school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher.[6] He could not manage a proper scale but preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Geyer died in 1821, when Richard was eight. Subsequently, Wagner was sent to the Kreuz Grammar School in Dresden, paid for by Geyer's brother.[7] The young Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright, his first creative effort (listed as 'WWV 1') being a tragedy, Leubald, begun at school in 1826, which was strongly influenced by Shakespeare and Goethe. Wagner was determined to set it to music; he persuaded his family to allow him music lessons.[8]

By 1827, the family had moved back to Leipzig. Wagner's first lessons in harmony were taken in 1828–1831 with Christian Gottlieb Müller.[9] In January 1828 he first heard Beethoven's 7th Symphony and then, in March, Beethoven's 9th Symphony performed in the Gewandhaus. Beethoven became his inspiration, and Wagner wrote a piano transcription of the 9th Symphony.[10] He was also greatly impressed by a performance of the Requiem of Mozart.[11] From this period date Wagner's early piano sonatas and his first attempts at orchestral overtures.[12]

Hi Christine in Portugal

I don't know where I got Christopher Wagners death from as 1901 but will change mine to 1893. I am descended from one of his children Gertrude, who was my grandmother. I am actually trying to trace the family connection to Richard Wagner the composer who, from what my mother told me, is part of our family tree. I think the connection might lie with one of Richard Wagners siblings i.e. he had eight brothers and sisters. He was the ninth member of his family and his father died when he was six months old. Many thanks for your help

I don't see a death in 1901, there is this one but 1893.

Deaths Mar 1893 (>99%)
Wagner Christopher 66 Axbridge 5c 397

How have you got back to this Christopher Wagner, are you descended from one of his children?

You need his marriage cert to find his father's name.

Christine

If that is the marriage here they are in 1891

Name: Christopher Wagner
Age: 69
Estimated birth year: abt 1822
Relation: Head
Spouse's name: Mary Emma Wagner
Gender: Male
Where born: Bristol Swty, Germany
Civil Parish: Weston Super Mare
Ecclesiastical parish: Emmanuel
Town: Weston-Super-Mare
County/Island: Somerset
Country: England
Registration district: Axbridge
Sub-registration district: Weston Super Mare
ED, institution, or vessel: 12
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members:
Name Age
Christopher Wagner 69
Mary Emma Wagner 39
Christopher John Wagner 15
Beatrice Wagner 10
Ernest Wagner 7
Albert Jas Wagner 6/12 
Source Citation: Class: RG12; Piece: 1920; Folio 74; Page 33; GSU roll: 6097030.

ALBERT RICHARD WAGNER Pedigree
Male
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Event(s):
Birth: 30 MAY 1898 Weston Super Mare, Somerset, England

Christening:
Death: 20 JAN 1972
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Parents:
Father: RICHARD AUGUST WAGNER Family
Mother: EMMA LOVELL

Is this the marriage

Marriages Dec 1872   (>99%)
  
Edwards  Mary Emlen    Axbridge  5c 1032   
Wagner  Christopher    Axbridge  5c 1032   

Ann of Green Gables

Many many thanks for your immediate reply. Fantastic information - just what I hoped for.

What a wonderful result!!

Again man thanks
Rosalyn

rather a lot of Chrstopher's!!! 1881

Christopher WAGNER Head M Male 43 Hanover Pedlar Or Hawker
Lema WAGNER Wife M Female 40 Germany
Mary E. WAGNER Daur U Female 18 Sunderland, Durham, England
Christopher WAGNER Son Male 5 Sunderland, Durham, England Scholar
James WAGNER Son Male 3 Sunderland, Durham, England


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Source Information:
Dwelling 36 Vine Street
Census Place Sunderland, Durham, England
Family History Library Film 1342203
Public Records Office Reference RG11
Piece / Folio 5000 / 81
Page Number 59

connected? 1881

Christopher F. WAGNER Head M Male 36 Bath, Somerset, England Coachman (6/2)
Jane WAGNER Wife M Female 25 Bathford, Somerset, England
William H. WAGNER Son Male 4 Bath, Somerset, England Scholar
Christopher G. WAGNER Son Male 1 Bath, Somerset, England


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Source Information:
Dwelling 11 Camden St
Census Place Walcot, Somerset, England
Family History Library Film 1341587
Public Records Office Reference RG11
Piece / Folio 2438 / 9
Page Number 12

1881 - this looks like him

Christopher WAGNER Head M Male 46 Naturalized British Subject, Germany Musician
Mary WAGNER Wife M Female 30 Westminster, Middlesex, England Dressmaker
Richard WAGNER Son Male 8 Weston S Mare, Somerset, England Scholar
Christopher WAGNER Son Male 5 Weston S Mare, Somerset, England Scholar
Gertrude WAGNER Daur Female 2 Weston S Mare, Somerset, England Scholar
Beatrice WAGNER Daur Female 9 m Weston S Mare, Somerset, England
Edwin FOWLER Lodger U Male 55 Bristol Clifton Wheelwright


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Source Information:
Dwelling 32 Union St
Census Place Weston Super Mare, Somerset, England
Family History Library Film 1341582
Public Records Office Reference RG11
Piece / Folio 2421 / 25
Page Number 47

I am trying to find the parents and any other direct family members of Christopher Wagner who was born in 1835 in the Somerset area and married in 1872. He died in 1901. I wonder if you can help.

Many thanks