2. George² Retterer (Christian¹) was born in Alsace-Lorraine, France abt 1846.

He married Anna Mary Whaley. Anna was born in Illinois abt 1856. The 1880 McHenry, Illinois census lists 34 year old George as a farmer, his wife Anna as a 24 year old housewife, and their daughter, Emma, age 6, at school, and the four younger children.

George was born in the Alsace-Lorraine part of France, right next to the southwestern border of Germany. Alsace and Lorraine are regions of France. They had been seized by Germany after the Franco-Prussian war. In 1870-71 the German army attacked France. The Germans won this short war. As a ‘prize’ they took the regions of Alsace and Lorraine from France. The Germans claimed that they were rightfully German, the majority of people living here were French however. The French were very upset by this and wanted the land back. They were also fearful of the Germans attacking again.

The consequences of the Franco-German war (the war between France and Germany) were that France became suspicious and mistrustful of the Germans. They made sure that they had a large army and lots of defences to stop invasions. This in turn kept the Germans suspicious of the intentions of the French.

The territory was made up of 93% of Alsace (7% of Alsace remained French) and 26% of Lorraine (74% of Lorraine remained French). Because of historical reasons, specific legal dispositions are still applied in the territory, now known legally as Alsace-Moselle.

George Retterer and Anna Mary Whaley had the following children:

5 i. Emma³ Retterer was born in Illinois abt 1874.

6 ii. Katie Retterer was born in Illinois abt 1875.

7 iii. George Retterer was born in Illinois abt 1876.

8 iv. Caroline Retterer was born in Illinois abt 1878.

9 v. Mary Ann Retterer was born in Cary, Illinois September 21, 1879. She married August Klingenberg in Chicago, Cook, IL, August 27, 1902. August was born in Germany October 1871. August was the son of Henry Klingenberg. (See August Klingenberg for the continuation of this line.)

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