John Weis was born in April 1803, and Anna Marie Martin were born circa 1803, in Alsace, Loraine, France.

The two immigrated to America by boat, and landed in New Orleans, Louisiana. It would have been near 1840, when travel by boat was still very dangerous. Around that time, the steamship Lexington had burned and sank in icy waters off the coast of New York. 139 died, most of whom succombed to hypothermia, having jumped into the frigid water to escape the burning cotton cargo which had claimed the ship. Only four passengers survived.

In the US, William Henry Harrison had defeated Martin Van Buren to become the 8th President of the United States, while back home, the corpse of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was placed in the Hotel des Invalides in Paris. Although he had ended lawlessness and disorder in Post-Revolutionary France, Napoleon had been considered a tyrant and usurper by his opponents.

Napoleon Bonaparte