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| My great-grandmother Ellen Casey Cronin riding her bicycle on South Main Street, Freeport, New York, circa 1930. |
Tombstone Tuesday - Eva Justina Hoerner Dauch
Eva Justina Dauch, my fourth-great grandmother, died April 13, 1877, and is buried in Greenfield Cemetery, Uniondale, Long Island, New York, in a plot bought by her grandson-in-law, Theodore Peterson Berg (my great-great grandfather). According to the headstone, she was 84 years, 3 months, and 7 days old.
I don't know much about her. I know her death was listed in the Queens County Sentinel, a now-defunct newspaper. I know that according to a ship passenger list, she arrived in New York harbor aboard the Leila on Sept. 22, 1845 from Le Havre, France with her husband Nicolas, 46, and three of their children - Andreas (Andrew), 19; Thomas, 16; and Marie (Mary), 9. They were all born in Bavaria according to the list. I know she and her family disappear for 25 years after that - I can't find her in the 1850 or the 1860 U.S. census - and when she reappears, her husband is dead and she is living near her son Thomas in Hempstead, Long Island, and with her daughter, now Mary Gasser, and she is listed in the census as "Christina Dowe" (The Justina in her name sometimes gets switched to Christina and the "Dauch" last name is actually pronounced "Dow" and so often got spelled that way...). I know that she is one of those Germans who had extra first names she probably didn't use - I think on her death certificate, she's listed as "Mary."
But for the most part, she's still a mystery to me. I don't know why she left Germany, and if one of my distant relatives is correct in his research, why she left some of her children behind when she did. I don't know where she went during those missing 25 years between her arrival in Manhattan and her appearance in the 1870 census.
An All-American girl...
So as we all know, I'm a mutt. I'm half Irish, a third German, a tad Danish, and the rest a mad mix o' ethnicity by way of England. Lots of Americans *are* mutts. That's part of the whole "melting pot" mentality. But, at least here in New York, we also have a lot of, for lack of a better term, "purebred" ethnicities, recent immigrants who have just come to this country. My best friend is a first generation American of Dominican descent. My boyfriend is a first generation American of Honduran descent (though, he's also more of a mutt than most Latinos, but that's a story for another day). For those who aren't first generation Americans here in the tri-state area, many of European descent are second generation Americans - I'm thinking specifically of Italian-Americans, like my good friend Suzy C. The point I'm trying to make is that I tell people I'm Irish-German-Danish-English, and maybe that explains where I get my hair, eye, or skin color, but for me, when it comes down to it, I'm All-American, and that actually makes me sad. My best friend and boyfriend speak Spanish and eat foods from their parents' homelands and dance dances from their cultures. My good friend Suzy C. is thoroughly steeped in her Italian heritage. She goes back to Italy regularly to visit her second and third cousins who live there. My visible ties to my heritage are weak at best, which might explain why researching my family tree and learning about my heritage are so important to me. My most recent immigrant ancestor, generation-wise, is Timothy Ambrose Cronin, my maternal grandmother's father, from Cork, Ireland. I'm not sure he passed along anything of his heritage to his family (men, right?), except for the legend that he once saw a leprechaun. My most recent immigrant ancestor, year-wise, is my great-great grandmother on my dad's side of the family, Augusta Lindemann Stutzmann, who was born in Germany. Both were here by the turn of the 20th century, enough time for Old World traditions to pretty much fall by the wayside. I feel like, culture-wise, my German heritage has been passed along to me the most successfully, mostly in terms of food, mostly through my father through his mother. But I almost feel weird telling people I consider myself part Danish and part English, too, because Peter Hansen Berg came here before 1845 and Edward Raynor was here by 1634. English colonial ancestry? Celebrating the 350th anniversary of the village your ancestor founded? You don't get more American than that.
I love that I can trace my tree that far back *because* my family has been here for that long, but sometimes I do feel like I'm missing visible, tangible ties to my past because I don't know any German recipes and I can't sing any Irish folk tunes. But I think, on the other hand, that's why I encourage that kind of cultural passing-on of the baton in my friends. My mother once mentioned to me, in passing, that she was sorry she never made me and my siblings do Irish step dancing. I like that Dania and Sam can speak Spanish, and I hope they teach it to their kids. I like that Suzy and her family cook the same Italian food their parents and grandparents made, and I know Suzy will do it with her kids, too. Especially for cultures where vital records might not be as readily available as they are in the United States (where I've lucked out), like in the Dominican Republic or Honduras or even Italy, being able to pass on something to the next generation that shows where you come from (where they've lucked out) is just as valuable, I think...
I love that I can trace my tree that far back *because* my family has been here for that long, but sometimes I do feel like I'm missing visible, tangible ties to my past because I don't know any German recipes and I can't sing any Irish folk tunes. But I think, on the other hand, that's why I encourage that kind of cultural passing-on of the baton in my friends. My mother once mentioned to me, in passing, that she was sorry she never made me and my siblings do Irish step dancing. I like that Dania and Sam can speak Spanish, and I hope they teach it to their kids. I like that Suzy and her family cook the same Italian food their parents and grandparents made, and I know Suzy will do it with her kids, too. Especially for cultures where vital records might not be as readily available as they are in the United States (where I've lucked out), like in the Dominican Republic or Honduras or even Italy, being able to pass on something to the next generation that shows where you come from (where they've lucked out) is just as valuable, I think...
Genealogy in the age of the Internet and social networking sites
When I hit brick walls tracing my family back, I amuse myself by tracing my family to the sides. Finding cousins on parallel branches opens up new research avenues - connecting with them allows you to pool your collective information. If your great-grandmother had a family Bible with a listing of birthdates that she didn't hand down to your grandfather, the children of your grandfather's sister might have it in their possession. A cousin several times removed who tracked me down had in his possession the only known photo of my 4th great-grandmother, Barbara Reinhardt Haase, which he shared with me. I never would have known what she looked like (a good, strong German woman who could have easily been a linebacker in the NFL, by the way) if there had been no sideways family tree research done.
When you trace your family to the side, you end up finding your contemporaries - not just your cousins, but your second cousins, and third cousins and fourth cousins as well.
Alumni updates, obits, social networking sites, blogs - these are all online sources of finding cousins and "getting to know them" even though they might not know you exist and you might not ever meet them. Some people might call this "internet stalking." I call it finding out the things we have in common with each other and discovering some amazing people you can call "family." On the blog front, I've found a few - one cousin writes a wonderful blog about her and her husband's journey adopting children from abroad, many with special needs, another wrote well written articles about her decisions to court rather than date, and yet another, who is Mormon, writes about the adventures she has as a missionary in Asia.
So another thing I've learned is that writers also run in my family, apparently.
I've found distant cousins who I know only by name and family line on sites such as MySpace and Facebook - one of them posted "movies" he and his brothers had made, which is interesting because directing and editing short films is something my own brother has been known to dabble in.
And of course, people have family websites, where you can find family tree information not only going backward, but going forward, too, as people announce their weddings and the births of children or grandchildren, helping you fill out the ever expanding sideways branches as well.
When you trace your family to the side, you end up finding your contemporaries - not just your cousins, but your second cousins, and third cousins and fourth cousins as well.
Alumni updates, obits, social networking sites, blogs - these are all online sources of finding cousins and "getting to know them" even though they might not know you exist and you might not ever meet them. Some people might call this "internet stalking." I call it finding out the things we have in common with each other and discovering some amazing people you can call "family." On the blog front, I've found a few - one cousin writes a wonderful blog about her and her husband's journey adopting children from abroad, many with special needs, another wrote well written articles about her decisions to court rather than date, and yet another, who is Mormon, writes about the adventures she has as a missionary in Asia.
So another thing I've learned is that writers also run in my family, apparently.
I've found distant cousins who I know only by name and family line on sites such as MySpace and Facebook - one of them posted "movies" he and his brothers had made, which is interesting because directing and editing short films is something my own brother has been known to dabble in.
And of course, people have family websites, where you can find family tree information not only going backward, but going forward, too, as people announce their weddings and the births of children or grandchildren, helping you fill out the ever expanding sideways branches as well.
Taking the first steps on the road to certification...
"Why don't you do this for a living? What do you have to do to become a professional genealogist?"
That's what the ever-persistant Samuel has been asking me the past couple of months and I finally relented and sent away for the application packet for the Board for Certification of Genealogists because the truth is, I love doing this. It goes beyond a hobby for me. When I don't have anything to research on my own family line, I trace my friends' families. When I get stuck on theirs, I pick a celebrity or some famous figure to look into. I love doing it, and even though I'm still learning new things every day about how to do it better, I think I have a knack for it. I have good instincts about leads. I get feelings about information I can't yet prove, but when I do prove it, I was usually right. (Not to brag! Lol...)
Anyway, where was I going with this? Oh right, Sam was being annoying, but supportive and probably right. If you can make money doing something you love, you should. And beyond that, if you have a gift, which I believe I do, what a waste to not share it with the world and use it to help other people. When I was able to show Sam's mom ship passenger lists with her grandfather on it, it backed up pretty much all the stories her family had ever told her about the man, who left the family before her father was even born, and also shed light on new information about him she had never known - what he looked like, who he worked for, what town in Sicily he came from. But their reaction to my "finding" him again just makes me want to do this even more, and validates my feelings about what I do.
Board for Certification of Genealogists website: http://www.bcgcertification.org/
That's what the ever-persistant Samuel has been asking me the past couple of months and I finally relented and sent away for the application packet for the Board for Certification of Genealogists because the truth is, I love doing this. It goes beyond a hobby for me. When I don't have anything to research on my own family line, I trace my friends' families. When I get stuck on theirs, I pick a celebrity or some famous figure to look into. I love doing it, and even though I'm still learning new things every day about how to do it better, I think I have a knack for it. I have good instincts about leads. I get feelings about information I can't yet prove, but when I do prove it, I was usually right. (Not to brag! Lol...)
Anyway, where was I going with this? Oh right, Sam was being annoying, but supportive and probably right. If you can make money doing something you love, you should. And beyond that, if you have a gift, which I believe I do, what a waste to not share it with the world and use it to help other people. When I was able to show Sam's mom ship passenger lists with her grandfather on it, it backed up pretty much all the stories her family had ever told her about the man, who left the family before her father was even born, and also shed light on new information about him she had never known - what he looked like, who he worked for, what town in Sicily he came from. But their reaction to my "finding" him again just makes me want to do this even more, and validates my feelings about what I do.
Board for Certification of Genealogists website: http://www.bcgcertification.org/
Today we'll take a break from genealogy...
...to remember all the souls who were lost nine years ago today and their loved ones who were left behind and must somehow go on. Every family tree has someone who was lost too suddenly, too violently, and/or too soon, and every family tree has someone who lived through a significant event or time in history, and we honor them by never forgetting, just as all the victims of 9/11, living and dead, are honored by our remembrance of them and the remembrance of them by future generations...
Raynor family reunion: your living relatives are important, too
I mean, duh - the fact that your living relatives are just as important as your dead ones should go without saying, but I know from personal experience, sometimes I spend so much time looking up those who have gone before me that I sometimes forget about the ones who are here with me, not only as a valuable source of family stories and information, but as people, as friends, and as family. And I'm not just talking about the cousins and aunts and uncles, but the second cousins and so-and-so number cousins removed so-and-so many times. These are the people you are connected to now. These are the people your grandchildren will be looking up someday.
On July 31, my mom's side of the family, the Raynors, had a family reunion at my aunt's house. Almost 50 descendants of my great grandparents, Monroe Raynor and Amelia Berg Raynor, showed up to this thing - my mother's cousins, my cousins, my second cousins, and now the next generation of Raynor-Bergs, as my second cousins get married and have kids. None of my great-grandparents seven children are still alive, but my 95-year-old grandmother, Mary Cronin Raynor, was also there, so we had four generations under one roof. It was pretty amazing. Many of these relatives I knew from other family reunions - many of those many, though, I hadn't seen in close to 15 years. Others I knew of from my genealogy research but had never met. Some I knew nothing of. But you could see some similarities in some of the cousins, like the gigantically tall gene my cousin Cliff and second cousin David share, or how so many of my mom's female cousins look like each other, or like my grandfather's sisters.
And of course, the topic of genealogy was part of the day. My aunt ordered copies of the family tree compilation put together by the Freeport village historian in the 1970s, enough so everyone could bring a copy home with them. Everyone brought photos of their families and I brought some of the family genealogy I had worked on. Old photos of my grandfather's generation and his parents generation were brought out and we marveled at how easy it was to pick out my grandfather in one, even though he was only 10, and how one of Amelia Berg's brothers looked exactly like my mom's brother Cliff, and how much they both look like Teddy Roosevelt. And in that same photo, we made up stories about Amelia's brother Royal Howard, who stood out as looking handsome, suave, debonair, and by far the best-dressed of the bunch. And at the end of the day, we did what all families should do, especially those who are so genealogically-inclined, we took a family portrait on the front lawn, a souvenir of a fun family get together and another record of our family for future generations to use in their own research.
On July 31, my mom's side of the family, the Raynors, had a family reunion at my aunt's house. Almost 50 descendants of my great grandparents, Monroe Raynor and Amelia Berg Raynor, showed up to this thing - my mother's cousins, my cousins, my second cousins, and now the next generation of Raynor-Bergs, as my second cousins get married and have kids. None of my great-grandparents seven children are still alive, but my 95-year-old grandmother, Mary Cronin Raynor, was also there, so we had four generations under one roof. It was pretty amazing. Many of these relatives I knew from other family reunions - many of those many, though, I hadn't seen in close to 15 years. Others I knew of from my genealogy research but had never met. Some I knew nothing of. But you could see some similarities in some of the cousins, like the gigantically tall gene my cousin Cliff and second cousin David share, or how so many of my mom's female cousins look like each other, or like my grandfather's sisters.
And of course, the topic of genealogy was part of the day. My aunt ordered copies of the family tree compilation put together by the Freeport village historian in the 1970s, enough so everyone could bring a copy home with them. Everyone brought photos of their families and I brought some of the family genealogy I had worked on. Old photos of my grandfather's generation and his parents generation were brought out and we marveled at how easy it was to pick out my grandfather in one, even though he was only 10, and how one of Amelia Berg's brothers looked exactly like my mom's brother Cliff, and how much they both look like Teddy Roosevelt. And in that same photo, we made up stories about Amelia's brother Royal Howard, who stood out as looking handsome, suave, debonair, and by far the best-dressed of the bunch. And at the end of the day, we did what all families should do, especially those who are so genealogically-inclined, we took a family portrait on the front lawn, a souvenir of a fun family get together and another record of our family for future generations to use in their own research.
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| July 31 Raynor reunion family photo as printed in the Raynor Family Association's August 2010 bulletin. |
Taking a stroll through history: my grandmother's high school yearbook
I think that, often, when we're doing genealogy, we get up in the formality of it all - finding records, verifying records, recording all our information as accurately as possible. It's thorough, and it's good, but it's kind of cold and impersonal. It takes the human face off of genealogy - this is family, after all. It's okay to not treat them completely like strangers.
I talked about it a little when I talked about the importance of recording nicknames as well as full names, about recording the names their family and friends knew them by, but I think it's also why photos and letters and personal effects are important, too. These things remind you that this person isn't just a name and a date, that he or she was real - they had friends and hobbies and sometimes they took goofy photos instead of the formal portraits you usually see. They made mistakes and had flaws - they fell in love and they had bad hair days.
Anyway, I have all four of my grandmother, Mary Cronin Raynor's, high school yearbooks. She graduated from Freeport High School in Freeport, Long Island, New York, in 1933. This is the inside cover of the yearbook from the year she graduated:
You know, like I think sometimes we have these pictures and focus on these pictures and put the emphasis on these pictures of our ancestors when they were old. Sometimes we see them as babies. Or when they get married. But they were teenagers, too. Some of them even went to high school like we did.
That's my grandmother in the upper right hand corner. To be honest, she looks a lot older and mature than the 18-year-olds I went to high school with. A lot of the kids in her yearbook do, I think. But some of the girls look young, with their smiling. As do the boys, with their goofy hairdos. My grandmother's caption reads, "Plain without pomp, rich without show," which I think describes her perfectly, and her activities include hockey, basketball, glee club, the Masque and Wig club, Spanish club, and science club. Which are all things I never would have pictured her doing, so that's kind of cool.
That's my grandfather, Clifford Raynor, who was Mary Cronin's husband, in the top left corner. He was a year older but graduated the same year as her. Not surprisingly, he was not involved in any school activities, and his caption, "Be silent, and safe; silence never betrays you," feels right when I remember the way he was.
I talked about it a little when I talked about the importance of recording nicknames as well as full names, about recording the names their family and friends knew them by, but I think it's also why photos and letters and personal effects are important, too. These things remind you that this person isn't just a name and a date, that he or she was real - they had friends and hobbies and sometimes they took goofy photos instead of the formal portraits you usually see. They made mistakes and had flaws - they fell in love and they had bad hair days.
Anyway, I have all four of my grandmother, Mary Cronin Raynor's, high school yearbooks. She graduated from Freeport High School in Freeport, Long Island, New York, in 1933. This is the inside cover of the yearbook from the year she graduated:
You know, like I think sometimes we have these pictures and focus on these pictures and put the emphasis on these pictures of our ancestors when they were old. Sometimes we see them as babies. Or when they get married. But they were teenagers, too. Some of them even went to high school like we did.
That's my grandmother in the upper right hand corner. To be honest, she looks a lot older and mature than the 18-year-olds I went to high school with. A lot of the kids in her yearbook do, I think. But some of the girls look young, with their smiling. As do the boys, with their goofy hairdos. My grandmother's caption reads, "Plain without pomp, rich without show," which I think describes her perfectly, and her activities include hockey, basketball, glee club, the Masque and Wig club, Spanish club, and science club. Which are all things I never would have pictured her doing, so that's kind of cool.
That's my grandfather, Clifford Raynor, who was Mary Cronin's husband, in the top left corner. He was a year older but graduated the same year as her. Not surprisingly, he was not involved in any school activities, and his caption, "Be silent, and safe; silence never betrays you," feels right when I remember the way he was.
And the universe chimes into the genealogical conversation...
You know how I was just talking about the importance of sharing genealogical information? It's like the universe heard and was pleased...
I received an e-mail this afternoon from one of the cousins I correspond with regarding our shared family trees re: my third great grandfather on my dad's side, John Ricklefs. You may recall that, judging from not one but both his sons doing not one but multiple stints in prison for multiple bank robberies, John Ricklefs probably never won any Father of the Year awards for his parenting skills, or lack thereof.
I knew where he was from, when he was born, when and where he was married, and that he and his wife, Meta Tiedemann, moved all the way out to the boondocks of Suffolk County by 1930, living on a farm in Patchogue. But the trail went cold after the 1930 census. I attempted to obtain a death record from the Patchogue village clerk but without any way to narrow down what year he might have died, outside of telling her "somewhere between 1930 and this morning," or going out to Patchogue myself to see if they would let me look through the files (and while Patchogue is close, it is not close by foot, which is how I currently travel), I had hit yet another deadend. It was not a typical deadend, though. A death after 1930 is a fairly recent death, which meant not only was it very likely there was a record, but that somewhat still alive might actually remember him. So I had a feeling it was a temporary dead end, but I didn't know how long I would have to wait.
I guess that answer would be, until today. So, this is the message my cousin sent:
Mary, it's been a while, I kept looking for information on John & Meta Ricklefs. I found a death listing for John Ricklefs, in the 10 March 1937 issue of the Mis Island Mail. It was a local newspaper. John Ricklefs died 23 Feb 1937, at the Patchogue Community Hospital. The address was 311 Bay Ave., Patchogue.
I mean, how cool is that? One short e-mail and a ton of brand new information. So, I guess my next step will be to either go to a library that has the Mid Island Mail on microfilm and look for the obit, and/or contact this village clerk in Patchogue again and see if an exact date will get me the record I'm looking for. I already know his parents names, so I'm not looking for that, but anytime you can find more than one record verifying the information you have, it's helpful and further proof. And actually, on John's marriage certificate, I'm not entirely certain of his mother's maiden name. So that would be helpful if her name is on it. Also, the death record might say if his wife Meta was still alive or not, when his birthday is, what his occupation was, etc. etc. I'm very excited, and oh so grateful that I have family I can turn to when I need help finding something out, and not only do they help me when I ask, but they keep it in the back of their heads and continue the search for me. Well, not for me. For us.
I received an e-mail this afternoon from one of the cousins I correspond with regarding our shared family trees re: my third great grandfather on my dad's side, John Ricklefs. You may recall that, judging from not one but both his sons doing not one but multiple stints in prison for multiple bank robberies, John Ricklefs probably never won any Father of the Year awards for his parenting skills, or lack thereof.
I knew where he was from, when he was born, when and where he was married, and that he and his wife, Meta Tiedemann, moved all the way out to the boondocks of Suffolk County by 1930, living on a farm in Patchogue. But the trail went cold after the 1930 census. I attempted to obtain a death record from the Patchogue village clerk but without any way to narrow down what year he might have died, outside of telling her "somewhere between 1930 and this morning," or going out to Patchogue myself to see if they would let me look through the files (and while Patchogue is close, it is not close by foot, which is how I currently travel), I had hit yet another deadend. It was not a typical deadend, though. A death after 1930 is a fairly recent death, which meant not only was it very likely there was a record, but that somewhat still alive might actually remember him. So I had a feeling it was a temporary dead end, but I didn't know how long I would have to wait.
I guess that answer would be, until today. So, this is the message my cousin sent:
Mary, it's been a while, I kept looking for information on John & Meta Ricklefs. I found a death listing for John Ricklefs, in the 10 March 1937 issue of the Mis Island Mail. It was a local newspaper. John Ricklefs died 23 Feb 1937, at the Patchogue Community Hospital. The address was 311 Bay Ave., Patchogue.
I mean, how cool is that? One short e-mail and a ton of brand new information. So, I guess my next step will be to either go to a library that has the Mid Island Mail on microfilm and look for the obit, and/or contact this village clerk in Patchogue again and see if an exact date will get me the record I'm looking for. I already know his parents names, so I'm not looking for that, but anytime you can find more than one record verifying the information you have, it's helpful and further proof. And actually, on John's marriage certificate, I'm not entirely certain of his mother's maiden name. So that would be helpful if her name is on it. Also, the death record might say if his wife Meta was still alive or not, when his birthday is, what his occupation was, etc. etc. I'm very excited, and oh so grateful that I have family I can turn to when I need help finding something out, and not only do they help me when I ask, but they keep it in the back of their heads and continue the search for me. Well, not for me. For us.
Nancy Drew and the Case of the Martin Nehr Comment
So as I mentioned in my previous post, a Horst5457 posted a comment on August 3 on my 5th great grandfather Martin Nehr's profile on my Ancestry.com family tree. This is what he (or she, I suppose) wrote:
Sippenbuch Heppenheim 3 Nr.7171 Kind Nr.5 Martin Neher *29.05.1806 Hambach ,+USA OO am 25.11.1834 Heppenheim mit Anna Maria Mitsch *18.11.1803Heppenheim,+19.02.1854 Hambach er flüchtet 1847 nach Amerika bei Zurücklassung von Frau und Kindern. Eltern von Martin Neher Johann Neher *12.02.1776 Hambach,+28.12.1823 Hambach Nr.7171 oo am 18.02.1800 Heppenheim mit Anna Maria Petermann *28.07.1776 hambach,+01.04.1849 Hambach als Witwe
When you plug that into Babelfish, this is how it gets translated:
Kinship book Heppenheim 3 Nr.7171 child Nr.5 Martin Neher *29.05.1806 Hambach, +USA OO to 25.11.1834 Heppenheim with Anna Maria Mitsch *18.11.1803Heppenheim, +19.02.1854 Hambach it flees 1847 to America in leaving of woman and children. Parents of Martin Neher Johann Neher *12.02.1776 Hambach, +28.12.1823 Hambach Nr.7171 oo to 18.02.1800 Heppenheim with Anna Maria Petermann *28.07.1776 hambach, +01.04.1849 Hambach as a widow
I'm pretty sure that's not entirely accurate...
My first thought, of course, is a pat on the back to myself at the guess I took that the "Anna Maria Mitch" listed on her daughter Catherine's death certificate probably should've been spelled the more German "Mitsch" seems to have some confirmation. It also seems possible that Martin and Anna Maria came to America - so that gives me some American records to look at, possibly. And it gives me towns in Germany to look at.
Of course, I don't know how reliable this information is, if at all, but it gives me some place to start looking, where before I had no place to start looking. And where I have some place to start, I have some place to go. I'm hopeful, as I usually am when I get new leads, at figuring this comment out - Nancy Drew ain't got nothing on me! :)
Sippenbuch Heppenheim 3 Nr.7171 Kind Nr.5 Martin Neher *29.05.1806 Hambach ,+USA OO am 25.11.1834 Heppenheim mit Anna Maria Mitsch *18.11.1803Heppenheim,+19.02.1854 Hambach er flüchtet 1847 nach Amerika bei Zurücklassung von Frau und Kindern. Eltern von Martin Neher Johann Neher *12.02.1776 Hambach,+28.12.1823 Hambach Nr.7171 oo am 18.02.1800 Heppenheim mit Anna Maria Petermann *28.07.1776 hambach,+01.04.1849 Hambach als Witwe
When you plug that into Babelfish, this is how it gets translated:
Kinship book Heppenheim 3 Nr.7171 child Nr.5 Martin Neher *29.05.1806 Hambach, +USA OO to 25.11.1834 Heppenheim with Anna Maria Mitsch *18.11.1803Heppenheim, +19.02.1854 Hambach it flees 1847 to America in leaving of woman and children. Parents of Martin Neher Johann Neher *12.02.1776 Hambach, +28.12.1823 Hambach Nr.7171 oo to 18.02.1800 Heppenheim with Anna Maria Petermann *28.07.1776 hambach, +01.04.1849 Hambach as a widow
I'm pretty sure that's not entirely accurate...
My first thought, of course, is a pat on the back to myself at the guess I took that the "Anna Maria Mitch" listed on her daughter Catherine's death certificate probably should've been spelled the more German "Mitsch" seems to have some confirmation. It also seems possible that Martin and Anna Maria came to America - so that gives me some American records to look at, possibly. And it gives me towns in Germany to look at.
Of course, I don't know how reliable this information is, if at all, but it gives me some place to start looking, where before I had no place to start looking. And where I have some place to start, I have some place to go. I'm hopeful, as I usually am when I get new leads, at figuring this comment out - Nancy Drew ain't got nothing on me! :)
It's all about sharing...
Genealogy, in my opinion, is all about sharing. It's about sharing tips. It's about sharing information. You probably do it not just for yourself but to keep the family tree going to share with future generations of your family. Most of my information I've gotten through my own legwork and from vital records and other documents and photos, but many times, I've been able to find that information or a missing link on a particular branch because someone shared that information with me and helped me. I will never understand these people who have private family trees on Ancestry.com. I get that you are the person who put in the hard work and the long hours to put that tree together and you may resent some stranger you don't know (who is probably actually a distant relative, if they're looking at your tree) coming in and taking that information, all la di da, but I honestly believe we can't do this if we don't help each other. Plus, you're going to pass that tree down to your children, right? They're going to have that information without doing all the hard work and putting in the long hours - you're not going to make them start from scratch when you already have the information they'll need.
Anyway, was just thinking about this because of an interesting comment I got on my Ancestry.com family tree (it's called the Gorry-Raynor family tree). Two of my recently discovered ancestors are my 5th great-grandparents on my dad's side, Martin Nehr and Anna Maria Mitsch. Though I was ecstatic to have found out that new information, it had, again, left me at a dead end, just a generation further back. So, on Aug. 3, someone left a comment on Martin Nehr's profile on my tree. I'd never gotten a comment before, so that was kind of exciting. Of course, the comment is also in German, but I'm not sure genealogy would be half as fun if it wasn't so much of a challenge so much of the time. But basically it looks to have birth and death dates and places for Martin and Anna Maria, as well as the parents of Martin, which would take me back yet another generation. But I wonder - who is the guy who posted the info? His profile is extremely uninformative. Where is his information from? How reliable is it? Is he an as yet undiscovered cousin of sorts who also has Martin and Anna Maria on his family tree? So this is the current genealogical mystery I am attempting to solve...
Anyway, was just thinking about this because of an interesting comment I got on my Ancestry.com family tree (it's called the Gorry-Raynor family tree). Two of my recently discovered ancestors are my 5th great-grandparents on my dad's side, Martin Nehr and Anna Maria Mitsch. Though I was ecstatic to have found out that new information, it had, again, left me at a dead end, just a generation further back. So, on Aug. 3, someone left a comment on Martin Nehr's profile on my tree. I'd never gotten a comment before, so that was kind of exciting. Of course, the comment is also in German, but I'm not sure genealogy would be half as fun if it wasn't so much of a challenge so much of the time. But basically it looks to have birth and death dates and places for Martin and Anna Maria, as well as the parents of Martin, which would take me back yet another generation. But I wonder - who is the guy who posted the info? His profile is extremely uninformative. Where is his information from? How reliable is it? Is he an as yet undiscovered cousin of sorts who also has Martin and Anna Maria on his family tree? So this is the current genealogical mystery I am attempting to solve...
I hail from a tiny town in Bavaria...
I guess I've always been aware of this but it's striking me now, in particular, as I'm looking into the Stutzmann branch of my tree, that while my background is diverse and taken as a whole, I come from all over, from general areas like "Germany" or "Western Europe," that each of my individual branches come from specific localities and in many cases, from a single town, for many generations back.
I guess it's like over here, on Long Island, I'm not just from New York or Long Island, I'm from Freeport. My family is from Freeport. For generations back, my family is from Freeport and if you go far enough back, I can claim the whole village as relations.
So, I'm looking at the Stutzmanns, my father's mother's family, who I've always known are from a tiny town in Bavaria called Grossbockenheim. Grossbockenheim doesn't exist anymore, having merged with nearby neighbor "Little Bockenheim" to form just the regular town of Bockenheim, but looking at this particular branch, it's striking me that the Stutzmanns are really from there. Their fathers and mothers, their grandparents, their cousins, their great-grandparents. Each of my ancestors married someone else from the town, as their parents did before and their children would do after. Everyone was married in the same church and the cemeteries there are probably filled with my relatives, both near and distant. Grossbockenheim is full of Stutzmann history, and the Stutzmanns are intregal to Grossbockenheim history. Ah, the intertwining of genealogy and history yet again. It's just so exciting. And finding all of this out really makes me want to go there and see where the Stutzmanns hail from, to walk where they walked, to breathe the air they breathed. And then repeat with all the other branches of my tree :)
Just as an added note, I have always felt that, Raynor American-English colonial research aside, that I would have the most genealogical success with my German roots, and it appears, at least from the FamilySearch website, that they did in fact keep meticulous, detailed, and organized records. So it seems that while I very much identify with my Irish roots, that I may in fact be much more German in personality than I originally thought...
I guess it's like over here, on Long Island, I'm not just from New York or Long Island, I'm from Freeport. My family is from Freeport. For generations back, my family is from Freeport and if you go far enough back, I can claim the whole village as relations.
So, I'm looking at the Stutzmanns, my father's mother's family, who I've always known are from a tiny town in Bavaria called Grossbockenheim. Grossbockenheim doesn't exist anymore, having merged with nearby neighbor "Little Bockenheim" to form just the regular town of Bockenheim, but looking at this particular branch, it's striking me that the Stutzmanns are really from there. Their fathers and mothers, their grandparents, their cousins, their great-grandparents. Each of my ancestors married someone else from the town, as their parents did before and their children would do after. Everyone was married in the same church and the cemeteries there are probably filled with my relatives, both near and distant. Grossbockenheim is full of Stutzmann history, and the Stutzmanns are intregal to Grossbockenheim history. Ah, the intertwining of genealogy and history yet again. It's just so exciting. And finding all of this out really makes me want to go there and see where the Stutzmanns hail from, to walk where they walked, to breathe the air they breathed. And then repeat with all the other branches of my tree :)
Just as an added note, I have always felt that, Raynor American-English colonial research aside, that I would have the most genealogical success with my German roots, and it appears, at least from the FamilySearch website, that they did in fact keep meticulous, detailed, and organized records. So it seems that while I very much identify with my Irish roots, that I may in fact be much more German in personality than I originally thought...
FamilySearch: Following the Stutzmann-Schlick line...
Last entry I talked about this project I had just found out about on the FamilySearch website and how excited I was about it. Well, the excitement continues. The problem with the normal FamilySearch website is that while a lot of their information comes from actual vital records and is therefore accurate, a lot of it comes from user input, and is therefore in many cases very inaccurate, and you have to figure out which of the entries to trust and which to discard. But this new project seems to be based solely on input from vital records, and even though many of them do not have an original image indexed, there are many that include a transcription of said vital record.
So in that vein, let's talk about the Stutzmanns. As any of you have read this blog know, the Stutzmanns (my paternal grandmother's family) had been a fairly prominent family in the Ridgewood area of Queens and Brooklyn and within that local German community, so some work had already been done on their family tree (some of it not at all right, but for the most part fairly accurate) before I even entered the genealogy game. So, thanks to the work of others, I could go back 8 generations to the late 1700s in a town called Grossbockenheim in Germany to the parents of Peter Stutzmann, who with his wife Charlotte Schlick had a bunch of kids whose lines have all been pretty well traced down to now.
Through my own research I had discovered that Charlotte's real first name was probably Louise, since in Germany apparently every kid gets the Christian name and then the middle name, and no one goes by their Christian name and everyone goes by their middle name, so you end up with a bunch of sons named Johann and a bunch of daughters named Maria. Anyway, today I decided to focus my search on this line, since in all my own research, I've never been able to get past Peter's parents, who I knew to be Christoph Stutzmann and Jacobine Last Name Unknown, or Charlotte. Today I found a transcription for a marriage certificate for one J. Peter Stutzmann and one Charlotte Schlick. A birth certificate transcription for one of their kids showed that Peter's real first name was Johann, which to be fair, I should've guessed anyway. So, this marriage transcription - the ages for both Peter and Charlotte are right, the year, 1841, jibes with when they started having kids, the town is right, and lo and behold, we have parents' names for both of them. Score!
So, according to the transcription, Peter's parents are Michael Stutzmann and Jacobina Blasius. Though the father's name doesn't match, wacky German naming traditions means it's possible that both Michael and Christoph are the right name for Peter's dad. Or, with the spotty accuracy of the original info I built my research on for this branch, it's possible Christoph is completely wrong. But Jacobine and Jacobina jibe, so that's another point in this transcription's favor. And we also have names for Charlotte's parents - Rudolph Schlick (which seems right seeing as how many Rudolph's, including Charlotte's son, as well as my great great grandfather, ended up on this Stutzmann branch) and Ottile Elisabetha Dhuy (which, it seems her last name should probably be D'Huy, which seems to be a Belgian name).
You always have to take new information with a grain of salt, but you have to start someplace, and these new leads give me a place to start to build my own foundation for this information as I go about trying to verify or disprove. The point is...the Case of the Stutzmann Tree continues!
So in that vein, let's talk about the Stutzmanns. As any of you have read this blog know, the Stutzmanns (my paternal grandmother's family) had been a fairly prominent family in the Ridgewood area of Queens and Brooklyn and within that local German community, so some work had already been done on their family tree (some of it not at all right, but for the most part fairly accurate) before I even entered the genealogy game. So, thanks to the work of others, I could go back 8 generations to the late 1700s in a town called Grossbockenheim in Germany to the parents of Peter Stutzmann, who with his wife Charlotte Schlick had a bunch of kids whose lines have all been pretty well traced down to now.
Through my own research I had discovered that Charlotte's real first name was probably Louise, since in Germany apparently every kid gets the Christian name and then the middle name, and no one goes by their Christian name and everyone goes by their middle name, so you end up with a bunch of sons named Johann and a bunch of daughters named Maria. Anyway, today I decided to focus my search on this line, since in all my own research, I've never been able to get past Peter's parents, who I knew to be Christoph Stutzmann and Jacobine Last Name Unknown, or Charlotte. Today I found a transcription for a marriage certificate for one J. Peter Stutzmann and one Charlotte Schlick. A birth certificate transcription for one of their kids showed that Peter's real first name was Johann, which to be fair, I should've guessed anyway. So, this marriage transcription - the ages for both Peter and Charlotte are right, the year, 1841, jibes with when they started having kids, the town is right, and lo and behold, we have parents' names for both of them. Score!
So, according to the transcription, Peter's parents are Michael Stutzmann and Jacobina Blasius. Though the father's name doesn't match, wacky German naming traditions means it's possible that both Michael and Christoph are the right name for Peter's dad. Or, with the spotty accuracy of the original info I built my research on for this branch, it's possible Christoph is completely wrong. But Jacobine and Jacobina jibe, so that's another point in this transcription's favor. And we also have names for Charlotte's parents - Rudolph Schlick (which seems right seeing as how many Rudolph's, including Charlotte's son, as well as my great great grandfather, ended up on this Stutzmann branch) and Ottile Elisabetha Dhuy (which, it seems her last name should probably be D'Huy, which seems to be a Belgian name).
You always have to take new information with a grain of salt, but you have to start someplace, and these new leads give me a place to start to build my own foundation for this information as I go about trying to verify or disprove. The point is...the Case of the Stutzmann Tree continues!
There you are, Sophia Ricklefs! That rumbling sound you hear is another brick wall being knocked down with a giant sledgehammer
So I've been telling my friend Sam lately about my interest in genealogy - gushing more like it. I blame him, because unlike my other friends who just tune me out, he actually pretends to be interested. And not only does he pretend to be interested but seeing how passionate I am about it, he's been pushing me to pursue a career as a professional genealogist. So today he sent me several links about websites and Youtube channels and New York metro genealogy associations and whatnot. The Youtube channel he sent me was the Genealogy Guy. I clicked on a video at random. Well, I'm guessing not at random - I'm pretty sure the universe, or maybe someone in my family, was guiding me. The video was about a project being conducted by our good friends the Mormons to make original copies of all sorts of genealogical records available online, and so far, for free. God bless those Mormons - if they didn't have to keep all their family lines straight, we might still be in the genealogy stone age. The best part about this is it's on their website, www.familysearch.org. I am on that site all the time, all the fricking time, and I never knew this project existed. From the home page, you go to the section "What's New" and click on the link "see prototype for searching millions of records." I haven't explored it thoroughly yet. I only just discovered it about 10 minutes ago but the results were already so exciting that I had to post and share about it.
I typed in "Meta Ricklefs," just because she was the first name to come to my head. The typical, Ancestry.com fare came up - 1900 census, 1920 census. But then I saw 1905 New York Census...1892 New York census...both with original images available. I had never seen those censuses before. 1905 didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, though the fact that it's there is amazing. 1892 was a whole other ballgame.
The 1890 U.S. census, as we all know, was mostly destroyed in a fire. For those of us living today, 1880-1920 is an important period for us...that's when many of our families came over. That's when many of our grandparents and great grandparents and even great great grandparents, for whom we have later census records or military records or whatnot, were born. So the loss of the 1890 census is a huge loss in genealogy research. Well, the 1892 New York census was taken only 2 years later. (Duh). It doesn't have much information beyond name, age, and place of birth. What it does have, in regards to my research, is a person I've only seen in other people's records and who I had no idea had even come over to America - Sophia Ricklefs.
Now, I had looked up Meta (Tiedemann) Ricklefs, who was living with her husband, John, and their kids John, Meta (my great great grandmother), and Olga. And right below 4 month old Olga is listed Sophia Ricklefs, 57, born in Germany. Now, no family relations are given, but I know from John and Meta's marriage record that John's mother's name is Sophie or Sophia. The age puts her at the right age to be his mom. If she was living here, that means she might have died here, and there could be a death record for her. There could be a passenger manifest record of her. I mean, I can't wait to go and check. 10 minutes and I've already opened new research avenues. It's amazing, how you can be standing still, banging your head against a wall over and over and just when you're about to give up, you bang one more time, and that's what knocks a hole in it.
So, new Ricklefs avenues to pursue, and I haven't even looked up anybody else in my tree yet. I can't wait to see what I discover...so thank you, Sam, for being such an annoying, pushy bastard :)
I typed in "Meta Ricklefs," just because she was the first name to come to my head. The typical, Ancestry.com fare came up - 1900 census, 1920 census. But then I saw 1905 New York Census...1892 New York census...both with original images available. I had never seen those censuses before. 1905 didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, though the fact that it's there is amazing. 1892 was a whole other ballgame.
The 1890 U.S. census, as we all know, was mostly destroyed in a fire. For those of us living today, 1880-1920 is an important period for us...that's when many of our families came over. That's when many of our grandparents and great grandparents and even great great grandparents, for whom we have later census records or military records or whatnot, were born. So the loss of the 1890 census is a huge loss in genealogy research. Well, the 1892 New York census was taken only 2 years later. (Duh). It doesn't have much information beyond name, age, and place of birth. What it does have, in regards to my research, is a person I've only seen in other people's records and who I had no idea had even come over to America - Sophia Ricklefs.
Now, I had looked up Meta (Tiedemann) Ricklefs, who was living with her husband, John, and their kids John, Meta (my great great grandmother), and Olga. And right below 4 month old Olga is listed Sophia Ricklefs, 57, born in Germany. Now, no family relations are given, but I know from John and Meta's marriage record that John's mother's name is Sophie or Sophia. The age puts her at the right age to be his mom. If she was living here, that means she might have died here, and there could be a death record for her. There could be a passenger manifest record of her. I mean, I can't wait to go and check. 10 minutes and I've already opened new research avenues. It's amazing, how you can be standing still, banging your head against a wall over and over and just when you're about to give up, you bang one more time, and that's what knocks a hole in it.
So, new Ricklefs avenues to pursue, and I haven't even looked up anybody else in my tree yet. I can't wait to see what I discover...so thank you, Sam, for being such an annoying, pushy bastard :)
Raynors, Raynors, everywhere...
You can't get away from those Raynors or any of those pesky Hempstead founding families anywhere on Long Island, it seems. Last Friday I had to go to Riverhead for work. Riverhead is a good 60 miles east of the Hempstead Plains, where the families originally settled, and even a good almost 20 miles west of Southampton, where many of those founding families ended up. Yet, I was walking around town following my assignment and suddenly found myself on Ackerley Street. Followed by a Hallett Street. And a Duryea Street. The same good old names you find over and over again here. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. Anyway, there was also, of course, a Raynor Street. I tried to find it but my GPS wasn't working and it was too hot to go wandering around for long looking for it. I was disappointed, since I wanted to take a picture that I could post in this blog, but the fact remains, on Long Island, you can find Raynors or evidence of Raynors just about everywhere.
A wealth of resources, the luck of the draw
We have pretty good genealogical records here in America. We have church archives, local government archives, federal government archives, military records, passenger manifests, census records, and all preserved pretty well and made reasonably available to the public, both key to successful genealogical research.
Europe seems to have pretty good records as well - of course, no government is perfect. Ireland, for some reason, destroyed all of its census information after it had been collected. I still wish at certain moments that I could go back in time and keep the 1890 U.S. census from being almost completely destroyed in a fire. For almost everyone living in 2010, that was an important piece of somewhat recent research that's just gone forever.
But lately I've been thinking about how lucky we are here by all the resources that are available to us - I know it's something I tend to take for granted, and in fact so much information is so readily available that I can get kind of impatient (what, me, get impatient?) when I have to actually look hard and dig deep for a piece of the puzzle. But I guess governments are kind of like people, with different personalities. Some of them, like me, like to make and keep lists. Others couldn't care less about that kind of thing. Some countries don't have a high enough literacy rate to make keeping records feasible. Some countries that are too poor have more important things to worry about like feeding people. Others have volatile tempers and are too busy with civil wars and internal fighting and the records get lost, usually for good. But I think of some of my good friends, most of whom come from Latin American countries, and their parents never had birth certificates. And their town churches back home, along with all their records, have burned down. No census was ever taken, and their grandparents or great-grandparents died too young to ask them about passing on an oral history.
But in those cases, especially, is when oral histories become important, because that's all you have. And while it's not hard evidence as far as genealogical research goes, it's good evidence - your grandmother might not be able to tell you about her grandparents, but she can tell you about her parents and her siblings and what it was like growing up, and depending on who you talk to, other people will remember other things and other people. And if you write that down, straight from the horses mouth so to speak, or record them recounting their own stories, then 100 years from now, that's pretty much primary source information, and it helps to start your family story, at the very least, for future generations.
But I think of my friends a lot when I do this research and when I'm getting really frustrated and they're laughing at me because I'm always looking to be able to go further back, and there's no way they'll ever be able to go further back, and it makes me realize how lucky I am and how important keeping these records for future generations is.
Europe seems to have pretty good records as well - of course, no government is perfect. Ireland, for some reason, destroyed all of its census information after it had been collected. I still wish at certain moments that I could go back in time and keep the 1890 U.S. census from being almost completely destroyed in a fire. For almost everyone living in 2010, that was an important piece of somewhat recent research that's just gone forever.
But lately I've been thinking about how lucky we are here by all the resources that are available to us - I know it's something I tend to take for granted, and in fact so much information is so readily available that I can get kind of impatient (what, me, get impatient?) when I have to actually look hard and dig deep for a piece of the puzzle. But I guess governments are kind of like people, with different personalities. Some of them, like me, like to make and keep lists. Others couldn't care less about that kind of thing. Some countries don't have a high enough literacy rate to make keeping records feasible. Some countries that are too poor have more important things to worry about like feeding people. Others have volatile tempers and are too busy with civil wars and internal fighting and the records get lost, usually for good. But I think of some of my good friends, most of whom come from Latin American countries, and their parents never had birth certificates. And their town churches back home, along with all their records, have burned down. No census was ever taken, and their grandparents or great-grandparents died too young to ask them about passing on an oral history.
But in those cases, especially, is when oral histories become important, because that's all you have. And while it's not hard evidence as far as genealogical research goes, it's good evidence - your grandmother might not be able to tell you about her grandparents, but she can tell you about her parents and her siblings and what it was like growing up, and depending on who you talk to, other people will remember other things and other people. And if you write that down, straight from the horses mouth so to speak, or record them recounting their own stories, then 100 years from now, that's pretty much primary source information, and it helps to start your family story, at the very least, for future generations.
But I think of my friends a lot when I do this research and when I'm getting really frustrated and they're laughing at me because I'm always looking to be able to go further back, and there's no way they'll ever be able to go further back, and it makes me realize how lucky I am and how important keeping these records for future generations is.
A slow summer...and a trip to Oyster Bay
So it's been slow going on the genealogy front lately. Maybe I've currently run out strands to follow. Maybe the sweltering heat is making me lazy and unmotivated. But it's been rough.
I haven't done much research over the past couple of months, but on another front that's slightly related to genealogy because it has to do with local Long Island history, my dad and I took a trip up to the Brookville/Oyster Bay area a couple of weeks ago. I was doing research for another project I'm working on and it's been interesting research because the founding families of the Town of Oyster Bay, which is north of the Town of Hempstead, where my ancestors settled, aren't the same families as the ones who founded Hempstead, but they're so close to each other that their histories can't help but bleed into each other. My dad and I stopped at a small local cemetery on Northern Boulevard in, I think, Upper Brookville, where I was looking for particular plots related to a 19th century double murder that happened there, and I saw all the names I knew from the research I had done, but there some of your Hempstead area staples as well, like the Remsens and the Seamans.
What was particularly interesting were how many Dutch names were in that cemetery, and of course it makes sense because it was Dutch territory. You don't get as many Dutch names in Hempstead because it was an English settlement, but this whole area, all of Kings and Queens and Nassau Counties belonged to the Dutch.
Other notes of interest, pertaining more to local history than to genealogy...
- Driving through that area of the North Shore, the so-called "Gold Coast" is amazing. All the old mansions and estates and even the newer mansions that have been built - it's kinda like being in another world. My jaw hurt from being agape for so long.
- One family name that was also prominent in that cemetery was Van Velsor, a family in the Oyster Bay/Huntington arena. That's a name that you should know if you're an American history buff because all those Van Velsors in that tiny, rundown cemetery were probably cousins of the famous American poet Walt Whitman, whose mother's maiden name was...Van Velsor.
So, visit cemeteries. They're full of useful information, full of surprising information, and just as genealogy is a way to remember and pay tribute to the people who came before us, taking a stroll through a cemetery is another way to honor and remember our families, as well as those families who no longer have anyone to remember them.
I haven't done much research over the past couple of months, but on another front that's slightly related to genealogy because it has to do with local Long Island history, my dad and I took a trip up to the Brookville/Oyster Bay area a couple of weeks ago. I was doing research for another project I'm working on and it's been interesting research because the founding families of the Town of Oyster Bay, which is north of the Town of Hempstead, where my ancestors settled, aren't the same families as the ones who founded Hempstead, but they're so close to each other that their histories can't help but bleed into each other. My dad and I stopped at a small local cemetery on Northern Boulevard in, I think, Upper Brookville, where I was looking for particular plots related to a 19th century double murder that happened there, and I saw all the names I knew from the research I had done, but there some of your Hempstead area staples as well, like the Remsens and the Seamans.
What was particularly interesting were how many Dutch names were in that cemetery, and of course it makes sense because it was Dutch territory. You don't get as many Dutch names in Hempstead because it was an English settlement, but this whole area, all of Kings and Queens and Nassau Counties belonged to the Dutch.
Other notes of interest, pertaining more to local history than to genealogy...
- Driving through that area of the North Shore, the so-called "Gold Coast" is amazing. All the old mansions and estates and even the newer mansions that have been built - it's kinda like being in another world. My jaw hurt from being agape for so long.
- One family name that was also prominent in that cemetery was Van Velsor, a family in the Oyster Bay/Huntington arena. That's a name that you should know if you're an American history buff because all those Van Velsors in that tiny, rundown cemetery were probably cousins of the famous American poet Walt Whitman, whose mother's maiden name was...Van Velsor.
So, visit cemeteries. They're full of useful information, full of surprising information, and just as genealogy is a way to remember and pay tribute to the people who came before us, taking a stroll through a cemetery is another way to honor and remember our families, as well as those families who no longer have anyone to remember them.
U.S. Census non-population schedules
So these are new records that can be found on ancestry. As of right now, they're only available for 1850-1880, and only for a few states one of which, luckily for me, is New York. Unlike the regular census, these non-population schedules only list heads of households and give no family information, but what's interesting to me is their use as a tool to round out the picture a little more, make my ancestor's lives a little more clear in terms of what they did for a living and some of the facts about that.
So, far example, we have J.J. Raynor, my great great grandfather, living in Freeport in 1880 in the non-population schedule for agriculture. He owned 16 acres - 13 of which were tilled, 2 of which were permanent meadow, and one which was woodland. His farmland was valued at 2000, his livestock at 75. He had no hired hands and he had one horse. He had sold one living cow the previous year, and owned 2 pigs and 30 chickens. He grew Indian corn and potatoes.
Now, Friedrich Stutzmann, my 3rd great grandfather, was living in Brooklyn in 1880 where according to the non-population schedule of industry, he worked in boots and shoes (this is the trade he was apprenticed to growing up in Germany). He employed 1 male over the age of 16, and worked 14-hour days.
Now lets go back to my mom's side of the family. Thomas Dauch, my 3rd great grandfather, owned 45 acres of tilled land in 1880 in Queens County, town not specified, but either Hempstead or East Meadow. His farm was valued at 3000 and his livestock at 600. He also owned 4 horses. Five calves were born on his farm that year; he purchased 3 head of cattle and sold 3, living. He sold more than twice as much milk as any of his neighbors that year, and also had 4 pigs and 12 chickens. On his land, he grew Indian corn, oats, wheat, potatoes (potato farming was very big in Long Island history), and also had an acre of land with 40 apple trees.
Besides the rounding out, I'm also hoping that maybe some of my relatives who are just completely missing from the census, such as John Horgan and John Meinberg, will possibly be somewhere in this resource. It won't give me ages or birthplaces but it might tell me a little something more about them than I know now...
So, far example, we have J.J. Raynor, my great great grandfather, living in Freeport in 1880 in the non-population schedule for agriculture. He owned 16 acres - 13 of which were tilled, 2 of which were permanent meadow, and one which was woodland. His farmland was valued at 2000, his livestock at 75. He had no hired hands and he had one horse. He had sold one living cow the previous year, and owned 2 pigs and 30 chickens. He grew Indian corn and potatoes.
Now, Friedrich Stutzmann, my 3rd great grandfather, was living in Brooklyn in 1880 where according to the non-population schedule of industry, he worked in boots and shoes (this is the trade he was apprenticed to growing up in Germany). He employed 1 male over the age of 16, and worked 14-hour days.
Now lets go back to my mom's side of the family. Thomas Dauch, my 3rd great grandfather, owned 45 acres of tilled land in 1880 in Queens County, town not specified, but either Hempstead or East Meadow. His farm was valued at 3000 and his livestock at 600. He also owned 4 horses. Five calves were born on his farm that year; he purchased 3 head of cattle and sold 3, living. He sold more than twice as much milk as any of his neighbors that year, and also had 4 pigs and 12 chickens. On his land, he grew Indian corn, oats, wheat, potatoes (potato farming was very big in Long Island history), and also had an acre of land with 40 apple trees.
Besides the rounding out, I'm also hoping that maybe some of my relatives who are just completely missing from the census, such as John Horgan and John Meinberg, will possibly be somewhere in this resource. It won't give me ages or birthplaces but it might tell me a little something more about them than I know now...
Questions about Catherine
I don't know exactly when John Meinberg died, but I know it was probably sometime between 1875, when his youngest child was born, and 1880, when his widow Catherine married George Hellmann, but I wonder what made Catherine, who was in her late 30s at the time of her second marriage, marry George, who was only 24 at the time? Yes, she had young children so maybe she needed someone to support them, but I have other ancestors who were widowed with young children who never remarried. And he was so young! How did they meet? If she did it for the support, wouldn't she have been better off marrying someone older and established in his trade/profession? They had a daughter, Katherine, within a year or so of getting married. Maybe she was pregnant and they *had* to get married... And George was dead within a few years then, too...was Catherine some sort of Black Widow?
That is all for now.
That is all for now.
The question of the day is...what happened to John Meinberg??
Eva Meinberg Haase is my 3rd great grandmother. Her parents were John Meinberg and Catherine Neher. I recently discovered that Catherine remarried to a man named George Hellmann after being widowed. John Meinberg, so far, is a ghost.
I actually have no records of John's existence. I know of him via other people. He is listed as Eva's father on her birth certificate, her marriage certificate, and her death certificate. Catherine's name from her first marriage, Meinberg, is listed on her second marriage certificate. So this is what I know:
Eva was born in New York City in 1861, to John Meinberg. Her brother John was born in 1864 to John and Catherine. Her sister, Elizabeth, was born in 1868, and her brother, Frederick, was born in 1873. In theory, John, Catherine, Eva, John, and Elizabeth should show up in the 1870 census, but so far, they're MIA. Just one of the many families on my tree who like to make things difficult for me...
Ok, so Frederick was born in 1873. Catherine Nehr Meinberg was 33. Five years later, 38 year old Catherine was a widow marrying a 24 year old George Hellmann. Since John could've died after Frederick was conceived but before he was born, that gives me a roughly six year window where John could've died. And unless he was much older than Catherine, that means he was in his 30s when he died.
Unfortunately, I have a bunch of progenitors who died too young, in their 20s and 30s and 40s and early 50s, but in most of their cases, I have death certificates that give me reasons...I think in the 1870s it was probably more common for someone to die young, but it was probably still unusual for someone to die in their 30s. I'm tempted to send away to the Archives for a death certificate - I'd have to have them search all the years from 1872-1878, and a couple of different boroughs, which makes it more expensive, but it might be worth it...on the other hand, Meinberg is, unfortunately, one of those names that shouldn't have many spelling variations but somehow does, which could make my chances of a positive hit not that great. I'm just so excited by how much I've found out about Catherine in the last few weeks that my curiosity about my 4th great grandfather has been really, really piqued.
I actually have no records of John's existence. I know of him via other people. He is listed as Eva's father on her birth certificate, her marriage certificate, and her death certificate. Catherine's name from her first marriage, Meinberg, is listed on her second marriage certificate. So this is what I know:
Eva was born in New York City in 1861, to John Meinberg. Her brother John was born in 1864 to John and Catherine. Her sister, Elizabeth, was born in 1868, and her brother, Frederick, was born in 1873. In theory, John, Catherine, Eva, John, and Elizabeth should show up in the 1870 census, but so far, they're MIA. Just one of the many families on my tree who like to make things difficult for me...
Ok, so Frederick was born in 1873. Catherine Nehr Meinberg was 33. Five years later, 38 year old Catherine was a widow marrying a 24 year old George Hellmann. Since John could've died after Frederick was conceived but before he was born, that gives me a roughly six year window where John could've died. And unless he was much older than Catherine, that means he was in his 30s when he died.
Unfortunately, I have a bunch of progenitors who died too young, in their 20s and 30s and 40s and early 50s, but in most of their cases, I have death certificates that give me reasons...I think in the 1870s it was probably more common for someone to die young, but it was probably still unusual for someone to die in their 30s. I'm tempted to send away to the Archives for a death certificate - I'd have to have them search all the years from 1872-1878, and a couple of different boroughs, which makes it more expensive, but it might be worth it...on the other hand, Meinberg is, unfortunately, one of those names that shouldn't have many spelling variations but somehow does, which could make my chances of a positive hit not that great. I'm just so excited by how much I've found out about Catherine in the last few weeks that my curiosity about my 4th great grandfather has been really, really piqued.