Making a new week's resolution...

It's been awhile, folks, and I apologize for that - my day job has had me completely swamped and consequently completely drained in the free time I've had left over. I feel like all I've done the past few days is work and sleep, work and sleep.

Anyhow, I am still busy today but thought I'd take two minutes to just write a quick post - as I haven't been finding a lot of new information on my family tree lately, and as it's the start of a new week, I've decided to make a "new week's resolution" to be a more accurate and detailed genealogist. Since there's been a derth of new information, now is the perfect time to go back over the information I do have - the records, the notes, the e-mails, the newspaper clippings, everything - and try to catalogue or at least organize what I have - where I got it from, who gave it to me, authors, repositories, anything and everything - a bibliography of my research, if you will. I should've been doing this from the start anyway, and to some extent I have, but on some accounts I've also been lazy and there have been one or two occasions where I know the information I have in my tree comes from a reliable and accurate source, but I didn't write it down, so I couldn't tell you where it came from. And that's what it's about, because even if I *did* know where it came from, I'm not doing this research for me (well, yes, I am, because I do find it so interesting), but I'm not doing it just for me - I'm doing this for my children and their children, so they have a good foundation on which to continue building the family tree. And I'm doing it for my cousins and their cousins right now, who also need a good, solid place to start. You can do genealogy for yourself because it's a hobby you enjoy, but I'm not sure it reaches it's full potential unless you share it with others, so you want those others, whoever they might be, to be able to go back themselves to any original documents or sources or whatnot on their own, which is why the bibliography is key.

So, if you're just starting, start right - try to write everything down and in some kind of ordered fashion that will be usable and helpful to others. And if you're like me, this is what the genealogy research downtime is for - catching up on your organizing is a good way to be productive even when you don't feel like you're being productive!

 For guides on how to properly catalogue your findings, visit the Board for Certification of Genealogists' website at http://www.bcgcertification.org/

Those Places Thursday - Ridgewood Savings Bank

My great-great grandfather Rudolph Stutzmann, who I've written about before, was an undertaker and prominent member of German-American society in the Ridgewood section of Brooklyn and Queens in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was one of the founding members and the first president of what is now known as the Ridgewood Savings Bank, which opened in 1921 - you can find branches all over Long Island, but while the original building is no longer there, the larger, more ornate one that was built in 1929, is, at the corner of Myrtle and Forest Avenues.



This is a recent photo of the original bank headquarters, and below is a copy of a story and photo (courtesy of http://www.fultonhistory.com/) from the June 19, 1929 issue of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle in which the cornerstone for the new building was laid. Rudolph is at the very center and in the front of the large photo at the top of the page, to the right of the cornerstone, holding the trowel. The headline reads, "Laying cornerstone for new $500,000 Ridgewood Savings Bank." He would be president of the bank until his death in 1946.

Tombstone Tuesday - the Gorrys, Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York

This entry is going to be a little different. This is a photo of the Gorry headstone in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York. There is no photo because there is no headstone. My great great grandfather James Gorry is buried in Calvary, his father James is buried in Calvary, and when I go to visit their graves, I walk amidst the thousands of markers, row upon row of memorials, to an empty square of grass where my family is buried, Irish immigrants and their children who were, like so many other immigrants then, too poor to be able to afford a headstone for their descendants to visit and remember them by. So I go anyway, and I stand on the empty grass and look across the river to Manhattan, the land of hope and dreams that the Gorrys came to from Ireland, and I close my eyes and tell my family hello, and that I know them and know of them, from all the research that I do, and that they don't need a headstone to be remembered.

And the Gorry family tree grows another (possible) branch...

It's only a possible branch at this point, but I don't believe in coincidences and my gut is telling me that there are striking similarities in this new possible branch and my own family tree because they are one and the same.

Early last week I was notified of a hint on my Ancestry.com family tree, that someone else had built a tree that included my 3rd great-grandfather, James Gorry as a "possible" member of their tree. I was immediately excited, probably moreso than I should've been before I read any further, because my own branch of the Gorry tree is so narrow and, well, branchless, that any Gorry connection I find is valuable because of its rarity. For those who have not read about my Gorry branch before, here's the recap - my third great grandfather, James Gorry, son of Cornelius and Mary, emigrated from Ireland to New York. He and his wife Mary Corr had 4 children - Michael, Mary, Hannah, and James - and only James married and had children. He married Mary Horgan and they had four children - Joseph, Mary, Ellen, and Elmer - but only Elmer lived to adulthood, married (to Mary Tormey), and had children (Eugene Gerard and Elmer Anthony, my grandfather). So when my father was born in 1952, he was the only 4th-generation descendant of James the Senior and as far as I knew, the only 5th-generation descendant of Cornelius.

In recent years I was contacted by a woman in England descended from a Charles Gorry, son of Cornelius of Ireland, who was my first possible Gorry branch discovery - Cornelius and Gorry are both such uncommon names that I'm leaning toward the theory that she is a relation, but I have no proof beyond that. But here was this new tree I discovered last week - according to the author of it, James Gorry was a possible brother of a Mary Gorry, from whom her husband was descended. Mary Gorry is a very, *very* common name in my family and she had emigrated from Ireland to New York. So I wrote the author an e-mail saying I thought it was possible we were connected, and asking what kind of information she had on her Mary Gorry. I finally heard back from her last night. She wrote:

Her husband's "great great grandmother was Mary Gorry born about 1826 in Ireland. Her husband was Philip Tuite Philip Tuite and a James Gorry were both naturalized on Oct 25th 1866 in New York. They were witnesses for each other. James Gorry's address was 190 E 11th Street.I wonder if he is your James and if he and Mary were brother and sister.I remember my father-in-law saying there was an Elmer Gorry in the family but I don't remember how he was related... I'm going to try and get Mary Gorry's death certificate and hope it has her parents names on it."

So three things to note from that note - first, that my James Gorry definitely lived on E. 10th Street, which is around the block from E. 11th Street, but that there are years unaccounted for where he lived and back then people usually stayed in the same area, so it's possible he lived at 190 E. 11th Street in 1866. Second, that if Cornelius Gorry is an uncommon name, Elmer Gorry is an even more uncommon name, so if her father-in-law said they had an Elmer Gorry in their family, it was most definitely one of my Elmer Gorrys. And third, I don't have naturalization information for my James, so if her James and my James are the same, then that's new information for me.

While this new possible branch would only add to the outward growth of the Gorry tree and not to tracing it backward (so far), every piece you can add to the puzzle gives you a bigger, clearer, more complete picture. It connects you to other family members doing their own research. It adds to your new information. And if you can find one new branch, even though they might not add any new information, it leaves you hopeful that it's possible to discover *another* branch, and maybe they're the branch that *will* have that missing information that will finally bring you back another generation closer to your roots.

Sunday's obituary - Mary Story Poole


From the December 23, 1902 issue of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: "Funeral of Mrs. Poole, Ocean Side, L.I., December 23 - The funeral of Mrs. Mary O. Poole, widow of Richard Poole, who died on Friday, aged 75 years, took place yesterday afternoon and was attended by a large number of relatives and friends. The interment was made in the Old Church cemetery at Lynbrook. Mrs. Poole was an old and esteemed resident, having lived here all her life. She was a daughter of the late Morris Story and leaves four grown children."

The Old Church cemetery is now Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook. Mary Story Poole was my 3rd great-grandmother. Her daughter Annie married Joseph James "J.J." Raynor - they were my great great grandparents. There is still a lot of research I need to do on both the Poole and Story lines of my family tree.

A Thursday "thank you"

That's not really a thing, except that today is Thursday, and this is a "thank you" to everyone who's been reading this blog, and an extra "thank you" to those of you who have taken the time to leave me comments - I hope some of you are learning about your own families through the posts I share, that some of you are figuring out how to research your own families through my own successes and failures, and that some of you have found at least one of my posts just generally interesting. And for those of you who have been so kind as to leave me a comment, I've been trying to respond to them, so check back from time to time! I write because I love to write, and I write about genealogy because I love genealogy, so while I would be perfectly happy even if my words were being received by no other entity than the universe, this blog is a more meaningful experience for me knowing others are sharing in it!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program... :)

Taking a tour of historic Freeport: the Crystal Lake Hotel

You ever notice how you'll learn something for the very first time, in any arena in life, and suddenly, you're seeing that thing or hearing about it *everywhere*, even though before then you'd never heard of it before?


This sign was recently put up three blocks north of my house at the corner of Guy Lombardo Avenue and Southside Avenue. It reads: "Crystal Lake Hotel and cottage opened 1895 by Ward and Allie Frost. Accomodated 150 guests. Destroyed by fire 1958."

I know a bit about historic Freeport but I'd never heard of the Crystal Lake Hotel before (and what a fancy-schmancy name, too, right?) But when I was recently going through my great-grandfather Timothy Cronin's sister Julia's petition to become the administrator of their mother Nora's estate I found this - in petitioning the Brooklyn Surrogate's Court for administration, her brothers Timothy and Cornelius, both residing in Freeport, were served on March 30, 1921 with citations to appear in court if they wished to contest her petition. The page in the records reads: "William P. Jones, being duly sworn, deposes and says that he is over the age of twenty-one years and resides at the Crystal Lake Hotel, Southside Avenue, Freeport, N.Y., that he made personal service of the annexed citation...by delivering to and and leaving with each of them personally a true copy of said citation, as follows: On the 30th day of March, 1921 at 7:30 p.m. on Cornelius Cronin and Timothy A. Cronin, both at No. 270 South Main Street, Freeport, N.Y."

This is a postcard depicting the hotel in 1906 from a view from the southeast, looking west toward the hotel.



I just thought it was interesting that this probate record I found in the Brooklyn estate files mentions as a place of residence the hotel that used to exist up the block from where I now live - there are connections everywhere, you just have to look for them!!

Wordless Wednesday - Berg family photo, Long Island, New York


What I love about this photo is the multigenerations in it, the coming together of family, how easy and relaxed and at home everybody looks. This isn't one of those fancy, posed, serious photos you get at Sears or by some other professional. This is a spur of the moment, "let's find someone who isn't family to take the photo because who knows when we'll have everybody together like this again" kind of photo. My grandfather, Clifford Raynor, is sitting in the front row, far right. He was about 10, so this photo is from about 1924. This is his mom's side of the family, so we have Amelia Berg Raynor and her kids, her brothers and their kids, and her parents, Theodore and Delia (Dauch) Berg. I believe this photo was taken at the house in East Meadow or Hempstead. 

What I also love about this photo is how at my recent Raynor family reunion, this photo kept my siblings and cousins talking for at least an hour straight, about how everybody looked and what their personalities must have been like based on how they were dressed, and everyone was asking me who each person was and how they were related to us - so this photo is proof that you can get anybody interested in the family history, even if it's just mildly interested, if you can find the right door to get them in. 

Sorry - that was a lot of words for Wordless Wednesday, huh? :) And when I find the original photo in my house, I'll upload a better quality image...

Tombstone Tuesday - Poole Family of Long Island


This is one of the Poole family plots in Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York. I took these photos July 16, 2009. The Pooles lived in that area - Lynbrook, Rockville Centre, Oceanside, and in this photo, we have the Poole headstone as well as the smaller markers for Mary A. (Story) Poole and Richard W. Poole, my third great-grandparents. Mary's marker says she lived from 1827-1902 and Richard's says he lived from 1820-1886. From newspaper articles I've read, Richard apparently amassed a sizable fortune in both farming and real estate, which his son, also Richard William, inherited upon Richard Sr.'s death. Richard Sr. and Mary's daughter Annie, was my great great grandmother, and was married to Joseph James "J.J." Raynor. Richard and Mary also had two other sons - Charles and Stanley (Stanley would go on to be a family name amongst Annie Poole Raynor's descendants) - and a daughter, Sarah. Sarah died very young and Stanley never married, and they are both buried in this plot as well.

Maritime Monday - Rockville Cemetery, Lynbrook



The Mariners Burying Ground at Rockville Cemetery, Lynbrook, Long Island, New York. Photo taken July 16, 2009. The sign reads: "The Mariners Burying Ground - 215 persons, mostly Irish and English immigrants, drowned when the American ships Bristol and Mexico were wrecked in the winter storms of 1836-37 off the South Shore of LI. 139 bodies were recovered. They are buried near this obelisk. 67 members of the Pearsall family are buried in the Sandhole Cemetery. Nearby is the grave Wright Pearsall, namesake of Pearsall's Corners, Lynbrook's former name. Lynbrook Historical Society 1990."

Sunday's obituary - Peter Berg


From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov. 15, 1903

Peter Berg Dead
(special to the Eagle)
Hempstead, L.I., November 14 - Peter Berg, one of the oldest men in this section of Long Island, died at his home at East Meadowbrook this morning after a lingering illness. He was nearly 80 years of age and resided on Long Island for almost fifty years, and the wonderful changes that have taken place during that period were always a great source of wonderment to the old man. He came to this country directly from Germany when a young man, and was one of the first settlers of East Meadowbrook, which was then practically a wilderness. He was one of the largest raisers of pickles on Long Island and also farmed on an extensive scale and accumulated quite a fortune. No arrangements have been yet made for his funeral. He leaves three sons, Theodore, Peter Jr., and Thomas.

There are a few mistakes in there (mainly that he came from Germany, since he was actually born in Denmark), but Peter Berg was my 3rd great-grandfather, and his son Theodore was my great great grandfather.

Reading the signs...

I told you I got an e-mail from cousin Milton the day before yesterday. I hadn't heard from him in ages so as I was thinking about it yesterday, I knew it was a sign. I just got this feeling. And I know that genealogy is, for lack of a better word, a science - we posit theories and we search for truths, and we back up these theories and truths with facts and evidence. We're scientists. We're detectives. But we also get feelings in our guts and we learn to trust our instincts when we know we know something but we can't prove it as truth...yet. Even NYPD detectives follow their guts sometimes when they're working a case...but maybe that's just the superstitious Irish in me talkin'... :)

Anyway, this doesn't have so much to do with my gut telling me to follow a lead so much as it was my gut telling me that Milton emailing me and the record I had just ordered from the New Jersey archives were connected. Beyond the obvious way, in that John Reinhardt, whose record I ordered, is a relation of Milton, too. So the day before yesterday I heard from Milton. And today my dad picked me up for work and told me I had gotten an envelope from the New Jersey archivss.

Now, you give a government department enough information and you would hope they would be able to work quickly. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. But I gave the NJDARM a ton of information to track down John Reinhardt's death record, based on information I had gotten off of the FamilySearch website, and they got back to me...within a week. Hallelujah - maybe God does exist!

Anyway, the disappointing news is, this record doesn't tell me anything I didn't already know - John Reinhardt, my 5th great grandfather, died in Union, Hudson County, New Jersey in October of 1870. He was married, 56 years old, born in Germany, and died of "atrophy of the brain." Actually, that last part I did not know, and now that I'm thinking of it, 56 is awfully young to die from so-called brain atrophy - some kind of dementia perhaps? I'll need to look into that. Unfortunately, what I had really been hoping for, some reference to his as-so-far unknown parents, was not there, but it does do two huge things for me: one, it verifies the information I already had, like I said, and two, it tells me that FamilySearch's record collection (not their family tree collection - that's user-submitted and awfully inaccurate!!) *is* to be trusted, that I can use it as a reliable starting place to find out other stuff. Like when and where John's wife died. That information is there. Now I just have to look for an actual record as evidence.

And now, too, I'll have something to write Milton back about, that I found a record, that it didn't tell us anything new, but that the record was there, and that it proves *John* was there, and if he died in Union, New Jersey, there's a good chance he was buried around there, too...

Road trip!! :)

Corresponding cousins, connecting cousins...

I got an e-mail from cousin Milton yesterday. I know I've mentioned him before - he's been extremely instrumental in my Haase family research, providing me with the only photo I have of my 4th great grandmother Barbara Reinhardt Haase, some histories of her husband Charles from his time during the Civil War, and copies of several Civil War documents of Charles', including his discharge papers.

What I find amazing is how genealogy can not only connect you to family from your past, but how it connects you to strangers who are alive now and turns them into family. Milton is a 78 year old living in Georgia. Besides all the knowledge he has shared with me, he put me in touch with a cousin of his who remembered meeting my second great grandfather. Just like the polite Southern gentleman that he is, he always refers to me as "Miss Mary" in his e-mails to me. And the fact that he is Internet and computer savvy, that he corresponds by e-mail and keeps a pretty well-documented family tree on Ancestry.com is both amazing and endearing.

Cousin Claudia who has helped me with my Ricklefs research and Cousin April who has helped me with my Raynor research are also people I correspond with regularly - April and I live one town away from each other, but would never have met save our shared interest in our shared family tree. What also amazes me is how an interest in genealogy spans all ages - April and I are about the same age, Claudia is about my parents' age, and Milton is up there with my grandparents. But we all get excited as little kids at Christmas when someone discovers new information.

Milton didn't have any news for me; he was just checking in. But I sent away last week to the New Jersey archives for the death certificate of John Reinhardt, a shared ancestor of ours - my 5th great grandfather and Milton's great great grandfather - so hopefully I'll get that back and be able to have some news to share with Milton.

A funny little poem for a dreary, rainy day...

I found this genealogy poem on a genealogy quotes message board (http://www.bordeglobal.com/foruminv/index.php?showtopic=41938) - the guy who posted it didn't know who the author was. If anyone does, I will rightly attribute it, but ths poem just made me laugh, because I think we've all been there - we've all had that one family member we're trying to trace who fits this bill, who's just so untraceable that it goes from being frustrating to funny. Also, it's reassuring to know that all genealogists have to deal with this, that we're all in the same boat!

Genealogy Poem:
I went searching for an ancestor. I cannot find him still.
He moved around from place to place and did not leave a will.
He married where a courthouse burned. He mended all his fences.
He avoided any man who came to take the US census.

He always kept his luggage packed, this man who had no fame.
And every 20 years or so, this rascal changed his name.
His parents came from Europe. They could be on some list
of passengers to the USA, but somehow they got missed.

And no one else anywhere is searching for this man
So, I play geneasolitaire to find him if I can.
I'm told he's buried in a plot, with tombstone he was blessed
but the weather took engraving and some vandal took the rest.

He died before the county clerks decided to keep records,
No family bible has emerged in spite of all my efforts.
To top it off this ancestor, who caused me many groans.
Just to give me one more pain, betrothed a girl named JONES.

Kings County Estate Files: Eva Haase and the Cronins

A third day of Brooklyn probate records?? Say it ain't so!! Sorry, all - it may seem repetitive, but I think these next couple of records show what other kind of information you can find on your ancestors with these sources, and I find the Cronin records in particular extremely informative and worth sharing. Buck up - it's almost over! :)

On Aug. 12, 1921, my 2nd great grandfather Gustave Haase petitioned the Kings County Surrogate's court to be the administrator of the estate of his mother, Eva Meinberg Haase. Gustave lived at 8564-104th Street in Richmond Hill, Queens (all of these addresses btw can help you if you don't know where to look for a relative in a census, or to find someone in a city directory which might then also give you their occupation or if you need to verify another record you have with an address, such as a death certificate...or you know, if you live close enough that you just want to drive over and go visit the home where someone in your family lived out his or her life...) and was the executor of the will of Edward Haase, his father, who was the sole legatee as well as the executor of Eva Haase's will. Eva had died Sept. 11, 1919 at 180 Arlington Ave in Brooklyn, NY and in 1921 had unadministered assets worth $1015.19. Now Eva's estate file actually includes a copy of her will. It reads: "In the name of God, Amen: I, Eva Haase, of the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, and State of New York, being of sound and disposing mind, memory, and understanding, but considering the uncertainty of life, do make my last will and testament..." She names her husband Edward executor and it's signed July 3, 1913, with one of the witnesses her son Gustave.

What I like about the Cronin records in the estate files is how much family information there is. So, for example, when my great grandfather Timothy Cronin's sister Julia petitioned the court for letters of administration of the estate of their mother, Nora Donahue Cronin, on April 21, 1921, (she died on Jan. 31st of that year), it lists all her next of kin: "Mary Cronin, a daughter of decedent, who resides at 91 St. James Place, Brooklyn; Nora McCarthy, a daughter of decedent, who resides at 36 West 12th St., Bayonne, NJ; Julia M.Cronin, (petitioner), a daughter of decedent, who resides at 375 Quincy St., Brooklyn; Cornelius Cronin, a son of of decedent, who resides at 61 Main St., Freeport, NY; Hannah Hazelton, a daughter of decedent, who resides at 377 Quincy St., Brooklyn; Timothy A. Cronin, a son of decedent, who resides at 270 South Main St., Freeport, NY."

This particular record was actually extremely helpful to me, as there has been some confusion over whether or not Nora McCarthy was a sister of Timothy Cronin or a cousin, but as I assume this information was provided by Julia Cronin herself, I'd say it's fairly certain that Nora was in fact their sister. Now, there are also three siblings who died before 1921 - brothers Daniel and Denis, who both died in 1913 and never married, and sister Katherine Flannery. When Daniel died, Denis filed a petition because he had not left a will - Denis, Timothy, Mary, Julia, and Hannah Hazelton are all listed as siblings living in New York, Nora McCarthy a sister living in Bayonne, New Jersey, and Cornelius Cronin a brother living in Ireland. What I like about this record is that my grandmother, Mary Cronin Raynor, had always told me she thought Cornelius had gone back to Ireland at some point, and this record shows that in 1913, he was in fact living in Ireland. Although I do wonder why their mother Nora wasn't listed. She is listed, however, in the May 15, 1914 petition of sister Julia to be the administrator of Daniel's estate upon the death of Denis. In addition to the usual suspects, Daniel's next of kin include "Julia Flannery, a child of a deceased sister, Katherine Flannery." Cornelius is still a resident of Ireland, and mother Nora is listed as "an incompetent." I still have a lot of questions about Nora, who spent quite a number of years institutionalized at Kings Park State Hospital - was it Alzheimer's or some other kind of dementia? A mental illness of some sort? I wish medical records or even admittance papers weren't nearly impossible to get your hands on, even 90 years later...

Anyway, I apologize for how long this has gone on for, but I really thought it was interesting to see just how much and what kind of information these records contain - as I've said before and I'll say again, you may discover new information, you may find proof to solve some family mystery about how someone is related or where someone lived, or you may just add another piece of verification to your evidence...whatever it is, it's all good!

Kings County Estate Files: Matilda Stutzmann continued

The thing about these probate records to make note of is that just because the probate year doesn't match the year your ancestor died, doesn't mean it doesn't belong to them. So don't automatically disregard a record that has the right name but appears to be the wrong year. Por ejemplo:

Matilda Stutzmann, who we were talking about yesterday, died in 1880. I found a second probate record for Mathilde Stutzmann filed in the Kings County Surrogate's Court 26 years later. It reads, "Feb. 10, 1906, Kings County Surrogate's Court in the matter of the application for letters of administration with the will annexed of the goods, chattels, and credits left unadministered which were of Mathilde Stutzmann, deceased."

This type of record is different from the original one we looked at, which was, as far as I understand, trying to prove Matilda's last will. This one, it seems, is under the category "administration," which seems to have to do with naming a new executor of her estate. Also, it seems there are different sets of paperwork for if there is a valid will or if there is no valid will on record. Confusing, right? Yeah, I'm still trying to sort it all out.

It continues: "The petition of Augusta Stutzmann respectfully shows that your petitioner is a resident of 1558 Green Ave in the Borough of Brooklyn, and is the administratrix of the sole legatee and devisee named in the last will and testament of Mathilde Stutzmann deceased, and is of full age. ...that said deceased left a last will and testament in and by which Frederick Stutzmann was named executor thereof, who duly qualified.  That the last will and testament was duly admitted to probate by the Surrogate's Court of the County of Kings on the 4th day of October, 1880 ... that the said executor has departed this life, leaving certain property and assets of the said testatrix unadministered, the value of which does not exceed the sum of 60 dollars."

Basically, it would seem that since there was still some part of Matilda's estate unadministered 26 years after her death, her son Rudolph's wife, Augusta, has been named the new administrator of her estate because the original executor, Matilda's husband Friedrich "and sole legatee" died a month earlier, on January 14, 1906.

What I find interesting is that Augusta is made administrator - she and Matilda never met, so why wasn't Matilda's son and Augusta's husband, Rudolph, named administrator once Friedrich died?

Taking a tour of historic Freeport


I wasn't really taking a tour of historic Freeport, but I pass by this spot all the time, and did twice in the past two days, so I figured as long as I had my camera, I might as well take a picture. The plaque reads: "Site of grist and saw mill of Daniel Raynor. Raynortown settled by Edward Raynor or his children 1659." Just kinda cool to be walk on the same spots and look out over the same water my ancestors did. Daniel Raynor is not a direct ancestor of mine, but Edward Raynor was my ninth great grandfather

Kings County Estate Files: Matilda Rau Stutzmann

So FamilySearch, the Mormons' genealogy research website is adding new records and building a new site, which can be found at the moment @ beta.familysearch.org. There still aren't very many records available, but for those of us with Brooklyn, New York ancestry, they do now have scanned images in their Kings County Estate Files from 1866-1923, which is where I found my third great grandmother on my dad's side of the family, Matilda Rau Stutzmann.

I don't know Matilda very well. She came over to New York from Germany on July 29, 1871 on the same ship as the man she would marry, Friedrich Stutzmann. She had three children with him, including my 2nd great grandfather Rudolph Stutzmann, who went on to found Ridgewood Savings Bank and be a leading member of German-American society in the Ridgewood area of Queens and Brooklyn. She's listed with her family in the 1880 census, but that same year, just 9 years after her arrival, on August 26, she died of bilious fever (also known as yellow fever) at the young age of 35.

Yet despite her short and seemingly ordinary life, she's the only person on my dad's side of the family that I've been able to find a record for in the Kings County estate files. And not only that, but there are two records for her. I'm still not sure I understand what these records are saying - there's a lot of legalese and repetition, but for anyone who has Brooklyn ancestry, some of these documents have a lot of good information that can either back up what you already know or shed new light on the person you're researching, including family members, address where the person lived, date of death, and possibly even a will.

Let's take a quick look at Matilda's record. The first one has 12 pages and is dated Oct. 4, 1880. It reads, "Kings County Surrogate's Court, in the matter of proving the last Will and Testament of Matilda Stutzmann, late of the City of Brooklyn."

"In the matter of the application for the probate of the last Will and Testament of Matilda Stutzmann...the petition of Friedrich Stutzmann of the City of Brooklyn respectfully shows to this court that I am an executor named in the last Will and Testament of Matilda Stutzmann late of the City of Brooklyn; that the deceased was at the time of her death a resident of the County of Kings and departed this life in said County on the 27th day of August in 1880; that said last Will and Testament relates to both real and personal estate and which said instrument bears the date the 25th day of August in the year 1880 and all the next of kin of said deceased are as follows, to wit: her husband your applicant of full age and three children to wit: Lena Stutzmann aged seven years, Rudolph Stutzmann aged five years, and Matilda Stutzmann aged seventeen months. Said infants have no general guardian and reside with their father your applicant in the City of Brooklyn."

It goes on to name a guardian for the kids to represent their interests through this whole proving process and has them all coming back to court several times, affadavits that summonses were delivered, that others witnessed Matilda signing a will even though apparently there was no official will on record, and of course, as with everything in government, everything seems to be in triplicate (that's an exaggeration, but that's what it feels like when you're reading the same exact thing page after page, so not an exaggeration by much...)