Saturday, November 5, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
And 30 seconds later...
Yes. I literally examined the two death certificates that fast and made a determination. I am just that good. Catharina Rhinehart is not my 5th great grandmother. She was born in New York and still married at the time of her death. My 5th great grandmother was born in Germany and a widow. As was Magdalena Reinhardt at the time of her death. The age is off by between 5-15 years, which is not uncommon for that time period, and I still have to cross check the residence at time of death, but her death certificate was presented to a son, Wilhelm. My 5th great-grandmother had a son, William/Wilhelm. But this is why I am sure it is her - she is buried in Weehawken Cemetery in Hoboken, New Jersey. Why is that significant?
My 5th great-grandfather, her husband, John Reinhardt, died in Union, New Jersey in 1870. My Reinhardts lived in the Hoboken/Weehawken/Union area for years. My gut is telling me this is her. My gut is wrong about a lot of things, but never about genealogy.
So, it's disappointing because it gives no maiden name, no parents' names, no specific place of birth. But a cemetery listing is HUGE. I have always wondered where John might have been buried in Jersey, and now I have a clue. So now I have another gravesite I get to look for - and an out-of-state one, too! For this New Yorker by way of muchos, muchos, muchos generations, finding a burial site out of state, even if it's just across the river, is EXTREMELY exciting.
It's the little things, people. I am off to look up this cemetery now to see if it still exists. Between Peter Stutzmann and Magdalena Reinhardt, I may have to schedule a Veteran's Day cemetery field trip for next week!
Yay! :)
My 5th great-grandfather, her husband, John Reinhardt, died in Union, New Jersey in 1870. My Reinhardts lived in the Hoboken/Weehawken/Union area for years. My gut is telling me this is her. My gut is wrong about a lot of things, but never about genealogy.
So, it's disappointing because it gives no maiden name, no parents' names, no specific place of birth. But a cemetery listing is HUGE. I have always wondered where John might have been buried in Jersey, and now I have a clue. So now I have another gravesite I get to look for - and an out-of-state one, too! For this New Yorker by way of muchos, muchos, muchos generations, finding a burial site out of state, even if it's just across the river, is EXTREMELY exciting.
It's the little things, people. I am off to look up this cemetery now to see if it still exists. Between Peter Stutzmann and Magdalena Reinhardt, I may have to schedule a Veteran's Day cemetery field trip for next week!
Yay! :)
Finally! NYC Municipal Archives comes through
I am not a patient person. Ask anyone I know. So the fact that I had to wait almost four weeks for the documents I requested from the New York City municipal archives, especially since I had provided both names AND certificate numbers, miffed me just a little bit. I get that they're busy - but don't they get how important my genealogy research is?? To me???
So three out of the four documents I requested were waiting for me in the stack of mail when I got home. The first, Peter Stutzmann's death certificate, is definitely my Peter Stutzmann. I knew it the moment I saw the address at which he died, 54 Morrell Street in Brooklyn. That's where the Stutzmanns were living at that time (1892). Disappointingly, it does not provide his parents' names, though I had wanted that only to verify information I already had, but it did confirm for me that he died in New York even though he pretty much didn't live here - according to his death certificate he had only been living here for four months. And it gives me the cemetery he was buried in, Evergreens, so now I can find his gravesite. So that's kind of cool. Peter Stutzmann, by the way, was my great-great-great grandfather, from Grossbockenheim, Germany.
I received two other death certificates, too - one for Catharina Ann Rhinehart and one for Magdalena Reinhardt, both died in 1887, on the suspicion that one may be my fifth-great grandmother, who went by a variety of first names and who may have died in Brooklyn in 1887. Unfortunately, neither gives parents' names, which was what I was really hoping for, or a maiden name, which would have helped confirm or eliminate, but it gives addresses and the names of children to whom the certificate was delivered, so I have clues to work with, but I am going to have to examine both of these documents much more closely before I can make any kind of determination, but I will keep you posted.
Happy weekend everyone!
So three out of the four documents I requested were waiting for me in the stack of mail when I got home. The first, Peter Stutzmann's death certificate, is definitely my Peter Stutzmann. I knew it the moment I saw the address at which he died, 54 Morrell Street in Brooklyn. That's where the Stutzmanns were living at that time (1892). Disappointingly, it does not provide his parents' names, though I had wanted that only to verify information I already had, but it did confirm for me that he died in New York even though he pretty much didn't live here - according to his death certificate he had only been living here for four months. And it gives me the cemetery he was buried in, Evergreens, so now I can find his gravesite. So that's kind of cool. Peter Stutzmann, by the way, was my great-great-great grandfather, from Grossbockenheim, Germany.
I received two other death certificates, too - one for Catharina Ann Rhinehart and one for Magdalena Reinhardt, both died in 1887, on the suspicion that one may be my fifth-great grandmother, who went by a variety of first names and who may have died in Brooklyn in 1887. Unfortunately, neither gives parents' names, which was what I was really hoping for, or a maiden name, which would have helped confirm or eliminate, but it gives addresses and the names of children to whom the certificate was delivered, so I have clues to work with, but I am going to have to examine both of these documents much more closely before I can make any kind of determination, but I will keep you posted.
Happy weekend everyone!
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