Yes, I know it's only two minutes later, but I just ran over to www.italiangen.org to look up Catherine's marriage to George Hellman - their records only start about 1864, so they wouldn't have Catherine's marriage to John Meinberg - so I looked up George Hellman and got six returns. Clicked on George Hellmann, Oct 20 1878 in Brooklyn, and who did he marry? "Kathar Meinberg."
Bingo!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
A little bit persistence, a little bit serendipity...
I just made a huge genealogical breakthrough, completely by accident. I may have totally broken down one of my brick walls.
As I've said, I've found "Who Do You Think You Are?" to be completely inspiring to me as a genealogist, igniting my own excitement in the face of many frustrations and many, many brickwalls. If one avenue you're trying isn't working, it's time to try another. There are countless sources of information out there, if only you are wlling and able to try to find them.
This newest nugget of info I just discovered, literally 15 minutes ago, follows such a convoluted avenue that even with my persistence it can only be by serendipity that I found it. Here's what happened:
Part of what I've really enjoyed about "Who Do You Think You Are?" is finding out the motivations and stories behind the people these celebrities have been discovering, so since I'm always looking to round out the picture for my own ancestors more completely, I decided to start with the one I knew there would be the most information about, Rudolph Stutzmann - he's my great great grandfather, the undertaker and founder/president of Ridgewood Savings Bank. I used both the New York Times' article archives and another Web site, www.fultonhistory.com, which has newspaper articles from all over (mostly) New York State and some of New England from as far back as the 1850s. I found out some interesting things about Rudolph, including photos, a lot about the founding of Ridgewood Savings Bank, a lot about his involvement in German-American society in Brooklyn/Queens, and the reasons behind some of the many voyages he and his wife Augusta made together between 1910-1930. One immediate thought that I want to share about this investigation is, as someone who is so thoroughly American, my most recent immigrant ancestor being my great-grandfather and all my immigrant ancestors being here before 1900, that I have no real, tangible connections to my cultural heritages (no special meals, no customs and traditions practiced)that it was kind of nice to discover that my Stutzmann relatives in the 1910s and 1920s were thoroughly immersed in their German heritage, even if, as my father tells me that his father told him, it kind of bordered on a pre-Nazi/Aryan slant. But I'll get back to my Rudolph Stutzmann adventures in another post. I'm too excited about this right now.
So...I was looking up Rudolph, and decided, well, if www.fultonhistory.com in particular has a variety of newspapers archived, even if my other ancestors weren't as newsworthy as Rudolph was, maybe there were obituaries to find. And there were. Augusta Lindemann Stutzmann, Rudolph's wife, was there. Her mother, Eva M. Lindemann, had an obit, and it would have been extremely informative if I hadn't known anything about her. Eva Meinberg Haase, my 3rd great grandmother, had an obit, and so did her husband, Edward Haase, who had another extremely informative one (though there wasn't any new info there, just confirmation to info I already had). Edward Haase is actually in the Brooklyn newspapers a lot, with his obit clarifying why - he was a great bowler, one of the best bowlers in East New York. That was mentioned in his obit, and looking at the newspaper pages confirms that he and his team were champions for a few years, and his scores are always listed.
I am a terrible bowler. I obviously did not inherit that gene from Edward.
So, Rudolph to random family obits to Edward, and so I jumped to Google to look up "Edward Haase" and bowling, just to see what turned up. Nothing much, lots of stuff from Missouri, and then, three pages in, I saw the phrase, "died at the home of her son in law, Edward Haase, 180 Arlington Ave."
Intriguing. Edward Haase at 180 Arlington Ave is my Edward.
This is what I knew about Edward's mother-in-law. From Edward's wife Eva Meinberg's marriage certificate, I knew her mother was Catherina Naehr. From her death certificate I knew her mother was Catherine Neher. In the 1910 census there's a "Kathyrn Haase" indexed as Edward's mother-in-law, but the last name is wrong and the age was too young. I knew Eva was born in New York in 1861 to John Meinberg and I had found on the Family History Center Web site that a John Meinberg was born about a year and half later to John and Catherine, so I assumed Eva also had a brother John, but I could never find John or Catherine in a census, I couldn't find them on a passenger list, I had no idea when or where they died, when they were born, I assumed they were German immigrants but I didn't know from where. They were essentially ghosts.
So anyway, I clicked on this link and it brought me to a Brooklyn genealogy Web site, one I've been to before, where they transcribe a lot of stories and obits from early Brooklyn newspapers, and this is what the blurb read:
7 Dec 1918
Catherine N. HELLMAN, widow of George HELLMAN, died on Thursday
of apoplexy at the home of her son-in-law, Edward HAASE, 180 Arlington
avenue. She was born in Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany, seventy-eight
years ago, and had been a resident of Brooklyn for sixty-two years. She
is survived by two sons, John and Frederick; three daughters, Mrs. Edward
HAASE, Mrs. Anton SMITH, and Mrs. Henry HENNINGER, fourteen
grandchildren, two great grandchildren, and a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth
RIDERS. The funeral will be held tomorrow afternoon.
I mean, how awesome is that?!?!?!? This is the kind of discovery you dream about. I have a date of death. I have an approximate year of birth. I have a *place* of birth. I have an approximate immigration date. I have not just daughter Eva Haase but *four* other kids (including John!!), grandchildren, (I think the great grandchildren are my great grandmother and her brother), I have a *sister*, I have a new last name, Hellman (the middle initial of N matches her maiden name of Naehr/Neher), so I assume she remarried at some point. I can order a death certificate. I can look for her on the census. I can see if she and George Hellman have a marriage certificate. I can look for a passenger list record. This excitement, this *finding* of someone, is the reason I do this. I can't wait to start finding out more about Catherine and adding that info to my tree!
As I've said, I've found "Who Do You Think You Are?" to be completely inspiring to me as a genealogist, igniting my own excitement in the face of many frustrations and many, many brickwalls. If one avenue you're trying isn't working, it's time to try another. There are countless sources of information out there, if only you are wlling and able to try to find them.
This newest nugget of info I just discovered, literally 15 minutes ago, follows such a convoluted avenue that even with my persistence it can only be by serendipity that I found it. Here's what happened:
Part of what I've really enjoyed about "Who Do You Think You Are?" is finding out the motivations and stories behind the people these celebrities have been discovering, so since I'm always looking to round out the picture for my own ancestors more completely, I decided to start with the one I knew there would be the most information about, Rudolph Stutzmann - he's my great great grandfather, the undertaker and founder/president of Ridgewood Savings Bank. I used both the New York Times' article archives and another Web site, www.fultonhistory.com, which has newspaper articles from all over (mostly) New York State and some of New England from as far back as the 1850s. I found out some interesting things about Rudolph, including photos, a lot about the founding of Ridgewood Savings Bank, a lot about his involvement in German-American society in Brooklyn/Queens, and the reasons behind some of the many voyages he and his wife Augusta made together between 1910-1930. One immediate thought that I want to share about this investigation is, as someone who is so thoroughly American, my most recent immigrant ancestor being my great-grandfather and all my immigrant ancestors being here before 1900, that I have no real, tangible connections to my cultural heritages (no special meals, no customs and traditions practiced)that it was kind of nice to discover that my Stutzmann relatives in the 1910s and 1920s were thoroughly immersed in their German heritage, even if, as my father tells me that his father told him, it kind of bordered on a pre-Nazi/Aryan slant. But I'll get back to my Rudolph Stutzmann adventures in another post. I'm too excited about this right now.
So...I was looking up Rudolph, and decided, well, if www.fultonhistory.com in particular has a variety of newspapers archived, even if my other ancestors weren't as newsworthy as Rudolph was, maybe there were obituaries to find. And there were. Augusta Lindemann Stutzmann, Rudolph's wife, was there. Her mother, Eva M. Lindemann, had an obit, and it would have been extremely informative if I hadn't known anything about her. Eva Meinberg Haase, my 3rd great grandmother, had an obit, and so did her husband, Edward Haase, who had another extremely informative one (though there wasn't any new info there, just confirmation to info I already had). Edward Haase is actually in the Brooklyn newspapers a lot, with his obit clarifying why - he was a great bowler, one of the best bowlers in East New York. That was mentioned in his obit, and looking at the newspaper pages confirms that he and his team were champions for a few years, and his scores are always listed.
I am a terrible bowler. I obviously did not inherit that gene from Edward.
So, Rudolph to random family obits to Edward, and so I jumped to Google to look up "Edward Haase" and bowling, just to see what turned up. Nothing much, lots of stuff from Missouri, and then, three pages in, I saw the phrase, "died at the home of her son in law, Edward Haase, 180 Arlington Ave."
Intriguing. Edward Haase at 180 Arlington Ave is my Edward.
This is what I knew about Edward's mother-in-law. From Edward's wife Eva Meinberg's marriage certificate, I knew her mother was Catherina Naehr. From her death certificate I knew her mother was Catherine Neher. In the 1910 census there's a "Kathyrn Haase" indexed as Edward's mother-in-law, but the last name is wrong and the age was too young. I knew Eva was born in New York in 1861 to John Meinberg and I had found on the Family History Center Web site that a John Meinberg was born about a year and half later to John and Catherine, so I assumed Eva also had a brother John, but I could never find John or Catherine in a census, I couldn't find them on a passenger list, I had no idea when or where they died, when they were born, I assumed they were German immigrants but I didn't know from where. They were essentially ghosts.
So anyway, I clicked on this link and it brought me to a Brooklyn genealogy Web site, one I've been to before, where they transcribe a lot of stories and obits from early Brooklyn newspapers, and this is what the blurb read:
7 Dec 1918
Catherine N. HELLMAN, widow of George HELLMAN, died on Thursday
of apoplexy at the home of her son-in-law, Edward HAASE, 180 Arlington
avenue. She was born in Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany, seventy-eight
years ago, and had been a resident of Brooklyn for sixty-two years. She
is survived by two sons, John and Frederick; three daughters, Mrs. Edward
HAASE, Mrs. Anton SMITH, and Mrs. Henry HENNINGER, fourteen
grandchildren, two great grandchildren, and a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth
RIDERS. The funeral will be held tomorrow afternoon.
I mean, how awesome is that?!?!?!? This is the kind of discovery you dream about. I have a date of death. I have an approximate year of birth. I have a *place* of birth. I have an approximate immigration date. I have not just daughter Eva Haase but *four* other kids (including John!!), grandchildren, (I think the great grandchildren are my great grandmother and her brother), I have a *sister*, I have a new last name, Hellman (the middle initial of N matches her maiden name of Naehr/Neher), so I assume she remarried at some point. I can order a death certificate. I can look for her on the census. I can see if she and George Hellman have a marriage certificate. I can look for a passenger list record. This excitement, this *finding* of someone, is the reason I do this. I can't wait to start finding out more about Catherine and adding that info to my tree!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
More thoughts on "Who Do You Think You Are?"
* I really enjoyed the Emmitt Smith episode, mostly because he voiced so many thoughts that I feel myself when I'm doing my family history, how I feel like a detective and how I can feel the spirits of my ancestors being so happy to have not been forgotten.
* I always think about how African-Americans, if they can trace their family trees back to the Civil War, pretty much have hit an ultimate brick wall with any slave ancestors, but watching Lisa Kudrow research her great-grandmother's murder by the Nazis in 1940s Belarus, it seems to me that Americans of Eastern European Jewish descent have the rawest deal, being unable to go further back than that generation...
*I record every episode Friday night and watch it Saturday morning...I can't watch it Fridays before going to bed because, without fail, I always end up crying during this show.
*I just get so excited to see these people get so excited by what they're doing and what they're finding out...
Next week, Matthew Broderick traces his family tree (wow, James and Marion and Tabitha Broderick really lucked out, getting help with both sides of their family tree by professionals!!)
And this doesn't have anything to do with the show, but I read this quote today while I was looking into my Stutzmann genealogy, and I just thought it hit the nail on the head, especially in explaining why we do what we do to people who have no interest and just don't get it:
"Those who take no pride in the recording of vital records or the achievement of their ancestors are not likely to accomplish much that will be remembered with pride by their descendents."
* I always think about how African-Americans, if they can trace their family trees back to the Civil War, pretty much have hit an ultimate brick wall with any slave ancestors, but watching Lisa Kudrow research her great-grandmother's murder by the Nazis in 1940s Belarus, it seems to me that Americans of Eastern European Jewish descent have the rawest deal, being unable to go further back than that generation...
*I record every episode Friday night and watch it Saturday morning...I can't watch it Fridays before going to bed because, without fail, I always end up crying during this show.
*I just get so excited to see these people get so excited by what they're doing and what they're finding out...
Next week, Matthew Broderick traces his family tree (wow, James and Marion and Tabitha Broderick really lucked out, getting help with both sides of their family tree by professionals!!)
And this doesn't have anything to do with the show, but I read this quote today while I was looking into my Stutzmann genealogy, and I just thought it hit the nail on the head, especially in explaining why we do what we do to people who have no interest and just don't get it:
"Those who take no pride in the recording of vital records or the achievement of their ancestors are not likely to accomplish much that will be remembered with pride by their descendents."
U.S. Census 2010
So, the 2010 census has been delivered for Americans to fill out and all I can think, when I look at it, is how, when it becomes public record in 72 years, it will be no help whatsoever to genealogists.
Yes, since the 2000 census, there have been changes - my 95-year-old grandmother is still alive, my mother is gone, and my brother has moved out. But besides asking for names, ages, race, and relation to the head of household, there is no information to be gleaned. Even for the government using this census, I can't imagine what they can learn from the questions they are asking. It's almost insulting. The 2010 census is about as basic as the 1850 or 1860 census. From 150 years ago. I think about how rich and informative the 1900 or the 1930 census are - occupations, where a person was born, where his parents were born, whether or not they are a veteran, just all these clues to lead you in directions to finding out information further back. Which I guess means that it's up to me and all my fellow genealogists and historians to keep track of as much information as we possibly can so that future generations don't have to rely on this census for their info.
Yes, since the 2000 census, there have been changes - my 95-year-old grandmother is still alive, my mother is gone, and my brother has moved out. But besides asking for names, ages, race, and relation to the head of household, there is no information to be gleaned. Even for the government using this census, I can't imagine what they can learn from the questions they are asking. It's almost insulting. The 2010 census is about as basic as the 1850 or 1860 census. From 150 years ago. I think about how rich and informative the 1900 or the 1930 census are - occupations, where a person was born, where his parents were born, whether or not they are a veteran, just all these clues to lead you in directions to finding out information further back. Which I guess means that it's up to me and all my fellow genealogists and historians to keep track of as much information as we possibly can so that future generations don't have to rely on this census for their info.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
It's all in the details
It occurred to me recently that for all the genealogical records I have and all the information I've gotten from them, I've only half read them. I've read the names. I've read the dates. But every bit of information on them is a clue. Maybe not to some GREAT BIG REVEAL about an unknown foreparent...but maybe. Or maybe to some interesting story. At the very least, it can help round out the picture for the life of someone you already have on your tree and help you get to know them a little better.
So, to that end, this past week I went through my genealogy book, where I keep all my records, and just made note of all the details I never bothered to look at before, for whatever reaon (who knew I had been such a lazy genealogist?) For example - on a marriage certificate, what was the name of the church? Where was that church located? Who performed the marriage ceremony? Who were the witnesses? My great-grandparents Frederick Stutzmann and Helen Haas didn't have a church listed on their marriage certificate, but the name of the guy who married them, Thomas F. Maher, revealed that he was a county clerk, so it looks like they got married at city hall. Sometimes the marriage witnesses are siblings or other relatives, but one of the witnesses on the 1885 marriage certificate for my 3rd great-grandparents Edward Haase and Eva Meinberg is Gus Follmer or Gus Follmar, who Eva was working for as a servant in 1880. Also, both witnesses appear to be male.
My great great grandfather, Jimmy Gorry, presented his son, Joseph Gorry, with a first communion missal in 1894 (they both died shortly after), but it was a missal that belonged to him, that he got at his own first communion in May of 1880. It states that he made his communion at St. Bridget's Church. A Google search reveals that there was a St. Brigid's Church that was located on Avenue B and Seventh Street near Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. It was known as a "famine church," having been founded in 1848 by Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine. I've looked at the missal before but St. Brigid's was a new clue for me, and quite possibly an important one, because I can't find Jimmy, his siblings, or his parents in the 1880 census. That neighborhood seems to be where they are in all the other censuses, but the church where he made his communion is a strong indicator that the Gorrys were somewhere in that vicinity in 1880, if I just have the patience to look and imagination to figure out what name in the census they're indexed under...
Today, I decided to look at letters my great great grandmother, Mary Horgan Gorry, received in 1918 from a soldier she was apparently in correspondence with during World War I. I had read them, but never really *read* them. The letters are written on YMCA stationery by "R. Morrow." In one dated Sept. 10, 1918, he talks about getting used to military life. He doesn't name where he's stationed, but talks about getting passes to go into Chattanooga, about it being a military camp, and being located in Chickamauga Park. A Google search revealed that during WW I, the Army had a base at Fort Oglethorpe, near Chattanooga, with two training grounds, Camp Forrest and Camp Greenleaf. The YMCA helped erect some of the buildings, and the medical camp there extended into Chickamauga Park by the end of summer 1918. R. Morrow talks about this being near Civil War battlegrounds and visiting the various monuments erected to "some great deed(s) performed by some great (men)." He also asks about Mary's husband, Elmer, saying he hopes that Elmer gets sent there, as it's a good camp.
In an Oct. 1 letter, Morrow talks about still liking camp life and going to school, studying anatomy, physiology, first aid, drills, articles of war, and medical training. The return address is "R. Morrow, N.C.O. School, Section C Co. E, Camp Greenleaf, Chickamauga." According to a Web site I found, Fort Oglethorpe and Chickamauga Park were hit by the influenza epidemic that fall - more than 3,500 soldiers got sick, and by November, medical training activities at Camp Greenleaf were suspended.
Those are the only two letters I have. They don't really provide too much insight into the life of Mary, except that she became pen pals with a soldier, but I wonder what happened to R. Morrow. Did he get sick and/or die from the flu epidemic? If not, where did he go when the medical training stopped, just a month after his last letter? Does he have any descendants living today who would be interested in reading the things that he wrote? Maybe I should try to find them, since I would want someone to do the same for me.
Anyway, the point is, that the important facts are, obviously, important. The details may or may not be important but they sure can be interesting.
So, to that end, this past week I went through my genealogy book, where I keep all my records, and just made note of all the details I never bothered to look at before, for whatever reaon (who knew I had been such a lazy genealogist?) For example - on a marriage certificate, what was the name of the church? Where was that church located? Who performed the marriage ceremony? Who were the witnesses? My great-grandparents Frederick Stutzmann and Helen Haas didn't have a church listed on their marriage certificate, but the name of the guy who married them, Thomas F. Maher, revealed that he was a county clerk, so it looks like they got married at city hall. Sometimes the marriage witnesses are siblings or other relatives, but one of the witnesses on the 1885 marriage certificate for my 3rd great-grandparents Edward Haase and Eva Meinberg is Gus Follmer or Gus Follmar, who Eva was working for as a servant in 1880. Also, both witnesses appear to be male.
My great great grandfather, Jimmy Gorry, presented his son, Joseph Gorry, with a first communion missal in 1894 (they both died shortly after), but it was a missal that belonged to him, that he got at his own first communion in May of 1880. It states that he made his communion at St. Bridget's Church. A Google search reveals that there was a St. Brigid's Church that was located on Avenue B and Seventh Street near Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. It was known as a "famine church," having been founded in 1848 by Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine. I've looked at the missal before but St. Brigid's was a new clue for me, and quite possibly an important one, because I can't find Jimmy, his siblings, or his parents in the 1880 census. That neighborhood seems to be where they are in all the other censuses, but the church where he made his communion is a strong indicator that the Gorrys were somewhere in that vicinity in 1880, if I just have the patience to look and imagination to figure out what name in the census they're indexed under...
Today, I decided to look at letters my great great grandmother, Mary Horgan Gorry, received in 1918 from a soldier she was apparently in correspondence with during World War I. I had read them, but never really *read* them. The letters are written on YMCA stationery by "R. Morrow." In one dated Sept. 10, 1918, he talks about getting used to military life. He doesn't name where he's stationed, but talks about getting passes to go into Chattanooga, about it being a military camp, and being located in Chickamauga Park. A Google search revealed that during WW I, the Army had a base at Fort Oglethorpe, near Chattanooga, with two training grounds, Camp Forrest and Camp Greenleaf. The YMCA helped erect some of the buildings, and the medical camp there extended into Chickamauga Park by the end of summer 1918. R. Morrow talks about this being near Civil War battlegrounds and visiting the various monuments erected to "some great deed(s) performed by some great (men)." He also asks about Mary's husband, Elmer, saying he hopes that Elmer gets sent there, as it's a good camp.
In an Oct. 1 letter, Morrow talks about still liking camp life and going to school, studying anatomy, physiology, first aid, drills, articles of war, and medical training. The return address is "R. Morrow, N.C.O. School, Section C Co. E, Camp Greenleaf, Chickamauga." According to a Web site I found, Fort Oglethorpe and Chickamauga Park were hit by the influenza epidemic that fall - more than 3,500 soldiers got sick, and by November, medical training activities at Camp Greenleaf were suspended.
Those are the only two letters I have. They don't really provide too much insight into the life of Mary, except that she became pen pals with a soldier, but I wonder what happened to R. Morrow. Did he get sick and/or die from the flu epidemic? If not, where did he go when the medical training stopped, just a month after his last letter? Does he have any descendants living today who would be interested in reading the things that he wrote? Maybe I should try to find them, since I would want someone to do the same for me.
Anyway, the point is, that the important facts are, obviously, important. The details may or may not be important but they sure can be interesting.
Meet the Reinhardts of Hudson County, New Jersey
I've written a lot about my 4th-great grandfather Charles Haase, my Civil War ancestor. Well, I recently decided to take a second look at his wife's family, the Reinhardts, partially because they're a continuing source of frustration as one of my dead ends, partially because they're one of my only families that found its way out of New York, so they offered something a little different to look into.
Barbara Reinhardt was born in New York City in 1841 to immigrant John Reinhardt and his wife, named in various records and at various times as Magdalena, Caroline, Carolina, Leni, Helen, and Lena. Yeah...that's not at all confusing.
Anyway, Barbara was the third of about seven children so in addition to looking at various New Jersey records that were available where New York records were not, I decided to look into her siblings. Siblings are valuable sources of information. Descendants of siblings are as well. Most of Barbara's siblings are actually fairly well researched except for her oldest sibling, her brother John, so I decided to focus on him.
So, in 1850, the Reinhardts are living in New York City, where John Sr. was working at a porter house, but they were possibly in New Jersey as early as 1852, as their youngest child, Catherine (Kate) is listed as being born there. In 1859, they were living in West Hoboken in Hudson County, New Jersey, where John Sr. was working in a lager beer saloon. It's curious to me why people make the moves that they do, so I wonder what brought John Sr. and his family from New York to New Jersey, but it is here in Hudson County that the Reinhardts would make their mark.
According to my records, most of the Reinhardt children were born in New York, with the exception of Kate and the oldest, John, who was born in Havre, France in 1838 to German immigrant parents (according to his obituary). Le Havre was a common emigration point to New York and I'm not sure how long the Reinhardts were there after leaving Germany and before John was born, but they supposedly came over in 1839, though I've yet to find them on a passenger list (though you'd think a baby on board would be easy to find). I also don't know where in Germany they came from.
Anywho, in 1860 the Reinhardts are living in North Bergen, still in Hudson County. John Sr. is a hotel keeper; John Jr. is a bar keep. In July of 1861, Barbara married Charles Haase in New York, settling in Union Hill in, you guessed it, Hudson County. Charlie Haase, as we all know, fought in the Civil War with a New Jersey regiment. The John Reinhardts were still working in a saloon in 1864. About this time, Barbara's brother John married Anna Margaret Reisenweber and moved out on his own. In the 1870 census for the city of Union in the county of Hudson, he's listed as being in real estate. John Sr. is apparently no longer working.
Now, in the 1880 census, John Jr. is living with his family in Jersey City in Hudson County with his profession listed as ex-sheriff. So this past week I backtracked a bit and a Google search turned up archived New York Times articles that John Reinhardt was, in fact, the sheriff of Hudson County from 1871-74. A search of the NYT archives themselves got confusing because at the same time that John Reinhardt was sheriff, a Jacob Reinhardt was coroner and also involved in many of his cases...yeah, that was fun.
Also, it's noted in The New York Times that in November of 1874, John Reinhardt, ex-sheriff, was dangerously ill with diptheria. So, he was well-known enough for that to be considered news-worthy.
John Sr. was dead by 1880 as far as I can tell, and his wife seemed to split her time between John Jr's in Hudson County and Barbara Haase's, who had moved with her family to Brooklyn. One of my current goals is to narrow down that 10-year window for John Sr.'s death, and try to determine whether he died in Hudson County, where he made his home, or in Brooklyn, where his wife seems to have ended up.
All of my direct family is out of Jersey by 1880, but in the 1895 New Jersey census, John Jr. and his family are still living in West Hoboken.
John Jr., who was my 4th great grandmother Barbara Haase's brother, had his own son, John (my 3rd great-grandfather Edward Haase's cousin), and there's actually some info about him (and his father) in a book called "Genealogical histories of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey" by Cornelius Burnham Harvey, published in 1900, where he's listed as a somewhat up-and-coming public figure in Hudson County.
In John III's biographical sketch, his father (Barbara Haase's brother) is described as "for many years one of the most prominent and best known men in the county, serving as Sheriff from 1871 to 1874, and holding other positions of trust and responsibility." John III (Edward Haase's cousin), for his part, seems to have been involved in real estate as well as also in political affairs, serving as a justice of the peace and notary public (this was written in 1900, when he was only 26 years old). He is described as "public spirited, progressive, and patriotic, taking an interest in the welfare of the community and liberally supporting and encouraging every worthy project." There's even a photograph and everything.
John Jr., Barbara's brother, died in 1898. He actually has an obituary in The New York Times on Jan. 22: "John Reinhardt died at his home, 406 Charles Street, West Hoboken, yesterday from a complication of diseases. He was born in Havre, France of German parents in 1838, but was brought to this country in 1839. He was a Democrat and served as Sheriff from 1871 to 1874, being elected three times. He also held several local offices."
It's been very interesting getting to know my Reinhardt family, but what does this mean for my Reinhardt research in trying to break down that brick wall? It means I'm looking at passenger lists for around 1839, 1840. It means I'm looking to a possible trip across the river to Hudson County to look at local newspaper archives, local municipal record holdings, local cemeteries. If my 5th great grandfather John Reinhardt is there, Hudson County may hold the clues to knocking down that next wall...
Barbara Reinhardt was born in New York City in 1841 to immigrant John Reinhardt and his wife, named in various records and at various times as Magdalena, Caroline, Carolina, Leni, Helen, and Lena. Yeah...that's not at all confusing.
Anyway, Barbara was the third of about seven children so in addition to looking at various New Jersey records that were available where New York records were not, I decided to look into her siblings. Siblings are valuable sources of information. Descendants of siblings are as well. Most of Barbara's siblings are actually fairly well researched except for her oldest sibling, her brother John, so I decided to focus on him.
So, in 1850, the Reinhardts are living in New York City, where John Sr. was working at a porter house, but they were possibly in New Jersey as early as 1852, as their youngest child, Catherine (Kate) is listed as being born there. In 1859, they were living in West Hoboken in Hudson County, New Jersey, where John Sr. was working in a lager beer saloon. It's curious to me why people make the moves that they do, so I wonder what brought John Sr. and his family from New York to New Jersey, but it is here in Hudson County that the Reinhardts would make their mark.
According to my records, most of the Reinhardt children were born in New York, with the exception of Kate and the oldest, John, who was born in Havre, France in 1838 to German immigrant parents (according to his obituary). Le Havre was a common emigration point to New York and I'm not sure how long the Reinhardts were there after leaving Germany and before John was born, but they supposedly came over in 1839, though I've yet to find them on a passenger list (though you'd think a baby on board would be easy to find). I also don't know where in Germany they came from.
Anywho, in 1860 the Reinhardts are living in North Bergen, still in Hudson County. John Sr. is a hotel keeper; John Jr. is a bar keep. In July of 1861, Barbara married Charles Haase in New York, settling in Union Hill in, you guessed it, Hudson County. Charlie Haase, as we all know, fought in the Civil War with a New Jersey regiment. The John Reinhardts were still working in a saloon in 1864. About this time, Barbara's brother John married Anna Margaret Reisenweber and moved out on his own. In the 1870 census for the city of Union in the county of Hudson, he's listed as being in real estate. John Sr. is apparently no longer working.
Now, in the 1880 census, John Jr. is living with his family in Jersey City in Hudson County with his profession listed as ex-sheriff. So this past week I backtracked a bit and a Google search turned up archived New York Times articles that John Reinhardt was, in fact, the sheriff of Hudson County from 1871-74. A search of the NYT archives themselves got confusing because at the same time that John Reinhardt was sheriff, a Jacob Reinhardt was coroner and also involved in many of his cases...yeah, that was fun.
Also, it's noted in The New York Times that in November of 1874, John Reinhardt, ex-sheriff, was dangerously ill with diptheria. So, he was well-known enough for that to be considered news-worthy.
John Sr. was dead by 1880 as far as I can tell, and his wife seemed to split her time between John Jr's in Hudson County and Barbara Haase's, who had moved with her family to Brooklyn. One of my current goals is to narrow down that 10-year window for John Sr.'s death, and try to determine whether he died in Hudson County, where he made his home, or in Brooklyn, where his wife seems to have ended up.
All of my direct family is out of Jersey by 1880, but in the 1895 New Jersey census, John Jr. and his family are still living in West Hoboken.
John Jr., who was my 4th great grandmother Barbara Haase's brother, had his own son, John (my 3rd great-grandfather Edward Haase's cousin), and there's actually some info about him (and his father) in a book called "Genealogical histories of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey" by Cornelius Burnham Harvey, published in 1900, where he's listed as a somewhat up-and-coming public figure in Hudson County.
In John III's biographical sketch, his father (Barbara Haase's brother) is described as "for many years one of the most prominent and best known men in the county, serving as Sheriff from 1871 to 1874, and holding other positions of trust and responsibility." John III (Edward Haase's cousin), for his part, seems to have been involved in real estate as well as also in political affairs, serving as a justice of the peace and notary public (this was written in 1900, when he was only 26 years old). He is described as "public spirited, progressive, and patriotic, taking an interest in the welfare of the community and liberally supporting and encouraging every worthy project." There's even a photograph and everything.
John Jr., Barbara's brother, died in 1898. He actually has an obituary in The New York Times on Jan. 22: "John Reinhardt died at his home, 406 Charles Street, West Hoboken, yesterday from a complication of diseases. He was born in Havre, France of German parents in 1838, but was brought to this country in 1839. He was a Democrat and served as Sheriff from 1871 to 1874, being elected three times. He also held several local offices."
It's been very interesting getting to know my Reinhardt family, but what does this mean for my Reinhardt research in trying to break down that brick wall? It means I'm looking at passenger lists for around 1839, 1840. It means I'm looking to a possible trip across the river to Hudson County to look at local newspaper archives, local municipal record holdings, local cemeteries. If my 5th great grandfather John Reinhardt is there, Hudson County may hold the clues to knocking down that next wall...
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Who do you think you are?
Ok, I wanted to post this entry before last night, since I've known the show "Who Do You Think You Are?" was coming for months now, but stupid NBC doesn't have a way to link to Blogger and I got lazy. Then I figured I'd watch it first to see what I thought before telling everyone to go out and watch it.
Well, I watched it this morning. So go online and watch it. Now. And record it next Friday.
This family history show is a British import - I think they just completed their seventh series over there - and it follows celebrities as they trace their family trees. Now for many people, including one reviewer I read, that may sound incredibly boring. Why do you care about somebody else's family history? And while you're slaving away doing your own research, these people sweep in with their hired professional genealogists and historians. All good points. But you should watch it anyway.
Maybe it's because I'm fascinated by history and genealogy in general, not just my own, but I thought the show was fascinating. As someone with my own colonial, honest-to-God American roots, I loved seeing Sarah Jessica Parker follow her own, from her relative who died in the Gold Rush to the one who was accused of witchcraft in 17th century Salem. My brother caught a part of the episode as SJP was saying she couldn't stop thinking about her Gold Rush ancestor and he remarked that he thought that sounded silly, but I told him I knew exactly what she was talking about, because there comes a point where that person becomes real to you. To be honest, I was moved to tears as I watched. Now, maybe it was just hormones, but maybe it was seeing SJP moved to tears herself by the people she discovered.
Anyway, even if the celebrity family tree angle doesn't interest you, I thought it was helpful just for tips on how to go about researching your own family tree. I was kinda wary before it aired about the information they would use and the sources they would go to for it, but they seem to have used only reputable genealogical and historical sources and experts and relied mostly on primary sources, which was a relief. Some of the sources, such as the records on Ancestry, I already know about, but even for my own family history, I learned about the New England Historic Genealogical Society's Great Migration Study Project, which is piecing together what I assume would be reliable biographical sketches of many of the immigrants to America in the years following the Mayflower landing (this period of time is known as the Great Migration). A search of the index of people they already have research on lists my immigrant ancestor, Edward Raynor, and that in addition to the index of their holdings is leading me to consider joining their society. So, something I learned from this show.
It was also a reminder that while the internet has put a lot of reliable records right at our fingertips, that there are so many more out there if we're just willing to do a little digging and a bit of some actual fieldwork. I don't want to be a lazy genealogist, giving up on something just because it's not available on my computer screen. So I'm resolved to start doing more real life hunting.
I just get excited when people get excited about finding out where they came from. Not that I don't think you can't know who you are without knowing where you came from, but we all are where we are because of the lives of the people who came before, so...I think it helps to be able to connect to something. And someone.
So I'm excited to see the rest of the stories to come. And in the meantime, it has stoked the fires of doing my own research. Every now and then, especially when you get discouraged, you need that. And you need something to remind you how much you love doing this.
So...who do you think you are? Fridays at 8 p.m. on NBC. Watch it!
Well, I watched it this morning. So go online and watch it. Now. And record it next Friday.
This family history show is a British import - I think they just completed their seventh series over there - and it follows celebrities as they trace their family trees. Now for many people, including one reviewer I read, that may sound incredibly boring. Why do you care about somebody else's family history? And while you're slaving away doing your own research, these people sweep in with their hired professional genealogists and historians. All good points. But you should watch it anyway.
Maybe it's because I'm fascinated by history and genealogy in general, not just my own, but I thought the show was fascinating. As someone with my own colonial, honest-to-God American roots, I loved seeing Sarah Jessica Parker follow her own, from her relative who died in the Gold Rush to the one who was accused of witchcraft in 17th century Salem. My brother caught a part of the episode as SJP was saying she couldn't stop thinking about her Gold Rush ancestor and he remarked that he thought that sounded silly, but I told him I knew exactly what she was talking about, because there comes a point where that person becomes real to you. To be honest, I was moved to tears as I watched. Now, maybe it was just hormones, but maybe it was seeing SJP moved to tears herself by the people she discovered.
Anyway, even if the celebrity family tree angle doesn't interest you, I thought it was helpful just for tips on how to go about researching your own family tree. I was kinda wary before it aired about the information they would use and the sources they would go to for it, but they seem to have used only reputable genealogical and historical sources and experts and relied mostly on primary sources, which was a relief. Some of the sources, such as the records on Ancestry, I already know about, but even for my own family history, I learned about the New England Historic Genealogical Society's Great Migration Study Project, which is piecing together what I assume would be reliable biographical sketches of many of the immigrants to America in the years following the Mayflower landing (this period of time is known as the Great Migration). A search of the index of people they already have research on lists my immigrant ancestor, Edward Raynor, and that in addition to the index of their holdings is leading me to consider joining their society. So, something I learned from this show.
It was also a reminder that while the internet has put a lot of reliable records right at our fingertips, that there are so many more out there if we're just willing to do a little digging and a bit of some actual fieldwork. I don't want to be a lazy genealogist, giving up on something just because it's not available on my computer screen. So I'm resolved to start doing more real life hunting.
I just get excited when people get excited about finding out where they came from. Not that I don't think you can't know who you are without knowing where you came from, but we all are where we are because of the lives of the people who came before, so...I think it helps to be able to connect to something. And someone.
So I'm excited to see the rest of the stories to come. And in the meantime, it has stoked the fires of doing my own research. Every now and then, especially when you get discouraged, you need that. And you need something to remind you how much you love doing this.
So...who do you think you are? Fridays at 8 p.m. on NBC. Watch it!
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