Poor Man

When first venturing into genealogy, I of course knew my Meintzer family, and quickly learned about the other, “Meintzers without an ‘i’ ” family also living in Northbrook. In the 1980s I discovered we had another branch of the family still living in Alsace. Awesome!

Then I had kids, and genealogy came to a screeching halt. That actually worked out well, because in the meantime, the internet grew up, and databases grew. When I resumed searching in 1996, I found Meintzers living in Pennsylvania and West Virginia that I couldn’t connect to mine. There were also several large trees centered around Karlsruhe, Germany. It’s not very far from Alsace, but I could never make a connection between them and my ancestors in Alsace. I left all those guys alone.

Time marched on, and some time after the millennium, my searches for “Meintzer genealogy” brought up a link to a personal web page hosted at Rootsweb.com, for some Ohio Meintzers.

Ohio? Really? Surely they must be from the Pennsylvania or West Virginia people. Nevertheless, I looked at the page. Imagine my surprise to discover they descended from my 3rd great grandfather, Johann Philippe Adam Meintzer, and his wife, Maria Marguerite Meder!

Adam and Marguerite lived in Volksberg, and had 8 children. Marguerite died 26 November 1817, with Adam dying the following year. Of the children, 2 died prior to their father; 3 are complete mysteries right now. The remaining 3 children were sent to live with other families in different towns (though I haven’t actually located them in the Alsatian census records, to confirm!):

• Johann Philippe Adam (almost 15)–don’t know where he ended up, but he emigrated to Northfield, Illinois, in 1842, married, and started the “Meintzer without an ‘i’ ” family. He went by “Philip” in the U.S.
• Christian (almost 12)–moved to Dehlingen, to start my direct ancestors.
• Johann Georg (3 ½) was sent to Berg. He is the ancestor of the Ohio Meintzers.

I don’t have many details on Johann Georg, but he married Christine Männling 25 April 1839, and they had 3 children:

• Marguerite (21 June 1840-1925)–she married back into the Ensminger family.
• Georges (25 September 1843-?)–he married and had at least one child in Berg (1868), but I haven’t researched more than that.
• Henri George (13 January 1849-5 January 1944)–he’s my “poor man.”

Henri (Henry) fell in love with Sophia Holtzscherer, also from Berg. Marriage law in Alsace at the time required parental permission up until age 25 or 27. He was only 19 or so; permission was not granted. Of course, that didn’t cause Henry and Sophia to suddenly fall out of love!

Here’s where the story muddles, a bit. One version I heard was their Plan B was for Sophie to get pregnant. Presumably they would be given permission, then. So that’s what they did, except it didn’t work as expected. Still no permission granted.

The second version, from Henry’s descendants’ web page (same as above), gave a slight variation:

Henry fell in love with a young girl, Sophie Holtzscherer, also living in Berg, and became pregnant. Yet Henry’s parents did not agree with a marriage because her family was too poor. So Henry decided to go to the USA, make a living there and then come get her and bring her to America.

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ohfulton/MeintzerFamilyReunion.html

Slightly different, but essentially the same. With Sophia pregnant and marriage not possible, Henry emigrated to Northfield, Illinois, where his uncle, Philip, had settled. Henry would be starting from scratch. If his parents didn’t approve of a marriage to Sophia, they certainly would not have financed him traveling to America so he could marry her! He probably still “owed” his father work while he was in Alsace, so would have had to pick up odd jobs to earn his passage money.

In the meantime, while Henry was in Illinois, Sophia gave birth¹ to their daughter, Sophie, 22 May 1869, in Berg. No father is listed in the birth register. The date is consistent with Henry knowing she was pregnant before he left. The Ohio Meintzers’ website continues:

Henry came to America and settled in Cook Co. Illinois. He farmed there for 2½ years and then moved to Fremont, OH where he worked 2 yrs in a sawmill and 9 years in an iron mill before locating in Fulton County.

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ohfulton/MeintzerFamilyReunion.html

Henry settling near his uncle and cousins made sense. Even if they weren’t able to hire him for work, they would know others nearby needing paid help. They could vouch for him and provide him a place to stay until he was situated.

Unfortunately, I have not located Henry or his uncle and cousins in the 1870 census. Their last name must be extremely mangled in the index, and I didn’t have time to search page-by-page for them. It is on my to-do list! I know they were there, but I’d like to confirm Henry.

Some details from the Ohio Meintzer website conflict with each other, or with records located. I’m trying to sort it out and resolve the issues. There is uncertainty about:

1. Whether Henry made one or two trips to the U.S.
   • Both 1868 and 1871/72 immigration dates show up in records, consistent with the 2-trip story. I haven’t found passenger lists for either trip to the U.S. (or a trip back to Alsace), but many of them are unavailable. Lacking a specific date (even having the month doesn’t narrow it down much!), it would be hard to find them, not being sure of the port of entry.
   • I’m not sure Henry would have simply sent money back to Sophia. Would he have trusted either set of parents to actually give it to her? I’m not sure I would have, in his shoes! So him returning for her makes sense to me.
2. What year(s)?
   • See above. July 1871 showed up as the arrival date in Henry’s Certificate of Declaration, Sandusky County, Probate Court, 8 October 1877. It’s possible he misremembered the year (see #3, below).
   • Or maybe it was intentional, needing it to be earlier than July 1872? You had to be a resident for a minimum number of years.
   • Maybe he did make only one trip, and sent for Sophia to come over with their daughter on her own? That 1870 Illinois census is looking more important all the time!
3. If Henry and Sophia married in Alsace, before leaving
   • It was suggested they married in 1869, and then left.
   • If they didn’t have permission before she was pregnant, it’s unlikely they’d get it afterwards.
   • They were still too young to marry without permission in 1869.
   • Henry and Sophia had a marriage record² dated 1 October 1872, in Cook County, Illinois. If they married in Alsace, they had no reason to redo it. Their names are unusual enough that it’s unlikely that record is for some other couple!
   • The Tables Décenniales 1863-1872 for Berg³ had only 1 male Meintzer marriage in that window–Henry’s brother, Georg. Being underage, I doubt Henry and Sophia could have married in the nearby towns.
   • It seems unlikely they would have waited a year (until 1872) to marry, if Sophia emigrated in 1871.

Returning to Cook County to marry made sense, though, because that was the only family they had. It seems their move to Ohio might not have been too long after that.

The 1880 census placed Henry (with a poorly recorded surname, but all the right kids and ages) in Fremont, Ohio, occupation: engineer. That part of the story matches, as does the remainder, establishing the family in Fulton County:

He bought 106 acres of land in Swancreek Twp Fulton Co. with only about 20 acres cleared and the remainder in brush.  He added farm buildings to the property and cleared much of the land. Also acquired an additional 40 acres of adjacent land and soon had about 100 acres under cultivation.  He was a general farmer and specialized in livestock and dairying.

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ohfulton/MeintzerFamilyReunion.html

Despite several fuzzy details in Henry’s story, one thing is clear to me: he and Sophia loved each each other deeply. They both had to endure difficulties for 4 years or so, before they could be together as a family.

It wouldn’t have been easy for Sophia in Berg. She undoubtedly experienced repercussions from neighbors and family for being an unwed mother. Her parents may have pressured her to marry someone else. She kept the faith, though, trusting Henry to come through in the end.

Henry, it seems, worked his tail off to bring his child and would-be wife to America. Why did he move to Ohio, from Cook County? I don’t know. Maybe land was simply too expensive in Illinois. When they married, it was the year after the Chicago Fire. Maybe prices were still inflated, and the cost of living was too high. He figured out an alternate plan, temporarily leaving agriculture for presumably more lucrative pay in the sawmill and iron mill. He saved enough to allow him to return to the land.

Henry may have started out a poor man, but he didn’t stay one.

#52Anestors

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¹”États-civil”, database, Archives Départementales du Bas-Rhin (archives.bas-rhin.fr), Berg, Registre de naissances [birth registers], 1869, p. 4, no. 6, Sophie Hertzscherer, 22 May 1869; accessed 16 November 2019.

²”Illinois, Cook County Marriages 1871-1920″, database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family Search Record Search (https://familysearch.org), film number 1030079, Digital GS number 4270000, image number 795, Heinrich MEINTZER and Sophie HULTZSCHER.

³”États-civil”, database, Archives Départementales du Bas-Rhin (archives.bas-rhin.fr), Berg, Tábles décennales, Mariages [ten-year tables, marriage index] 1863-1872, p. 6, right side, entry #3, Georg MEINTZER and Margaretha FREY, 19 March 1868; accessed 16 November 2019.

Rich Man

I’ve frequently mentioned that I come from a long line of peasants. Nothing has changed regarding that. No tycoons are hiding in the branches of my family tree!

Further thought brought to mind two situations where the person might have seemed rich–or generous?–at least by comparison.

My maternal great grandmother, Elfrieda Jonas, was born 7 December 1867, to an unwed mother, somewhere in Germany. Nope, I don’t even know her mom’s name! Elfrieda emigrated in 1884. Or maybe 1885? As far as I know, no siblings or family members traveled with her.

She married Carl Moeller in Chicago, 25 September 1887. Supposedly Elfrieda worked for the Krieger family in Glenview, prior to marriage.

Family lore suggests Carl and Elfrieda knew each other in the old country, but that location hasn’t been confirmed for either. They may have traveled on the same ship, though that’s a mystery, too, as I have multiple emigration years for each! Their backstory is a bit of a hot mess.

Regardless, the newlyweds moved to Shermerville, living first above the cheese factory, later buying a house on Church Street (below). It’s clearly a 2-story house in these photos, and my grandparents, Chris and Minnie, lived upstairs until at least the 1920 census. Mom says the house was lowered, later on.

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Carl & Elfrieda Jonas Moeller’s house; 1257 Church Street. Apparently the house got “lowered” later on. I have NO idea how that would have worked! This house was torn down and replaced with a new residence. The left photo is the side yard, with Church street in front. Elfrieda is on the right, an unidentified neighbor is on the left. I opted not to adjust the tone one these photos. Onthe right is my mom’s cousin Edelyn (“Toots”) Mueller in front of the house, in a goat cart. The columns you see here are the same as the lower corner column in the other photo.

Now, granted, it’s a good sized house, but not particularly ostentatious. Great grandpa Carl worked in the brickyard, 1900-1930, and later worked as a flag man for the railroad–basically raising and lowering the crossing gates. He owned his house in 1930, but they certainly were not a wealthy family!

Yet Elfrieda was known to have sent money to someone in Germany, presumably that unknown (to us) mother. Elfrieda’s mother likely would have been born around 1852, or earlier; I don’t know when she died. Presumably Elfrieda started sending the money soon after she first arrived, and continued through the years they had young children, and more expenses than spare cash.

Surely Elfrieda might have seemed rich to her mother, since she was able to send money back home! I wonder if Elfrieda felt the same way?

The second situation involved my grandaunt, Sophie Meintzer Kranz. When Sophie emigrated in 1881, she was 13. She was old enough to remember Dehlingen, her friends, and the family (aunts, uncles, and cousins) left behind.

When she married Edward Kranz, and embarked on the daunting task of raising their many children (11!), she did not forget her early roots. Their house on Sycamore, in Des Plaines, was a large farmhouse, as they would have needed. Of course, large doesn’t mean fancy or expensive!

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  Emma Kranz (19-20), Sophie Meintzer Kranz (abt. 60). Martha Kranz (14)

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Home of Edward & Sophia Meintzer Kranz; 1654 Sycamore Street, Des Plaines, Illinois. Photos taken 1928, and in possession of my cousin, Donna Bell. the origanls had some “noise” I blurred out, and had a more sepia tone. I mellowed that with an AutoTone adjustment. This house is still standing, though the front steps and door are now gone. The right photo is Sophie Meintzer Kranz (abt. 60), Emma Kranz (19-20), Martha Kranz (14). Everyone seems to be wearing the same cloths, so I think they might be taken the same day.

I imagine hand-me-downs were as common in that family as they were in my own; a necessity for financial survival. When Sophie ran out of children or grandchildren to pass clothes to, they were shipped back to Dehlingen. How do we know that?

When the Meintzer descendants on both sides of the Atlantic reconnected in the 1980s, after decades of silence (initiated by WWII occupation of Alsace), several trips were made back to our ancestral town.

One of Sophie’s great granddaughters, Pat, made the initial contact, and visited with her mom, Arline, and her aunt, LaVera (sisters), at different times. When the photo albums came out, the sisters each recognized winter dress coats they had worn as young girls!

They probably never knew what happened to the coats once they’d outgrown them, but obviously their grandmother included them in one of her shipments. Yes, plural. When I was confirming that story with Pat, she elaborated further:

Yes that is true!! I was told by the older ladies like Albertine and Lina S***** that it was always a wonderful day when a box came from Aunt Sophie. They said this more than one time. They said the clothes were used but still had wear in them. On one of the visits to Dehlingen we were in Lina S*****’s house having coffee and Kuchen (it may have been when LaVera visited with me) and Lina brought out a black dress from the 1930’s that she said was sent to her by Aunt Sophie. I thought she was handing it to me to give to me, but she just wanted to show it to me. It meant so much to her after all those years, that she still wanted to keep it.

Email from Pat Weisel, 6 November 2019

Clothes boxes clearly happened more than once or twice, and were greatly appreciated! Sophie could have just as easily donated the clothes locally, saving herself the expense of shipping. She took the extra time and effort to put them in the hands of people she knew, and who would make good use of them.

I don’t think Sophie sent the clothes to show off, or make anyone feel bad. She remembered that Dehlingen was a small village, with fewer shopping options. Travel to a larger town would be necessary for any kind of selection. Even Des Plaines of the 1920s and 1930s (far less built-up than now) would have had more shopping choices that were easier to get to.

There’s also the satisfaction of knowing the clothes we’ve loved are being worn by someone we know, rather than a stranger. Most of us have passed around maternity and baby clothes to newly-pregnant friends for similar reasons.

Elfrieda and Sophie weren’t rich in terms of dollars and cents, but they recognized opportunities to help others, when they could. They knew that despite the miles, family was still family and could always use support. These are traits I see continuing 4 and 5 generations after them.

However, if you are (or know of) a rich uncle of which I’m unaware, feel free to let me know!

#52Ancestors

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1900 U.S. census, population schedule, Illinois, Cook, Northfield Township, e.d. 1176; Page 2A; dwelling number 14; family number 16; line 8; Charles [Carl] MOELLER household; accessed 11 August 2018; NARA microfilm publication T623; roll 294; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com).

“Illinois, Cook County Marriages 1871-1920”, database, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family Record Search (https://familysearch.org), accessed 11 August 2018, citing Cook County, Illinois, reference 592131, Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1030520. Carl MOELLER(27) and Elfrieda JONAS (19).

Trick or Treat

My dad grew up knowing three of his four grandparents. You met many of them in an earlier post. His maternal grandfather, Ignatz, died a couple months before Dad was born, and it seems the family soon moved back to Glencoe, Illinos, to be near Ignatz’s widow, Dorothea. She lived as a widow for eleven years.

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Undated photo of Dorothea Harry Schweiger. Though similarly sized, it was NOT the other side of her funeral card (which was a lovely image!).

Dad was not quite eleven when Dorothea died, but he had vivid memories of her. She taught him how to play Rummy. It wasn’t a particularly “grandmotherly” activity, but it appealed to a young boy. It may have let him feel grown up (a sometimes rare commodity for a youngest child!), and I don’t think she let him win all the time, either.

As you can see from her funeral card, she died 29 October 1932 (a Saturday). The card didn’t tell you she was buried on 31 October (a Monday).

Yes, she was buried on Halloween! At least, I think so. A slight discrepancy exists. Unfortunately, her obituaries in the Chicago Tribune¹ are in the higher tier at Newspapers.com, so I can’t see what date was published, to resolve the issue. And I don’t recall if Dad metioned whether or not they missed going out to Trick or Treat, due to the death and funeral.

Dorothea was buried in the Schweiger plot in Sacred Heart cemetery, with her husband, son, and grandson. The plot card has only a 31 October 1932 date next to her name, not her death date.

Plot card, Sacred Heart Cemetery, Lee & Dundee Roads, Northbrook, Illinois. Section 2, Block 6, Lot 2.

Searching the Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths,² 1916-1947 index (FamilySearch.org or Ancestry.com), her burial was listed as 1 November 1932. The actual death certificate is not viewable online, so I can’t verify if the indexed date matched the certificate. Death certificates are completed before the burial, not at the time of or afterwards. It’s possible the informant didn’t actually know when the funeral would be scheduled, and put down November 1st (a Tuesday).

I’m slightly more inclined to trust the plot card, since it should have been created directly from the event. Having said that, fact checking the plot card turned up a couple discrepancies, so it isn’t perfect:

• Anton Schweiger—the year should be 14, not 16. The 30 September date is in the Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index, 1878-1922,³ but with a 1914 year more consistent with his 1914 death. I think the “16” on the paper is a typo. I’m not sure if the paper I have is a photocopy of the actual card, or a redrawing of it. If it was rewritten/retyped, that could easily be a typo.
• Baby girl, stillborn. She was my cousin, Marilyn Victoria Busse. I had always heard she was stillborn, but when I located the record (not image) in the Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947⁴, I saw she also wasn’t named there (explaining no name on the plot card). More importantly, I discovered she had actually lived for 23 hours! That was a bit of a surprise. Her burial dates match, however.

So why do I think Dorothea’s date on the card is right, when I think Anton’s is wrong? Mistyping a single digit in the year is more likely than mistyping the month AND the day. I think that mistake would have been noticed and corrected.

Now that great-grandma is straightened out (sort of!), what else do I know about Dorothea, aside from being buried on Halloween and that she taught my dad to play Rummy?

She was born 26 March 1858, in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, the eighth child (of nine) of Peter Harry and Elisabetha Boullie; the 2nd child born in the USA. Their surname also shows up spelled Harré, Hary, and Hare, making it a little hard to search for, but had 2 syllables, and was pronounced like the “Harry” it morphed into.

One item that hadn’t really registered with me before now is that her father died when she was only 2½. I’ve been unable to locate Dorothea (and her family) in the 1860 census. It’s hard to misplace a family with six kids! They are AWOL for the 1870 census, too. While the two oldest children were married by then, the 4 youngest should have been with their mom. Even paging through the enumeration districts, or searching for the kids, didn’t turn them up. I don’t think Dorothea or her family moved away from Two Rivers, because several children got married there in the 1860s and 1870s. Their mother, Elisabeth, was still living there, alone, in 1880! They are simply lost for a while . . .

Dorothea finally resurfaced in 1880, working in Chicago as a servant in the Nussbaumer⁵ household. Apparently this was not an unusual situation. Rural Wisconsin farm girls regularly relocated to the Chicago North Shore as household help for those families. In this case, the husband and wife were both born in Germany, so I imagine having help who could understand if they lapsed into German would have been useful. The census recorded her as two years older, so either her employers didn’t know her actual age, and guessed, or she fudged it a little upwards to seem a little more mature when getting hired.

I don’t know if this was the only family she worked for—specific records for that don’t exist. Decades earlier, I had noted she had worked for a Kirsch family living in Niles Center (Skokie). I couldn’t locate that family in the 1880 census, so I can’t corroborate that. She didn’t marry Ignatz⁶ until April, 1885, so she had at least five years working, possibly more, if she moved to Illinois pre-1880.

After marrying Ignatz, she had 9 children in 15 years, and assisted with the restaurant. She and Ignatz were among the founding familes of Sacred Heart Church in Hubbard Woods (northeast section of Winnetka) in 1897, when St. Joseph’s parish (Wilmette) got too large. She was the first vice-president of the parish’s Married Ladies Soldality, organized 14 April 1898. When the school opened, her children attended.

She and her family lived above the butcher shop, and then the restaurant, until Ignatz died in 1921. The building and business were sold, and Dorothea moved a two-story house at 404 Woodlawn built by her son-in-law, Edward Haws, for the next eight years. The last two years of her life were spent living with her daughter, Rose. Somewhere in there, she taught my dad to play Rummy.

While there are still gaps in her timeline, and I obviously don’t know much about her personality, it would seem Dorothea worked hard throughout her life, much of it directed toward her family and her parish.

#52Ancestors

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¹”Dorothea Schweiger, Glencoe Resident,” 30 October 1932, Newspapers.com: accessed 1 November 2019, record number: not given; citing original p. 14, entry for Dorothea SCHWEIGER, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, online archive (http://www.newspapers.com).

²”Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947″, database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com), accessed 1 November 2019, entry for Dorothea SCHWEIGER, 26 March 1858, citing FHL microfilm 1684557, citing Public Board of Health, Archives, Springfield.

³”Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index, 1878-1922″, database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com), accessed 1 November 2019, entry for Anton SCHWEIGER, 28 September 1914, citing Illinois, Cook County Deaths 1878–1922, Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010; FHL# 1239987. Illinois Department of Public Health. Birth and Death Records, 1916–present. Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois.

⁴“Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947”, database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com), accessed 1 November 2019, entry for Baby Girl BUSSE, 25 May 1942, citing FHL microfilm 1953745, citing Public Board of Health, Archives, Springfield.

⁵1880 U.S. census, population schedule, Illinois, Cook, Chicago, e.d. 189; Page 432D (printed), 28 (written) ; dwelling number 91; family number 155; line 12; Chs. NUSSBAUMER household; accessed 31 October 2019. Dora HARRY, age 24; NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 199; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com).

⁶“Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871-1920”, database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com), accessed 4 November 2019, citing “Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920.” Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010. Illinois Department of Public Health records. “Marriage Records, 1871-present.” Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois. Ignatz SCHWEIGER (25) and Thora HARRY (27).

Transportation

Two stories popped into my head—different cars, different drivers, but both needing to be remembered.

It seems our driveway was not such a safe place to drive or park cars . . .

Growing up in Northbrook, transportation for my mom consisted of 2 choices: feet or bicycle. She did not learn to drive as a teenager. Even when Mom was working in The Loop (Chicago downtown) after high school, she walked to the train station and commuted in on the train.

In 1947 (she was 25 by then) my parents rented the house on South Adams, in Hinsdale, relocating to my Dad’s rug cleaning business (At Work), but Mom still hadn’t learned to drive. Milk, maybe eggs, and butter, were delivered as needed, and she’d walk the 1 mile to the Jewel store once or twice a week, at nap time. Mrs. Soubry (the upstairs neighbor—not positive of the spelling) would bring a book downstairs and keep an eye on my older siblings while they napped. Mom would walk home with the meat (and anything else needing refrigeration), leaving the rest in a cart at the front of the store with her name on it. Dad would swing by on the way home for lunch or from his last job, and pick up the non-perishables.

It wasn’t until they bought the house on York Road, in 1952, that Mom learned to drive. It was only 3/10 mile further from the store, but it was uphill both ways, she had more kids, and she no longer had an upstairs neighbor to stay with the kids so she could shop. In addition, she now had children going to school 1.3 (instead of .4) miles away from home. Even though my sister rode the bus, we all know there are times when you need to pick up kids from school, so it was finally time for Mom to get a license.

After her driver’s ed class ($10 for three 1 hour lessons) from a high school PE teacher, and obtaining her license at age 30, she was good to go. She had a fairly decent driving record, as far as I know, though apparently there was one incident, early on in her career. As my Aunt Mary related it:

Ardyth, do you remember the most original event of your entire career as a wife and mother? How you managed this, to this very day, no one can or will state. Bob and Hank came home from work that day and to their extreme astonishment they noticed – and did they EVER notice – that the little 1950 Crosely car you drove was perched on the very top of a pile of gravel by the garage! It was like a picture from Robert Ripley’s “Believe It Or Not.” You will always be fondly remembered for this accomplishment!!

Mary Paulson Haws, Green Valley, Arizona to Ardyth & Bob Haws, typed letter, fall 1994, memories for 50th wedding anniversary book, Bauman Correspondence Files; privately held by Christine Haws Bauman, Greenwood, Indiana.

Drawing by Mary Paulson Haws, 1994, for Bob & Ardyth’s 50th wedding anniversary book. Used with permission from her daughter, Barb.

The Crosley car was way before my time, and I have no photos. Apparently¹ it was an early compact car produced in Cincinnati. Fortunately, it was also fairly lightweight, because my dad and his brother needed to lift it off the rock pile! Dad didn’t take time to photograph it, before moving the car. Thank goodness Aunt Mary provided us with a visual (even though not eye-witness) image of the event!

My aunt’s description needs a slight correction. It was actually a pile of flagstone (not gravel) that Mom landed on. It was waiting for my dad to build the flower bed on the east side of the garage, and make a stable edge to the driveway extension. I’m not sure which rock type would be harder to scale, or retrieve the car from, safely.

How did Mom manage that feat? Most likely she had intended to shift to reverse, but landed in drive by mistake. It’s an easy mistake, especially for a new driver. When the car didn’t start backing up, she probably gunned it, hurling the car up the rocks.

The other story involves my middle brother, Warren. In the fall of 1966, our dad purchased a new 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 sedan. The 1960 Ford Country Sedan station wagon (yes, it sounds like an oxymoron, but that’s the actual model!) was getting older, he had more drivers, but also children soon to be leaving the nest. A second car, seating fewer people, would come in handy.

The Galaxie was custom-ordered, paid for with cash. Because he needed it to eventually pull the trailer (partly visible along the right edge of the photo), Dad had the towing package added on, with heavier shock absorbers, a more powerful transmission, maybe a “better” radiator/cooling system to handle the stress of towing. It was still “wet behind the hubcaps” when it was involved in an accident with Warren. Or so I thought.

The 1967 Ford Galaxie 500, in the driveway, with a bored teenager—NOT the one who hit it . . .

I was only 8 ½ at the time and didn’t pay much attention. I was reminded of the incident when I was taking driver’s ed as a sophomore. The story I heard was that Warren had “backed the new car into the house.” Now, the house was pretty large (a 2-story Queen Anne), so it seemed a little unlikely. It required either tremendous skill or horrible luck. It also surprised me that one of us kids was driving a brand new car! I didn’t question the story, though, and made sure I did not follow in his footsteps (wheel tracks?).

I of course called Warren to confirm facts. The story, with more details “from the horse’s mouth,” was different and even more interesting than the version I’d heard as a student driver, with some distinct differences: 

• He did have an accident in the driveway—but he was driving the station wagon, not the new sedan!
• Both cars were insured, but our dad didn’t want to raise the rates by running the accident through the insurance policy
• He didn’t hit the house, he hit a vehicle parked on the driveway next to the house.
• He was in a hurry to pick up his date (“It’s always a girl’s fault!”) and didn’t notice the other car was in the driveway.
• He didn’t use his rear view mirror (obviously!) or check behind him.

Some parts of his story matched what I heard, but others were out in left field. As I tried to digest the new information, my brother asked if I wanted to hear the rest of the story. What? There’s more?? Bring it on!

Since this accident was all “in the family,” Dad had my brother pay for the repairs. That was reasonable. Dad also wanted everything repaired a quickly as possible. Apparently the insurance agents would cruise through town, checking out cars in driveways to see if they had unreported damage!

The ripple effect was that Warren didn’t have money to rent a tux for an upcoming Senior Girls’ formal dance—a turnabout dance. He was almost the only guy there not wearing a tux, but he had a black suit, so he wasn’t too out of place. Getting to the dance had its own back story, though.

He ended up with two (yes, 2!) dates to the dance. Sort of. One girl (Sue Dahlman) simply assumed they were going, but hadn’t bothered to ask. A classmate from grade school, Carolyn Bayer, actually asked him. Since he thought he was dateless, he told her, “yes.”

The two girls were in line together to buy tickets, Sue in front. When Sue was asked who her date was, Carolyn was shocked to hear her reply with—her own date’s name! Oops. They must have had quite a conversation . . .

Ever the gentleman, Warren went to the dance with the one who asked him. He never dated the other girl again.

Warren and I had a good laugh over the phone as he filled in the back story to and consequences of the accident. I’m sure he wasn’t laughing while trying to scrape together enough to pay our parents back! Fortunately, time has a way changing our perspective, allowing us to see the humor in what wasn’t funny at the time. And my own son’s (we’ll protect the guilty!) “2-dates for Prom” experience doesn’t shock me nearly as much, now. It must be a genetic thing . . .

The timeline bothered me, however. Warren graduated in June, 1966, but new cars typically are released in late summer, the year before the model year. The 1967 Galaxie 500 wouldn’t have come out until after he graduated. Even after 50+ years, he recalled vivid details about the dance—the names of both girls, that 4-5 couples went as a group and had dinner at the home of one of the girls (a bonus, since he had no money to take her out!), not being able to afford the tux.

But he didn’t remember it being the ’67, and thought it must have been another car. Except I don’t remember us having a 2nd passenger vehicle until the ’67. I did the only thing I could do—research! On Classmates.com I found his yearbooks, locating both girls in senior year, but only one in the junior year photos. That narrowed it to senior year, but still left the issue of what car did he hit? The ’65-’66 dance was too early to be impacted by an accident.

It was time for some phone calls. At 97, Mom’s recollections can be hit or miss, but she LOVED that car, so I hoped for the best. Unfortunately, she didn’t really have a memory of that accident, or the circumstances around it. No help there.

Next call was to my brother Bill (lounging on the car in the photo). His memory was clearer than mine, since he was closer to driving age at the time. He remembered being the ’67, and that our dad was REALLY mad—unusual for him. Bill was also told the car moved backwards 20 feet, fortunately, not into the street. That may have been exaggerated a bit to drive home the point. Warren said he wasn’t going very fast; that it was only a fender bender. Fender benders don’t move parked cars that far!

Perhaps the biggest thing I learned is that it’s important to check out the story, if I can, even if I’m sure of it, myself. If that turns up conflicting information, okay. I can deal with that. I can’t clarify or resolve (or at least acknowledge) information I don’t know about, though.

So where does that leave the story? Unresolved. Cars were hit. Bumpers were repaired. Younger children’s driving habits were influenced. It’s still a good story (better than I started out with!), even if the timeline can’t be fully resolved. I’ve got my own variation of Rashomon² going on.

#52Ancestors

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¹”Crosley”, En.Wikipedia.Org, 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crosley.

²An event where the story told by different eyewitnesses is considerably different. Click the link for a more in-depth explanation.

Adventure

The stock market crash in October, 1929, plunged the United States into the Great Depression and impacted everyone in some way for the next ten-plus years. When I started doing genealogy, my dad recalled a visit his family received from two Nachtwey boys—distant cousins from his dad’s side of the family.

Elizabeth Nachtwey was my grandfather’s paternal grandmother. She was born in Germany and came to the United States with her husband John Haase (later changed to Haws), settling in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. Apparently she had one or more brothers who also settled in Wisconsin. The story my dad told about Chet (the one name my dad remembered) and his brother was that they were traveling around the country, visiting family while they “worked on the family’s genealogy.”

It was a good cover story, and scored the boys a couple nights free lodging and a few meals at every house! According to my dad, his parents “encouraged” the young men to move on after a couple days. My grandparents were barely able to keep sufficient food on the table for the six of them, much less extended houseguests!

My dad was only a kid, but I imagine he remembered their visit because it would probably have been an “FHB” (Family Hold Back) situation. That was the code the kids got when there really wasn’t enough food to accommodate extra (especially if they were unexpected!) people. The family needed to take smaller first helpings, and forego second helpings, in an attempt to have enough food for the visitors.

As far as I know, no paperwork was left at the time, or arrived afterwards, from the Nachtwey boys (pedigree charts, family group sheets, etc.). I have no clue about how “successful” they were with their project. Nor do I know how they traveled from one place to another. Since they weren’t working, a car seems unlikely, so maybe bus, train, or hitchhiking? I really don’t recall if my dad mentioned anything about it, and he’s not around anymore to ask.

So, who was this Chet and his brother, off on an adventure to track down extended family during the depression? Searches for “Chet” came up dry, but I found a “Chester Peter Nachtwey”¹ that seemed likely. I learned² he was born 6 April 1909, and died 28 August 1992. The birthdate put him in his 20s at the right time. The Social Security Applications and Claims Index³ identified his parents as Edward Henry Nachtwey and Mabel J. Allie, corroborated with the 1910-1930 censuses.⁴

Further research showed me his father, Edward, was a son of John Joseph Nachtwey and Mary Margaret Gillen. John Joseph was the oldest son of Anton Nachtwey and Catherine Platten. Anton was my 2nd great grandmother’s next older sibling. That made Chet and my dad 3rd cousins, with Chet being a 3rd cousin once removed to me.

That all sounds beautifully simple, but reaching that conclusion was a little more complicated than it might appear. Anton and Catherine decided to name their three oldest boys:

• John Joseph (usually went by Joseph, but sometimes John J.)
• John Henry (seemed to go by either John Henry, or just John)
• Henry

Talk about confusion! So as I researched this family this week, I was checking records for Edward (Chet’s dad) and his siblings, to be sure I had everyone attached to the appropriate family. I think I have it correct, though I did see a tree at Ancestry.com attaching Edward to Henry (rather than John Joseph)—which I really don’t think is correct.

But, back to Chet, my adventurer. He had an older (by 3 years) brother, William, and a younger one (by 5 or 6 years), Floyd. I don’t really know which one he was traveling with, but Floyd seems to be a little young to be galavanting around the country in the early 1930s. So William seems the more likely choice, though I have no proof of that.

Nor do I know where Chet headed after he left Deerfield. Nachtwey is not the most common surname! My searches turned up families in Pennsylvania and Minnesota, that I haven’t fully connected (though Floyd did move to Minnesota!). Of course, there are the girls, too, who would lose the Nachtwey name upon marriage. I corresponded in 1999 with a descendent living in New York. Then there was a large contingent that moved to Washington state (Seattle and Spokane) by 1909. Chet had plenty of people to visit—and that doesn’t even start on his mom’s family, or the female lines of earlier generations!

Imagine my surprise when I ran across a 1935 ship’s passenger list with his name on it! Clearly he was even more of an adventurer than I initially thought. He sailed from Cobh, Ireland, 13 October 1935, apparently alone. Why he went there, I don’t know. His mother’s maiden name was Allie, but all I know about her parents was that both were born in Wisconsin. Perhaps there was some Irish in her ancestry? Or maybe he just wanted to travel there.

Some time between October 1935 and the 1940 census, Chet married and moved to California. Once again, he surprised me. Moving to Spokane, where there were other relatives living, would have seemed more logical, but no, he chose California. Again, I have no idea why, but he owned a dry cleaning shop in 1940, and had squeezed in a year of college some time prior to 1940. In Wisconsin, he’d worked at the lumber mill, and the 1940 census listed his “usual” occupation as “waiter,” so I’m not quite sure how he got involved with dry cleaning.

He raised a fairly large family in Los Angeles (at least six children, with a couple more who died as infants), and died there in 1992. While wandering through the records, I spotted a newspaper clipping from 1960 or 1962 that had been uploaded by someone. It had a photo of his family in front of a camper, along with an aunt and uncle or a sibling (the owner of the camper). It seems the ten of them were heading out together on vacation, and it made the paper. Chet obviously still had a sense of adventure, even after “settling down” with a family! Unfortunately, I didn’t grab the image at the time, and I’ve been unable to relocate the image today so I could nail down the details.

Note to self: SAVE IT WHEN YOU SEE IT!

This week has been a bit of an adventure for me, too, as I researched a family line I really hadn’t looked at. There are still MANY more Nachtweys for me to ferret out—Anton had a LOT of descendants, and I’ve barely touched the tip of that iceberg! He and Elizabeth also had additional siblings I need to follow through on. In addition, I have at least one DNA match from this line, so I really should contact that person.

So, yeah, not quite done, yet . . .

#52Ancestors

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¹”Chet”, En.Wikipedia.Org, 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chet.

²Social Security Administration, “Social Security Death Index”, database, Ancestry.com,(https://www.ancestry.com), accessed 15 October 2019, entry for Chester P. NACHTWEY, SS no. 468-10-9496.

³”U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007″, database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com), accessed 15 October 2019, citing Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007, (index only); dated 4 Jan 1971 and 23 June 1982. Entry for Chester Peter NACHTWEY, SS no. 468-09-9496.

⁴1910 U.S. census, population schedule, Wisconsin, Forest, Wabeno, e.d. 29; Page 14B; dwelling number 228; family number 235; line 71; Edward NACHTWEY household; accessed 15 October 2019. Chester NACHTWEY, age 1 1/12; NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 1710; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com).

1920 U.S. census, population schedule, Wisconsin, Forest, Wabeno, e.d. 90; Page 7A; dwelling number 114; family number 117; line 47; Ed NICHTWEY household; accessed 8 October 2019. Chester NICHTWEY, age 10; NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 1987; digital image, Ancestry. (https://www.ancestry.com).

1930 U.S. census, population schedule, Wisconsin, Forest, Wabeno, e.d. 21-16; Page 5B; dwelling number 95; family number 105; line 83; Edward NACHTWEY household; accessed 15 October 2019. Chester P. NACHTWEY, age 21; NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 2570; digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com).

Context

Halloween is creeping up, again. While I like skeletons as much as the next person, I don’t like the people in my family tree to be skeletons. They can have skeletons to their heart’s content, but I prefer to put some meat on their bones, when I can. I put on my “Joe Friday” hat (“All we want are the facts, ma’am.“), tracking down name, birth and death dates, possible marriage date(s) and spouse(s). If I stop at the basic facts, though, I’m shortchanging them. As I discover more details, I round out their lives, personalities, and relationships within the families. I learn the context surrounding the events in that person’s life. It starts to make more sense.

CONTEXT: noun: the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.

“Definition Of Context | Lexico.Com”. www.lexico.com, 2019, https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/context. Accessed 10 Oct 2019.

So do I really need to find

• each census?
• each city directory?
• their work history?
• all their kids (even the ones I don’t descend from)?
• all their siblings?
• what land they owned? Or didn’t own?

Not necessarily, but the more I know, the better I can assess new records I may come across. Does that record really belong to my person, or is it just a similar name? The more details I can match to existing information, makes being the right record/person more likely. I can also better understand their life. Did they move around a lot? Why? Was it due to job changes? Changes in fortune? Did they move in with children as they aged? Without that context, ancestors remain 2-dimensional, rather than moving toward 3-dimensional.

How does that play out in real life?

Finding the lawyer’s bill in Patrick Nolan’s probate documents at the courthouse in the early 2000s (Naughty) left me with more questions (Did he and Alice actually divorce? Who filed?) than answers, until I was able to locate them in the divorce register.¹ Their entry had been lined out, but the newspaper article detailing his death provided better context (Alice moved back home, it wasn’t due to Patrick’s death). An earlier article³ (at the time she filed for divorce) provided additional context to the situation and their relationship.

For me, newspapers seem more helpful than many other resources. Most of the time, my ancestors and relatives don’t make the front pages (thankfully!). The local news columns (AKA gossip columns!) gave insight to the minutia of their lives. Who visited them? Who did they visit? What clubs did they join? Were they an officer? These “inconsequential” details move them from the “caricature” end of the spectrum more towards the “portrait” end.

Lots of mundane events prove more interesting with the passage of time. My mom, at age 97, doesn’t recall her 2nd birthday party, but I learned she invited her cousins over:

Little Ardyth Meintzer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Chris Meintzer, celebrate and [sic] delicious hot chicken dinner with Florence and Howard Moeller, Edlyn Mueller as guests. A big birthday cake was enjoyed and the little hostess was congratulated.

“Northbrook Section,” 11 April 1924, Newspapers.com: accessed 4 June 2018, record number: not given; citing original p. 20, col. 5, The Daily Herald, Chicago, Illinois, online archive (http://www.newspapers.com).

An earlier paragraph that same paper mentioned her cousin, Howard, started school. April seems an odd time to start, maybe he was out sick and finally able to return to school? I might need to look up an earlier issue to shed further light on that. Mom also never told me that just before her 2nd birthday

While playing and running, little Ardath [sic], daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Chris Meintzer, bumped into the kitchen cabinet, and cut her head quite badly.

“Northbrook Section,” 4 April 1924, Newspapers.com: accessed 4 June 2018, record number: not given; citing original p. 4, col. 1, DuPage County Register, Bensenville, Illinois, online archive (http://www.newspapers.com).

Thankfully, the party still went on without a hitch!

Mom had also talked about vacationing with Florence & Howard and their parents (Uncle Frank had a car!) when she was a kid. She didn’t remember the details, but thanks to The Daily Herald 29 March 1929 (p. 8, column 3), I learned that, “The Meintzer and Frank Moeller families are on their way home from Virginia and Washington, after several days motor trip.” While I didn’t think Mom was making up that story, it’s nice to be able to pin it down better. And I’ll be able to assign more a more accurate date to some photos I think are from that trip.

Health (or lack thereof) featured predominently in the columns. When Mom’s cousins experienced complications from a vaccine (not sure which one!), the whole town (as well as neighboring towns) knew . . .

Helen Meintzer and her sister, Bernice, have missed several days from school on account of being vaccinated. Little Jeanne was also vaccinated. We are glad to report that they are improving daily and will be back to school real soon.

“Northbrook Section,” 1 April 1927, Newspapers.com: accessed 4 June 2018, record number: not given; citing original p. 2, col. 5, Arlington Heights Herald, Arlington Heights, Illinois, online archive (http://www.newspapers.com).

Their brothers weren’t mentioned. Were they not vaccinated? Or did they simply not miss school?

Of course, we already knew my grandfather (Christoph Meintzer) liked fishing, but putting it in newsprint made it official!

Mr. Christ Meinzer and Jack Mayer of Deerfield had a pleasant time catching fish at Lake Elizabeth, Wisc., and brought 60 fish home with them.

“Northbrook Section,” 13 Augutst 1926, Newspapers.com: accessed 4 June 2018, record number: not given; citing original p. 17, col. 5, Palatine Enterprise, Palatine, Illinois, online archive (http://www.newspapers.com).

Will I ever find everything? No. But it pays to slow down from hurried harvesting, and look for the juicier strawberries hiding under the leaves, instead of just picking the ones easiest to find.

#52Ancestors

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¹”Michigan, Divorce Records, 1897-1952″, database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com), accessed 5 March 2018, citing Michigan, Divorce Records. Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics, Lansing, Michigan. St. Clair, state file # 348-9. Patrick Nolan and Alice Nolan.

²”Paddy Nolan was Drowned,” 14 November 1904, Last Edition, Newspapers.com: accessed 24 August 2018, record number: not given; citing original p. 1, col. 4-5, The Port Huron Times Herald, Port Huron, Michigan, online archive (http://www.newspapers.com).

³”Mean Man,” 24 August 1904, Last Edition, Newspapers.com: accessed 24 August 2018, record number: not given; citing original p. 1, col. 4, The Port Huron Times Herald, Port Huron, Michigan, online archive (http://www.newspapers.com).

Harvest

June 2017 harvest from my 2nd cousin, once removed, Maria. Used with permission. She graciously helped me out when I had no photos of my own!

With all the farmers in both Mike’s and my ancestry, one would think there’d be a good “harvest” story out there. But no, there’s no plague of grasshoppers marching through the fields, no crop wiped out by a hail storm or tornado, or even a harvest pulled into the barn just in the nick of time. I don’t have old photos of filled hay wagons, family working in the fields or other harvest time images. Heck, I even had to bum a photo off my 2nd cousin (once removed), Maria, because all my garden photos had been purged!

The best I can manage is this description of my 2nd great grandfather, John M. Bruder, losing part of his arm in a farm accident (Military):

“for loss of left arm above the Ellbow . . . said Arm he lost on August 23, 1884 while sitting on a Grain Reaper intending to cut his Wheat, and while he was unable to notice and see an obstruction in his way . . . was thrown from the Reaper and in the cutting part of said Reaper.”

John M. Bruder (Pvt., Co. D, 6th Wis. Inf., Civil War), pension no. S.C. 859,952, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications …, 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files; Record Group 15:  Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

It was harvest time, and was somewhat dramatic, but that brief mention in his pension application file doesn’t paint much of a picture. The week was winding down, and I still didn’t have a plan. As I harvested the crabgrass in my yard, so I could sow some real grass seed, it occurred to me that I frequently find myself harvesting records for my ancestors.

Now, the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) strongly encourages us as genealogists (professional or otherwise) to follow the 5 components (below) of the GPS as we research:

• reasonably exhaustive research;
• complete and accurate source citations;
• analysis and correlation of the collected information;
• resolution of any conflicting evidence; and
• a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion.¹

Since 2000, the Board for Certification of Genealogists has compiled and refined detailed standards in each of those areas for us to use as guideposts as we research. Their goal (I assume) wasn’t to be rigid, demanding, elitist, or judgmental—it was to provide “a guide to sound genealogical reserch and a way to assess the research outcomes”² produced.

Many of my blog posts utilize those 5 components as I work through a question about particular person’s life. I expand my research, make sure what I have is correctly documented, analyze what I’ve found (or haven’t!), try to resolve conflicts or gaps, and write a (hopefully?) semi-coherent explanation of where everything stands, regarding that. Even without a full resolution or decisive conclusion, I usually feel pretty good about what has been accomplished.

The recommended research process is to create a well-defined question and stay focused on that. The 52 Ancestors challenge lends itself to that, since I am usually focused on one person or story. Sometimes, though, I fall off the wagon while researching and find myself harvesting information as quickly as I can, instead of following a more logical research plan. Why would I do that?

Sometimes the situation simply demands it. If a subscription site has a free access window, I need to get in there and be as efficient as possible, locating and retriving source records in that brief time. If it’s Find My Past, I’m looking for Mike’s Irish and British documents. Even if I’ve searched there before, new databases may have been added, so I need to search those.

Similarly, if I’ve made the 5½+ hour trip to the Manitowoc, Wisconsin, courthouse, I need to process through as many on-site records as possible in my limited time there. I need document images, source citations, and a quick assessment of whether there are additional records to look up, based on new information. Serious analysis is pushed to the back burner, after I’ve returned home.

Occasionally, I find myself researching a family I know very little about. In that situation, I need to sift through the various families to see who is connected, and how. Pulling all the matches for a particular name, from a particular database seems to work for that. I harvest everyone, but keep them unconnected until a solid connection appears.

Example: I was trying to piece together a cousin’s family—the side we don’t connect on. I knew very little about them, but there was another very large family with the same surname, not far away. Were the two families related? I had no idea, but the surname was unual enough to make it worth checking, I thought. I searched for the surname in Cook County, Illinois, documenting everyone in a brand new file. The databases?:

• 1930 census (free access at the time) to create family groups and obtain addresses
• WWI draft records—to get actual birth dates for a lot of the men. Also picked up some parents’ names
• 1920 census, for more family groups
• 1910 & 1900 census —at this point, some of the family members were younger and living with parents, instead of on their own
• obituaries. Those linked together some of the families (which were mostly islands) when children were listed as survivors. Or parents were listed for them. Islands merged left and right. I also obtained maiden names for a number of wives, which helped when I started looking at . . .
• marriage record databases. There were a lot of Marys and Louisas, so having a maiden name helped!
• Social Security Death Index—having exact birth dates from WWI draft or obituaries helped confirm I had the right person’s record
• birth indexes were made meaningful now that I had maiden names for mothers, and addresses from census records.
• the 1880 and 1870 census records

As I finished harvesting each of the databases, the family tree shaped up better and better. But my ancestors wouldn’t harvest their crops and let them lie in the fields. They needed to haul the crops into the safety of a barn. Neither could I keep on harvesting, forever. I also needed to “do something” with all my new-found data. Where were the gaps? Who was missing? Where did I need to look, next? Was I making a mistaken assumption?

That project is a still a work in progress. I have islands I cannot connect, yet. I haven’t found a relationship between the two families, either. It may not exist! If it does, I believe it will be in Germany. The two emigrant ancestors could be siblings, cousins, an uncle/nephew combination—or no relation. Having sorted through the databases so thoroughly, I have dirctions I can go for later searches. I have established their FAN clubs, giving me other people whose records may contain the information I need.

I used a similar technique in Detroit, with Mike’s Kuklers. I was unaware of other family members possibly emigrating with his ancestor, so I hoped looking at all the Kuklers I could find might help me find answers. I’d settle for a town in Bohemia, but no luck, yet.

So even though wholesale harvesting may not the *best* genealogy research strategy, it has its place and uses. We need to recognize its limitations, and compensate for them with additional analysis and research.

#52Ancestors

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¹ “Ethics And Standards”, Board For Certification Of Genealogists, 2019, https://bcgcertification.org/ethics-standards/; accessed 6 October 2019.

² Board for Certification of Genealogists, Genealogy Standards, second edition (Nashville, TN: Ancestry, 2019), xxiv.