Looking For My German Ancestors, Part 10

As you may remember from my previous post, I had promised that I would begin writing about researching my German ancestors in German records; however, I have decided to devote another article to my ancestors' lives in the United States as I have an update to make on some mini-mysteries that I had about my ancestors. In a future post, I will continue my series by writing about my research findings in a few German records.

As I mentioned earlier,I've made some progress my research into my Klippel and Kees ancestors over the past several months.  A part of this progress came about through my research in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century newspapers of Saginaw and Bay City, Michigan. While the majority of my findings only provided some interesting facts about the lives of my Klippel ancestors and Anna's husband, I did uncover a brief obituary or death notice for Emilia (Kees) Klippel. Emilia (or sometimes recorded as Amelia in other records) Klippel's obituary listed the names of her children and indicated that she would be buried in Cleveland. Since her husband, Friedrich, was not mentioned in the notice, I think it may be safe to conclude that he had already died. In addition, the notice indicated that she died of pneumonia which contradicts the cause of death listed in her death record. Since the notice was printed a day after she died and since death records in Michigan before 1897 tend to be inaccurate, I've decided to conclude that the cause of death listed in the newspaper is the accurate cause of death.

In addition to uncovering my ancestor's obituary, I also uncovered some information about Anna Klippel's brother, Henry, that confirmed my grandma's claim that he had a child with his first wife. As you may remember from my post, "The Wives of the Two Henrys ...," I had mentioned that I had been unable to find evidence that Henry had a daughter with his first wife, Ida; however, after searching through the Bay City, Michigan newspapers earlier this year, I finally did find proof of a child and discovered the daughter's name. Once I had a name for Henry's daughter, I searched through FamilySearch's Michigan Birth Records and found a birth record for the child. Previously, I had not been able to find a birth record because I did not know the name of Henry's daughter and because Henry's last name had been misspelled in the record and index. I also searched the death records for Michigan on the FamilySearch and Seeking Michigan websites, but I was unable to find a death record for Henry's daughter. (I have refrained from giving the name the child in the remote chance that she is still alive.) At this time, I am uncertain as to what happened to Henry's daughter after Ida died, and I have been unable to find Henry in the 1910 census. The only possible clue I have to the fate of Henry's daughter is my grandmother's claim that Ida took her daughter away from Henry after she divorced him. Although the death certificate could be incorrect, Ida's death certificate indicated that she was still married, but that does not rule out the possibility that Ida and Henry were in the process of a divorce. In addition, the death certificate indicated that Ida died of consumption, and she may have become too ill to care for her daughter. (Henry may have been working as a sailor on a Great Lakes' ship as newspaper article a couple years later indicated that Henry was working on a ship.) Was Henry and Ida's daughter in the custody of Ida's relatives at Ida's death, and did they refuse to give back to Henry his daughter? At the moment, I am struggling to locate Ida's siblings in the 1910 census, but I am uncertain as to whether or not  most of Ida's siblings returned to Canada. I know one brother continued to live in Bay City, but I did not find a female in his household that fit Henry and Ida's daughter. Of course, there is a possibility that my family tradition is incorrect, and that Henry and Ida's daughter might not have been taken in by her maternal relatives. Could have Henry and Ida's daughter been temporarily place in a home while Ida was ill, and later, put up up for adoption? The only way I can answer those questions would be to examine court records in Bay County, Michigan, and I'll have to make a trip to Bay City to do the research.

In addition to the discoveries I made in the newspaper articles, I also discovered where Henry Klippel, his second wife, mother, Emilia (Kees) Klippel, and grandfather, Adolph Kees, were buried in Cleveland, Ohio. I found their burial places by searching an index of Riverside Cemetery's burial records. I haven't yet emailed the cemetery to find out what additional information (if any) that the cemetery might have on them, but I intend to do so once I have a chance. Even though Friedrich is not listed as being buried in the cemetery in the index, I hope that I may find a clue from any additional information that the cemetery might have on Emilia. Of course, I now have a new mini-mystery to figure out in regards to Adolph's burial since the index indicates he wasn't buried at the cemetery until nearly a month after his death. It may be the case that he was buried somewhere else first and then reburied at this cemetery, or possibly that the ground was too hard to dig a grave until later. ( Adolph died in early March.) Again, the cemetery may have additional information on what had occurred.

Besides the discoveries I made on my own, I also received an email from my contact in Germany that included information she had found in a German archive. One piece of information was a copy of a letter that my ancestor, Marianne (Anna Maria) Pirker wrote to her husband, Franz Joseph Karl Pirker, and the other piece of information was a pdf of a book published in 1899. The book included information on the descendants of one of my Cotta ancestors, and it confirmed my suspicion that the Henriette Cunz who married a Frank Voelker in Cleveland, Ohio was Adolph Kees' daughter, Henrietta. Of course, the book also included information on my Cotta ancestor's ancestors, and I was able to find additional information on my Cotta ancestors and family from the information included. Obviously, I am very grateful for the information that my contact provided. In a future post, I hope to write further about my Cotta ancestors, especially once I am able to examine church records from Stuttgart and Tuebingen, Germany.

Of course, in future posts, I plan to write about my research into German records on my other lines of German ancestors; however, that may change if I uncover additional information on my German ancestors in the United States, and I will write about those discoveries as well. So, stay tuned for future posts, and enjoy!

Question About Pre-1906 Naturalization Records ...

A few years ago, I found my ancestor's naturalization paper in the State of Michigan archives, and since this naturalization occurred before 1906, I figured that this was the only record. Lately, though, I have been wondering: Should I be looking for an additional record even though this is before 1906? I still am not having any luck in determining where my ancestor was born, and I wonder if there is more than this half-page to his naturalization record. Does anyone know?

Although I have posted the image so that other genealogists could look at the record, I have covered up the last name to protect the identities of living relatives.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

The Wives of the Two Henrys ...

Do I have any Canadian ancestors? Well, at the moment I do not know of any. I did have a couple of ancestors who lived in Canada before coming to the United States, if that counts. (And who knows, I might have still have cousins living in Canada. A few years ago, my grandma mentioned about some cousins who lived in Canada, and I think they were on my grandpa's side. I do not remember off hand the exact facts, but since I wrote it down, I'll have to check my notes.) Of course, I also have two of my ancestors' siblings who married women who were from Canada, which is not surprising since Michigan is so close to Canada.

The name of the men who married these women was Henry. In two different branches of my family, my ancestors had brothers named Henry who happened to marry a woman who came from Canada. (Hence, the title of my post.) And interestingly enough, these two Henry's also happened to live at about the same time as each other.


The first Henry who married a woman from Canada was Henry Oswalt. Henry was Adam Oswalt's second son, and he was born in November of 1862 (according to Adam's pension file). In 1887, he married Harriet A. Collacott (I've also seen her surname spelled Callacott, Collicott, and Collicut as well) in Kalamazoo, Michigan. At the time of his marriage, Henry was living in Decatur, Michigan. (An interesting fact, which I'll get into in a moment.) According to the marriage register, Harriet was born in New Castle, Canada, and that she was residing, in what appears to be from the record, in Indiana. When I looked at the listing for residence, I was surprised to see that Harriet listed her residence because I had found her (or at least believe I have found her family) living with her parents living in Decatur, Michigan in the 1870 and 1880 censuses. (Of course, I realize that she could have been living in Indiana after 1880. I just had not noticed where she listed her residence was when I looked at the record for the first time.) As for when Harriet and her family came to the United States, it had to be between the 1860 and 1870 U. S. censuses since the Collacotts are not listed in the 1860 census.

Between 1887 and the 1900 census, I do not know where Henry and Harriet lived, but in the 1900 census, I found both of them living in Rockford, Illinois. I have yet to find out why they chose to move there, but I think it is interesting to note that Henry's father resided in Rockford from the late-1880s to the late-1890s. (I can only speculate at the moment, but the reason either father or son choosing to live in Rockford might be due to that one of them moved there for a time.) Sometime between 1900 and 1910, Harriet must have died since Henry is listed as a widower in the 1910 census. I do not know where or when she died, but my first guess would be in Rockford only because Henry was still living there as of April 1910. (He would later on in the year move to Clinton, Iowa, as that was the residence listed for him in his father's probate record.) As for Henry, he would eventually return to Michigan by 1920, where he is listed in the 1920 census for Kalamazoo as Henry J. Oswold, and he would die in Three Rivers in August of 1927. At the moment, I am unsure as to where exactly he is buried, but a note card in the Three Rivers, Michigan Public Library suggested he was buried in Decatur. (I have yet to confirm this information.) As far as I have been able to determine, Henry and Harriet did not have any children.

The second Henry was Henry Klippel. He was the son of Friedrich Klippel and Emilia Kees, and he married Ida L. Ramsey in Bay City, Michigan in 1898. At the moment, I am unsure as to where exactly Ida was born since she only lists Canada as her birthplace in the marriage record, but I did find her living with her parents in Alleston, Ontario in the 1881 Canadian Census. Although I have not found out exactly when Ida and her family came to the United States, they had to have been living in Bay City, Michigan by 1891 when Ida's father, David Ramsey, died.

As for Henry and Ida, the 1900 census gives their residence as Bay City, Michigan. At that time, Ida and Henry did not have any children. On the other hand, family tradition states they had a daughter, and that she was taken away from her father after her parents divorced. I have not yet been able to confirm or disprove this family tradition. (Part of my problem is that I have been unable to find Henry in the 1910 census, and that birth records in Michigan that are 100 years old or less are closed to the public.) What I do know is that Ida died in Bay City, Michigan in 1905 from tuberculous, and that Henry moved to Cleveland, Ohio by the 1920 census. (Henry would also remarry in Cleveland, according to the 1920 census.)

Although I have done some research into the families of Harriet Collacott and Ida Ramsay, I still have holes in my research that I need to fill. I have not fulled traced back either family's ties in Canada, and I still do not know where in Canada Ida was born. Hopefully, I'll be able to do more research in the future.
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Sources:

(Again, this is mostly an abbreviated form of citations due to the fact that I do not have all of my sources with me at the moment.)

• 1870 U. S. Census, Michigan, Van Buren County, Decatur Village, household of Thomas Collicutt.
• 1880 U. S. Census, Michigan, Van Buren County, Decatur Village, household of Thomas Collacott.
• Marriage registration of Henry J. Oswalt and Harriet A. Callacott, Michigan Marriages, 1868-1925, FamilySearch Lab's Record Search, accessed 21 May 2008, http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=2;t=searchable;c=1452395
• 1900 U. S. Census, Illinois, Winnebago County, Rockford, household of Henry J. Oswalt.
• 1910 U. S. Census, Illinois, Winnebago County, Rockford, (At the moment, I do not have with me the name of the family he was living with in that census listing.)
• Civil War Pension File of Adam Oswalt.
• Probate File of Adam Oswalt, Saint Joseph County, Michigan Probate Office, Centreville, Michigan.
• Death registration of Henry J. Oswalt, Saint Joseph County Michigan deaths, Book 3, page 307, record number 49.
• O Surnames, Michigan Room, Three Rivers Public Library, Three Rivers, Michigan.
• Marriage of Henry W. Kleppel to Ida L. Ramsay, Michigan Marriages, 1868-1925, FamilySearch Lab's Record Search, accessed 21 May 2008, http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=2;t=searchable;c=1452395
• 1881 Canadian Census, Ontario, South Simcoe, Alleston, household of David Ramsay, FamilySearch.org's 1880s Censuses Indexes, http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=census/search_census.asp
• Death registration of David Ramsay, Michigan Deaths, 1867-1897, FamilySearch Lab's Record Search, accessed 21 May 2008, http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=2;t=searchable;c=1452402
• Death registration of Ida Klippel, Bay County, Michigan deaths, Book ? (I do not have the complete citation for this source.)
• 1920 U. S. census, Ohio, Cuyahoga County, Cleveland, household of Henry Klippel.

Looking For My German Ancestors: My Research Experiences Part 3

In my previous post, I wrote about my research into my ancestor, Carl, and for this post, I thought I would continue to do so. In my research at the Library of Michigan, I wrote about finding Carl and his family in the 1894 Michigan State census, and I thought I would start this post by analyzing the census entry.

The image above is of Carl's household in 1894 in Bay County, Michigan. As you can see, I have cut-off Carl's surname, and I did this so that I could protect the identities of other people. After Carl's children are listed, Fred is listed. The census lists Fred's relationship to Carl as son, but that cannot be possible as Carl is listed only about 32 whereas Fred is about 25 in this census. One possibility is that Fred is Carl's younger brother or is Carl's cousin. What do you think? This happens to be the first piece of evidence that I have that connects these two men together.

This next above image is the second half of the census sheet. On this sheet, the occupations of the men are listed, and also the number of children a woman had in the census year. Also included on this image is the number of years that a foreign person has been in the United States and Michigan. According to this census, Carl has been in the U. S. since 1880 and Fred has been in the U. S. since 1889. Of course, these years are only suggestions, but this does help me narrow down the possibility of when Carl came to the U. S. (As I mentioned, I've had difficulty finding him in a passenger list.)

Unfortunately, this census still does not give me a more exact birthplace than the information that I already had. A couple years ago, before I found this census record, I went up to Bay City with my grandparents. While there, I looked for vital records for Carl's family (I had just found Carl's marriage earlier that day in Saginaw), and I found a couple of records. Before we left the county clerk's office, my grandmother mentioned to me that Carl had been a mason, and the clerk informed us that the city Masonic building was just across the street. To make a long story short, we went over to the Masonic building, and I was able to obtain some records on Carl. From the papers, I got Carl's birth date and a possible death date, but I still was unable to get a more detailed birthplace than Germany from these papers. (At the moment, I have only obtained records from Bay City. I have not yet contacted Detroit's Masonic temple, to see if they have any other information on Carl. Carl also lived in Detroit, in addition to Bay City.)

During the summer of the next year, I was able to visit the Library of Michigan, and I was able to obtain Carl's death certificate by going through the microfilmed death certificates from Detroit. (Death records for Detroit are kept separately from the rest of the death records for Wayne County, and I'm not sure why.) From Carl's death certificate, I was able to confirm that his birth date was the same as the Mason's records and confirm Carl's actual date of death. Unfortunately, my copy of Carl's death was poor, so I was unable to determine where in Germany he was born. I was able to read the name of his father, but I know I need to do more research to confirm the name of his father.

Although, the first three parts of this series was done for the Carnival of Central and Eastern European genealogy, I still plan to continue writing about my research into my German ancestors. Stay tuned for the next post in this series ...

Looking For My German Ancestors: My Research Experiences - Part 1 ...

I did write an earlier post about researching German ancestors for a previous edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy, but it was a fairly brief post. Plus, I wrote the post in terms of generalities. I did not go into detail about my experiences. So, how did I start?

Since my known German ancestors are on my paternal side, I first started out by talking to my paternal grandparents about my ancestors. (Well, actually one is supposed to do that anyway, regardless of ethnic background, but I digress.) From my grandma, I was able to learn the names of her grandparents and the names of two of her grandma's brothers. With that information, I was able to do searches in the censuses, and find the rest of the family. Of course, it also helped that my grandma had a family tree of one of her lines as well. Even though I had that family tree, I still verified the information that was on the tree, and I am glad I did so, as I found several errors on it, especially the portion of the family tree where one of the generations in the U.S was concerned.

After searching for my ancestors in the censuses, the next step for me was to start research in Michigan's vital records. Since I found my ancestors living in Saginaw and Bay counties in the censuses, I decided to start looking for records in those counties. Up at the county buildings for both counties, I was able to find marriage and death records for a few of my ancestors and their siblings. Of course, I did not find all the records that I had hoped to find, and I am still looking for records on my ancestors in this country. In another post, I will post more specifically on records that I collected and still collecting on my ancestors. Stay tuned ...

Went To The Local Family History Center Yesterday ...

Yes, I was finally able to go to the local Family History Center in my area yesterday. I've been there a handful times before, but this was my first visit to the place this year. So, what did I do there? Well, I ordered a couple of microfilms; one from the local church my ancestors in England lived nearby, and the other microfilm was of death records from the town a couple of my German ancestors had lived.

I also did a little bit of research into death records for Bay and Saginaw counties. I found the death record for one my ancestor's sister-in-law, but I was still unable to find a death record for my ancestor. From looking at the Saginaw's city directories for 1883 and 1887, I'm guessing he died sometime those years, but I still can't find anything yet. (I'll have to check the 1884 state census to see if he was still alive then. That should help narrow his death down even more.) I also looked at some Saint Joseph County records. I might have found some new information, but I'm not sure yet. That is, until I can prove that person is connected to my ancestor.

In all, I did not have a very successful research day. Well, since I did find a little information, I guess that is better than not finding anything new. Hopefully, I'll be able to find more information when those two microfilms come into the center. I'll keep you informed if I find anything.