My Genealogy Goals for 2017 - Year End Progress Report

Over a year ago, I made several goals that I wanted to accomplish in regards to my genealogy research in 2017. So, how did I do? Here are the results:

1. As I already stated above, my first goal is to increase the number of articles I post to this blog. For several years, I have been promising to either post articles updating my research in a couple of series or articles on specific topics, and I hope to finally publish articles on the topics I have listed under the Coming Soon section of this blog. End of year results: Well, I did not post any additional articles on this blog, so I failed in accomplishing this goal. I started a full-time job this year, so I ended up not having as much time as I thought I would have to write more blog posts.
2. To further branch off of resolution number 1, the second goal is to continue my series on my ancestor, Irene Havens. I haven't posted in a long time on my research on her, and I want to post an update in this series as I have been doing some rethinking on my conclusions so far. End of year results: See result for Goal Number 1.
3. A third writing goal would be to write an update or two on my research into my Oswalt ancestors as I've made some progress in the past few years. End of year result: See result for Goal Number 1
4. For my fourth goal, I would like to obtain the naturalization records for any of Anton's siblings, children, nephews and nieces that applied in Michigan after the cut-off date in Ancestry's naturalization database for Michigan. I would have mentioned Anton's records; however, Ancestry posted his Declaration of Intent online, and I was able to download a copy of it. (He apparently never completed the naturalization process, so this appears to be the only record available.) End of year result: I actually forgot about this goal, so I did not make any progress on this goal.
5. Fifthly, I would like to be able to obtain a record of Joseph Stout and Susan Kelly (or Kelley)'s marriage record as I believe that record would identify their parents. I have my suspicions about who their parents may be, but I am not completely sure that I have correctly identified them without obtaining further records that prove or disprove the connections. End of year result: I did not obtain the marriage record of Joseph Stout and Susan Kelly.
6. I also hope to visit the Saint Joseph County, Michigan courthouse to obtain copies of probate records for ancestors and siblings that I have not yet obtained. End of year result: I did not visit the Saint Joseph County, Michigan courthouse. I hope to be able to visit the courthouse this coming year.
7. To further branch off resolution 6, I would also like to view and obtain copies of any court minutes and court records of cases my ancestors may have participated in while residing in Saint Joseph County, Michigan. End of year result: See result for Goal Number 6.
8. I would also like to order the Civil War Pension files additional relatives of my ancestors who served in the Civil War. I would also like to obtain the service records for my Civil War ancestor and his relatives, but I want to finish obtaining the pension files first. End of year result: I did not order any additional Civil War Pension files or Civil War service records. I may order records this coming year.
9.  I would also like to order microfilms of church records from the Family History Library. At the top of my list would be: records from a couple places in historically Russian Poland that are not available online and may be places where my German ancestors resided, and the records from the church where my great-great grandparents married in Ireland. End of year result: This goal is the only one that I actually came close to completing this year. I did not order any microfilms, but I did view films that had been digitized. I have been able to work on a few of my lines from Germany, and I believe I may have found the civil birth record for my ancestor and his siblings from Russian Poland.
10. I also hope to contact the church where my ancestors, Carl and Anna, married to see if the church has additional information on where in Germany Carl may have been born or lists the names of his parents. End of year result: I did not contact the church, and I may contact the church next year.
11. Another goal is to uncover the maiden name of my ancestor, Mary Oswalt, who is the wife of Benjamin Oswalt (the son of Adam Oswalt and the father of Adam Oswalt, my Civil War ancestor). I have two possible maiden names, and I am uncertain as to whether or not either one of those surnames is correct. In the future, I will write a post about this mystery. End of year result: I have not uncovered the maiden name of Mary, my ancestor, and I did not write a post about this mystery. I plan to write about this mystery in the future.
12. I would also like to order a couple of marriage records from Wales for an ancestor's two marriages. As the ancestor and her husbands have extremely common surnames, I am hoping the father's name on the marriage records will help me narrow down possible locations of these ancestors in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. (In addition, the two marriage records may be both be civil marriages, so I might not be able to order microfilms of parish churches in the area. One of the marriage records is definitely a civil marriage, so I will have to order that marriage first as it is the second marriage and most recent.) End of year result: I have not ordered any marriage records from the United Kingdom, and I may order those records this coming year.
13. Another goal connected to my ancestors from Saint Joseph County, Michigan is to contact the cemetery sextons where my ancestors are buried to see if the sextons have additional information on my ancestors. As a couple of my female ancestors' deaths were not recorded by the county, I am hoping the cemetery may have more information on the cause of death, etc. End of year result: I did not contact any of the cemetery sextons, and I hope I can do so next year.
14. An additional goal connected to my Saint Joseph County, Michigan ancestors would be to visit the Zhang Legacy Center (Archives and Regional History Collections) at Western Michigan University, especially if I am unable to make a visit to the courthouse in Centreville, Michigan, as there are records from Saint Joseph County available at that archives. End of year result: I did not get a chance to visit the Zhang Legacy Center this year, but I hope to do so some time in the future.
15. Lastly, I would like to find out who Jacob Detwiler's grandparents are as that has been a mystery for me and another cousin, who has researched the family a lot longer. We know who his parents are, but we don't know who are the parents of Jacob's parents. Hopefully, some progress can be made on that line. End of year result: I have not made any progress on finding out who Jacob's grandparents are, but I intend to continue working on this line into the future.

As you can see, I have not made very much progress in accomplishing my goals this year. I hope I will make further progress in my goals for genealogy research next year. Stay tuned for my resolutions in 2018. Enjoy!

My Genealogy Goals for 2017

Over the past few years I haven't posted very much primarily because I have been too busy to write many posts; however, I hope to publish more frequently this upcoming year than in previous years. So, to kick-start my writing I have decided to post my genealogy research goals for 2017 a little earlier than usual. Here are my resolutions for 2017:

1. As I already stated above, my first goal is to increase the number of articles I post to this blog. For several years, I have been promising to either post articles updating my research in a couple of series or articles on specific topics, and I hope to finally publish articles on the topics I have listed under the Coming Soon section of this blog.
2. To further branch off of resolution number 1, the second goal is to continue my series on my ancestor, Irene Havens. I haven't posted in a long time on my research on her, and I want to post an update in this series as I have been doing some rethinking on my conclusions so far.
3. A third writing goal would be to write an update or two on my research into my Oswalt ancestors as I've made some progress in the past few years.
4. For my fourth goal, I would like to obtain the naturalization records for any of Anton's siblings, children, nephews and nieces that applied in Michigan after the cut-off date in Ancestry's naturalization database for Michigan. I would have mentioned Anton's records; however, Ancestry posted his Declaration of Intent online, and I was able to download a copy of it. (He apparently never completed the naturalization process, so this appears to be the only record available.)
5. Fifthly, I would like to be able to obtain a record of Joseph Stout and Susan Kelly (or Kelley)'s marriage record as I believe that record would identify their parents. I have my suspicions about who their parents may be, but I am not completely sure that I have correctly identified them without obtaining further records that prove or disprove the connections.
6. I also hope to visit the Saint Joseph County, Michigan courthouse to obtain copies of probate records for ancestors and siblings that I have not yet obtained.
7. To further branch off resolution 6, I would also like to view and obtain copies of any court minutes and court records of cases my ancestors may have participated in while residing in Saint Joseph County, Michigan.
8. I would also like to order the Civil War Pension files additional relatives of my ancestors who served in the Civil War. I would also like to obtain the service records for my Civil War ancestor and his relatives, but I want to finish obtaining the pension files first.
9.  I would also like to order microfilms of church records from the Family History Library. At the top of my list would be: records from a couple places in historically Russian Poland that are not available online and may be places where my German ancestors resided, and the records from the church where my great-great grandparents married in Ireland.
10. I also hope to contact the church where my ancestors, Carl and Anna, married to see if the church has additional information on where in Germany Carl may have been born or lists the names of his parents.
11. Another goal is to uncover the maiden name of my ancestor, Mary Oswalt, who is the wife of Benjamin Oswalt (the son of Adam Oswalt and the father of Adam Oswalt, my Civil War ancestor). I have two possible maiden names, and I am uncertain as to whether or not either one of those surnames is correct. In the future, I will write a post about this mystery.
12. I would also like to order a couple of marriage records from Wales for an ancestor's two marriages. As the ancestor and her husbands have extremely common surnames, I am hoping the father's name on the marriage records will help me narrow down possible locations of these ancestors in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. (In addition, the two marriage records may be both be civil marriages, so I might not be able to order microfilms of parish churches in the area. One of the marriage records is definitely a civil marriage, so I will have to order that marriage first as it is the second marriage and most recent.)
13. Another goal connected to my ancestors from Saint Joseph County, Michigan is to contact the cemetery sextons where my ancestors are buried to see if the sextons have additional information on my ancestors. As a couple of my female ancestors' deaths were not recorded by the county, I am hoping the cemetery may have more information on the cause of death, etc.
14. An additional goal connected to my Saint Joseph County, Michigan ancestors would be to visit the Zhang Legacy Center (Archives and Regional History Collections) at Western Michigan University, especially if I am unable to make a visit to the courthouse in Centreville, Michigan, as there are records from Saint Joseph County available at that archives.
15. Lastly, I would like to find out who Jacob Detwiler's grandparents are as that has been a mystery for me and another cousin, who has researched the family a lot longer. We know who his parents are, but we don't know who are the parents of Jacob's parents. Hopefully, some progress can be made on that line.

So, as you can see, this list is longer than my resolutions in the past, and I hope I may be able to accomplish at least a couple of goals on this list, if I can't complete all of them. Realistically, I won't accomplish all of them, but I can still work on making progress. Stay tuned for future updates on my goals in 2017! 

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!

Seven Years Ago Today ...

Seven years ago today, I started this blog, and I am amazed that it has been this long. (Where has the time gone?) Of course, I realize that I haven't posted as many articles over the past couple of years, and school and work has prevented me from posting as often as I have done in the past. Although I do not know often I will be to publish new content, I still intend to do so, and I have several post topics to write about. Among those topics are:

• A couple additional articles to the "Searching for my German Ancestors" series
• Updates on my research into my Oswalt ancestors

Hopefully, I'll be able to write up those articles sooner than later. Stay tuned for future posts! Enjoy!

Looking For My German Ancestors, Part 9

In my previous post in the "Looking For My German Ancestors," I had promised to continue writing about my Kees ancestors and relatives in Cleveland, Ohio. I will continue to write about the Kees family in Cleveland, and hopefully, I will finally begin writing about their ancestors in Germany and Strasbourg in future posts.

As you may or may not remember from previous parts of the series (6 and 7), Anna, her parents and siblings resided in Cleveland, Ohio from about 1870 to 1876. (I think they lived in Cleveland before 1870, based upon Anna's brother's (Henry) birthplace and year in the 1870 census, but I have yet to corroborate my suspicions with primary documents. Sometime time between and 1876 and 1880, Anna's family moved to Saginaw, except for her older brother, Adolph. He apparently chose to remain living in Cleveland.) Besides Anna's immediate family, Anna's uncle, William Kees, also lived, married and raised a family in Cleveland. William applied for citizenship, and became a citizen of the United States in 1871.

In April of 1877, Adolph Kees, the father of William and Emilia (Anna's mother) immigrated to the United States with a few family members, Jettchen Kees, Johann(a? I believe the person to be female.) Joeslin and Marie Joeslin. From the woman (no relation) who had sent me information on William and Emilia Kees, I learned that Jettchen was a nickname for Henrietta. Since I knew that Adolph had a daughter named Henrietta, this Jettchen could be his daughter, although my contact also noted that the Jettchen could be a daughter-in-law as well. (I suspect that the Jettchen may have been Adolph's daughter, and I will explain why I think that a little later.) The Johann(a) Joeslin, I also believe to be another daughter of Adolph, since I knew from the sources I had that Adolph had a daughter named Anna who had married a Joeslin, and I suspect that the Marie Joeslin was Johanna's daughter. In June of that year, the Cuyahoga County Recorder's Office recorded the sale of land between William Kees and a Henrietta Cunz. As mentioned previously, Adolph had a daughter named Henrietta, and Henrietta married a Jacob Cunz. While I can not definitely say that the Henrietta Cunz that William Kees sold land to was William's sister, I suspect that there is a connection. Marriage records for Cuyahoga County indicate that about a year later, a Henrietta Cunz married a Fred Voelker, but unfortunately, the marriage record did not record the names of the parents of the bride or groom. So, I cannot rule out yet if this Henrietta Cunz is related or not.

By 1880, I believe Johanna and Marie had returned to Germany, while Adolph and Henrietta/Jettchen, remained in the U.S. In the census of that year, Adolph Kees is listed as residing in Germany a few houses away from William Kees and his family while a Fred and Henrietta Voelker are listed as residing in Detroit, Michigan.  Two years later, Adolph Kees passed away in Cleveland, but I do not know yet where he is buried. While the Cuyahoga County Archives has records on Adolph's death, the archives apparently does not have a probate file for him. (I had made a request for  a search a few years ago in case there had been a probate file created after Adolph's death.) In the early 1890s, Emilia died, and a Saginaw newspaper article indicated that her body was taken to Cleveland for burial. (Since only Emilia's children were listed, I think it is safe to assume that Emilia's husband, Fred had already died.) If I can find out where Emilia was buried in Cleveland, I may be able to figure out where her husband and father are buried. During that same decade, I believe Fred and Henrietta Voelker died, possibly in Ohio if FamilySearch's Deaths and Burial database is accurate. While the death year listed for a Henrietta Voelker in the database fits with the birth year information I have for Adolph's daughter, Henrietta, the names given for this Henrietta Voelker's parents do not match. In addition the parents' last name is given as Voelker, so I do not know if I am looking at the wrong person, or if there is an error in the database.  There is a probate record listed in an index for Cuyahoga County probate records for a Henrietta Voelker, but unfortunately, the probate file does not appear to have been added to the Ohio Probate database yet. I will probably have to order the file from the Cuyahoga County Archives to see if there is a connection between my ancestors and this Henrietta Voelker. If I am able to confirm or disprove the connection, I will post on it in a future post.

In my next post, I will continue my discussion on my Kees and Klippel ancestors; however, instead of writing about my findings on these ancestors in the United States, I will start writing about what I have uncovered in German records. Stay tuned, and enjoy!

And Another Mini-Breakthrough into the Research on my Oswalt Ancestors ...

Before I get back to posting on my findings of my newly-found Oswalt ancestors, I want to mention another breakthrough I had in solving a small mystery with my more established Oswalt ancestors. A few years ago, I posted on my difficulty in locating the marriage record for ancestor's third marriage, and I briefly described what I knew about John's third wife. Up until this year, I had not been successful in locating the record for John's third marriage primarily because I had concentrated my search for the record in Michigan, with an occasionally glance into Indiana. More specifically, I had only searched FamilySearch's databases for Michigan and Indiana  marriage since I knew John resided in Michigan during the period that the marriage would have taken place and lived only one county north of the border with Indiana. I had not considered searching the Ohio Marriages database even though I knew from census records that John's third wife was from Ohio .

So, when FamilySearch updated the Ohio County Marriages database earlier this year, I decided to search for my ancestor's third marriage on the random chance that he married in Ohio, and surprisingly, I found the marriage record recorded in Warren County, Ohio. Apparently, John's last wife was from Warren County, and since I had not been able to find her in the census records before, I did not know where she was from in Ohio. Unfortunately, the marriage record did not indicated where the marriage had taken place, although I suspect it may have been in Warren County since the minister officiating at the ceremony resided in the county. I will have to search the newspapers in Warren County for a marriage notice, though, to confirm my suspicions.  The lesson here is that if a bride and groom are from two different states, one should always search for the marriage record in both states no matter how unlikely it might seem that the marriage occurred in one of those states. I had always believed that John's last marriage occurred in Michigan since he resided in Michigan and his first two marriages had occurred in that state, and I had been unable to find this marriage before because I had dismissed looking for the marriage in Ohio as being improbable.

Of course, now I have more questions and a new mystery to solve. How did John meet his new wife, since Warren County, Ohio is nowhere near where John and his children resided in Michigan? Where were John's children staying while John remarried? Did John and his children temporarily live in Ohio at one point? From what my grandfather's aunt told my grandfather, the marriage came as a surprise to the children, and John just showed up his new wife one day. I had always assumed that the marriage had occurred in Michigan as a result of this tradition. I might never know the answer to those questions, although I hope I find some a newspaper article on the marriage that provides a hint or clue to those questions. If I ever find a marriage notice, I will post an update. Stay tuned ...

And Another Update on the Research Into My Oswalt Ancestors ...

A few days ago, I promised that I would post another update on the progress I made on my Oswalt ancestors. Instead  of posting more information on Adam Oswalt (died 1837-1838), the father of Benjamin Oswalt (died 1861), I will write about the findings I made on a few of the grandchildren of Adam Oswalt (died 1837-1838) which includes my Civil War ancestor, Adam Oswalt.

As you may remember, I wrote a series of articles a few years ago that explored whether or not the Civil War veterans, Adam Oswalt, Benjamin Oswalt and William Oswalt, were brothers. At that time, I only had indirect evidence to conclude that the three men were brothers; however, I can now definitely state that they are brothers. How? Well, I ordered two additional Civil War Pension files earlier this year.

Previously, I had only ordered Adam and Benjamin Oswalt's Pension files, and those files did not indicate whether or not the two men had a connection. (I should quickly note that Benjamin's Pension file was actually a Widow's Pension as his widow filed for a pension file after his death.) So, when I decided to order additional Pension files this year, I chose to order William's Pension file (or Widow's Pension, to be more accurate) and the Widow's Pension file for one of Adam's Detwiler brother-in-laws. (I will discuss the Detwiler Pension file in a future post.)

From the testimony of William's widow, Eliza, I learned that William, Benjamin and Adam were indeed brothers as I suspected, and confirmed that the men had a sister named Margaret who lived in Michigan. Besides confirming relationships, the file also listed the names of William and Eliza's children and Eliza's children of a later marriage, gave the date and location of William and Eliza's marriage, and provided an explanation of why I could not find a record of that marriage. Apparently, William and Eliza's marriage was not recorded in the county. Although Michigan law required that marriage notices be placed in two newspapers in the county where the marriage occurred, I haven't yet found a notice. I will need to do a more in-depth search of the newspaper records of Saint Joseph County, Michigan.

So, as one can see from the above information, Civil War Pension files could contain a great amount of detail on the lives and families of Civil War Veterans. Unfortunately, the file does not answer all the questions I have about these Oswalts, especially when it comes to the maiden name of William, Benjamin and Adam's mother. In a future post, I will discuss my efforts so far to answer additional questions on my Oswalt ancestors. Enjoy!

An Ancestor Found: An Update On The Research Into My Oswalt Acestors

As I mentioned previously, I worked on my genealogy when I had some free time, and I will briefly discuss some of the findings I made for one branch.  Interestingly, I had not expected to make any progress on my Oswalt ancestors this past year, but that is what happened!

At the end of June 2012, FamilySearch put images of the probate records for many of Pennsylvania's counties online. Some of Huntingdon County's Will Books and Orphan's Court records were included in this database, and that July, I decided to look through these images to see if I could uncover any new information on my Huntingdon County ancestors. Previously, I had only examined the Will Books for Oswalt/Oswald surnames and examined the Orphan Court Records for my ancestor, Benjamin Oswalt/d by ordering the microfilmed records held by the Family History Library. As you may remember from a previous post, Benjamin's probate records did not mention the names of his heirs apart from his wife, Mary, and son, John. I re-looked at the probate records for Benjamin again, but I did not uncover anything that I had not found before. After that disappointment, I decided to look at the probate and orphan court records for an Adam Oswalt/Oswald who had died in Huntingdon County in the late-1830s. Previously, I had only examined the notation in the Will Book, which only mentioned the names of the court-appointed administrators of Adam's estate; however, when I decided to see if the Orphan Court had any additional probate records, I uncovered a mini-goldmine of information. Previously, I had dismissed the idea of examining the Orphan Court records for Adam because I had not obtained any new information from the records on Benjamin's probate.

I had always suspected from an examination of the 1820 and 1830 censuses and tax records for Huntingdon County that his Adam Oswalt and my ancestor, Benjamin, were related in some way, possibly as father and son; however, I had not been able to confirm my suspicion. The Orphan Court records confirmed my suspicion, and also gave the names of Benjamin's living siblings and Adam's widow, who I presume to Benjamin's mother.

From the Orphan Court records, I learned that Adam Oswald had owned land in Hopewell Township, and that he had at least seven children. Adam apparently either died in 1837 or 1838, and his children sold their father's land. Adam's widow, Mary, probably died around 1848, as five of Adam's children did not receive their shares of the land sale until that year, and the delay probably had to do with Mary's dower's right  in her husband's land. (Of course, I need to check the laws for that period to make sure that my assumption is correct.)

So far, the known children (in no particular order of age) of Adam Oswalt (d. 1837-1838) and Mary ? are:

• Benjamin Oswalt (d. 1861) - eldest son (I do not know who Adam and Mary's firstborn is yet.)
• Eve Oswalt wife of William States
• Adam Oswalt - youngest son (He lived in Blair County.)
• Margaret Oswalt wife of Jonathan Rough
• Catherine Oswalt wife of John Fry
• Elizabeth Oswalt widow of Jonathan Snyder
• Mary Oswalt wife of Samuel Weight (sic) 

Since looking at the probate records, I've made some more progress, but I will write about those findings in another post. If you have any additional information on this family, questions or comments please feel free to leave a comment or contact me at jess_history at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

It Has Been Awhile ...

I haven't posted in a long time (nearly a year, actually), but I haven't abandoned this blog. I have been very with school  over the past few years, but I did occasionally find some time to do a little genealogy research. Over the past year, I've made a little progress on my ancestry, and I will be posting future articles on my findings. Enjoy, and stay tuned for future posts!

Deadline for 32nd edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy changed!

I completely forgot to post reminders for the submission deadline for the upcoming edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy, so I've decided to extend the deadline for the edition. The new deadline is August 21st, and the edition will be posted on August 28th. You can submit your article here.

Update: I forgot to mention the topic. (I'm sorry about that.) The topic will be on personal research, experiences and tips.

Searching For Joseph Stout's Parents, Part One - What I Know So Far

Earlier this week I promised to write a post about my speculations on who were Joseph Stout's parents. At the moment, I do not have any documentation to link my ancestor to the couple, but I hope that by writing this post, I might receive some advice or help in linking my ancestor to the suspected couple. The best way to start this post is to list what I know about Joseph Stout. So, here is what I know about my ancestor:

• Joseph Stout was born sometime between 1803 and 1806, most likely in 1805, in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. (Joseph's son Reuben stated, in his biography, that Joseph was born in 1800 in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, but census records suggest a later date. His death records states that he was about 70 years old at his age of death.)
  
• Joseph Stout married Susan Kelley in Northampton County, Pennsylvania on 3 March 1829. (See here for my post on their marriage information.)
• Joseph and Susan would have seven children. Six of their children would outlive them.
  
• By 1850, Joseph Stout had moved his family to Saint Joseph County, Michigan. Reuben claims in his biography that the family moved to Michigan around 1846, but I have yet to confirm or disprove Reuben's claim. An examination of tax records for Saint Joseph County, Michigan should indicate when the Stouts moved to the county.
• In 1858, Joseph Stout bought a farm in Florence Township, Saint Joseph County, Michigan. Two years later, in the 1860 census, Joseph Stout and his family are listed as living in Florence Township. (This census as puts a letter G in front of Joseph's name. This is the only time I have come across the G in primary sources so far in my research.)
  
• In 1864, Joseph Stout sold the farm to his son, Peter.
  
• In 1865, Joseph Stout was taxed by the federal government for the amount of peppermint oil he produced or sold. (The tax suggests he was still in charge of the farm even though he had sold it to his son.)
  
• In the 1870 census, Joseph Stout is still living in Florence Township, but now, he is listed as a retired farmer. His household is directly below Peter's household on the census, and that suggests to me that he lived nearby Peter's family.)
• Joseph Stout died on 11 February 1875 in Florence Township, and is buried in Calhoun Cemetery in Florence Township. Susan dies later that month, on the 25th, and is buried near him. (Reuben incorrectly states in his biography that they died in February of 1872, but contemporary records, such as their death records and Joseph's probate packet, give their death year as 1875. Joseph and Susan share a tombstone since they died the same month. The tombstone gives his death date as the 9th of February, but I eventually found his death record in the Saint Joseph County death records which listed the date as the 11th. I had difficulty finding his and Susan's deaths since they were incorrectly indexed in the county and state indexes. A look at the actual county death records clearly showed the last name to be Stout and not Stant or Stent as was listed in the indexes.)

As you can see, I do not know a lot about Joseph Stout. I know when he died, where he lived in Michigan, who he married, and that he came from Northampton County, Pennsylvania. I know that he was engaged in farming (at least in Michigan), but outside of these facts, I do not know much more about Joseph other than what is in Reuben's biography. Reuben claims that he father worked as a gunsmith in Northampton County, but I do not have any proof yet outside of Reuben's biography. Reuben also claims that Joseph and his family lived in Centre County, Pennsylvania, but I have not been able to confirm Reuben's statement. I have been unable to locate Joseph Stout and his family in the 1840 census. (I should also state that I am slightly wary of the information in Reuben's biography because Reuben was incorrect on some of the dates of deaths he gave for his parents and wife.)

So, who do I suspect are Joseph's parents? I believe his parents may be Peter Stout/Staut and Eva Hoch. Why? Well, besides knowing that my ancestor, Joseph Stout, came from Northampton County, Pennsylvania where Peter and Eva Stout resided in the earlier 1800s, a couple of published genealogies and online family trees list a Joseph Stout born in 1805 to Peter and Eva. (As I stated earlier, my ancestor was born close to that time period of Peter and Eva's son.) Unfortunately, none of the books or online trees actually provide any primary sources, so I am still speculating. According to these genealogies the Stout that lived in Northampton County originated from the Palatinate region of what is now Germany. Interestingly, oral traditions passed down in my family claim that my Stout ancestors were German, and although, an oral tradition is not enough proof to link my ancestor to Peter and Eva.

So, far I haven't been able to find any primary sources in Michigan to link my Joseph with the Joseph of Peter and Eva (Hoch) Stout. All I have to connect them are online family trees. As for sources in Pennsylvania, I haven't had very much time to order microfilms to further my research or find the original marriage record for Joseph and Susan (Kelley) Stout. Does anyone have an documentation linking my Joseph to Peter and Eva Stout, or any suggestions as to where I should direct my research? Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

31st Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy

Welcome to the 31st edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy! The topic for this edition is carousel, and includes articles that originally been submitted to other editions that never occurred as a result of time constraints that prevented me from posting editions more frequently. (I am sorry for the delays.) So, here are the articles:

First, we have an article from Romeo Vitelli of Providentia. In "The Kaspar Hauser Mystery (Part 1)," he writes about the mysterious case of Kaspar Hauser, a boy who had mysterious and unknown origins.


Last, but not least, we have an article from Greta Koehl of Greta's Genealogy Blog. In "Advent Calender Day 24: Christmas Eve - Holy Supper," she describes her family's tradition of celebrating Holy Supper on Christmas Eve.

Well, that is it for this edition. The topic for the next edition will be on Personal Research, Research Experiences, and Tips, and the edition will be hosted here. The deadline for submissions will be August 14th, and the edition will be posted on August 19th. You can submit your entry here. Enjoy!

My 2011 Genealogy Resolutions - Seven Months Later

Well, it has been about seven months since I posted my genealogy research resolutions for 2011, and I thought I would update everyone on my progress (or lack of it) on accomplishing my goals. So, here are the results so far:

1. Order William Oswalt's Civil War pension file. Results as of July 4th: I still haven't ordered the pension file yet. I still hope I can find the time to do so this summer.
2. Obtain Anton's naturalization papers. Results as of July 4th: I still haven't ordered his naturalization papers yet, and I don't know if I will get a chance to so later this year.
3. Contact the Church where my ancestors, Carl and Anna, married (if the church still exists) to see if the church's records list the names or birthplace of Carl. Results as of July 4th: I still have not contacted the church. Now that I have a little more time, I might be able to look and see if the church still exists. Stay tuned for an update in the future.
4. Visit the State Archives of Michigan to see if I can obtain any further naturalization documents on Carl, or see if Fred Klippel became a naturalized citizen. Results as of July 4th: I have not visited the Archives of Michigan lately. I do not know if I will get a chance to visit the Archives this summer.
5. Order microfilms of various Lancashire, England parish records to continue my research. Results as of July 4th: I have not had a chance to order any microfilms. Although I now have a little time to do research, I do not believe I will have enough time to view the microfilms before school begins again if I order them now.
6. Make or strengthen the connection between Joseph Stout and the couple I believe to be his parents. Results as of July 4th: I haven't strengthen the connection, although I did contact someone who might help me. I think I should write a post about who I believe to be Joseph Stout's parents. Stay tuned for a future post.
7. Order more microfilms of records from Trippstadt, Gelnhausen and Bobenheim am Berg, Germany. Results as of July 4th: I haven't ordered any microfilms from Germany, and I probably will not get a chance to do so this year.
8. Order more microfilms of records from Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. Results as of July 4th: As in the case for goals five and seven, I haven't had a chance to order any microfilms. I am afraid I will not have to time to order any microfilms this year.
9. Visit Saint Joseph County, Michigan to do additional research on my lines from that area. Results as of July 4th: I haven't visited Saint Joseph County, Michigan yet, and I do not know if I will get a chance to go this year.
10. Look for the marriage record for John's third marriage. Results as of July 4th: I haven't found John's third marriage yet. I don't know if he married in Michigan or somewhere else, although I haven't exhausted Michigan as a possibility yet.

So, as you can see, I haven't had much success so far. I don't know if I will be able to accomplish any of my goals, but it looks as though I might be writing a couple of posts on two of the goals. Stay tuned for more .... Enjoy!

107th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The 107th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on

"Food! We haven't focused on food in the COG in quite a while so we're asking you to bring us your family recipes, stories of picnics, food fights, food allergies, favorite summertime foods you remember, and best of all, photos of family favorite foods. Let's make a great mouth-watering edition of the COG! The deadline for submissions will be August 1st. Bring your appetite!"

Enjoy!

Belated Saturday Night Fun - My Genea-Bucket List

For this week's Saturday Night Fun, Randy has challenged other genea-bloggers to describe their genealogy bucket list. Although I'm late in participating in this meme again, I still want to post my goals. I think I wrote about this topic before, but it has been awhile. I don't think it would hurt to write an updated version. So, here is my genea-bucket list:

1. I would like to be able to travel to Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, so that I could uncover more information on my ancestors and their families who lived in the region. Although I have ordered microfilms of Huntingdon County records from the LDS in the past, I still haven't been able to uncover much on my ancestors in the ordered microfilms. I think I will have to go and visit the county to find out more.
2. Another region (okay, it is more than one) I would like to visit is the Alsace and Palatinate regions of France and Germany. The majority of my German ancestors resided in those areas. I would probably also try to make stops in Gelnhausen (which is in the Hesse region of Germany) and Stuttgart as well.
3. I would also like to visit the county of Lancashire in the U. K. since I had ancestors living in those areas. (I would also like to visit the other counties my ancestors resided in as well.)
   

Well, those are my three main regions that I would like to visit. I hope some day that I will be able to visit those places and continue my research into my ancestors. Enjoy!

Bas-Rhin, France Church Records and Early Civil Records Online

As everyone has noticed, I haven't posted in several months because I was busy with school work, but I just wanted to let everyone know about some church and civil records that have been put online within the past month or so. The Archive of Bas-Rhin, France has posted images of parish records (both Protestant and Catholic) and vital records from 1792 to 1902 online. Although the website is only in French, the images can be browsed by locality and viewed for free. You can view the records here. (I should also note that the Protestant parish records are primarily in German.)

I am excited about the website because I have some ancestors who resided in Strasbourg before and during the French Revolution, and this website will definitely make my research into those families much easier. I hope others will find this website to beneficial as well. Enjoy!

My 2011 Genealogy Resolutions

Although I have missed the deadline to submit my genealogy resolutions for the upcoming edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, I've decided to still post my resolutions for 2011. So, here are my goals:

1. Order William Oswalt's Civil War pension file. (Well, his widow's pension file, to be exact.) Yes, this is a repeat from last year's resolutions, but I still want to obtain the file in order to strengthen the connection between him and my ancestor, Adam.
2. Obtain Anton's naturalization papers. (Yes, this is another repeat, but I can't move any farther back without uncovering the information in the papers.)
3. Contact the Church where my ancestors, Carl and Anna, married (if the church still exists) to see if the church's records list the names or birthplace of Carl.
4. Visit the State Archives of Michigan to see if I can obtain any further naturalization documents on Carl, or see if Fred Klippel became a naturalized citizen.
5. Order microfilms of various Lancashire, England parish records to continue my research.
6. Make or strengthen the connection between Joseph Stout and the couple I believe to be his parents.
7. Order more microfilms of records from Trippstadt, Gelnhausen and Bobenheim am Berg, Germany.
8. Order more microfilms of records from Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.
9. Visit Saint Joseph County, Michigan to do additional research on my lines from that area. There are still some records in the county that I haven't gone through, and I am hoping I might find more information on my ancestors who lived in that county.
10. Look for the marriage record for John's third marriage. I haven't been able to find the marriage record yet, and I want to see if I can find any information on John's third wife.

Well, I think ten goals are enough. I'll be quite busy this upcoming semester, so I probably will not be able to do any research before the summer. If I can fulfill even one or two of my goals, I think it would be an accomplishment. Stay tuned for my progress later this year, and until then, enjoy!

My 2010 Genealogy Resolutions - One Year Later

Well, it has almost been a year to the day since I wrote my genealogy resolutions for 2010 and six months since I posted my update on my resolutions. I thought I would update everyone on my progress (or lack of progress) in completing my goals. So, here are my results:

1. Order William Oswalt's pension file. I ordered Benjamin's pension file, but I didn't do so for William. Hopefully, I'll be able to do that in the upcoming year, and I hope I will be able to determine if my ancestor is related to William. As of June 5: I have not ordered William's pension file, and I don't know if I will be ordering the records any time this year. As of December 26: I never ordered the pension file due to the fact that I have been so busy with school this year.
2. Research the tax records of Saint Joseph County, Michigan to obtain more information on my Oswalt, Detwiler, Stout and Havens-Mandigo families. As of June 5: I have not done any research into the tax records of Saint Joseph County, Michigan. Hopefully, I will get a chance to do so later this summer. As of December 26: I never got the chance to look through the tax records. I may have to put this goal off until next year.
3. Order a microfilm of Manchester, England church records for a marriage record of an ancestor. As of June 5: I haven't ordered any microfilms yet. I hope to get a chance to do so later this year. As of December 26: I didn't order any microfilms of church records, but I still did obtain the information contained in my ancestors' marriage record. I posted a look-up request on the RootsChat forum, and another researcher graciously looked up the record for me. (I've also posted two more marriage look-up requests, but so far, those requests have not been completed.)
4. Locate the German birthplace or home town for my ancestor, Carl. As of June 5: I haven't done any further research on my ancestor, Carl. As of December 26: I still have not determined Carl's birthplace. I probably will have to contact the church where Carl married to see if records from the time period survived in order to either determine who his parents were or where he was born.
5. Obtain Anton's naturalization record. As of June 5: I haven't ordered Anton's naturalization records. As of December 26: I haven't made any attempt yet to order Anton's papers. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to do so next year.
6. Determine who are the parents of my great-grandfather. As of June 5: I haven't done any research into this great-grandparent. I have always had a suspicion to at least who his mother was in the past, but I haven't been able to conclusively link determine who were his biological parents. As of December 26: I have not made any progress with this goal since my last update. It appears as though I will have to wait until I am out of school to make any additional progress on this brick wall.
7. Uncover Adam's religious affiliation. I do not know what church Adam attended except that it was a Protestant church, but I'll need to figure out what church he or his family attended so that I can continue researching my Oswalt ancestors. As of June 5: Sometime late last year or earlier this year (I can't remember when exactly, except that it occurred after Benjamin's pension file came), I happened to find a book (through Google books) that Benjamin Oswalt listed as donating some money to the Methodist Church of Three Rivers, Michigan. Of course, I still not sure if Benjamin is Adam's brother (I have yet to write about why I think he is related), but this could be a possible lead. I did not see Adam's name listed, but is it possible Adam belonged to the Methodist Church? As of December 26: I haven't worked on determining Adam's religious affiliation since my last update. I'll probably have to wait until I have more time.
8. Obtain or order more records from Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania to continue researching my ancestors from those counties. As of June 5: I haven't ordered any records from Huntingdon County. Hopefully, I will still be able to do so this summer. As of December 26: I haven't ordered any records. Hopefully, I will be able to do so next year.

Well, that is what I have accomplished this year. Obviously, I haven't accomplished very much, but I've completed one goal. I guess you could consider that progress. Stay tuned for my 2011 resolutions, and until then, enjoy!

101st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy Topic Update

The topic for the 101st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been posted! The topic is "My genealogy research/writing plan for 2011," and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

Surname Saturday: Oswalt Family Siblings Mystery Series List

I've finally finished earlier today my Surname Saturday series that chronicles my personal research into my ancestor's, Adam Oswalt, sibling. In order to make the series easier for other genealogists to find and comment, I've decided to post a lists all three articles together. Here are the articles and their sources:

1. Surname Saturday - Can I Conclude These Oswalts Are Related? - Part One
2. Surname Saturday - Can I Conclude These Oswalts Are Related? - Part Two
3. Surname Saturday - Can I Conclude These Oswalts Are Related? - Part Three

If you have any comments or suggestions about my research, please feel free to leave a comment. I appreciate all feedback, and certainly would like some suggestions as to what other records I should examine. Thanks, and enjoy!