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!

Looking For My German Ancestors, Part 8

In my previous post, I promised I would continue writing about my Kees ancestors' connection to Cleveland, Ohio; however, I discovered a naturalization record during my time off in December that I want to discuss in this post.

While I was at the Archives of Michigan doing research for my thesis, I happened to spot the naturalization index for Saginaw County, and I thought I would check and see if my ancestor, Fred Klippel, had applied to become a naturalized citizen in Saginaw County, Michigan. What led me to believe that my ancestor might have applied for citizenship?

Well, a few months prior to my visit, I discovered that Footnote.com had digitized federal naturalization records for the Eastern district of Ohio, which includes Cleveland, and found the naturalization record of Fred's son, Adolph. In Adolph's application for naturalization, he mentioned that he was told by a family friend (I think?) that his father had become a citizen in 1874, and thus, Adolph believed he could legally vote. The only problem was that Adolph did not know where his father's naturalization certificate went, and thus, had his voting privileges challenged in 1916. Interestingly, Adolph did not apply for naturalization until 1919, and I wonder if he waited until World War One was over before he tried to apply.

Obviously, the information in Adolph's naturalization records intrigued me. I had wondered if Fred had applied for naturalization during his lifetime, but after viewing the Naturalization Indexes for Cuyahoga County put online by the Cuyahoga County GenWeb, I concluded that he hadn't applied for naturalization in Cuyahoga. (Of course, I was making the assumption that those indexes online were complete, and that may or may not have been the case.) Adolph's naturalization record was the first clue I had that Fred did apply. The only problem was that in 1874, Fred was still living in Cleveland, and I hadn't found a naturalization record for him as I stated before. Of course, Adolph could have got the year wrong, but at the time, I couldn't do any follow up on the lead as I was busy with school work.

By the time I visited the Archives of Michigan for other research, I had pretty much forgotten about the naturalization records. I just happened to spot the index for the Saginaw County Naturalization Records while I was looking for one of the volumes of the Michigan Pioneer Collection, and I just decided on the spur of the moment to look and see if I could find my ancestor. I found his name listed, and with the archivist's help, I discovered the record was for Fred Klippel's Declaration of Intent. The record was dated September 22, 1884, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to look and see if there were any more papers because the Archives was starting to shut down at that point. I had noticed that there was additional mention of a Fred with a last name spelled similar to Klippel, but I didn't have a chance to follow that lead. It may be my ancestor with his surname misspelled, but I'll have to wait until my next visit to the archives.

So, why is this naturalization record important? Well, for one, it narrows down my time frame of when Fred died. As you may or may not remember, the date of Fred's death has been a mystery for me since his death does not show up in Saginaw County's death records. (I haven't been able to find a possible match, through searching FamilySearch's Michigan vital records, in other Michigan counties either. I've only been able to find Amelia's death record.) The only information that I had been able to uncover as to a possible time of death were from two Saginaw directories. In the 1882 directory, Fred is listed as a baker, and thus, was still alive at the time of the book's publishing. The next available directory, though, wasn't published until 1887, and in that directory only Fred's wife, Amelia, is listed. Since Fred wasn't listed under the baker's occupation as he was for the 1882 directory, I concluded that he had died by 1887. My time frame for time of death was now between 1882 and 1887. I hadn't been able to narrow down the time frame any further as Saginaw County's records in the Michigan State Census of 1884 appears to not have survived. Thus, this naturalization record that gives an application date of September 1884 indicates that my ancestor was still alive by that date. (I should note also that my ancestor, Fred Klippel, is the only Fred Klippel living in Saginaw during this time period that I am aware of.) So, now I have a time frame for death between September 23, 1884 and 1887. I haven't had a chance to check for any deaths mentioned in Saginaw's newspapers yet, so I might be able to come up with a death date, but at least I have a much narrower time frame to search for a record of his death. If he did survive to become a naturalized citizen, then I will have an even narrower time frame of death. Of course, I still need to do further research to determine his exact date of death.

In my next article, I will continue writing about Amelia's family in Cleveland, if I do not uncover any additional information on Fred's naturalization records between now and my next post. So until then, stay tuned and enjoy!

Looking For My German Ancestors - Part 5

Since today is German-American Day, I thought I would honor my German ancestors by posting another article on my continuing research into my German ancestors.

In my previous post, I mentioned the research on what I had been able to find on Fred, Carl's relative and possible brother. I also stated that I wanted to focus on another branch of German ancestors, and for this post, I'll be focusing on Carl's wife's family.

In the early 1880s, Carl married Anna in what was then East Saginaw, Michigan. Anna, like Carl, had been born in Germany, but unlike Carl, Anna had spent most of her life in the United States. She immigrated to the U. S. in the mid-1860s as a young child with her parents, Frederick and Emilia, and her siblings. Although I do not know exactly where Anna's family lived for the first six years (they might have lived in New Jersey), I do know that by the time of the 1870 U. S. census, the family was living in Cleveland, Ohio. Within ten years, the family had moved to the Saginaw, Michigan area where they were living in the 1880 U. S. census. Although I still do not know when they moved to Saginaw, I do know that it had to be after 1876 and before 1880. (In 1876, Frederick and Emilia were last mentioned in a deed, and this is the latest that I have them living in Cleveland at the moment. Of course, I might be able to narrow it down even more, if I am able to look at Cleveland city directories for that time period. At the moment, I have not had a chance to look at those city directories.)

Frederick, like Carl, worked as a baker, and he is lasted listed in the Saginaw city directories in the 1883 edition. By 1887, he is not listed, so I have assumed that he had passed away, as his wife is living with her oldest daughter in that directory. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a death record or probate file for Frederick, so I do not know when he died exactly, and in addition, the 1884 Michigan state census for Saginaw county does not appear to have survived. Thus, I am unable to check to see if he was still alive in 1884 or not. What I do know is that Emilia died in Saginaw in the early-1890s, and it is possible they are buried near each other. Of course, I won't know for sure until I can locate Emilia's grave. I still do not know where she is buried, and I have not yet had a chance to take a look at Saginaw's cemetery records. Hopefully, I'll be able to do so sometime in the future.

Of course, there are also a couple of other records that I have not checked that might help me narrow down my timeline: land records and tax records for Saginaw county. I have not yet check for those records. In my next post, I will explore the connections Anna's family had to Cleveland, Ohio, since many of Anna's siblings and a few of her relatives chose to reside in Cleveland, Ohio. Stay tuned ...

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.