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.

What Happened To Harvey?

I've written about a missing person in my family before, but I've only written in general terms, not specifics. (Anyhow, I am writing this in the hopes that someone might be able to suggest other areas I should look for information.)In fact, I did not even mention the name of the person that I am looking for, and since I did not do that in the first place, I'll start by giving the name of the person I'm searching for: Harvey Benjamin Oswalt.

What I know about Harvey

I don't know very much about Harvey, but here is what I know so far:

Harvey was born in December of 1861 in Michigan, according to his father's pension file, and was Adam's oldest son and child. In the 1870 census he was living with his parents, and his age was given as 10. (All the ages of the children were rounded up by a year.) Sometime between 1872 and 1880, Harvey's mother died. (I still do not know when she died exactly, but his youngest brother's biography suggests about 1875-1876 as a death year.) Between the 1870 and 1900 censuses, I do not know where he was. I cannot find him in the 1880 census, and I also checked the social statistics schedule for St. Joseph County, Michigan for him. Yet, I could not find him. In the 1900 census, I found him living in Three Rivers and working as a day laborer. After 1900, I cannot find him in any other federal censuses. All I know is that when Adam died in September of 1910, Harvey's youngest sister did not have a clue as to where he was.

Could some family traditions be clues to Harvey's whereabouts?

My grandfather's aunt apparently never told my grandpa about Harvey. She did mention, though, that Henry (another one of Harvey's younger brothers) supposedly went to New Mexico or Texas and died out there between 1925-1929. At the moment, I have only been able to prove that Henry lived as far west as Clinton, Iowa, and that Henry died in 1927 in Michigan. I sometimes wonder, though, if it was Harvey who went out west and died between those years as well. The other family story that my grandpa's aunt passed down was that there was an Oswalt who was a horse rustler. I have not been able to prove or disprove this family legend, but I sometimes wonder if she was referring to Harvey.

Some possible records I could look for Information

• 1884 Michigan State census - I've looked for other Oswalt family members in this census, but I have not done so for Harvey. My first guess as to which county to look at is St. Joseph County.
• 1894 Michigan State census - I still have not checked this census for any of my Oswalt family.
• Other state censuses - I might need to the state censuses for Illinois, and see if any censuses for the 1880s and 1890s exist. Why? Adam and his son, Henry, lived in Rockford, Illinois sometime between the late 1880s and 1890s. (Henry continued to live there until 1910.) Could Harvey have moved out there with them?
• Probate packet - I still have not had a chance to obtain Harvey's probate packet in the St. Joseph County, Michigan's probate office. All I know is that the reason for the packer is given as missing. (I hope to be able to get a copy of the packer sometime in the future.)
• Other records - I'm not sure what other records I should check. The only record source that I can think of is court minutes for St. Joseph County, Michigan. I'm at a loss as to obtain or find the court minutes. Does anyone know how to obtain court minutes? Other than that, I have no idea as to what records I should look at.

Which record should I look through first? Any suggestions or advice is welcome. Thanks.