#5-#52 Ancestors--Looking for Peter Paul Deewall at the Library

On last day of a weeklong class in Salt Lake City where I am discouraged at the Family History Library. I have searched all week and found no new information on any line.

It was my first time at the library and I thought I was prepared.  I had every family line in a 3-ring notebook; I had my genealogy program up to date with all the family information.  I inherited files and memorabilia, which provided the information in the software. But I really had no idea how to “research”!

I finally decided to look for the friend’s name given in a family narrative of my 2^ndgreat grandfather.  I had looked for Peter Paul Deewall in passenger lists for years with no luck.    The narrative never said where he came from but it was assumed Germany.  I had searched many times for his friend and the friend’s mother; Ludwig and Mary Odom.

All of a sudden, Ludwig Odom’s baptism record was returned in a search at the FHL.  I knew it was “my” Ludwig Odom.  How did I know that?  Because the Angels tapped my shoulder and my psychic abilities told me so. The leader of the weeklong seminar assured me that I could not assume that!  What…. when angels and psychic knowledge know more???

Obviously I had to find proof, I know that; but I knew it was definitely a clue.  

For the next couple of weeks I considered my case and reread the narrative and thought of all the different ways to search Ludwig, Odom and Deewall.  When I returned to the computer, I began search for Ludwig, Louis and variations of the names.  BINGO…. I found Louis Odom’s passenger record.  Not under Ludwig, but Lewis Otton.  And would you believe, right below Louis’s name was Peter Paul DUVAL! And with Lewis’s mother…Mary Otton. I could never find Mary because she was indexed wrong; as Mary Otton Widow!  Widow was listed on the passenger list after after Otton.  I would never have looked for the name WIDOW!

And would you believe that Peter Paul Duval’s baptism record was in the same church as Ludwig Odom?  My psychic abilities were right!  Both were at the Evangelisch, in Ludweiler, Rheinland, Prussia.  And Peter had same birth date that was in family records!  Through the Family History Library, I was able to order a film that gave the genealogy or pedigree of everyone in the Evangelisch church Ludweiler, Germany.  The amazing Stammlisten gave the birth date of Peter Paul and his parents, his father’s death date and his mother’s remarriage with additional children.   Even more amazing was the fact that the Odom’s had left for Amerika in 1842.  Which matched the passenger list of arrival on 23 May 1842.  But Peter Paul Duval was not listed as going to Amerika in 1842.   The family story is that he did not get along with his stepfather and left as the driver of the wagon for the Odom’s in the middle of the night.  Fact or Fiction??

Where is Ludweiler?  It is in Saarland, Germany near Saarbrücken.    And I was lucky enough to visit Ludweiler and the church in 2014.  What a thrill to see the 150-year-old organ.  The visit with complete with a tour of the archives by a lady at the church.  No I couldn’t touch anything in the archives and most of the records that I wanted had been removed.  Unfortunately she wasn’t sure where they had been moved.  And our time to visit Ludweiler was short.  

In the 1850 Census of Limestone Township in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, Peter Paul Deewall and his wife Catherine and baby Maretta, were living as neighbors to Mary Oto and her son Lewis!  

The Women in my father's Family

Mother's Day got me to thinking of all of my female ancestors.    I decided to find the pictures, thus the delay in posting!  Quite a collection of women!  I can't imagine their lives, what they lived through, and how hard they worked.

Margaret Maria Fetter was born 19 May 1820 in Pennsylvania.  She married Gabriel Shaffner (father of John Martin Shaffner)  24 December 1845 in Manheim, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  Margaret died 11 November 1903 in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  She is also buried in the East Harrisburg Cemetery.  The date on the picture written by Donnee Shaffner Stibal is about 1901.  She is holding Walter Ruskin Shaffner.  Estimating Margaret's age would make her 81 year old.  Margaret's ancestor were from France; her Great Grandfather was George Fredric Fanoit who came from Montebeliard,  France in 1842.

Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher, who was born 4 July 1858 in Covington, Tioga County, Pennsylvania.  She married John Martin Shaffner on 16 September 1880 in Whitesville, Allegheny County, New York.  There is no date on the picture.  Elizabeth died 17 November 1899 in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  I discovered that she was buried with her father-in-law at the East Harrisburg Cemetery.  There was no headstone.  Her last child, Walter Ruskin Shaffner, was born 7 September 1899.  I wonder if she was pregnant in this picture.

The Peter Paul Deewall Family.

Peter Paul came to the U.S. in 1842.  He married Catherine Troutman in Pennsylvania in 1847.

Mary Etta was the oldest girl born in 1831.  George Albert was the youngest son born in 1865

Catherine died in 1877, so this picture was taken in the 1870's.  

Mary Etta Deewall Kurtz, who was born 17 December 1849 in Pennsylvania.  Her father was Peter Paul Deewall (Duval)  who came to the U.S. in 1842 from Ludweiler, Germany.  Mary Etta married Emanuel Kurtz 23 February 1871 in Pennsylvania.  

My grandmother, Della Kurtz Shaffner.  This picture was taken in 1905 taken at her high school graduation.  She was salutatorian, although her name is at the top of the graduate list so perhaps she was valedictorian.   And I have the speech that she gave, which is labeled her salutatory speech.    She graduated from Muncy High School, in Muncy, Pennsylvania.

Della Kurtz Shaffner, my grandmother.  She married by grandfather, John Fanoit Shaffner on 12 September 1913 after their trip through Yellowstone Park.  Donnee Shaffner Stibal wrote on the picture:  Jerry and Grandma.  She rode the horse from Custer, Montana to Dillon, Montana.  After John & Della married they returned to Simms, ND where he worked as telegrapher on the railroad.  He also worked at Custer, Montana as a telegrapher.  They homesteaded near Dillon, Beaverhead County, Montana.  The story I heard was that Grandpa rode the horse to Dillon!  Since Donnee got the information from Grandpa; I will believe her story!