2022 Branching Out 52 Ancestors in a Year

When creating and researching your ancestry and developing a family tree, it is helpful to “Branch Out”.   There are lots of different branches on a person’s family tree and how any branches does one need?  

I have discovered in researching genealogy that occasionally you call “halt” to those distant branches.  But then you discover an important piece of information on that last twig.  

As I first began working with family trees and learning genealogy; I began collecting death certificates, obituaries, marriage licenses and birth information.  This collection was valuable when connecting members of the Gabel family.  

Common with all immigrants when choosing a location to live, was near where other relatives lived.  But how people were related was not often shared with younger members of the family or they did not listen or care when told.  So when asking for information in family members, the answer was often “I don’t know” or Dad said “we were cousins”.  

Since there were several Gabel families in the 1920 census living in eastern Montana and listed as farmers as well as born in German or Russia; somehow they had to be related.  Many lived in sugar beet growing areas as well as close to other families from Russia, who were also farmers and born in Russia; somehow there had to be connection.

Unfortunately many of the older immigrants did not marry when coming to the United States.  Only a few had lost their wives and remarried.  But that marriage certificates often had their parents names on it.  The parents who were in Russia!  

Obituaries of the older immigrants,  which were written by their children seldom had the immigrants parents names listed as probably they had no idea.  

Marriage certificates of the children of the immigrants often listed a different name for their mother.  Many of the immigrants may have 2 first names such as Catherina, Margaretha or Anna,  and often were referred to by various names.  Leroy’s great grandmother was Katherine, Margaret or Margaretha Katherine.  At time I wondered if his great grandfather had 2 different wives!  

It was hard to establish his great grandmother’s maiden name as well.  The marriage certificate might sat Cellen, Gabel, Clam or various other names.  Finally discovering her obituary, which was written in Germany, I assumed the information provided by her husband listing her maiden name was Klamm was accurate.  

Using the last name Klamm in an ancestry search along with a first name common for Germans from Russia, I discovered a Conrad Klamm who was crossing the Canadian border and going to a Philip Gabel residence in Lincoln, Nebraska!  And then through DNA, Leroy’s DNA has a matches Klamm DNA!

All discovered by branching out!

 

Curious! 52 Ancestors in a Year

2022--Curious   52 Ancestors in a Year

John Lloyd  (1796-1877)

John was born in Caswell County, North Caroline and died in Whitman County, Washington

Once of my biggest curiosities in family history is “why did my 4th Great grandfather John Lloyd take his family to Oregon in 1845?

John owned land in Clay County, Missouri moving there in 1824 from Caswell County, North Carolina. His father Thomas, owned land in Grainger County, Tennessee.

John wrote to his brother, Robert, who lived near Rutledge in Grainger County, Tennessee a letter on 10 June 1844 from Clay County, Missouri:   

I will try to say something about the times and seasons   we had quite a moderate winter the fore part of the spring was very good since that time the weather has been very wet and sometimes so therez a great deal of corn to plant yet I had the good luck to get my corn planted before the wet weather commenced and have it plowed over the second time with the exception of about half a days plowing   there is at thiz time a bad prospect for corn and hemp wheat and oats looks well provision is plenty and money very scarce I have eight or nine thousand pounds of tobacco on hand at this time which will not bring more than two dollars per hundred if that much at this time  I am trying  to raise for  _____ thousand this season  I have as handsone a place as in Clay County

I have built a large frame barn  calculated for a grain barn but is using it as a tobaco barn at this time  the floor when put in will be twenty nine by twenty nine feet and half square as I have a one hundred and twenty or one hundred thirty acres of land under fence but more than one one third of the ground under fence is in pasture   we have a fine grass county  there is vast quantityes of people moveing from Missouri to Oregon and Texas but numbers coming to fill the places   So they are not missed   

He wrote again to Robert on 25 March 1847: 

We was 6 months and 3 days from the time we left our old home untill we got to linton on the Wallumette___ river we had no bad luck more than is common for Oregon imegrants  we lost 18 head of cattle out of 37 and one horse  we found the road ____able (passable) good nataral one but many bad places _____ wagons to travel and had to drive teams at times   neither of my wagons got  turned over on the trip 

In order to take his family on the Oregon trail and move west, John had to outfit 2 wagons with supplies (flour, bacon, sugar, coffee, etc) along with oxen to pull 2 wagons.  He took 37 head of cattle and horses.  And he took his family consisting of his wife Nancy, and 9 children.  Wagon trains had rules for how much bacon, flour, sugar were to be carried per person.  Since cattle were taken on the trail, there were recommendations of the number of riders per head of cattle taken.  There were also rules as to the amount of ammunition per person/gun.  So it wasn’t cheap to take 2 wagons  & family on the trail.

It is evident from his letter that John had property and crops as well as nice buildings in Missouri.  One daughter, Jane had married George Murphy and she & her family stayed behind; never to see her mother or father again.  

Was it free land in Oregon Territory?  Oregon wasn’t a state yet and the Oregon donation land claim Act of 1850 gave land to eligible white men (or partial Native Americans mixed with white) who had arrived before 1850.

Was it political?  Was it religious?  Was it economic reasons?  To learn more, a study of Missouri and United States history is required.  I have read quite a bit; but still can’t answer the question?  I remain curious!

What do you think?

2022 Favorite Photo

In August of 1913, my grandfather, John F. Shaffner, joined his future bride, Della Kurtz, and her family on a horse & buggy trip to Yellowstone Park.  

Della Rae Kurtz and her mother, Mary Etta Kurtz and a sister, Lulu,  came west from Pennsylvania to join Mary Ella’s son, Oliver Kurtz and his wife Bertha, who lived in Dillon, Montana, on a horse & buggy trip to Yellowstone Park in August of 1913.  Our family is lucky to have the original diary (not sure where it is but I have a transcribed version) as well as a photo album of original pictures.

My grandfather labeled the picture “P & O Cow camp on the way to Park”.   This is one of my all time favorite pictures.  I love the Angora chaps and the women wearing the pistols!

Colorizing the picture through MyHeritage made the people more distinct.  I think I love the picture even more!

I have blogged about the Yellowstone Park trip on my blog in August of 2015.

One of the overnight stops to Yellowstone Park was at the P & O Cowcamp, southwest of Dillon.  Although this picture was not labeled, I used Grandpa Shaffner's identification of people from another picture. 

Mabel Phillips, the woman on the left, was 22 years old

Della Kurtz, woman in the middle, was 26 years old, with the pistol tucked in her belt

Lulu Kurtz, her sister in the right, was 29 years old

I am not positive on who the names of the men.

 

2022 Favorite Find. 52 Ancestors in a Year

 2022 Favorite Find. 52 Ancestors in a Year

Writing the theme for this week, “Favorite Find” was actually very difficult.  It was so hard to decide which “Find” in my genealogy research was my favorite.   Because there are several.

One of the more exciting ones was finding information on Leroy’s Gabel family.  There was not much family information available.  And when asking relatives it seemed they did not have much information either.  I am not sure if they refused to tell me or simply didn’t know.  When I asked about another Gabel family in the area, they would reply…”Oh they are a cousin”.  But no one knew how they were related.

I asked one elderly aunt how her father’s family had come into the United States.  Her reply was “by boat”, with a look at me as “how can you be that stupid?”  I asked again as to which port they had come through.  She replied, “Lincoln, Nebraska!”   So you can see that questioning people was not producing answers.

I began collecting obituaries, death certificates, marriage certificates and slowly began creating families.  How they were related was still a mystery until I began working with the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia.  I began researching villages for surnames, history of the Germans from Russia and contacting the village coordinator for the village I thought the Gabel family had lived in.   I even went to the Huntley Cemetery with my dowsing rods and asked Leroy’s grandfather if he was from the same village as his wife, which was Frank.   The dowsing rods did not cross with a “yes” answer, but when I inquired of him if he came from the village of Warenburg, the rods indicated “yes” when they crossed.  A very scientific method!

Because of information collected,  I decided that Warenburg was the most likely village.  The village coordinator was helpful in obtaining census records from Warenburg and with the family information that I had developed, she was able to create additional families & pedigrees.

She was able to determine that the Gabel head of household was Asmus Goebel.  Asmus and family were recruited by Le Roy, arriving from Luebeck by the ship “Die Neue Freshet von Bremen"with the Skipper Steingrawer on 4 of July 1766.  Amuas, a Lutheran, a farmer from Usingen, (Germany),  Document No. 1992, lists Asmus, wife, Maria Dorothea; children:  Johann Heinrich age 19, Johann Conrad age 8, Johann Philip age 1, Maria Elisabeth, age 17, Christina Elisabeth, age 16, Susanna Catharina, age 14, Catharine Christina, age 11.1

Apparently Asmus died enroute to the Volga.  His wife remarried.  I do not have much information on that marriage.

¹ Pleve, Igor.  Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1776  “Reports by Ivan Kulberg: Saratove State Technical University, 2010, p 142.

2022 Foundations

The foundation of my love of history began with my mother’s love of history.  Although I didn’t realize it at the time how much I would grow to love family history;  I did listen to her stories.  I have always liked history & regret that I didn’t major in history in college.  I grew up in Beaverhead county, Montana where we lived among history,  Living close to Bannack, Big Hole Battlefield, Virginia City as well Lewis & Clark’s route through Montana, we were immersed in history.

Our family visited Mom’s hometown of Waitsburg, Washington often on Memorial Day weekend.  While Mom & her mother decorated family graves, my sister & I tagged along as we waked through 2 cemeteries.  Of course Mom told us what she knew about each ancestor.  Another time I should have listened more! And written the information down!

Genealogy was also mother’s other passion.  I knew she was collecting information but had no idea the extent of the collection until I brought it home when her health declined.  It took 12 hours to sort the box of files and pictures into the manila folders that I created.  Her collection was pre-computer age, so I realized I had to learn genealogy software & computers.  I estimate I brought her collection to my house in 1995 about 26 years ago. 

Lois Heath 1787-1878

Lois is my third great aunt, a sister of my third great grandmother.

The handwriting is my mother's.

Mom's collection was started by her great aunt on her paternal side.  Her Aunt Gilla collected information from her father & mother, Albert Gallatin Lloyd and Lois Jasper Lloyd.  Albert crossed the plains to Oregon in 1845 while Lois crossed in 1854.  

Gilla Lloyd

Gilla Lloyd researching in Tennessee at her grandfather's grave on

 17 October 1927

My mom added to the Lloyd Family collection with newspaper articles, funeral cards and pictures.  She even collected quilts made by ancestors.   She was born in 1924 and her first scrapbook was created in the 1930’s.  During Mom’s life she created scrapbooks, one is of her first year of college.  She also created scrapbooks for my sister as well as for me.

I would be the 5th generation to have the collection and add to it.  Although much of the information has not been documented, I attempt to find the source for the facts.  So far, I’ve only found 1 mistake in Aunt Gilla’s collection.  

 My Grandfather (my Dad's father) lived to be 103.  He also had a love of family history and wrote stories of his life, labeled pictures as well as inheriting the Family Bible, which has information pre-1850.  And yes, I inherited more family history pictures and stories.

My dad with the Shaffner Family Bible

I began collecting information on my husband's family when we married nearly 50 years ago.  His paternal line did not have much information since they were Germans from Russia.  Beginning with collecting obituaries, death certificates and marriage certificates, I tried to connect Gabel families.  It was worth it when I was able to connect his family to census records and families in Frank, Russia.   

Will the collection ever be complete?  At this point in life I wonder who will be the 6th generation to continue the family history?

#7-2021. Unusual Source. cemetery card

 

#7-2021 Unusual Source.  The Cemetery card

The first unusual source in my search for ancestors was a cemetery card from the East Harrisburg Cemetery, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

This was my “first” genealogy research trip!  I attended a genealogy conference in Harrisburg, the home of many of my ancestors.  I was a bit apprenshive about this trip as I had never been to Pennsylvania and tackling research in a “foreign” area.  I was very lucky to have friends in Reading, Jay & Gracie Wolfe, who met me at the plane and toured me around Harrisburg. I had a list of addresses where the Shaffner family had lived and Jay graciously drove me!

One of the sites I wanted to see was where my great great grandparents, Gabriel Shaffner & his wife Margaret were buried in the East Harrisburg Cemetery.  My cousin Donnee Shaffner Stibal has listed where he was buried but never a picture of his headstone.  Jay stopped at the cemetery office so I could get directions,  Luckily the office was open, whether I knew that at the time or not, I don’t remember.   The clerk was very helpful and copied every cemetery card with the name Shaffner!  And Shaffner is a very common surname in Pennsylvania.   She handed me a map of the cemetery & gave me to directions to Shaffner plots.

Gabriel and his wife Margaret's headstone.

It was leaning that day in 2005, probably fallen over by now.

A cemetery card was a new genealogy resource for me.  As I was going through them, one name caught my attention.  The name of my grandfather’s mother, Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher!  Why was that exciting to me?  Because I never knew where she was buried!  Grandpa Shaffner never had mentioned that and Donnee had never recorded that information.   I find it unusual that Grandpa Shaffner had never written about where his mother was buried.  Grandpa Shaffner, John F. Shaffner, had written so much about his family, but never a word about his mother’s burial.  

Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher Shaffner

(1858-1899)

There was the information on the cemetery card!  Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher Shaffner was buried in her father in law’s plot.  No headstone!

Elizabeth Deborah Fletcher died in 17 November 1899.  My grandfather was 12 years old when his mother died. There were 3 other siblings, one a new born baby.  And then his father, John Martin Shaffner, remarried in 1900.  And he is buried with his second wife.  But why not a headstone?  Perhaps money was an issue.

Not only did I learn where Elizabeth was buried, but also John Martin Shaffner. 

I wonder why my grandfather never wrote about the funerals or burials.  And then I realized that his mother was buried on 18 November 1899 and his son, Don,  my father was born on 18 November 1919.  

#6-2021. Valentine. Sweetheart Swirl 1946

#6-2021.  Valentine

Sweetheart Swirl 1946

More dancing-Sweetheart Swirl

Washington State College

Pullman, Washington

Since my mother made scrapbooks beginning in the 1930’s, I thought it would be fun to find old valentines for this week's challenge.   She kept every card ever given to her, I am quite sure.  But as I began looking through her scrapbook of her college years I found this gem; Sweetheart Swirl of 1946.

Apparently Mom & Dad were dating!  She saved the dance program and her corsage.  Along with their marriage license!  

The page of her scrapbook!

The dance program

My Mom's dance card!

The best artifact

They were illegally hitched!