My Top 10 Genealogy Finds in 2016

As I did in 2014, I'd like to share my "top 10 genealogy find" for 2016...

Number 10: Finding myself in several newspaper articles as a young child was lots of fun! One article was about a city-wide contest where I won 3rd place in jumping rope. Another article was about a trip I took as a Campfire Girl where I fell off a statue and got a nasty bump on my forehead. (I think this picture is pretty pathetic, but it's the only one I could find with this injury!)

St. Joseph (German) Catholic Church,
Detroit, Michigan (Wikipedia image)

Number 9: Years ago, I received a copy of a torn 1895 wedding photo of my great grandparents, Frank & Anna (Adam) Kaechle. With some help from a Facebook group, I was able to locate the church where they were married. I also hired someone to look up their church marriage record!

Marriage record for Frank & Francisca (Holthoefer) Adam (Ancestry)

Number 8: Just a few weeks ago, I discovered the 1858 church marriage record for Anna (Adam) Kaechle's parents. Anna's parents, Frank & Francisca (Holthoefer) Adam, were married at St. Mary's Church in Detroit.

Henry W Wingert & others on a bandwagon

Number 7: Although the person in the photo isn't a direct ancestor, I absolutely loved receiving a copy of this photo of Henry W. Wingert who was a band leader on a bandwagon! What an incredible photo!

Me in Clinton County with a business card of A. L. Merrill (June 2016)

Number 6: On a trip to Pennsylvania this past summer, I was thrilled to find an actual business card for my great, great grandfather, A. L. Merrill, who was a candidate for County Commissioner! And, yes, he did actually serve as county commissioner. I also found a photo of him as commissioner, but I still need to get permission to post it.

Papers received from the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society
in regards to the Michael Kline family

Number 5: I "discovered" I had Mennonite ancestors, only to find out they weren't Mennonites after all! But, the information I received from Pennsylvania's Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society provided me with a lot of information about Michael Kline and his 14 children.

Number 4: Through work I did in Melinde Lutz Byrne's "Practicum in Genealogical Research," I determined that John M Boyers was likely the father of Eliza Ann (Boyers) Dickson. More research is still needed, but I made a lot of progress!

Me and two cousins at the tombstone of Robert & Frances (Quigley) Stewart
Clinton County, Pennsylvania (June 2016)

Number 3: One of the "genealogy" highlights of my year was meeting quite a few of my dad's Pennsylvania cousins that I had never met. Three of them went with me to Clinton County, Pennsylvania, where we spent a day visiting several cemeteries and the library. This is a photo of me with two of them standing next to the headstone of Robert and Frances (Quigley) Stewart's massive headstone. Robert and Frances are my 4th great grandparents and represent the furthest we've been able to trace our Stewart line.

Birth certificate showing my Werther family came from Berka

Number 2: Although I didn't know it, I actually had digital copies of the paperwork which showed where my Werther family had emigrated from in Germany! My Great Aunt Beulah, who got me interested in genealogy in 1998, had these papers in her files and I had copied them a couple of years ago while visiting an aunt and uncle.

Map made by JRS showing the immigration voyage of my Peters' family

Number 1: And, the top find for 2016 was locating the origins of my Peters family who emigrated from Germany in 1859. Though I wrote quite a few posts as I shared the steps to this discovery almost in real time on my blog, a summary can be found on my post titled "How I Traced My Immigrant Family to Germany."

Photo of Joachim Peters that belongs to my family, alongside a painting
of the photo that got handed down in a cousin's family.

BONUS: I can't believe I left this out of my "top 10" list! This year, I discovered my dad has hundreds of photos that I had never seen before! He has been emailing them to me, and we are working together to fill in the details. I have also received photos from other cousins. It's always exciting to find photos of the people we are researching! So, this is definitely one of my "top 10 genealogy finds" of 2016!

We Wrote a Book (And It's Now Online!)

Last year, right before Thanksgiving, I held a copy of "our book" in my hands for the first time. Although other authors/cousins had been working on the book since the previous year, I became a contributing author of The Holthoefer Family History in June of 2016.

Between June and October, we spent countless hours researching, writing, rewriting, proofreading, and fact checking the pages of our book. Since we are spread across the country, we emailed sections of the book back and forth while we worked on them.

Robert J. Yagley, H. Holt, M. Aragon, P. Holthoefer, D. Leeds, Holthoefer
Family History: A Historic Guide to Discovering Your Past: From
Serkenrode, Westphalia, Germany to the Early Years in Detroit, Wayne
County, Michigan, 2016.

Led by Robert "Bob" Yagley, five cousins compiled this book about our Holthoefer ancestors. All five of us are descended from Johann Franz Holthoefer (1804-1870) and Maria Catharina Schulte (1807-1850 ) who lived in Serkenrode, Westphalia, Germany. Johann Franz and Maria Catharina had eight children, six of whom survived to adulthood and immigrated to America where they settled in Detroit.

Although the book also shares some details about their life in Serkenrode, it primarily follows the lives of the six children:

• Franz Joseph Holthoefer (1830-1888) who married Katharina Mullenbach (1835-1906)
• Maria Francisca "Frances" Holthoefer (1833-1907) who married Franz "Frank" Adam (1826-1902), my great, great grandparents
• Casper Joseph Holthoefer (1835-1918) who married Amelia Keusch (1843-1932) and Magdalena Luche (1863-1923)
• Marianna (Maria Anna) Holthoefer (1838-1911) who married Frank Xavier Petri (1827-1900)
• Maria Elisabeth Holthoefer (1842-1905) who married Peter Keine (1840-1925)
• Anna Maria Holthoefer (1846-1919) who married Anthony "Anton" Rolf (1838-1903)

Bob Yagley, with help from Ursula Buchholz, discovered our family came from Serkenrode. As a wonderful bonus, he also traced Frances Holthoefer's husband, my 2x great grandfather Frank Adam, back to nearby Olpe! 

Bob submitted our book to FamilySearch and it is now available online. Just click here to see our book, or go to FamilySearch "books" and search for Holthoefer.

Are you related to our family? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment or email me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net.

How I Discovered the Origins of 6 of My German Immigrant Families

With a lot of help, I now know the German villages of six of my ancestral families. I "discovered" their origins in a variety of ways.

Map showing the origins of six of my "German" families created by Jon R Stewart, Sr.

In Order of Discovery:

March 2014
Kaechle/Köchle family, maternal side, immigrated from Grißheim, Baden, July 1851

Germany, Select Marriages, 1558-1929 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: Germany, Marriages, 1558-1929. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. 

This breakthrough came with Ancestry's "Germany, Select Marriages" index which showed that Thaddae Koechle married Katharina Kern on August 22nd, 1836, in a catholic church in Grissheim, Freiburg, Baden. I ordered FHL film #873353, and discovered many other records for both sides of the family going back to a baptism in 1616. An online site, Ortsfamilienbuch-Datenbank Grissheim, which had transcribed the church records proved invaluable as these old German records were very difficult to read.

May 2014
Karbach/Körbach family, maternal side, immigrated from Ediger, Rhineland-Palatinate, circa 1853

Anton Koerbach and Mary Reuter Marriage Certificate, attached to Anton Koerbach (1818-1886) on Hiltz Web Site on MyHeritage Family Trees, Charles Willke site manager, www.myheritage.com (accessed 20 December 2016).

Finding a marriage record for "Antonius Kehrbach" and Maria Anna Reuter on a distant cousin's My Heritage tree led to discovering the family had once lived in Ediger. It appears the church records for Ediger have only been micofilmed through the late 1700's, so I need to contact this church in writing and ask if they have additional records.

Nov 2015
Franceska Holthoefer, maternal side, immigrated from Serkenrode, Westphalia, September 1856

Five Holthoefer Siblings, circa 1900, Detroit, Michigan
(back row left to right) Franceska (Holthoefer) Adam, Caspar J. Holthoefer, Marianna (Holthoefer) Petri 
(front row left to right) Elisabeth (Holthoefer) Keine, Anna (Holthoefer) Rolf
(Photo courtesy of Mildred Hunt Collection, by Robert Yagley)

In March of 2015, a distant cousin, Robert "Bob" Yagley, contacted me with a correction to my Ancestry tree. In July of that year, he asked me to join him and three other cousins who were writing a book about our Holthoefer family. The cousins were descendants of Franceska's siblings who had also immigrated to America. Bob had traced our Holthoefer's back to Germany and kept their origin a secret until the book was published last November. It was exciting to see not only the information about where the family had come from, but to also see this photo of Franceska and four of her five siblings who had immigrated to America.

Nov 2015
Frank Adam, maternal side, immigrated from Olpe, Westphalia, circa 1845

Michigan, County Marriages, 1822-1940 (Lehi: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016), online database, marriage record of Frank Adam and Francisca Holdhofer [Holthoefer], 4 November 1858, St. Mary's Church, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, page 636 (accessed 20 December 2016).

Bob Yagley had also discovered the village of origin for Franceska Holthoefer's future husband, Frank Adam, my direct line. Located only about 30 km from Serkenrode, Frank's baptismal record was found in Olpe, Westphalia. [pg 343]

Oct 2016
Peters family, paternal side, immigrated from Bellin, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, July 1859

Evangelisch Kirche [Evangelical Church] Bellin, Kirchenbuch [Church Book], 1650-1873, page 154, item 10, taufen [baptism] of Friedchen Elise Johanna Peters; FamilySearch mircofilm #68993. Cropped. [See original post for the other page of this baptismal record.]

I only recently realized the Peters' family's Hamburg passenger list indicated they came from Bellin. Using Meyers Gazetteer to locate Bellin, I then ordered an FHL microfilm and found the baptismal record of the family's youngest child. Although the family moved around quite a bit, it appears they immigrated to America from Bellin.

Nov 2016
Werther family, paternal side, immigrated from Berka, Thuringia (or Schwarzburg-Sondershausen), May 1869

Although the Hamburg passenger list appeared to say Bergau or Bergan, I couldn't find an appropriate location in Meyers Gazetteer. But, then I realized my great aunt had actually written the church in Berka in the 1990's and had baptismal records from Berka!

CONCLUSION

There are many ways to trace your immigrant ancestors back to their country of origin. I believe I have now traced all of my ancestors who came over in the mid-1800's - these six from Germany plus the Eastwood family from England. While writing this post, I realized there is still a lot I need to do on several of these lines. I am currently awaiting several FHL microfilms, and I need to write to two churches!

Do we share common ancestors? Do you have any additional information on any of these families? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment or email me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net.

Google Books Finds: Including an Article with Four Photos!

I have used Google Books in the past, but after listening to a Genealogy Gems podcast by Lisa Louise Cooke on Friday, I decided to spend some time seeing what I could find. In just minutes, I found an article with four photos! And over the next two hours, I found dozens of 'hits.'

Me with Lisa Louise Cooke in Houston, March 2014

         
Tip: For unusual surnames (like Holthoefer), just search for the surname. For more common names, put the name in quotation marks & add a place name.

Herman J Holthoefer (1863-1950), a druggist/pharmacist, was a nephew of my great, great grandmother, Franciska/Frances (Holthoefer) Adam. I found a three page article about him in the 1919 "Western Druggist: Volume 41." It is titled "Druggist Doubles His Business in Two Years" and includes four images:

Portion of ad for "Holthoefer's Health Salt" from
"Western Druggist: Volume 41" 

• a photo of Herman (about 55 years old)
• a photo of a person (probably Herman) in the store
• a photo of his store window
• an ad for a medicine he developed, Holthoefer's Health Salts (shown above)

Besides this article, I found:

• several city directories listing my family members, including a business of one of my great, great grandfathers I didn't know about
• biographical sketches I'd not seen 
• an ancestor as a witness on a (potential relative's) will 
• a transcription of a deed transfer
• additional information about a fatal car wreck of one of my relatives
• & more!

Some of these books are available online, but others need to be requested via interlibrary loan. I have a lot more work to do!

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please leave a comment or email me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

Six Siblings Immigrate to America: The Holthoefer Family (Fearless Females Day 2)

As part of Women's History Month, Lisa Alzo has created 31 blogging prompts which you can find on her blog, The Accidental Genealogist. If you're participating in the Fearless Females blogging challenge this month, let me know & I'll hop over & read your posts!

The prompt for March 2nd is: Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?

Post a photo of one of your female ancestors:

Five Holthoefer Siblings,circa 1900, Detroit, Michigan
(back row left to right) Franceska (Holthoefer) Adam, Caspar J. Holthoefer, Marianna (Holthoefer) Petri 
(front row left to right) Elisabeth (Holthoefer) Keine, Anna (Holthoefer) Rolf
(Photo courtesy of Mildred Hunt Collection, by Robert Yagley)

Who is in the photo?

This is a photo of my immigrant ancestor, Franciska (Holthoefer) Adam, and four of her siblings. The five siblings were children of Johann Franz Holthoefer (1804-1870) and Maria Catharina Schulte (1807-1850). The family was raised in Serkenrode, Westphalia, Germany. 

The mother, Catharina, died on February 21st, 1850, just 16 days after giving birth to her eighth child. That baby girl would die the following year, and and an earlier baby had died just before his first birthday. With at least five children still at home, the father, Johann Franz, probably desperately needed a mother to help raise his children. Nine months later, he remarried and had an additional six children with his second wife.

Starting a few years after the 1850 death of their mother, the six surviving Holthoefer children began to immigrate to America to settle in Detroit, Michigan. 

• 1853 - Joseph (1830-1888) was probably the first of the siblings to immigrate. He witnessed a friend's marriage in Detroit in 1853.
• 1853 or 1858 - Caspar J. (1835-1918) shows both years as his year of immigration on the 1900 and 1910 censuses respectively. 
• 1856 - Francisca (1833-1907) immigrated at the age of 23 in 1856 without any other family members
• 1858 (or earlier) Marianna (1838-1911) was in Detroit by 1858 where she was a witness to her sister, Francisca's, marriage
• 1867 - Elisabeth (1842-1905) married in Helden, near Serkenrode, in 1864 - she and her husband immigrated in 1867
• 1867 or 1868 - Anna (1845-1919) married in Detroit in 1870 - her census records claim she immigrated in 1867 or 1868

When was it taken? 

Of the six siblings, Joseph (died 1888) was the earliest to die. Since he is missing from this photo, it was likely taken after his death. In fact, I wonder if it wasn't taken when the family got together for his funeral! Elisabeth died in 1905, so it had to have been taken before then.

Why did you select this photo?

Franciska "Frances" (Holthoefer) Adam was my great, great grandmother. Before last summer, I only knew her maiden name and I suspected that Caspar J. and Joseph Holthoefer of Detroit were her siblings. But, then I was contacted by several other Holthoefer descendants who were working on a Holthoefer Family book! They asked me to join them, and I did. Through that project, I was able to see a photograph of my great, great grandmother for the first time.

Oh, and why did I include her as a Fearless Female? She crossed the ocean by herself at the age of 23 in 1856. That sounds pretty fearless to me!

Special thanks to my co-contributors of Holthoefer Family History: A Historic Guide to Discovering Your Past from Serkenrode, Westhalia, Germany to the Early Years in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan: Robert J. Yagley, Helen (Thornton) Holt, Marsha (Anderson) Aragon, and Pamela Holthoefer. 

Publishing Family Research

How do you share your genealogy work? For the past couple of months, I've been working on a family history book for one of my lines: the Holthoefer family.

Although I contributed some of the research to the main part of the book, my 'big' contribution is a short chapter on a collateral line: the Kaechle/Koechle family. Even a 'short' chapter takes a lot of work!

Headstone of Thaddeus Koechle
Photo by Shirley Lindenberger Hazelwood, posted at findagrave.com 

Though it's been a lot of hard work, I've learned a lot as I went through the process. And, no, it isn't over. But, tonight I sent in my "final draft!" We still have a few weeks where we can make minor corrections, but the majority of the work is done.

How about you? Have you ever written a book about a branch of your family? Or how do you share your research with others? I think a book is a great way to share our discoveries!

Genealogy Fun - 16 Great-Great-Grands

Carrie at Under the Nut Tree Genealogy participated in an 'old' Saturday Night Genealogy Fun posted at Genea-Musings by Randy. The title is "Your 16 Great-Great-Grands." I thought it sounded like a great activity, so I'm going to participate, too.

Here are the steps:

1. List your 16 great-great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.
2. Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.
3. Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).
4. If you don't know all 16 of your great-great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.
5. Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.

My results:

1. Alexander STEWART (1852-1922) born in Pennsylvania - mixture of German/Irish/French
2. Catharine Jane McCLINTOCK/McCLINTICK (1852-1929) born in Pennsylvania - some German
3. Augustus L MERRILL (1848-1920) born in Pennsylvania - unknown
4. Sarah Jane EASTWOOD (1848-1923) born in England - English
5. Charles PETERS (1847-1910) born in Germany - German
6. Guntherine Fredericka WERTHER (1847-1888) born in Germany - German
7. Josiah Randolph COPPENBARGER (1844-1934) born in Illinois - primarily German
8. Elizabeth BENNETT (1849-1914) born in Missouri - unknown
9. Rheinhard KAECHLE (1844-1900) born in Germany - German
10. Mary Magdalena "Lena" KARBACH/KOERBACH (1848-1938) born in Germany - German
11. Francis "Frank" ADAM (1826-1902) born in Germany - German
12. Francesca "Frances" HOLTHOEFER (1833-1907) born in Germany - German
13. James B DICKSON (1840-1902) born in Tennessee - unknown
14. Elizabeth Ann BOYERS (1842-1882) born in Mississippi - unknown
15. Reuben Houston WARD (1859-1906) born in Tennessee - unknown
16. Sallie Harried DICKSON (1860-1960) born in Tennessee - unknown

My "nationalities" from my great-great-grandparent are:
7 German
1 English
8 unknown (with a little more German, Irish & French thrown in).

My calculated percentages are:
44% German
6% English
50 % unknown (with a small portion of that being Irish & French)

Strangely, my DNA results show:
35% Scandinavian (which could include German)
30% Irish (which could include French & English)
20% Western European (which could include German & English)
10% Italy/Greece (which could include French)

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net