Genealogy Discoveries
As many of you know, I have an avid interest in genealogy. In genealogy, there are those questions that you get answers right away and some you don't get the answer until later and those questions that become a mystery and cannot be solved. In some cases, the questions you feel you have reached a dead end suddenly shed to light after all this time and you feel like you are on top of the world.
There have been a few instances this has happened to me where there were questions that felt like there were no answers to and finally by divine intervention, the answer is here and now.
There was a case two years ago in 2014 when I finally found out how and when my paternal grandmother had passed away and not only that, where she was living in Albuquerque when she finally passed. This had been a mystery for years to the day I bagan my family tree in 2009 (or at least my version of the family tree). At the time I thought I was at a dead end on my search because no one could remember when she passed away or where we could find any death information. At first I questioned if she would have a death certificate on file but it was a very iffy chance because not all deaths were recorded and I wasn't sure if I could even get access to that information. So in May of 2014, I contacted to Albuquerque Public Library and Genealogy Society to see if they were able to help in any way. I knew they had church records on microfilm (did my research to see what collections they had from where and what time periods) but I wasn't sure if they would be able to help someone out of state. (Our public library could only do in county inquiries due to staff restrictions.)
Well, I lucked out. It appears that they were able to help me and someone actually did some research on my grandmother's family. Amazing....not only did this loving woman, Cheryl, find my grandmother's death certificate, she also found my great grandparents death certificates as well.
The death certificate told me a lot. Abuela Olisva was 36 when she passed away, died from heart failure at her home on Rice Ave in Albuquerque New Mexico. I was also able to find her obituary from the date of her passing listed her husband and seven children by first and middle name, my dad included and learned the names they went by to their parents and families. Naturally I went to Albuquerque later during the Fourth of July to do more research and find out more information for our family tree. I found not only Abuela's church records of birth, marriage and death, but that of her sister and brothers, her children, Dad included, and one of dad's cousins. Oh, and one of my paternal cousins as well. And I also visit the church where their baptisms took place, St. Felipe de Neri Catholic Church in Old Albuquerque and saw the house that the family lived in. Yes, it is still standing.
The same year I was doing a paper for my History class to find out how our family fit into United States history. When I was writing the paper, I did some research on my great grandparents, William and Ida Schettler. They ended up being mentioned briefly in the paper because I could only write ten pages for the assignment, but what I found was interesting. Looking through the 1870 census, I discovered William Schettler lived in Dane Wisconsin with his parents and had two sisters listed, Emma and Frederica, or Rica for short. I looked further into Ancestry and discovered both sisters had married and settled in Dane, Wisconsin. However there was something that puzzled me: when I did a cross search with the parents's names to find the dates of marriage for the sisters and verify William's marriage date, I discovered another sister who had married in Wisconsin but was not listed on the census: Caroline E. Schettler. Caroline married a man named Jacob Andrea and was listed as the daughter of Wilhelm (William) Schettler and Caroline Bartling (William Jr.'s parents) in the Wisconsin Marriages index of 1830-1907. I wondered who she was: when and where was she born. Unfortunately, I could find any other censuses mentioning her name or the family after that.
I left this for a while and went back to it later in the Fall of 2015. This time I searched for Jacob Andrea, the supposed husband. I found the census of 1900, listing he was married to Elizabeth Andrea with one son. I wondered if this was her or another wife. Also, at the time, Ancestry came up with a match for Emma Schettler for the 1880 census and investigated it. I struck gold on this: the census showed a family named Scheller (rather than Schettler) that had William and Caroline Scheller living in Dane Wisconsin with six children: Emma, William, Rica, Lena (another daughter), Elizabeth, and Herman. Aha, I thought: so Caroline Schettler was really Elizabeth Schettler who married Jacob. The story gets even more interesting. Looking for more info about Elizabeth leads to a startling discovery: Elizabeth or Lizzie disappeared from the 1910 census as by this time Jacob claims he is a widower. However, when looking for Lizzie's death date, I find her headstone with the date of death of 1943. What?!!! But how? Looking further in the census records, Lizzie is much alive and had been living in an asylum in Green County from 1905 to 1940 according the U.S. census records of 1910 to 1940 and Wisconsin State Census of 1905.
Amazing right?
Well, I will wrap this up. There are some other instances I could mention but I an write about them on another blog. Lesson when doing family research: always be diligent and never assume anything.
There have been a few instances this has happened to me where there were questions that felt like there were no answers to and finally by divine intervention, the answer is here and now.
There was a case two years ago in 2014 when I finally found out how and when my paternal grandmother had passed away and not only that, where she was living in Albuquerque when she finally passed. This had been a mystery for years to the day I bagan my family tree in 2009 (or at least my version of the family tree). At the time I thought I was at a dead end on my search because no one could remember when she passed away or where we could find any death information. At first I questioned if she would have a death certificate on file but it was a very iffy chance because not all deaths were recorded and I wasn't sure if I could even get access to that information. So in May of 2014, I contacted to Albuquerque Public Library and Genealogy Society to see if they were able to help in any way. I knew they had church records on microfilm (did my research to see what collections they had from where and what time periods) but I wasn't sure if they would be able to help someone out of state. (Our public library could only do in county inquiries due to staff restrictions.)
Well, I lucked out. It appears that they were able to help me and someone actually did some research on my grandmother's family. Amazing....not only did this loving woman, Cheryl, find my grandmother's death certificate, she also found my great grandparents death certificates as well.
The death certificate told me a lot. Abuela Olisva was 36 when she passed away, died from heart failure at her home on Rice Ave in Albuquerque New Mexico. I was also able to find her obituary from the date of her passing listed her husband and seven children by first and middle name, my dad included and learned the names they went by to their parents and families. Naturally I went to Albuquerque later during the Fourth of July to do more research and find out more information for our family tree. I found not only Abuela's church records of birth, marriage and death, but that of her sister and brothers, her children, Dad included, and one of dad's cousins. Oh, and one of my paternal cousins as well. And I also visit the church where their baptisms took place, St. Felipe de Neri Catholic Church in Old Albuquerque and saw the house that the family lived in. Yes, it is still standing.
The same year I was doing a paper for my History class to find out how our family fit into United States history. When I was writing the paper, I did some research on my great grandparents, William and Ida Schettler. They ended up being mentioned briefly in the paper because I could only write ten pages for the assignment, but what I found was interesting. Looking through the 1870 census, I discovered William Schettler lived in Dane Wisconsin with his parents and had two sisters listed, Emma and Frederica, or Rica for short. I looked further into Ancestry and discovered both sisters had married and settled in Dane, Wisconsin. However there was something that puzzled me: when I did a cross search with the parents's names to find the dates of marriage for the sisters and verify William's marriage date, I discovered another sister who had married in Wisconsin but was not listed on the census: Caroline E. Schettler. Caroline married a man named Jacob Andrea and was listed as the daughter of Wilhelm (William) Schettler and Caroline Bartling (William Jr.'s parents) in the Wisconsin Marriages index of 1830-1907. I wondered who she was: when and where was she born. Unfortunately, I could find any other censuses mentioning her name or the family after that.
I left this for a while and went back to it later in the Fall of 2015. This time I searched for Jacob Andrea, the supposed husband. I found the census of 1900, listing he was married to Elizabeth Andrea with one son. I wondered if this was her or another wife. Also, at the time, Ancestry came up with a match for Emma Schettler for the 1880 census and investigated it. I struck gold on this: the census showed a family named Scheller (rather than Schettler) that had William and Caroline Scheller living in Dane Wisconsin with six children: Emma, William, Rica, Lena (another daughter), Elizabeth, and Herman. Aha, I thought: so Caroline Schettler was really Elizabeth Schettler who married Jacob. The story gets even more interesting. Looking for more info about Elizabeth leads to a startling discovery: Elizabeth or Lizzie disappeared from the 1910 census as by this time Jacob claims he is a widower. However, when looking for Lizzie's death date, I find her headstone with the date of death of 1943. What?!!! But how? Looking further in the census records, Lizzie is much alive and had been living in an asylum in Green County from 1905 to 1940 according the U.S. census records of 1910 to 1940 and Wisconsin State Census of 1905.
Amazing right?
Well, I will wrap this up. There are some other instances I could mention but I an write about them on another blog. Lesson when doing family research: always be diligent and never assume anything.
Comments
Post a Comment