While in Sweden I hoped to discover more about my husband’s maternal great grandmother, Lovisa Carlson. Her father was Carl Gustaf Johannesson, a widower, who emigrated with Lovisa to Chicago in 1887.
Lovisa is something of a mystery even in Sweden as several genealogists could not understand her movements in the country. She was born in Gränna, Jönköping but followed her sister to live in Ostergötland. That was according to church records in Gränna, however, she never shows up in Ostergötland church records.
Lovisa’s mom, Stina Jonsdotter, died in 1866. Lovisa’s sister returned home and Lovisa followed her in 1867. Lovisa is found living in her father’s household until they both decided to depart Sweden from Jönköping on 11 May 1887.
By this time Chicago had a very established Swedish district so it is not surprising that they relocated there. Probably they knew of others from their area who had gone before them.
The problem is where did they live and what did they do while in Chicago? I was hoping to find church records as there was only one Lovisa Carlson in city directories during this time but it wasn’t my Lovisa, the other woman was a widow.
Two years after arriving Lovisa married in Chicago widower Anders Johannesson. I have the original church marriage record with the pictures of the couples sadly removed. The problem is that she was recorded as Miss Lovisa Johannesson. All other records show her as Carlson. Also missing on the record is the name of the church. I do have the pastor so I had hoped to link him to a church and possibly discover more info. The governmental records provided no answers.
The couple then moved to Porter County, Indiana where Anders had been living with his children from his first marriage.
Honestly, I didn’t expect to find much in the Celina, Mercer, Ohio library. I spoke with one of the librarians in August and she mentioned that the collection was held in a small room, the local volunteer didn’t come to help out researchers anymore, and there had been no response from the local historical museum contact in the past year so no information on the contents of that museum was available. Not very promising information to hear and besides, the location was 1 ½ hours from my home. Still, I’ve always wanted to visit as my paternal lines were in Mercer County from the 1840s through the 1940s so I hoped that some secrets would be given up.
Hubby was off on a trip of his own so I decided to take the day to research. I wasn’t sure how long I would spend at the library and depending on what I found, I might also visit the courthouse. This was the courthouse I contacted years ago when I was searching for a divorce record for a great-grandmother. It took me 9 months to get them to send me the record and it was only after, at Christmas time, I had sent a reminder email that I had been a good genealogist all year and all I wanted for Christmas was the record. I finally received it.
I had planned to arrive at the library when they opened at 9 AM but my crazy GPS took me to a lake, instead. It was a beautiful lake but definitely wasn’t going to help me locate records so I pulled out my phone and used an alternative GPS to find the library, about 10 minutes away.
I was amazed at the wealth of the information that I discovered! Some kind soul had compiled an obituary collection of 3 x 5” cards and they were stored in the old wooden card drawers. Remember those? Arranged in alpha order by author, title, and subject. What I found was surprising as I had looked for the burial location of John Duer and Peter and Catherine Lanpher/Landfair for years and wasn’t able to find it. The obituary card listed an obit for Catherine. Wow! But there was a problem – it listed no source. So whoever typed the card likely had found one once but where did it now reside? I looked through every piece of paper in the file cabinet by surname. Scanned each shelf book by book looking for a cemetery book, church record, death index, and family genealogy – nothing was found for Catherine.
I went to look for a librarian to see if they knew what the sources for the obit cards were and was told they came from a newspaper that was on microfilm. The librarian set it up for me but alas, going forward 4 weeks for this weekly local paper, no obit appeared. The obit did not list a cemetery, which was the main interest, but I also was interested in seeing if the obit had other information that might have been left out of the card. Struck out again but I know that somewhere out there one resides and so this item remains on my wish list.
Like me, you probably have spent years searching for a document to prove an identity or relationship.
Perhaps you were looking for proof of where an individual lived between census years.
Maybe you are trying to pinpoint when a family relocated to another area.
You’ve searched high and low and after checking the regular recommendations, went as far as boots on the ground. Then you began looking in unlikely places with the hope that just maybe the record you seek will appear.
Geez, I’ve even talked to pictures of the deceased based on author and genealogist Henry Z. Jones Jr.’s books that seemed to work for some genealogists.
This year I have discovered several documents that shed light on my husband and my ancestors and I’m going to spend the next few blog posts discussing how I FINALLY have gotten closer to finding what I was looking for.
I’m beginning this series with the most unusual way I located my husband’s maternal grandmother’s family’s school records. I never saw this one coming.
Back in 2014, I began looking for Elsie’s school records because I had acquired her 8th-grade exams and certificates for school attendance and I was writing a book about her husband’s line, Perseverance Amidst Adversity.
I was living in Florida and contacted Crown Point, Indiana, the county seat of Lake County, to try to locate Elsie’s enrollment records because the family changed the spelling of their last name and I wanted to see when it evolved from Johannesson to Johnson. I was told the records were never received from Gary.
I tried calling Gary but never got a response. Their main library had been shut down for lack of funding and the messages I left at a school district office were never returned.
Looking over the documents again I realized that the program for the 8th grade graduation that I had obtained from a relative stated Elsie resided in Miller, which was an unincorporated area in 1910 when she was in school. The diploma, however, stated she was attending school in Hobart, a town southeast of Miller. I called Hobart and was told that the records had been turned over to Gary when Miller became a part of Gary in 1919. This is a good reminder that boundaries change while the person of interest never moved.
I then tried contacting the county’s library and museums. No one had the record. Next, I tried the Indiana State Archives (ISA) which is supposed to keep records for schools that are no longer in existence, IF the school district has also ceased to exist. Elsie had attended a one-room schoolhouse, long gone. ISA also keeps records for districts that are or were unable to maintain the records. They had nothing.
Obviously, I had first tried all the usual online sources and even some smaller ones, like Genweb and at that time, Rootsweb. Nothing.
So, imagine my surprise one day when I was walking through the New England Genealogical and Biographical Society in Boston and decided to look at the Indiana shelf. There was a transcription of Lake County, Indiana school records and there was an Elsie, just not mine. To be honest, I was surprised that there were two Elsie Johnsons, close in age, in the same small school district but I shouldn’t have been because Johnson is not an uncommon surname. Elsie’s record I found listed her father, who had enrolled her, along with the enrollment date. She was a few years older than my Elsie.
In 2020 I created a lecture on the importance of school records and one of my slides shows the record for “Elsie that is not related” to my husband. I include it as I reminder to attendees how there is often more than one person at the same time in the same place with the same name. I also add that I’m hopeful that one day, I’ll find the records I seek, even though I’ve been told they don’t exist.
Hope is a beautiful thing and doesn’t just work for Pandora! I never give up hope of breaking through brick walls and finding other records that will enrich the lives of my ancestors.
Earlier this year I wrote a journal article for the Indiana Genealogist on the importance of school records that was published September 1. In the article, I mention the Boston find and my hope that one day I’ll locate Elsie’s records.
This article was read by Lynn Jackson, a librarian at the Lake County Public Library. It is the same library where I began my genealogical journey in the late 1960s.
Lynn realized that the library was in the process of scanning the enrollment records for Indiana University North West. She did not find Elsie’s page, however, she did find the school enumeration records for Elsie’s half-siblings and a sister. I could not believe it!
First, I had never had someone read a journal article I wrote and took the time to search for a missing record I noted. My appreciation for this kind, knowledgeable librarian is immense! Give this lady a raise!
Second, I’m kicking myself as I had reached out to IU NW years ago, but I never asked about school records. I asked about city directories as I mentioned in another lecture on interviewing how I never clarified my grandmother’s response about where the family first lived when they moved to Gary. My grandmother responded on the corner of Washington and Ridge Road. It hadn’t dawned on me to ask which corner; obviously, there are 4 and it was between census years. I had contacted IU NW for city directories they hold but it wasn’t for the years I needed.
Thirdly, I’d like to remind you that you must reach out again to archives to verify that they don’t have the information. Perhaps they acquired what you needed after you had first checked or, like me with a past blog about mysterious John Duer, a more knowledgeable staff member will look and find the record in an unlikely place. Lynn recommended I reach out to them to see if they have further information on Elsie which is a wonderful idea.
The enumeration record found does show that Johnson was used for the family when Elsie’s older sister by one year began her school career. Yes, the information is limited but there is so much to discover even when data is not exactly what you are looking for.
The moral of the story, look everywhere, make contacts far and wide, and write a journal article. Who would have thought that?!
Ohio, Trumbull County, deed records, John Orr and Wife Deed to the Widow & Heirs of Thomas Duer, digital image; FamilySearch.org: accessed 20 March 2023, citing film 005492829, images 3-4, p. 2-3.
Last week I went to FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah with one main goal – to prove that John Duer (Circa 1803 PA-1885 IN) was the son of Thomas Duer (1775 NJ – 1829 OH). I’ll blog next week about researching in the renovated library but for now, this story is just unbelievable!
I have long wanted to prove that I am a descendant of Patriot John Duer (1748 NJ – 1831 OH). I’ve written two analyses on indirect evidence linking Patriot John to his oldest son, Thomas, who died intestate, and Thomas’s son, John, who was of age when his father died and therefore, not named in probate.
Early on in my research, I was advised to check land records and I did. The problem was that some early deeds for Trumbull County, Ohio are missing. Both Patriot John and Thomas lived next to each other from 1809 until Thomas’s untimely death at age 54 in 1829. Since Thomas died before his father he was not named in his will, however, one of Thomas’s daughter’s husbands was named in Patriot John’s will as receiving land. All of the rest of Patriot John’s children were noted in the will. He had one other child who had predeceased him; for that child, the grandson was named as receiving cash.
In Salt Lake City I was looking at volumes written by Henry Baldwin in the mid-1800s. I found the information I needed to prove that Thomas was the son of Patriot John. The books didn’t help, though, by showing Patriot John’s grandson, John, was Thomas’s son.
I asked several AGs and research specialists for ideas. I had looked for records that included Bibles, Presbyterian Church, cemeteries, obits, probate, wills, deeds, tax records, court records, identifying census tic marks, journals for pioneers/circuit riders, genealogy society records, mug books, and contacting people who had online family trees. One AG recommended checking Masonic Lodge records as he noted that many Presbyterian farmers were members.
FamilySearch has New York Masonic records but not Ohio so I reached out to the Public Library of Youngstown, Ohio, and was referred to Warren County Public Library. I sent an email request noting I was looking to prove a relationship through Masonic records.
The following day I received a wonderful reply – no Mason records but someone once left 4 pages of typed research notes on the family in the surname files. The librarian scanned them for me. Those notes were undated, the library had no idea who had left them or when. I had contacted the library for various help over the years and no one had ever mentioned these 4 pages of notes.
I figured the Masonic records were a long shot but I admit, I was initially disappointed when I looked at the notes. I began reviewing the attachments and on page 3, almost fell out of my chair. The individual who had left the information had abstracted deeds. I had seen every deed at FamilySearch.org but one. The one that was not listed in the index was the one that had named the wife of Thomas and all their children, shown above. It neatly sold land that was mentioned in Patriot John’s will to another of Thomas’s children. The husband of that child sold the land to the named son of Thomas.
I had looked page by page at early deed books but stopped at the end of 1832 as that was when the estates were finalized. I used indexes going forward. This one transaction wasn’t indexed. The land was sold in 1832 but not recorded until 1833.
It never dawned on me to go page by page for the following year AFTER the estates were closed. I could have solved this problem years ago if only I hadn’t relied on the index and remembered that deeds are not always recorded when they were made. Lessons learned!
I’m blogging early this weekend as I’ve got too many events scheduled! Next Saturday, my blog will be late. I’m blaming it on the time change.
There is nothing worse than trying to solve a brick wall for commonly named individuals. For years, I’ve not been able to go back further than the parents of my 3rd great-grandfather, Edward Adams. Actually, I still don’t know his parents’ names but I definitely know who his grandparents were!
I don’t use DNA much for my own family genealogy because my maternal side were fairly recent immigrants to the U.S. and few have matched me. On my paternal side, I seem to get most matches for my maiden name and I have no brick walls there, going back as far as I could with remaining French and German records. I have tremendous issues, though, with my paternal grandmother’s lines; I was always told she was Irish, English, Welsh, and Scottish. My DNA confirms those ethnicities but the names where I reach a dead end are Adams, Byrd, Cole, Dennis, and Morrison. Too many in the same place at the same time!
Last month, I was pleasantly surprised when I decided to take a look to see if I had any new matches. I had a hunch that I was related through the Sylvanus Adams line. Although it was just a hypothesis, it made sense as my Edward Adams, who had died intestate (why do all my people do this?!), left behind young children in rural Perry, Ohio in 1822. A man named Evi Adams settled the estate. Evi died soon after Edward. Evi was an interesting name to me so I poked around and found several in New Jersey where Edward’s wife had originated. Now New Jersey is not a small land a mass so I was even more intrigued when I learned the Evi’s were all in Sussex County, the same place as Edward’s wife.
I then made a tree from the youngest Evi I found living there in the late 1700s and based on birth years, it looked plausible that Sylvanus and Elizabeth Crowell Adams could be my 5th great-grandparents.
I attached Edward to one of their sons with a disclaimer that this was just a hypothesis. And there my mystery sat for years! Until February, when finally, along with 7 newfound “cousins” I indeed do link to Elizabeth Crowell and Sylvanus Adams.
But the man I guessed was Edward’s father was not correct. There were gaps in children so I suspected that was where my 4th great-grandfather had once been, perhaps dying young. I found Sylvanus’ will to see if there were additional children or grandchildren of deceased children named but nope, he even left out a known son Isaiah, who had left New Jersey for Ohio. Hmmm, not the same county where Edward was but I still tried to place him as my great-grandfather; it didn’t work.
I then found a further DNA match with an Ichabod and Sarah Sumner Crittenden. I’ve been trying to find which of their daughters married a son of Sylvanus and that’s where things got stopped again. The Crittenden’s were from Connecticut and had a daughter, Hannah, who married James Adams in Massachusetts. Could James be an unnamed son of Sylvanus? Possibly, but the James and Hannah Adams family remained in New England. That could explain why James was not listed in Sylvanus’ will as it appears that only children who were close by to him in New Jersey were named. Then I found a James Adams in Sussex, New Jersey in 1793 but he was married to a Sarah Dunn. Arghhh! But here it gets interesting because Sarah Dunn’s parents were also from Connecticut.
I am THRILLED that I have found Edward’s grandparents after all these years and even happier to know I was correct in guessing who they were. I just wish I could figure out who his parents were.
Last week I began the saga of how I finally broke through two brick walls; I had two baptismal certificates but could find no information on what had become of the individuals. My goal has always been to find closer family and return the certificates. You can catch up on the story by reading Part 1 here.
TALK IT OUT
I shared what I had found with my family and my concern I didn’t have the right man. My husband said, to his knowledge, none of his family had ever lived in northwestern Indiana. This conversation led to a list of places he knew his family had lived – Fayette County in the 1820s, the Elkhart/South Bend area since the 1830s, Porter and Lake counties since the 1850s. I clearly remembered he had some relatives in the late 1800s in the Muncie and Bloomington areas but Garrett, nope, never heard of that. Only, I had, but didn’t remember!
In the conversation we had about people moving about I recalled a letter his grandmother had received from someone about a motorcycle trip that they had taken to North Dakota. I decided to go back through the old letters to find out who that person was. While doing that, I solved my brick wall. . .
TRANSCRIBE
The envelope I found (shown above) shocked me as it was written to his grandmother who was living in Garrett in c/o Wm. Johnson. I immediately showed my husband and he said, “No way.” I then discovered I had a letter written from Garrett to a “Dear Sister” in 1911.
After transcribing the letter, I analyzed it for further clues. The problem with the letter, however, was that there was no envelope, it was signed by “Anna and Dickie” and written to “Dear Sister.” Most of the letters in the collection were written to Elsie Johnson Harbaugh, Oskar’s half-sister, so that was likely who the sister was. The marriage license for Oskar was to a woman named Anna Blair, so the writer may have been Anna but who was Dickie? No Oskar, Willie, or William is ever mentioned in the letter.
RESEARCH OTHERS LISTED
Clearly, the letter was not written by Oskar as the letter writer stated:
1. “I have six brothers, all married.” Anders and Thilda’s sons were Johan, Carl, Oscar, Charlie, Willie, and Andrew. Those are 6 boys, however, the letter writer would not have included himself in the count of people he had to write to and why would he inform his half-sister of his siblings as she would have already known that information?
2.“I have one brother in Chicago, has lived there, for more than six years, ever since he was married, he is an electrician.” I had no idea where most of the children from the first marriage lived. Their sister, Ida, lived in Chicago with her husband, Charles Johnberg, in 1920. The couple married in Porter County, Indiana in 1917. They would not have been in Chicago together in 1912 when the letter was written.
3. “also one sister and two other brothers that are single.” The sons from the first marriage had four full sisters–Anna, Ida, Selma, and Nellie, who had probably died by the time the letter was written, and three half-sisters–Helen, Elsie, and Ruth, so this did not fit with Oskar or one of his siblings being the letter writer.
4.“I live right across the street from my Mother, or I don’t know what I would do.” The mother of the sons died in 1891.
It was time to research Anna Blair who married William Johnson in Garrett, DeKalb, Indiana in June 1911. From the 1920 US federal census, William was shown working in Garrett as a brakeman on the railroad. The letter mentions that Dickie worked on the railroad. William was living with his wife, Anna, son Eugene, and brother Andrew, who likely was the Anders Teodor I had a baptism certificate for. Next door to the couple is Fred and Josephine Blair, likely the parents of Anna Blair. Researching Anna further showed that indeed, her parents were Fred and Josephine Blair. Anna did have six married brothers with one who lived in Chicago and was an electrician. In 1911, she also had a sister and two brothers who were single. Her siblings were William, Franklin, Fredrick, John, Andrew, Leo, Oscar, Claude, and Hattie. She also noted that she lived right across the street from her mother which the census supports. So, Anna Blair, wife of William Johnson, was writing the letter probably to Elsie, William’s half-sister.
GET CREATIVE WITH NAMES
But I still didn’t know who Dickie was! Anna and William’s son was named Eugene in the 1920 census. Was Oskar-Willie-William-also being called Dickie?! I decided to further research Eugene.
An Indiana birth certificate shows that the son was named Eugene Richard Johnson. Dickie was probably the child’s nickname based on his middle name. Perhaps Oskar liked the name and Anna was using it for him, too. I’m beginning to think it was a family tradition to just pull a name out of nowhere and begin using it.
As I continued to research the family to discover what became of them, as I was hoping I could find a living relative to return the baptism certificate to, I discovered that Anna was listed as a widow in the 1930 US Federal census. I have been unable to find a death certificate for Oskar, though, through newspaper research, found that he died in 1929 in South Bend, Indiana. He had left railroad work after representing his fellow employees and was unsuccessful in negotiating with management to remove armed guards from the trains in Garrett. At the time of his death, he was working as a welder in an automobile plant. At age 41, he died of a heart attack. Anna returned with Dickie to live in Garrett. It was there she had Oskar entombed in a mausoleum in a Roman Catholic Cemetery. Oskar’s baptism certificate was for the Lutheran faith. The cemetery was established for Roman Catholics in the late 1800s, however, it did accept other Christian denominations for separate burials. Don’t discount a burial in a cemetery of another faith! Remember, if there was no pre-planning the dead don’t get any say in where they are laid to rest. Interestingly, Oskar lies in the mausoleum which I’ve been told by the present owners, is not their responsibility and they don’t know who actually owns it. It is also a mixed burial site, meaning anyone of any faith is buried there. The records for the mausoleum are also missing so I can’t find who paid for the burial. I also can’t enter it as when we tried to visit it was locked. The present owners of the cemetery, the Roman Catholic Church, do not have a key and didn’t know that the door locked. Sigh!
The tombstone and findagrave.com memorial for Oskar is listed as Wm. O. Johnson. So, the records were now showing that Oskar Wilhelm Johannesson in 1886 became Willie Jonshon in 1900 and by 1911 William Johnson. In 1917, his wife was referring to him as Dickie in family correspondence but the 1920 census shows him as William Johnson. When he was buried, his wife had his tombstone engraved as Wm. O. Johnson. I’m guessing the O was for Oskar.
I have located and reached out to Oskar Wilhelm – Willie – William – Dickie – Wm. O.’s sole living grandchild as I would like to finally, after 44 years, return the baptismal certificate to a closer relative. So far, the grandchild hasn’t responded.
Research shows that I’ll be keeping Anders Teodor – Andrew’s baptismal certificate as, after Oskar left Garrett, Anders returned to live in Porter County, Indiana. He never married and was killed by an automobile as he walked along the side of a road in 1933, shortly after the only known picture of him was taken with his siblings. This also explains why Oskar wasn’t pictured; he was likely dead. The photo was probably not from circa the late 1920s but circa the early 1930s.
My distant cousin William Shakespeare wrote that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet;” I believe that applies to solving a brick wall with whatever name the individual wanted to be called by. Anders Ludvig Johannesson became Gust Johnson; Oskar Wilhem Johanson becomes William “Dickie” O. Johnson. For all these years I had the clues to solve the puzzle but it took experience, FAN research, a 111-year-old letter, a 105-year-old envelope, and online databases to crack the mystery.
I will be taking the next two weeks off for the holidays. Hope whatever you celebrate is merry and bright – see you in January 2023!
The genealogy gods have given me an early holiday gift. My story has lots of twists and turns yet eventually, after years, I solved two brick walls. Perhaps what happened to me might help you find a missing ancestor or two. This blog is in two parts due to its length; the second post will be available on December 17th.
MY BRICK WALL BEGINS
My story begins in June 1978 in Gary, Lake, Indiana where my in-laws lived at the time. Hubby and I had just purchased our first home and my in-laws were downsizing as they faced retirement. We were encouraged to come up from Florida where we were living and take anything they were getting rid of.
As family historians, I’m sure you’ll identify what I fell in love with and agree I made the right choice; my in-laws thought I was nuts! All I wanted was a battered cloth suitcase that was housed in their basement, along with an old wooden and rusty metal trunk. The suitcase had no interest to me, it was its contents that I found exciting – it was filled with old photos, certificates, and letters. The trunk was empty but there was something about it that made me want to have it. Hubby said the trunk belonged to his immigrant great-grandparents, but he wasn’t sure which side, maternal or paternal, had owned it.
There actually were two trunks, one large and one small. My in-laws felt that hubby and his sister should each take one. It was decided we’d get the largest because we had a garage to store it. His sibling had no interest in the photos or letters, so they became ours. Now at the age my in-laws were at the time and having recently downsized, I better understand their dismay at our reluctance to take much of their belongings out of their hands. To appease them, we ended up with my hubby’s old bedroom set for our guest room, an antique doll carriage that was destroyed by Hurricane Elena a few years later, and a record player. Hubby’s uncle loaded his pickup truck and my father-in-law drove it all down to our new home. While the guys were unloading the furniture I was sorting through the contents of the suitcase.
Of course, none of the photos were labeled. Some of the documents were in a different language I couldn’t identify but guessed it was Swedish. The letters were mostly addressed to Elsie Johnson, who I knew was hubby’s deceased grandmother. He was quite attached to her and unfortunately, she had died just a few years before I entered his life, so I never had the pleasure of meeting her.
ASK OLDER RELATIVES FOR INFORMATION
That evening I showed the items to my father-in-law and asked him who was in the photos and who were the people named on two baptismal certificates (one shown above). He said he had no idea; the items had all been his wife’s. No knowledge is also helpful so that became clue number 1. He also informed me that the trunk was not from his side of the family. Little hints are helpful; I made a note to ask my mother-in-law.
I asked my mother-in-law via phone if she was able to tell me who was the Johannesson family. She didn’t know of an Oskar Wilhem, Anders Teodor, Gustaf, or Matilda Christ. She knew her great grandfather, who had died before she was born, was Gust Johnson so possibly this was somehow related to him. She believed the trunk was used by Gust when he emigrated with his first wife and some of their children to the U.S. sometime in the 1800s but it might have been from her maternal grandmother’s side instead.
PRESERVE THE ITEM Back in those days, I knew little about acid-free paper savers, archival boxes, or the danger of putting photos in plastic albums. Luckily, I didn’t use a photo album and since the photos were jumbled together in the suitcase, I didn’t have to keep them in the order they were originally found. I sorted them out as best as I could by any clues I discovered, such as a year imprinted on the side of newer photos or the ages of children I could identify. I placed all the letters in a small cardboard box that was intended to store clothing patterns. That allowed me to place them nicely on a closet shelf. I used a regular file folder to house all the certificates I found. The photos went into another pattern box. Although this was not a perfect method, it was better than having them remain in a rotting suitcase in a basement.
At the time, I didn’t even know my mysteries had a genealogical term – brick wall. Since I was too busy to research any of the items, with just starting a career and going part-time to graduate school. Someday, I planned to identify the individuals named in the certificates and letters and hopefully, return the items to a closer relative.
REVISIT ITEMS YOU ALREADY OWN
Fast forward to losing most of our belongings in a hurricane, making three moves, gaining two kids, getting master’s degrees, changing jobs, and dealing with aging parents, I finally, in the Summer of 2005 took the time to scan the items found in the suitcase. By this time genealogy resources had changed dramatically as there was the internet, software programs, laptops, cell phones, home photocopiers, and scanners. I decided to scan the items after experiencing two near-hurricane misses. We had lucked out not losing the items in 1985 because they had been stored on a high closet shelf that the flood waters hadn’t reached. In 2004 and 2005, we experienced close calls with several storms and lost a large oak in our backyard during one of them. The tree fell away from the house but if it had gone the other direction, the closet I was storing those items, along with additional items I had obtained from my maternal and paternal lines, would have been destroyed.
ASK MORE RELATIVES FOR INFORMATION
Looking at the items again, with my years of genealogical experiences gained, I quickly realized I had my husband’s maternal uncle’s birth certificate. I mailed it back to him. Never got a thank you but he did loan me a family history book that helped me with a surname study on the Harbaughs I had begun. I since found a reprint copy of the volume so I could have it for reference. I was also able to deduce that Oskar and Teodor were children of Anders “Gust” Johannesson/Johnson. Unfortunately, nothing online at the time provided me with what had become of them after the 1900 US Federal census and the uncle had nothing more to add.
By the 2000s I also knew I was not preserving the items correctly, so I placed all the paper items in acid-free sleeves. I then placed them in binders so that I could continue to store them on a shelf and remove them quickly if I had to evacuate. The beauty of storing the letters this way was now I could read them without having to handle them, thus, keeping oil and dirt from my hands off them and limiting the unfolding of the items from their envelope which might tear or damage them further.
PUT INFO INTO CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
I used the WW1 letters extensively as I wrote an eBook on the Harbaugh family but there were some letters and empty envelopes that didn’t fit the period I was then researching. I placed those items in a separate binder and when I scanned them, saved them separately, by year if available, or by type of letter as some were for a small business the family was running and others were from friends. A few I couldn’t categorize as I wasn’t clear who the letter was written to or who had written it. This category may seem to confound but, in my case, was the key to solving my brick walls 17 years later.
KEEP YOUR TREE PUBLIC
Back in the early 2000s, I had a small tree on FamilySearch.org and my ever-growing tree on Ancestry.com. I uploaded the Ancestry tree to MyHeritage.com, FindMyPast.com, and Geneanet.com, which is now owned by Ancestry. My hope was that some far-flung relative would reach out to me or, I’d be able to view other public trees and find the identity of Oskar and Teodor. This has worked in some cases but not with Oskar and Teodor. Currently, there are only 8 trees on Ancestry, including mine, for Oskar and 12 for Teodor. The trees seem to all have copied me. Findmypast.com has many Oskar Johanson’s but none that match the birth info I have on the baptism certificate. Likewise, MyHeritage.com has 136,618 trees for Oskar Johanson but none with the birth info I have. Although keeping my tree public didn’t solve this brick wall, it did help connect me with a distant relative who happened to have a photo that he shared.
CAST A WIDER NET – CONTACT MORE RELATIVES
What did happen with Oskar and Teodor was a second cousin of my husband did contact me about a different line and he eventually sent me photos on CD he had scanned. Most of his photos were labeled and some matched mine, even though it was for a different line. How is that possible you may ask? Because all of these folks lived in the same small town of Baileytown, near Chesterton, Porter, Indiana so what are all relatives of my husband, at the time the photos were taken, the people in the photos just knew each other as neighbors. There was a wedding photo that included the neighbors who had attended who just happened to be related to my husband, too, but not all the people in the picture were related to the cousin who sent the photos. How cool!
L-R Men are either Anders or Charles, 1st, 2nd, and 4th woman are Anna, Ida, or Selma, 3rd woman is Helen Johnson Chelberg. Photo Courtesy of Scott Chelberg
The photo above is dated circa the late 1920s, it was helpful in validating that the children from Gust and Anna Matilda did stay in contact with their step-sibs (Helen) after their parents’ deaths. So, I was now confused as to why living relatives today had no knowledge of them. What had become of Oskar, Teodor, and their siblings – Johan, Carl, Anna, Ida, Selma, Charlie, and Nellie that I had no paperwork on?
A PROJECT LEADS TO THE ANSWER
To be honest, I didn’t spend much time researching the lines after I scanned the documents as I was busy starting my genealogy business and working full-time as an educator. During the pandemic, I began taking the time to update my family lines. When we relocated last summer to Indiana and I joined the Indiana Genealogical Society, I decided it was time to upload biographies of my husband and my Hoosier relatives to a project the society was promoting. If it wasn’t for that project, I would still have not known what happened to Oskar and Teodor.
As I prepared to write the bio for my husband’s great grandfather, Anders Ludvig “Gust” Johannesson/Johnson, I knew I had to find additional info as for most of Gust and his first wife, Tilda “Anna Matilda” Christ Johansdotter’s 10 children, as I only had two death dates. It was time for more intense research.
LIST ALL YOU HAVE
The info I had on Oskar and Teodor was the baptism certificates naming their parents, the 1920s photo, Oskar’s entry in the 1920 US federal census as “Willie Jonshon” and I thought, little else. Boy was I wrong.
I had tried in the past to find him in 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940 US federal censuses and been unsuccessful. Then it hit me – Oskar was not going by Oskar Wilhelm by 1900, he was called Willie. I began looking for him as William Johnson.
In the 1920 census, I found a William Johnson living in Garrett, Indiana with a wife and child that might have been Willie. I now live just a few minutes from Garrett so I immediately thought this couldn’t be him. My side of the family was from this region, not my husband’s. Besides, after Oskar’s father’s death, his step-mom and step-siblings had all stayed in northwestern Indiana; Garrett is in the northeastern section. How could I determine if Oskar – Willie – was the married William living across the state?
Indiana marriage records were helpful; the Garrett William was born in Miller in the same year noted on the baptism record but he had a father recorded as A. Johnson, a mother L. Swanson, and a birth date of 26 November. The baptism certificate clearly gives his birthdate as 26 January and his parents as G. and M. Johanson. I could reason that the A. Johnson might stand for August as others in my husband’s Swedish lines often used the nickname Gust instead of the formal August. It was time to list all the information I had on Oskar’s parents.
Oskar’s father’s baptism record in Sweden clearly shows he was named Anders Ludvig, with no August or Gust anywhere. That’s the name he used when he emigrated, too. I never found a first marriage record but he was married second as Gust and that’s how he was recorded in his first US census, in 1900. His death certificate informant was his second wife who gave his name as August and not Anders. So, like Oskar, Anders Ludvig Johannesson/Johanson/Johnson changed his name and eventually became Gust Johnson. Perhaps his second wife did not know his given name; maybe he decided to be called Gust after his birth month, August. Who knows? I likely will never discover the reason. Oskar’s marriage certificate for a father named A. Johnson was now consistent with later records for his father.
Unfortunately, Oskar’s mother died prior to vital records so I have no idea where he came up with the name L. Swanson, though there is a Svenson listed as a witness on his baptismal record. His stepmother’s name was Lovisa, later changed to Louise, but her maiden name was Carlson. Oskar’s birth mother had died when he was 5 so perhaps, he was not able to remember correctly her given name and was thinking about his stepmother’s first name instead of his birth mother thus, he gave her first initial.
Where the November birth month came from is also a mystery.
The marriage location, birth month, and mother’s name made me continue to question whether I had the right man or not. Stay tuned, you’ll learn the answer next week.
Partial Clip from U.S., Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914, Thomas Thompson, digital image; Ancesry.com: accessed 17 July 2021, image 402 of 440; citing NARA M233.
One of the things I love about genealogy is the weird occurrences that happen. I had planned to write about a local mystery but two strange events happened to me this week that I think you’ll find interesting.
Last week, I blogged about The Forgotten Ones project for the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War. While researching Thomas Charles Thompson I came across a document that may or may not be his father, Thomas Coke Thompson.
These folks are my husband’s relatives and whenever I work on that line strange things happen. The pattern continues…
The document I found is shown above. Thomas Coke was known to be in the Albany, New York area at the time the document was made. He married first, Elizabeth and had several children. Only Thomas Charles lived to adulthood but died before Thomas Coke. Census and death records state that Thomas Coke was born in New York City but I’ve never found a record for him or his parents. The document above caught my eye because the same location, name used in other records (he never used Coke) and age. What stood out to me was that he was a musician born in Great Britain. The Thomas Coke in our family tree was a ship’s carpenter when he moved to Chicago.
I forwarded the document to my husband’s cousins who I have met over the years through online research. One stated she wasn’t interested. Another thanked me immensely. The third replied that she wished her mom was alive to see and ponder it – her mom’s birthday would be 2 days after I made the find. I replied to the 3rd cousin that I had thought of her mom the prior week when I wrote to a colleague who wanted information for an upcoming book he was writing on cemetery re-internments. In reviewing my notes I found an email from a cemetery that mentioned the 3rd cousin’s mother who had written to correct a mistake in the cemetery record.
A few days after I emailed the 3rd cousin, she replied she wasn’t feeling that the document was for Thomas Coke. After all, Thomas Thompson is a common name. Although that is true, in the Albany 1830 US Federal census there are only 5 Thomas Thompsons in that area; 3 are Black, 1 is old and 1 is of the age of the man who enlisted. What doesn’t fit is the name of the next of kin on the form (clip above not showing it). No record of this individual anywhere and none of the cousins have heard of her. Certainly more research is needed but for now it’s on hold until I’m able to revisit NARA next spring.
The 3rd cousin decided to look through her records and found several photos from the 1860’s that she didn’t recall sharing with me. One was of Elizabeth Williams, sister of Drusilla who had married 2nd Thomas Coke.
At the same time 3rd cousin was emailing me the picture, I received another email that I had a message on MyHeritage. I assumed it was a response for WW2 pictures as I had contacted a number of tree owners looking for photos for the Fields of Honors project in the Netherlands.
I don’t know why but something told me to respond to the 3rd cousin after reviewing all my emails. I logged onto MyHeritage and was astounded to discover a message from a 3 times great granddaughter of Elizabeth Williams. She was thanking me for putting info on the tree.
Before answering, I decided to check my personal email to read the 3rd cousins’ information. That’s when I discovered the picture of Elizabeth. I emailed both of my husband’s cousins to connect them and uploaded the picture to Ancestry, which is where my Main Tree is located. That’s the tree I keep updated.
So, if that wasn’t enough of the eebee jeebees for you, two days later the following happened…
Summer is my family’s lean time as we don’t receive a paycheck. Unfortunately for us, we’ve had some major expenses. We had budgeted for the ones we knew about (replacing a deck, renovating the side yard) but not for others (reconstructing a coop, a plumbing issue we didn’t even know was a problem). After shelling out a couple of hundred dollars to a pest control company to get rid of the varmints that had eaten the deck and coop and infested an appliance, a remembrance of my grandmother, Mary Koss, came to me.
When I was dating my husband in high school I was adamant I was never going to get married. I had never seen a happy couple. I’m serious – most of my older relatives were divorced or in miserable marriages. One day after my then boyfriend left, my grandmother said to me, “You’d be a fool not to marry him. You’ll never find anyone better.” I know I though she was nuts at the time but you didn’t argue with Grandma so I didn’t respond. She has proven to be right.
Grandma loved to be right and was not shy about making sure everyone knew she had predicted what was going to occur. My thoughts of that day came about because my dear husband never ever has complained to me about spending money, even when it’s tight.
This jogged my brain into calling our power company as I wanted to change our automatic payment method. I tried to do this online but I was directed to call the company. While waiting for a human, I decided to clean out my emails and I saw that Ancestry had sent me one with their latest record updates. It happened to be for Ellis Island/Castle Gardens.
Since I had thought about my grandmother I decided to enter in her information which I’ve seen before. I just wanted to check if there was something new. Coincidentally, the date my grandmother had arrived on Ellis Island just happened to be the day I was checking the record.
OHHH – weird – her birthday was coming up in 2 days and I hadn’t noticed before that she had made herself older on the form – claimed to be a teenager of 13 when she was still 12 for two more days. That made me laugh.
But the weirdness doesn’t end there…The customer service rep came on the line and asked my name. When I told her she responded by spelling my first name correctly. No one does that as there is several ways to spell Lori. I didn’t think much of that but as we got into the call she had to speak to my husband as she couldn’t find that I had access to the account. This always annoys me but I put my husband on who told her he has given my information on several occasions and to please correct it for the future. The customer service rep said, “There is someone else on the account, do you know who that could be?” My husband asked me and then it hit me – it was probably my birth certificate name that I never use. I gave the woman that name and she said, “Yes, that’s it. I didn’t think you were the same person as my mother is named (with your birth certificate name) and my aunt with the name you go by.” So, this explained how she could spell Lori correctly. I told her that I always asked my mom why they named me as they had when they called me something else. My mom’s reply was that she didn’t know, I was supposed to be named Patty Ann after her friend but when she looked at me after my birth the other name just popped into her head. She never met anyone with my birth certificate name and can’t explain why she thought of it.
After years of doing genealogy, I was shocked to learn that my father’s family was from a European province that is the same as my real name. I doubted my mom would know that as she had always told me my father was Germany, English, Scotts-Irish and Welsh. The province is not located in any of those areas. I know he never knew of the province as he always told me his ancestry was German and British.
I thought maybe my mom had heard the name and it was somewhere in her head where the euphoria of childbirth brought it forth. Now, because of what next occurred, I’m thinking that is a real possibility.
After using the Ancestry.com search for my grandmother, grandfather, great grandmother and great uncle I decided to try to find my great grandfather who had emigrated before his wife and two children. I had a little trouble in that I was entering Croatia as his birth place. I should have left that blank. It finally dawned on me he would have said Austria as that was the country at the time. My grandmother, a vocal almost teen ager and being for Croatia separation from Austria-Hungary, had stated she was from Croatia so I just didn’t think initially to change it. It made sense he would have provided different information as he had been in the Austrian Calvary. (HINT TO SELF-When searching, try to think like the individual that provided the record information and not what you know of the individual). His information tells me he didn’t think of himself as Croatian first; he had allegiance to the governing country probably due to his military service..
When I found my great grandfather Josip Kos’ record I was astounded to see that the ship he sailed to America on was my birth certificate name. Wow!
I had seen the document before but it never clicked. My great grandfather died during the previous pandemic and I had just thought about him when I got my pneumonia vaccine last week. He got the flu but died of pneumonia. Although my mom was a baby when he died, perhaps she had heard this ship’s name and recalled it for who knows what reason when I was born.
Or, just maybe, he whispered it into her ear and she wrote it on my birth certificate.
Who knows?! All I can tell you for sure is that I just really enjoy these creepy coincidences. Christmas in July? Nope, with my family I’ve got Halloween early!
Certificate of Insanity, William Duer, May 1852; digital image, FamilySearch.org: Accessed 27 December 2020, citing Common Pleas Court civil records, 1825-1901 ; civil index, 1825-1900 Miscellaneous, 1846-1873 Miscellaneous (alphabetical), pre-1900 Depositions (chronological), 1886-1901. Film # 008271767, image 921 of 2904.
Usually, I’m happy when I climb over a brick wall but sometimes the find provides harsh reality of what the individual was experiencing. I recently had such a discovery and in all honesty, I put off writing about it for a month.
I’ve made a lot of progress on my John and Jane Duer line lately although several mysteries remain, like where is John buried, why does Jane’s tombstone say “wife of John Duer” when he was married to someone else at the time of Jane’s death and why does Jane’s youngest children, who were adults when she died, not tell their own children about Jane as evidenced by their death certificates stating mother is unknown?
My working theory is, among other reasons, because of the sad discovery I made regarding one of John & Jane’s children.
William Duer (1828-c. 1852) was the oldest son and oldest surviving child of John and Mary “Jane” Duer; he relocated with the couple from Trumbull County, Ohio where he was most likely born to Killbuck, Holmes, Ohio where he is shown residing with his parents and siblings in 1850. That census shows that William and his closest aged sibling, Thomas, was working on the farm with father John.
For years, I had difficulty discovering what became of William as he was not shown with the family in the 1860 census in Mercer County, Ohio where they had relocated, nor was he found in any census anywhere. He seemed to have disappeared in thin air as nothing was found for him anywhere. Until now and thanks to the images on FamilySearch.org.
My search for William took the usual path over the years – checking all the online sites, family trees and connecting with known relatives. I thought he had perhaps died in the Civil War which wouldn’t explain where he was in 1860, but I also had another missing brother from the 1860 census so I figured they may have been together somewhere and missed the enumeration. That brother, John B., eventually ended up in Adams County, Indiana. William was never found again. Until now.
I decided to look through the images for Common Plea Court Civil Records, 1825-1901, for Killbuck Township, Holmes, Ohio where the family lived to see if a record may exist for anyone in the family. That’s where I discovered the Certificate of Insanity for William Duer.
From the medical report, I learned that William was age 23 and free from infection. In March 1852 William complained of “feelings in his head” that lasted 1-2 weeks. He was last reported sane on 12 April 1852.
Apparently, insanity must have been shown for at least 30 days before the courts could be contacted. The physician diagnosed William with melancholy that was not related to hereditary or epilepsy. He was not violent. His past medical history showed bleeding and blisters but it does not clarify the cause.
Interestingly, the physician noted William had received “no education” and “worked hard” and had “no amusement” yet he was not “disappointed” by his life. The education information is verified by Historical Collection of the Mahoning Valley which stated “the public schools were few, with little interest taken in public education until 1840, when a new impulse moved the settlers” (p. 484). William’s early life was in Trumbull County which became Mahoning County.
The Justice of the Peace had also visited William at his home and found him insane. Since he was a resident of Killbuck, he was sent to the Ohio Lunatic Asylum to undergo treatment. His condition had been the case for less than 2 years. The reason cited for committing William was that “his being at large would be dangerous to the safety of the community.” Although this clearly conflicts with the physician report stating that William was not violent, father John Duer attested the same.
I do not believe William every survived the commitment. I suspect he is buried on the asylum grounds where there are numerous unmarked graves. I will be following up with an organization that holds the records which is currently closed due to the pandemic.
I hadn’t expected this would be the reason for the brick wall.
From searching through images, prior to this find, I discovered a letter to the courts regarding another community member’s request for an insanity hearing in the preceding year. The request was denied, not because the woman wasn’t insane, but because the county had already used up all of their bed space in the asylum. I have no idea from the records what the county’s allotted number was but it is telling that there were more community members who needed mental health assistance then there was available treatment for them.
This find leads me to a new working theory about William’s mother, Jane, that I will explore in more details next time.
What do you do when you’ve looked for a deed in all the usual places – county property appraisers office, FamilySearch.org or other online database of deed records, and even probate files but you come up with nothing? I was fortunate to find deed records in an unlikely place and you just might find this useful…
What do you do when you’ve looked for a deed in all the usual places – county property appraisers office, FamilySearch.org or other online databases, and even probate files but you come up with nothing? I was fortunate to find deed records in an unlikely place and you just might find this useful.
I wanted to locate a deed record for my John Duer (1801-1885) because I was trying to discover which wife might be named on it. John married Mary “Jane” Morrison (1804-1866) on 29 July 1827 in Trumbull County, Ohio. The couple would go on to have 11 children together and relocate first to Killbuck, Holmes County, Ohio by 1840 and then to Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio by July 1860 when they are found together living two residences away from one of their married daughters, Maria Duer Kuhn.
The census does not state if the residence was owned or rented. The couple owned property both jointly and separately when in Holmes County. I’m not exactly sure when they relocated but the last deed of sale I find for them in Holmes was 27 April 1854.
I began to look in Mercer County, Ohio for deeds between 1853 (when they sold another piece of land in Holmes-I figured they may have relocated then but couldn’t sell the other lot they owned until the following year) and 1864 when I knew John had remarried. I tried all the usual places but came up with nothing. The property appraiser site found no John Duer. The site doesn’t say how far back the records go but one of the options for age of buildings is 1800. I then looked for old deed books at the various online genealogy sites and found nothing for Mercer County, Ohio. I even tried the Familysearch.org image search that I blogged about two weeks ago but came up with a big zero.
Sometime after July 1860 and before 11 December 1864 John and Jane split up and John remarried widow Margaret Ann Martz Searight. They had a child together, Charles Edward, born in February 1866.
Since emigrating from Germany, Margaret lived first in Hardin County, Ohio but relocated to Adams County, Indiana, perhaps after her husband, George Washington Searight died 8 April 1863. John and Margaret, after their marriage, lived together in Adams County, Indiana.
My next search was for property in Adams County, Indiana as I knew, from John’s will made in August 1884, that he was leaving Margaret the property. That meant she had not been a co-owner. He possibly bought the land prior to their wedding or for some other unknown reason, decided to buy land separately from his second wife as he had done in Hardin County, Ohio with his first wife.
His will states, in the case of Margaret predeceasing him, the property would go to some of his children (why he selected only 3 children in his will I do not understand. He names the two children he had with Margaret and one of his children, Angeline, he had with Jane. Angeline had married and was living in Adams, Indiana. What is odd is two of his sons, John B. and James William, were also living in Adams. Why he excluded them from his will I hypothesized in my last blog, Missing Tombstones.)
The Adams County, Indiana property assessor’s office website is not very user friendly and I got lost in the clicking. I eventually found that “NEW! Electronic Records” were available but there is no link to where. Trying to click on what appears to be a link stating “Adams County is now ready to electronically record all your documents through e-recording.” also didn’t work. In small print, there is a note that the records are from 1990 to present. Oh well!
I continued to click and thought maybe “History” would be helpful but it was just a few facts about the 12 townships in the county. Under “Residents,” I decided to click on “Genealogy.” I was taken to INGenWeb for Adams County. I was so excited to find a search box so I entered “Duer” and found 59 items.
At this point I had to decide, did I want to derail my search for a deed, which I figured wouldn’t be placed here, or just get more info about the Duer’s who had lived in Adams County. I decided to stay focused but to do a new search for “John Duer” hoping that it would eliminate all of the other Duers except for John’s son, John B., known to also be living in Adams. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the search results were for 53 items.
What immediately caught my eye on the first page (10 items show per page) was “Estate of David Tressler2 – 1862.xls.” Who was David Tressler – certainly no one in my tree and how/why was John Duer associated with him? Intriguing!
The image (above) was a timeline followed by scanned documents of David Tressler’s estate from 1862. Using the Find trick (hold down the Ctrl and F keys and type in the box) I quickly found that John made a deed to purchase Tressler’s real estate on 8 September 1862. Yippee! So John had purchased the property IN HIS NAME ONLY prior to his marriage with Margaret which explains why she was not on the deed. This also tells me that either he and Jane were having marital problems/separated/divorced by this time since Jane was also not a co-owner.
After doing my happy dance, I went back to explore the remaining Duer findings on the site. I was surprised to find another deed record – on 28 June 1860 John Duer purchased from Benjamin Shafer, the estate administrator for John Tressler. Interestingly, this purchase was made ONE MONTH BEFORE the 1860 census records showing John in Mercer County, Ohio, which borders Adams, Indiana. Jane’s name was not on that deed, either. It’s likely the couple was already having problems with their marriage at that time. The property description matches the property he left Margaret in his will.
So John Duer planned to relocate to the next county over even before he and Jane divorced. (Yes, it would be wonderful to discover their divorce document but I have been unable to locate it in either county.)
Of course, every find leads to more questions. Now I want to know where and when John met Margaret. Her first husband died supposedly at age 35 but I don’t know where. I checked to see if he had enlisted in the Civil War but did not find him. I can’t verify his date of death; he’s not on Find-a-grave/Billion Graves. The date is unverified and comes from online family trees. He was last known alive in Dunkirk, Cessna, Hardin, Ohio in 1860.
My guess is one of Margaret’s sisters or step-sister was living in Adams and as a widow with a young daughter, Margaret moved to be closer to family. I will have to search them to discover if that theory is correct.
It appears from plat records I also found on INGenWeb that Margaret owned 20 acres of her own land in 1880 in Adams, Indiana. I don’t know when that land was purchased – before her marriage to John or after. More research is definitely needed. It’s now clear where John met Margaret; they were property owners in the same neighborhood.
Moral of the blog….when you can’t find what you are looking for check out the local genealogy sites. Kudos to those at INGenweb.org as they have done a phenomenal job in preserving local records and uploading them for FREE. I also love how they insert a timeline of the scanned original documents. I am deeply appreciative of your efforts.
I wanted to locate a deed record for my John Duer (1801-1885) because I was trying to discover which wife might be named on it. John married Mary “Jane” Morrison (1804-1866) on 29 July 1827 in Trumbull County, Ohio. The couple would go on to have 11 children together and relocate first to Killbuck, Holmes County, Ohio by 1840 and then to Liberty, Mercer County, Ohio by July 1860 when they are found together living two residences away from one of their married daughters, Maria Duer Kuhn per the census.
The census does not state if the residence was owned or rented. The couple owned property both jointly and separately when in Holmes County. I’m not exactly sure when they relocated but the last deed of sale I find for them in Holmes was 27 April 1854.
I began to look in Mercer County, Ohio for deeds between 1853 (when they sold another piece of land in Holmes-I figured they may have relocated then but couldn’t sell the other lot they owned until the following year) and 1864 when I knew John had remarried. I tried all the usual places but came up with nothing. The property appraiser site found no John Duer. The site doesn’t say how far back the records go but one of the options for age of buildings is 1800. I then looked for old deed books at the various online genealogy sites and found nothing for Mercer County, Ohio. I even tried the Familysearch.org image search that I blogged about two weeks ago but came up with a big zero.
Sometime after July 1860 and before 11 December 1864 John and Jane split up and John remarried widow Margaret Ann Martz Searight. They had a child together, Charles Edward, born in February 1866.
Since emigrating from Germany, Margaret lived first in Hardin County, Ohio but relocated to Adams County, Indiana, perhaps after her husband, George Washington Searight died 8 April 1863. John and Margaret, after their marriage, lived together in Adams County, Indiana.
My next search was for property in Adams County, Indiana as I knew, from John’s will made in August 1884, that he was leaving Margaret the property. That meant she had not been a co-owner. He possibly bought the land prior to their wedding or for some other unknown reason, decided to buy land separately from his second wife as he had done in Hardin County, Ohio with his first wife.
His will states, in the case of Margaret predeceasing him, the property would go to some of his children (why he selected only 3 children in his will I do not understand. He names the two children he had with Margaret and one of his children, Angeline, he had with Jane. Angeline had married and was living in Adams, Indiana. What is odd is two of his sons, John B. and James William, were also living in Adams. Why he excluded them from his will I hypothesize in my last blog, Missing Tombstones.)
The Adams County, Indiana property assessor’s office website is not very user friendly and I got lost in the clicking. I eventually found that “NEW! Electronic Records” were available but there is no link to where. Trying to click on what appears to be a link stating “Adams County is now ready to electronically record all your documents through e-recording.” also didn’t work. In small print, there is a note that the records are from 1990 to present. Oh well!
I continued to click and thought maybe “History” would be helpful but it was just a few facts about the 12 townships in the county. Under “Residents,” I decided to click on “Genealogy.” I was taken to INGenWeb for Adams County. I was so excited to find a search box so I entered “Duer” and found 59 items.
At this point I had to decide, did I want to derail my search for a deed, which I figured wouldn’t be placed here, or just get more info about the Duer’s who had lived in Adams County. I decided to stay focused but to do a new search for “John Duer” hoping that it would eliminate all of the other Duers except for John’s son, John B., known to also be living in Adams. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the search results were for 53 items.
What immediately caught my eye on the first page (10 items show per page) was “Estate of David Tressler2 – 1862.xls.” Who was David Tressler – certainly no one in my tree and how/why was John Duer associated with him? Intriguing!
The image (above) was a timeline followed by scanned documents of David Tressler’s estate from 1862. Using the Find trick (hold down the Ctrl and F keys and type in the box) I quickly found that John made a deed to purchase Tressler’s real estate on 8 September 1862. Yippee! So John had purchased the property IN HIS NAME ONLY prior to his marriage with Margaret which explains why she was not on the deed. This also tells me that either he and Jane were having marital problems/separated/divorced by this time.
After doing my happy dance, I went back to explore the remaining Duer findings on the site. I was surprised to find another deed record – on 28 June 1860, John Duer purchased from Benjamin Shafer, the estate administrator for John Tressler. Interestingly, this purchase was made ONE MONTH BEFORE the 1860 census records showing John in Mercer County, Ohio, which borders Adams, Indiana. Jane’s name was not on that deed. It’s likely the couple was already having problems with their marriage at that time. The property description matches the property he left Margaret in his will.
So John Duer planned to relocate to the next county over even before he and Jane divorced. (Yes, it would be wonderful to discover their divorce document but I have been unable to locate it in either county.)
Of course, every find leads to more questions. Now I want to know where and when John met Margaret. Her first husband died supposedly at age 35 but I don’t know where. I checked to see if he had enlisted in the Civil War but did not find him. I can’t verify his date of death as he’s not on Find-a-grave/Billion Graves. The date is unverified and comes from online family trees. He was last known alive in Dunkirk, Cessna, Hardin, Ohio in 1860.
My guess is one of Margaret’s sisters or step-sister was living in Adams and as a widow with a young daughter, Margaret moved to be closer to family. I will have to search them to discover if that theory is correct.
It appears from plat records I also found on INGenWeb that Margaret owned 20 acres of her own land in 1880 in Adams, Indiana. I don’t know when that land was purchased – before her marriage to John or after. More research is definitely needed.
Moral of the blog….when you can’t find what you are looking for check out the local genealogy sites. Kudos to those at INGenweb.org as you have done a phenomenal job in preserving local records and uploading them for FREE. I also love how you insert a timeline of the scanned original documents. I am deeply appreciative of your efforts.
