52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 10 "Translation"

One of the things that frustrates me the most in working with my ancestors is trying to determine the spelling of names of some of my German immigrant ancestors. There are so many variations that appear in the sources that I find it hard to decide which one to use as the primary and how many of the variations to document.

Take my second-great-grandfather Fitzler (my papamapa). Here are all the variations of his given name in the records here in the US.

• Weimar: the Henry, IL newspaper report of his death and the coroners report
• Weimer: death certificate for his daughter (my papama)
• Wimar: 1854 marriage register entry, 1865 excise tax list
• Wimer: 1868 voter list, 1872 voter list, 1880 voter list, 1880 non-population US Census, wife's obit, 
• Wymer: 1865 IL Census, 1870 US Census, 1870 non-population US Census, 1876 voter list, 1880 US Census

There are probably many more records that could be located (land, children's marriage and death records, etc.) and maybe some of them would have even more variations. 

As far as German records go, I have not been able to locate any. So far. All I have to go on are two descendant lists (one for his father and one for his great-grandfather) that I received several years ago from an unknown researcher in Germany. In those documents his given name is Johann Wimar. That's the name I've decided to go with. But what to do with the five other variations that all leave off Johann? Which is his preferred one? Did he even have a preference?

Or let's look at the ancestors of my second-great-grandmother Julia Ann of Sheboygan Co., WI and Charles Mix Co., SD. Here is a list of all the variations of her maiden name that I have found in Wisconsin, New York, and Württemberg, Germany.

• Addlebush
• Adlebush
• Edelbusch
• Eitelbusch
• Eitelbuss
• Idelbusch
• Idelbush
• Idlebush

Again, I'm sure that when I find more records in the US, I'll find more variations. The Württemberg baptism records that I've found use Eitelbuss. That's the Last Name at Birth (LNAB) that I use for Julia Ann's father and grandfather. For her and her siblings born in the US, I use Adlebush because that's the one that's most common. It's also the name carved in stone on their father's grave marker in Sheboygan CO., WI. But what to do with all the other variations?

John Jacob Adlebush (1817-1901)

Then there are the German immigrants who sometimes anglicized their surnames. We have my  Toemmes to Thomas line (and even more variations in the book "Zwischen Saar Und Leuk" Familienbuch 1675-1900 : Der Pfarreien Freudenburg -- Weiten -- Trassem -- Kastel Sowie Der Orte Hamm) and the Schmitt to Smith line.

NE/SD Family History Road Trip (part 4)

Day 6, Thursday, Oct. 24

Thursday we headed east for Geddes, SD passing through Yankton and Bon Homme County on our way there. Our first stop was the cemetery. It did not take us long to find the graves of another set of great-grandparents, William and Mary (Herren) Ogden. We also found the graves of Mary’s parents, my great-great-grandparents John and Julia (Adelbush) Herren.

After the cemetery, we headed out to find the farms of my ancestors in Charles Mix County. I had located the descriptions of the farms and maps of their locations at the General Land Office website of the Bureau of Land Management. I was able to use Google Maps to find them and figure out how to get there. The first one was a doozy. It was the farm of John Frederick Herren, who owned the northwest quarter of section 29 and the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 30 in Jackson Township. I had expected we’d be on some unpaved back roads, but the “Minimal Maintenance” sign we passed made me question the wisdom of our quest. It was worth the effort though--his land was high on a bluff from which you can see the Missouri River to the south. Very picturesque. He farmed there from about 1895 to 1910. It was his second farm in SD, the first being somewhere in Union County.

John Herren's farm in Jackson Twp., Charles Mix Co., SD

The next two farms were easier to find. James Robert Ogden’s was northeast of Geddes in Moore Township, as was his son’s William Ogden’s. JR farmed there from about 1882 to 1895, when he headed farther west to Rapid City, where he and his wife are buried. William was on his farm from sometime in the late 1890s to between 1906 and 1910.

James Robert Ogden's farm in Moore Twp., Charles Mix Co., SD

William F. Ogden's farm in Moore Twp., Charles Mix Co., SD

After visiting all of the sites in Charles Mix County, it was on to Mitchell, SD for the night. We of course had to visit the Corn Palace. There is not much else to see or do in Mitchell. 

Heading back to our hotel room after a dip in the indoor swimming pool, we met a group of pheasant hunters who like us were from the Chicago suburbs, Frankfort, Bourbonnais and a third one that I cannot recall. 

(to be continued)

SNGF: Two Degrees of Separation

1) Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with two degrees of separation? That means "you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor." When was that second ancestor born?

All of my great-grandparents had died before I was born. So the middle person will have to be one of my grandparents. Here are the earliest born ancestors that each of my grandparents may have known.

Joseph Andrew Huigens (1891-1957) had to have known his grandmother, Anna Helena (Schmitt) Fitzler (1833-1904). They both lived near Creighton, NE according to the 1900 US Census. He would have been 13 when she died. It's possible he also met his other grandmother, Katherine (Toemmes) Huigens Wend (1827-1899). She died in 1899, when he was eight. In 1895 she was living in Iowa with her daughter's family. She died four years later in a mental hospital in Illinois.

Mary Julia (Kain) Huigens (1894-1979) only had one grandparent who did not die before she was born, her maternal grandfather, John Kennedy (1826-1913). She would have been 19 when he died. I have no idea if she ever made the trip to Clinton, IA to meet him, if he ever came out west to Nebraska or if they met somewhere in the middle in Iowa for a family gathering at her aunt's.

Emery Julius Huigens (1896-1984) probably knew all of his grandparents. He was 14 when the first of them died. They all lived near each other in south-eastern South Dakota. His paternal grandfather, James Robert Ogden (1836-1910), was the oldest and the first to die. Emery would have been 14 then. It's also possible but unlikely that he met his great-grandfather, John Jacob Adlebusch (1817-1901). He lived in Sheboygan Co., WI and was almost 80 when my grandfather was born. I doubt that my grandfather was taken to Wisconsin or that my great-great-great-grandfather made the trip to SD at his age.

Esther Louise (Johnson) Ogden (1902-1984) probably knew all three of her grandparents who were alive when she was born. The oldest of them was Harriet Alice (Howard) Strayer (1829-1914). They all lived in the Quad City area in Iowa and Illinois where my grandmother was born.

So I'm pretty sure the farthest back I can go is Esther Louise Johnson to her maternal grandmother, Harriet Alice Howard, born in 1829. There are two other definite possibilities in 1826 and 1827 with a very, very slim chance of 1817.

Thanks, Randy, for another great topic.

Jacob Eidelbusch in the 1900 US Census

Yesterday, I posted about learning that my 3rd-great-grandfather, John Jacob Adelbush, had died in 1901 in the Sheboygan Co. Insane Asylum. I also wrote that should make it easy to find his 1900 US Census record.  Mission Accomplished.

I began by searching for all the Johns and Jacobs in Sheboygan Co. That didn't find him. Then I tried looking for "Inmate" and "Patient" in Sheboygan Co. He wasn't there either. So I looked for all Sheboygan Co. males born in Germany in 1817.  There he was, misindexed as "Josep Eidelbarch" in the list of Insane Asylum inmates without any value in the "Relationship" column where I had expected "Inmate" or "Patient." One more thing crossed off the To-Do List.

Surname Saturday - 27: Adelbush

Back at it again this week.  

1. Kevin Joseph HUIGENS

2. Joseph Anthony HUIGENS
3. Shirley Ann OGDEN

6. Emery Julius OGDEN (b. 9 Sept 1896 in Elk Point, Union Co., SD, USA, m. 19 Mar 1929 in Gordon, Sheridan Co., NE, USA, d. 8 Apr 1984 in Martin, Bennett Co., SD, USA)
7. Esther Louise JOHNSON (b. 23 Feb 1902 in Milan, Rock Island Co., IL, USA, d. 24 Mar 1984 in Rapid City, Pennington Co., SD, USA)

12. William Fredrick OGDEN (b. 10 Oct 1871 in Simcoe, Norfolk Co., Ontario, Canada, m. 25 Jan. 1895 in Elk Point, Union Co., SD, USA, d. 19 May 1951 in Platteville, Grant Co., WI, USA)
13. Mary Elizabeth HERREN (b. 22 Dec 1873 in Batavia, Scott Twp., Sheboygan Co., WI, USA, d. 14 Nov 1938 in Mission, Todd Co., SD, USA)

26. John Fredrick HERREN (b. Nov 1847 in WI, m. 1868 in WI, d. 8 May 1920 in Charles Mix Co., SD)
27. Julia Ann ADELBUSH (b. Jun 1850 in WI, d. 24 Aug 1912 in Charles Mix Co., SD)

54. John Jacob ADELBUSH (b. 23 Oct 1817 in Wurttemberg [Germany], m. about in 1839 perhaps in Dutchess Co., NY, d. 20 Feb 1901 in Sheboygan Co., WI)
55. Gertrude A. UNKNOWN (b. 18 May 1818 in NY, d. 6 May 1879 probably in Sheboygan Co., WI)

108. Jacob ADELBUSH (b. abt 1780 in Germany)
This is the second line of my German Wisconsin ancestors.  The Adelbushes came from Wurttemberg, Germany. You can read about the history of this area here.  As far as I can tell from what little research I've done on this line, they immigrated to Dutchess County, NY in the Hudson River Valley and then moved on to Sheboygan Co., WI.  You can view a plat map for Scott Township, Sheboygan Co. from 1889 here. J.Adelbush is located in Section 11.  John Adelbush is in Section 15.