Jan. 2011, Weeks 2 and 3: Marriage and death of Joseph Andrew HUIGENS

I was too busy last weekend to create a post on my grandparents' wedding.  This week I'm playing catch up by doubling up.

 Joe obtained a license to marry Miss Julia KAIN from the county judge of Knox Co., NE on Fri., 13 Feb 1914.  The name of the judge was D.C. Laird.

The wedding took place on Wed., 18 Feb 1914.  It most likely took place at St. Ludger's Catholic Church in Creighton, NE since the pastor, Fr. William Windolph officiated.  The witnesses on the  marriage certificate were Richard Kain, brother of the bride, and Emily Huigens, sister of the groom.

My grandfather died on 8 Nov 1957, when I was 6 months old.  He was 66.  He died at his home in Rushville, Sheridan Co., NE.  The cause of death on the death certificate is Uremia.  Basically his kidneys failed due to chronic Glomerulonephritis, inflammation of the glomeruli, or small blood vessels in the kidneys.  He was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Rushville.

 This is a picture of my grandparents taken a few months before his death.

I wish I had had a chance to know my grandfather.  Next week I'll have some miscellaneous info on him.

Surname Saturday: 37 Felder

More of my German ancestors from before there was a Germany.

1. Kevin Joseph HUIGENS

2. Joseph Anthony HUIGENS
3. Shirley Ann OGDEN

4. Joseph Andrew HUIGENS (b. 9 Mar 1891 near Creighton, Knox Co., NE, m. 18 Feb 1914 at St. Ludgers Catholic Church in Creighton, Knox Co., NE, d. 8 Nov 1957 in Rushville, Sheridan Co., NE)
5. Mary Julia KAIN (b. 19 May 1896 in Knox Co., NE, d. 29 Apr 1979 in Rushville, Sheridan Co., NE)

8. John Edward HUIGENS (b. 15 Jun 1862 near Henry, Marshall Co., m. 28 Jan 1884 at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Henry, Marshall Co., IL, d. 12 Apr 1949 in Creighton, Knox Co., NE)
9. Mary FITZLER (b. 22 Feb 1866 in Marshall Co., IL, d. 6 Feb 1949 in Creighton, Knox Co., NE)

18. Johan Wimer "Wymer" FITZLER (b. 23 Jul 1832 in Wolperath, Rhein Province, Prussia, m. at St. Patrick Catholic Church, LaSalle, LaSalle Co., IL, d. abt 1888 in Marshall Co., IL)
19. Anna Helene SCHMITT (b. 17 Aug 1833 in Eischeid, Rhein Province, Prussia, d. 20 May 1904 in Creighton, Knox Co., NE)

36. Wimar FITZLER (b. 29 Dec 1774 in Wolperath, Palatinate, HRE, m. 25 Aug 1820 in Neunkirchen, Juelich-Cleves-Berg Province, Prussia, d. after 1834 in Prussia)
37. Anna Margaretha FELDER (b. 9 Apr 1798 in Wiescheid, Palatinate, HRE, d. after 1834 in Prussia)

74. Heinrich FELDER (b. Niederhorbach, Germany)
75. Anna Christina JACOBS

Not sure what the political situation of Niederhorbach was in the time frame when Hienrich was born.  Today it is a municipality with about 500 inhabitants located in the Südliche Weinstrasse district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.  It is part of the Bad Bergzabern Verbandsgemeinde ("collective municipality").

Surname Saturday - 35: Schmitt

This week I'm starting on the maiden names of my great-great-great-grandmothers.  At least those that I know. #33 would be next after last week's posting of #31, but I don't know the name of Evert Huigens's mother. Her first name is likely Maria; that's all I've got.

So I'm moving on to my great-great-grandmother's mother.

1. Kevin Joseph HUIGENS

2. Joseph Anthony HUIGENS
3. Shirley Ann OGDEN

4. Joseph Andrew HUIGENS (b. 9 Mar 1891 near Creighton, Knox Co., NE, m. 18 Feb 1914 at St. Ludgers Catholic Church in Creighton, Knox Co., NE, d. 8 Nov 1957 in Rushville, Sheridan Co., NE)
5. Mary Julia KAIN (b. 19 May 1896 in Knox Co., NE, d. 29 Apr 1979 in Rushville, Sheridan Co., NE)

8. John Edward HUIGENS (b. 15 Jun 1862 near Henry, Marshall Co., m. 28 Jan 1884 at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Henry, Marshall Co., IL, d. 12 Apr 1949 in Creighton, Knox Co., NE)
9. Mary FITZLER (b. 22 Feb 1866 in Marshall Co., IL, d. 6 Feb 1949 in Creighton, Knox Co., NE)

16. Evert HUIGEN (b. 6 Dec 1827 in Holland, Netherlands, m. ? in ?, d. 27 Feb 1864 in Marshall Co., IL)
17. Catherine TOEMMES (b. 6 Jan 1827 in Trassem, Kreis Saarburg, Prussia, d. 22 Feb 1899 in Morgan Co., IL)

34. Johann TOEMMES (b. 1790 in Trassem, Kreis Saarburg, Prussia, m. 1815 at St. Hubertus Catholic Church in Trassem, Kreis Saarburg, Prussia, d. ? in ?)
35. Maria SCHMITT (b. 29 Sept 1796 in Trassem, Kreis Saarburg, Prussia, d. 4 Nov 1869 in Marshall Co., IL)

As I posted before, the genealogy of this line comes from on-line an alphabetical listing of births and marriages extracted from the book Zwischen Saar und Leuk 1675-1900 [Between Saar and Leuk]. This book is a compilation of area church records.  I have not taken the time to track down Maria Schmitt's parents.

This is the second of my Schmitt lines.  This first is from the area around Neunkirchen-Seelscheid in the south of North Rhein-Westphalia, Germany.  This line comes from near Trier in Rhineland-Palitinate.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Ancestral Name List Roulette

This week's assignment:

1. How old is one of your grandfathers now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."
2. Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel"). Who is that person?
3. Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

I'm going with my maternal grandfather, Emery OGDEN. He would be 114 if he were still alive. 114 divided by 4 is 28.5. Rounded up that'd be 29. Person number 29 in my ancestral name list is Christina Lotta Jönsdotter, my maternal grandmother's paternal grandmother. Or to make it even more complicated: the mother of Emery's father-in-law.

The facts about Stina:

1. She was born on the 4th of July. That was in 1839 in Slottsbäcken, Locknevi, Kalmar, Småland, Sweden.
2. She arrived in NYC with her husband and children on 25 Apr 1881 aboard the "City of Paris."
3. She died on 10 Oct 1919 in Gordon, Sheridan Co., NE.

Myster Monday: My grandmother's "real" name

We called my paternal grandmother "Grandma Julia." When my mother started doing genealogy, she listed her maiden name as "Mary Julia KAIN." She is listed in every US Census record as "Julia." In the Social Security Death Index, she appears as "Julia Huigens." On her SS-5 application for Social Security, she listed her name as "Mary Julia." Our assumption has always been that, in typical Irish fashion, she used her middle name insted of the ubiquitous "Mary."

But on my father's birth certificate her maiden name is listed as "Julia Marian KAIN." Where did that come from? How am I supposed to assess that evidence? Did someone other than my grandmother provide the information for my dad's birth certificate? Did my grandmother unofficially change her name for some reason? What counts as an "official" name in the days before registered births?

My research plans for resolving this mystery consist of looking for a delayed birth certificate and baptism records from St. Ludger's Catholic Church in Creighton. I'd consider a baptism certificate to be more primary than any of the other documents. If a person starts using a different name than the one they were given at birth, does that then become their "official" name? I'm sure they would think so.

In any case, she will always be "Grandma Julia" to me.