52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 16 "Should Be a Movie"

I think that a good screenplay could be developed around the life of my 2xgreat-grandmoteher Anna Helena (Schmitt) Fitzler.

In May of 1858, at the age of 24, she set sail from Antwerp, Belgium on the ship "Charles Cooper." Sailing with her were her future sister-in-law Anna Christina Fitzler and Anna Christina's 5-year-old son Wimar. They landed in New York City on 25 June 1858.

The Charles Cooper

Two weeks later at St. Patrick Catholic Church in LaSalle, Illinois, Anna Helena married Johann Wimar "Wymer" Fitzler in a joint ceremony with Anna Christina Fitzler and Johann Schloesser, most likely the father of Wimar, who became Wimar Schloesser. 

St. Patrick Catholic Church, LaSalle, IL

Anna Helena and her husband settled in Marshall County, Illinois, near the town of Henry, where her two brothers, Peter and Michael were already living. 

Wymer bought a farm in Hopewell Township. Over the years he was forced to take out several mortgages on it. His lack of success may have been a result of alcoholism The progression of the disease and its effects on those around the alcoholic always make for good drama in a film.

On 13 October 1885, Wymer fell to his death from the bridge over the Illinois River outside of Henry. He was returning home after a couple of days in Henry, where he spent at least the last day drinking. 

The climax of the film would be when the authorities come to her door to tell her about her husband's death Anyone who has ever cared about an alcoholic has imagined what that would feel like. I wonder what she felt? Grief. Anger. Relief. Shame. Guilt.  

There was probably an element of guilt since she quickly moved her family to Knox County, Nebraska where she had two married daughters living. She died there many years later in 1904. According to one of her obituaries, she was "known universally as Grandma Fitzler" and had a "kindly nature."

Her life may have been a rocky road, but I think she had a smooth ending. At least I hope she did.

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.

SNGF: Ancestral Name Roulette

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver:

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) What year was your paternal grandfather born? Divide this number by 100 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."

Like most everyone, my roulette number is 19. This method does not generate a very random number since most of us have a grandfather born around 1900. Maybe a few people will have a grandfather born before 1850 or after 1949.  Number 19 is the maternal grandmother of one's paternal grandfather.

Anyway, person #19 for me is my great-great-grandmother Anna Helene (Schmitt) Fitzler. Here are three facts about her.

1) She was born 17 Aug 1833 in Eischeid, Rhien Province, Prussia. August 17 is also the birthday of one of my brothers.

2) She arrived in the New York on 25 June 1858  aboard the Charles Cooper. She traveled with her future sister-in-law Anna Christine Fitzler and Christine's son, Wimer.

3) She married Johann Wimer Fitzler at St. Patrick's Church in Peru, IL a few weeks later on 10 July 1858. 

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.

Surname Saturday: 39 Peters

Stop me if you've heard this before: So I went into ancestry.com and there was this little leaf. Yup, I went last night to gather info for a post on another German line of ancestors and I found several family trees with birth, death and parent information for my ancestor Jakob Wilhelm PETERS. I incorporated the info for now. It will all have to be verified and properly sourced someday, but for now I'll post it with the caveat that it is unverified data.

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)

38. Johannes SCHMITT (b. 28 Feb 1790 in Eischeid, Palatinate, HRE, m. 24 Feb 1821 in Neunkirchen, Siegkreis, Prussia, d. ? in ?)
39. Anna Helene PETERS (b. 20 Jan 1799 in Niederwennersheid, Palatinate, HRE, d. ? in ?)

78. Jakob Wilhelm PETERS (b. 12 Aug 1746 in Hoff, Siegkreis, Rheinland, Prussia, m. 1780 in ???, d. 15 Mar 1817, Niederwennerscheid, Palatinate, HRE)
79. Anna Maria Kuepper (b. 01 Nov 1762 in Germany, d. 13 Dec 1824 in Niederwennerscheid, Palatinate, HRE)

156. Johann Wilhelm PETERS (b. ??? in Hoff, Siegkreis, Rheinland, Prussia, m. 14 Feb 1735 in Neunkirchen, Siegkreis, Prussia, d. ??? in ???)
157. Eva Maria ORTH (b. 15 MAR 1714 in Niederwennersheid, Palatinate, HRE, d. 6 May 1754 in Hoff, Siegkreis, Rheinland, Prussia) 

I will need to go back through my notes on this area of Germany and the history of its geopolitics; when did it go from the Holy Roman Empire to Prussia, etc. I like listing the historical place details rather than the current ones. In my mind, my ancestors were not born in Germany or North Rhein-Westphalia. Those geopolitical entities did not exist during their lives. Anyway, I put the locations in italics to indicate that they may not be accurate.  One more thing for my genealogy to do list: create a timeline of the geopolitics of the regions where my German/Prussian ancestors lived.

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.

Fearless Females: Day 9

Yesterday's prompt for the Fearless Female Women's History blog challenge was:
March 9 — Take a family document (baptismal certificate, passenger list, naturalization petition, etc.) and write a brief narrative using the information.

Let's start with an announcement from the NY Times of 25 Jun 1858 of the arrival of the ship Charles Cooper. This comes from the on-line NY Times article archive.

The ship left from Antwerp, Belgium on 8 May 1858 and arrived in New York about 6 weeks later. "Coffin" refers to the ship's captain, Rufus Coffin. That makes it a much better kind of Coffin ship.

Here is the header and a bit of detail from passenger list.


The names of interest are Helena SCHMIDT(my great-great-grandmother, Anna Helena SCHMITT) and Christina FITZLER and her 5-year-old son, Wymer. Christina is the sister of my great-great-grandfather, Johann Wimar "Wymer" FITZLER.

Helena came from the village of Eishceid in the Rhein Province of Prussia. The Fitzler's from nearby Wolperath. They all would have attended the Catholic church in Neunkirchen-Seelscheid. So did Helena know the Fitzlers before they departed? I'm guessing that Helena and Christina traveled to Antwerp together, along with others from the area. There are several names on this passenger list that appear later records of Marshall Co., where these two women settled.

Only sixteen days after their arrival, on 10 Jul 1858 at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in LaSalle, IL. Christina married John SCHLOSSER and my great-great-grandparents married.

Did Helena SCHMITT come to America specifically to marry my great-great-grandfather? Had she known him back in Prussia? Or did Wymer's sister convince Helena to travel with her and marry her brother sight-unseen?