Extra, Extra Read All About It!

Last summer I attended for the first time the Genealogy Research Institute of Pittsburg (GRIP). It was a fun, inspiring, exhausting week that was filled with many new things to learn and new friends to make. One such friend was Dana Leeds. She came from Houston, TX and this was her first time as well. We both had signed up to take Intermediate Genealogy: Tools for Digging Deeper. Paula Stuart-Warren, Josh Taylor and Debra Mieszala were the presenters for the week. Needless to say, these three kept us entertained and busy all week long.

Despite our age differences, Dana and I became friends which just proves that genealogy has no age boundaries. Her enthusiasm and eagerness to learn was quite contagious. Her devotion and passion shows in her research and her blog, The Enthusiastic Genealogist (theenthusiasticgenealogist.blogspot.com). I have truly enjoyed following her blog. Dana is a strong believer of using newspapers as all genealogists should be. However, I feel that she has developed a true knack for finding that perfect article whether it’s about one of her relatives or just an interesting tidbit about the area where a relative may have lived.

She recently shared on her blog that one of her relatives, Michael Quigley had a chance meeting with Lappowingo and Tis-Cohan the deposed chiefs who had agreed to the infamous Walking Purchase of 1737. How cool is that! In another post, she finds this article in an 1890 paper about Potato Day. What the heck is Potato Day? It turns out it was a day sponsored by the school in Arkansas City, that’s pronounced R-Kansas by the way, in Kansas. The school children were encouraged to bring any extra vegetables to school. These veggies were then sold to the public. The proceeds were used to buy shoes for children in need. And we all thought that bake sales were a modern idea! These are just the most recent finds that she talks about on her blog. There are many more articles and tidbits that she has found that make her family very interesting.

Reading her blog and all the fun things she has found, has inspired me to hunt further and deeper into the newspapers for my family. Don’t get me wrong, I have used newspaper before, I’m just not as lucky as she has been. But I do have one article that has always puzzled me that I found on Fultonhistory.com. This is a website dedicated solely to newspapers from New York State. It is a real treasure for those of us with New York ancestors.

Reported in the Albany Journal on April 12, 1870 the article headline states:

COLLISION ON THE CENTRAL

Fireman Beheaded!-A Engineer and Brakeman Reported to be Fatality Injured-

A Warning to Railroad Men

 

That fireman was John Sauerborn, my 2x Great-Grandfather and he was only 24 years old. The article goes on to say that he left a wife and three children. Is that correct? Ok so at this point my ADHD kicks in and I stop writing and stop searching, AGAIN!

I remember that I have copies of the church record books from St Joseph’s Church, Schenectady, New York. There on page 317 it shows that John Sauerborn, son of William and Elizabeth married Helen Schmitt, daughter of John and Margaret Benz on 08 Jan 1867. Witnessesses were Franz Schaefer and Ana Deckelmaier. Plus John is in the death records for church as well on page 224. It states that he died on 11 Apr 1870 and was buried on 12 Apr 1870. The cause of death: Complications from an accident! Yeah! I guess having your head severed would be considered a complication. Years ago on Findagrave.com, I found John’s headstone. He is buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Schenectady, New York.

And then I had one of those wonderful AHAHA moments. I went back to my copies of the record books and there on page 317 I find Helen Sauerborn, daughter of John and Margaret Benz married James Zingsheim, son of John and Elisabeth Roehrig on 01 July 1972. It has also recorded that the bride 23 was a widow, and was born in Lachen Rheno-Bavaria. Another match! I now know that she remarried.

Remembering that New York was one of those states that did their own census every five years I went to Familysearch.org to search the 1875 census. BINGO! There in Albany, Ward 09, E.D. Western, image 21 of 53 is the family.

 

 James is Jacob and Helen is Ellen and Zingsheim has become Singseim. What is even more important is that Nicholas is 7 years old and his sister Elizabeth is 5 years old. The next sibling, Matthew is only 2+ years old. With James and Helen being married in 1872, James is NOT the father of Nicholas and Elizabeth; thus John Sauerborn is NOT the father of Matthew.

I then went back to fultonhistory.com to see what I could find for the name Singsheim or variation thereof. Again lady luck was with me for using the spelling of Singsine I found this obituary in the Geneva Daily Times, June 3, 1915 page 12:

Mrs. Helen Singsine

Mrs. Helen Singsine, widow of Jacob Singsine died at her home 415 Lake Street, this morning at 2 o’clock, after an illness of two years of diabetes. She has been a resident of this city for the past thirty years. Mrs. Singsine leaves three daughters Mrs. Elizabeth Brophy and Mrs. Henry Beatty of Geneva and Mrs. Fred Baroth of Williamsport, Pa; five sons Nicholas SAUERBORN, Matthew and Frank Singsine of Geneva; Jacob Singsine of Albany, John Singsine of Troy, two brothers Matthew and Jacob Smith of Schenectady and nine grandchildren. Funeral services will be held Saturday morning at 9 o’clock from her late home and 9:30 from St. Frances De Sales church. Interment will be at Glenwood cemetery.

Wow what a find! This simple obituary verifies that Nicholas was the son of John Sauerborn. But it also gives me the married name for Elizabeth. Was she her name changed like it was for the baby Annie Laurie in the movie A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? Remember Officer McShane, when he proposes to Francie’s mother, he asks to change the baby’s name to his since she will never know her father? Did Elizabeth’s name get changed from Sauerborn to Singsine?

So much to do, so much to research, so much to uncover! Thanks Dana for reminding me that as frustrating as it may be newspapers are a genealogist’s friend.

 

 

 

 

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa

This afternoon I took the time to listen to Thomas MacEntee on Legacy Family Tree Webinar. His topic was, The Genealogy Do-Over™: A Year of Learning from Mistakes.  

He started with, "The Seven Deadly Sins of a Sloppy Genealogist-A Learning Opportunity

       ·      Not developing a plan for finding ancestors

·         Not following standards

·         Not tracking my research and what records I already used

·         Not citing sources and noting where I found information

·         Not discriminating between good and unreliable sources

·         Not keeping my paper and digital files organized

·         Not Sharing my research responsibly with other

 Well it’s time to come clean, stand up and confess my sins. I am guilty on all of these points! When it comes to doing my research, I am clearly affected by ADHD, or as Tom refers’ to it as a “shiny leaf”. When I started my research years ago I just dove right in. No records were kept, no logs were kept. Consequently I spent hours relooking for something that I saw maybe an hour ago or it could have been days ago. It was and still is a nightmare! As for the sources, HA! If you don’t know where you got it how can you source it? I will say I have gotten better at one thing though and that is discerning the good record from the unreliable. Many people out there use Ancestry.com as their source, WRONG. If a person in a family tree hasn’t been sourced or documented I move on.

You know, how they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, here is my biggest and most embarrassing downfall:

 

 

This was my bed yesterday. I was looking for pictures of my Mom as a girl with her mother and step-father. I did eventually find a couple of pictures and got them scanned. But when I was done, back in the box they went.

 

 

 

This is where all my paper work has accumulated. Not very pretty is it? I have three big binders that contain two or three families, depending on how much I have found. BUT if something comes out, it makes the pile on the bay window and who knows how long it will stay there.

I love being my family’s historian. The challenges, the thrill of the hunt and the victory of breaking through that brick wall have truly been rewarding. I want to be more organized. I want to keep better records. I want to make myself a research plan. Not to use work as an excuse, but now that I am happily unemployed, there actually is time for me to do all this. However Tom, it’s probably going to take me more than 13 weeks!

HMMM, I wonder if Sandy Rumble’s daughter would like to earn some service hours?

Are You A Genealogist?

On Saturday (2/17/14) I attended the first of six classes regarding the DAR Genealogical Research System (GRS). The presenter was my friend and fellow DAR member, Sandy Rumble. She is a big fan of education in all phases of one’s life and she’s always looking for ways to improve her genealogy skills.  This past fall she took and passed with flying colors all three DAR GEP courses. This is lucky for me because Sandy enjoys passing on her knowledge. Her drive and motivation in her own words is, “If I am looking for answers as to what I need to do to prove new patriots and clear up flags…Others must be too...” There’s been many a time when I’ve shot off a quick text asking her a question or a request to look over a document. She in return has always gotten back to me with encouragement and support. We all should be so lucky as to have a friend like Sandy.  Oh I forgot to say, Sandy is also a software developer and a true computer geek too, so she’s also taught me a few things about manipulating computer screens as well.

Her presentation today centered on what the DAR application should contain and how to avoid a HW, a letter from the DAR genealogist that is asking for further documentation. She explained how to use the website, and how to glean information from other members’ applications; as well as explaining what all the red flags mean.

 Sandy’s presentation was well thought out and skillfully delivered. She fielded questions and squelched testy, frustrated participants with patience and grace. She clearly demonstrated that she knew her stuff. I’m looking forward to the next five classes.

The classes are being held in a replica of a cabin from the mid-1700s.  The house was pretty typical of that time period. It was basically was one big room. It had an upstairs area and had an added on space for bathrooms and a furnace room. Underneath the staircase, there was a curtain covering that space, why? While standing in line to use the bathroom, my curiosity got the best of me and I couldn’t resist peeking behind the curtain. It was a disappointment, for all that was there was a filing cabinet and other miscellaneous items. But what shocked me the most was the conversation that took place just after my peek. Just as I was closing the curtain, one of the other participants walked up and asked with a smile, “Why are you looking behind that curtain?”

 I responded, “Just curious, like any good genealogist.”

Her: “Oh, are you a genealogist?”

Me: “No, I’m just Jill!”

And it got me wondering, am I a genealogist? So I when I got home it was straight to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary for a definition. According to the on-line version it states:

 

ge·ne·al·o·gist

noun \ˌjē-nē-ˈä-lə-jist also -ˈa-lə- also ˌje-nē-\

Definition of GENEALOGIST: 

a person who traces or studies the descent of persons or families

After reading that I say,yes I am! My application to the DAR may have been easy in that I only need to prove myself to my grandmother. But there’s more than just that aspect of it all. Before I started researching my families past, we didn’t know where my Dad’s family came from in Germany or when they came to the US, or that my 2xGreat Grandfather had a sister. I found all that good stuff! I dug, combed and poured over websites, engaged a researcher in Germany; wrote letters requesting baptismal records from churches and sent off for marriage licenses from the Illinois state archives. The prize at the end of all those hours of work was this: my family came from Stockheim, Germany, arrived in New Orleans in November of 1860 and my Great Aunt was Hannah Louise and she was only nine months old when she arrived with her parents in New Orleans.

So go ahead, ask me if I’m a genealogist and I will proudly tell you; Yes I am!

 

 

Can't You Hear The Whistle Blowing..

The other morning I woke up very early, around 4:30, to the lonely sound of a train off in the distance. Why does the soft sound of a distant train horn sound so melancholy? It got me thinking of my ancestors and the traveling that they had done and endured.  For many of us, who now live in the United States, our ancestors came here from Europe and whether it was the 1600’s or pre-1900’s travel wasn’t easy. Ships were crowded and dirty. Covered wagons and stagecoaches were dusty, hot or worse, in my opinion, cold and wet.  And let’s not also forget the infamous stagecoach robbers or the wagon train being attacked by Indians. Anyone who has ever watched a good Western movie from the 1940’s or 1950’s knows that there are always scenes were a stagecoach is held up or a wagon train attacked!

It wasn’t until the 1830’s that trains start carrying passengers. Unfortunately they were nothing more than glorified stagecoaches. The cars were poorly heated if at all during the winter and sweltering hot during the summer. For even when the weather was favorable passengers were virtually prisoners in the cars due to the cinders and steam coming from the engines. It’s not until the 1920’s when air-conditioning is added to the passenger cars that allowed for a more pleasant ride.

 In 1842 Charles Dickens wrote: “There are no first and second class carriages as with us; but there is a gentleman's car and a ladies' car: the main distinction between which is that in the first, everybody smokes; and in the second, nobody does. As a black man never travels with a white one, there is also a negro car; which is a great, blundering, clumsy chest, such as Gulliver put to sea in, from the kingdom of Brobdingnag. There is a great deal of jolting, a great deal of noise, a great deal of wall, not much window, a locomotive engine, a shriek, and a bell.”

Doesn’t sound like he was a fan of the passenger train here in the United States! But things did improve and the passenger train soon became the way to travel. Passenger cars became luxurious with padded leather cushioned seats and gaudy decorations. Sleeping and dining cars were added to the growing comfort and care given to those passengers who could afford it.

Trains for the next 85 years or so remain the most popular form of long distant transportation. With the invention of the airplane in 1902 and the subsequent first commercial passenger flight in 1914, the railroad starts to experience decline as the quest for faster travel increases. And of course there’s the car which only added another element of speed.

I’ve traveled on trains in India, Europe and for the first time here in the US this past November. My friend and fellow genealogist, Sandy Rumble and I took the train from Philadelphia to Washington DC. We were headed to the DAR library to do research. The car was fairly warm. It was quiet. There wasn’t any clickety clack, or rocking of the car, or bells or whistles. It was smooth, comfortable and saved us time. It was a nice way to travel. But sadly it was almost empty.

Maybe this is why the horn sounds so sad and lonely; each blast is a moan, a lament of bye gone days.