Never say never

The Kuhse and Peters families, circa 1940.

If there's one thing I've learned in the family history process it's that there's no such thing as a dead end. Sure, it may seem daunting and there may be barriers that appear impenetrable (I have several), but if you keep looking and searching and digging and asking and wondering sometimes those previously unsolvable questions find themselves answered.

This had been true for me on dozens occasions, most recently this afternoon, with the arrival of a thick envelope in the US Mail. It was from my second cousin once removed, a woman I have never met, nor had I communicated with until a week ago when I sent her enlarged photocopies of three photos and a simple plea: Please help me identify these people.

I first noticed this photo because it had my grandmother
(third from right), my great grandmother (right) and my
great aunt Dorothy (left).

In my quest to digitize and categorize all of my family photos (think Prometheus pushing that boulder up Mt. Olympus) I've come across many, many, many photos without names, dates, or anything to indicate I should know the people they document. The most recent puzzle came from an album that once belonged to my paternal grandmother. Among the many photos I recognized there were three that were a mystery. Two contained faces I instantly recognized, including my grandparents, my grandmother's siblings, their mother (my great grandmother). Others were unknown to me.

As I usually do with unknown images, I start comparing to those I know. It helped that I knew about half the people in two photos. With that many family the rest (I assumed) were family as well. There was also an older woman standing next to my great grandmother in both images that looked like it could be her sister. But which sister (she had three)?

To determine which sister, I looked at the other people in the photo. There were three women besides those from my family, my great grandmother and her sister. A quick peruse of the family tree showed that only one of my great grandmother's sisters had three daughters: Aunt Lizzie.

Unfortunately, Aunt Lizzie and her children are dead. Time to look into her grandchildren. Through the awesome power of Google, I found the address of one of her granddaughters, still living in the same area where the family has been for decades. Taking a leap of faith, I printed the three photos, slapped them in an envelope, and sent them off the Lake View, Iowa.

The little girl in this photo ended up being the woman who
helped identify the people in all three.

I had almost forgot about it until the mail arrived today. Inside, along with a lovely note, were the same printouts I had sent, but this time with all the names written on them confirming the identities of every person in the pictures. It was Aunt Lizzie's family! In fact, toe youngest child in the photos is the very woman with whom I was corresponding!

I now look forward to printing these images off and sending them to her as she requested. She said she had never seen the photos before and wanted nice copies. It's a simple request I'm more than happy to fulfill.

Three photos officially off the "unidentified" list - only about a million more to go!

Sisters

It's a gloomy, damp day today - warmer than normal for mid-November. I decided it was a good afternoon to spend in the dark research room at the Tama County Historical Society, combing through microfilm records of the Gladbrook Tama Northern newspaper.

As the clock neared closing time I remembered my blog. Specifically, I remembered my discussion of Henry Staker's journey back to Germany in 1910 and how I wanted to know what he did, with whom he visited, etc. Through the wonders of modern technology I pulled up my blog on my smartphone and refreshed myself on what I did know: He left in April 1910 and returned in July. I previously found newspaper accounts in the Tama Northern about his departure, but it spoke nothing of his return. It did, nowever, list him as "Henry Staker of Traer".

So why wasn't I looking in the Traer Star-Clipper?

With 15 minutes left before library closing, I pulled the film roll for 1910 and wheeled forward to April of that year. There, on page five of the April 15 issue, was the following item: Henry Stacker leaves the 30th of April for Germany to spend the summer visiting.

Okay, I knew that. I wasn't looking for that to give more details, but to verify that the Star-Clipper would have info about his comings and goings in general. Fast forward a few months to July. I knew from the ship manifest records that Henry returned to the US via New York July 2, 1910. What did the Traer Star-Clipper have to say about that?

Here's where it gets interesting.

The Traer Star-Clipper July 8, 1910, p. 8

Henry Staker, of Grant township, arrived home Tuesday from a trip of two months to Germany. He has sisters in that country, which he had not seen in forty years. After this trip he is better than satisfied with America. A young German named Carl Schmedtke came to America with him and will work in this locality. 

There it is...sort of. Sisters! Henry had sisters! Of course, this doesn't have their names or where they lived, but it's a huge step forward in understanding the family he left behind. This is the first time I've ever heard anything about siblings for Henry, so it gives direction for what to investigate further.

Next, I want to find out who Carl Schmedtke is. I would think if he was a nephew he'd be listed as such, but I won't rule it out. It seems odd, however, to usher a young German man to America without some kind of familial connection - if only being from the same hometown.

As always with family history, more answers drum up more questions. But isn't that half the fun?

Faces on the wall

This weekend I did a little home redecorating in my study. I have thousands and thousands of family photos from my years of doing research - all carefully scanned and archived on my computer, the originals carefully tucked away in boxes.

What good does that do!?

This wall is a collection of photos, documents, and artwork showing nearly every branch of my family. There's a mix of sizes, centuries, formal and candid images. Sometimes it's those candid shots - when spontaneous moments are captured on film - that are my favorites.

Henry hits the seas

Today I came one step closer to figuring out how, when, and where Henry Staker immigrated to the US.

Previously, I thought he came in September 1870 on the steamship Italy. His obituary and Census records always claimed he came in 1869, but since I couldn't find anything in that year I made the (incorrect) assumption that 1870 was the actual date.

This week when I uncovered Henry's passport application from 1910, I found he claimed to immigrate "on or about" Dec. 2, 1869. The application didn't specify if that was the date of departure or arrival. Under the steamship name he wrote "don't know". Super.

So, it was back to the drawing board. This morning I undertook the tedious effort of going through German passenger lists, combing through records in the hopes of finding something close to Henry Staker in the rolls. I searched Henry, Henrich, Heinr, and Staker, Stacker, Stecker, and everything in between. After about an hour, I found a promising hit on Heinrich Stäcker.

Heinrich Stäcker was listed as 24 in 1869, which is a few years older than Henry Staker, but not an automatic rule-out. I've seen ages on documents vary 3-5 years depending on the record. I also know from Henry's naturalization paper that in 1883 he still spelled his name Stäker.

The next big clue was his home: Bramstedt. In Henry's obituary it says he was born in Harmstedt, Holstein. To date, I have no been able to find a Harmstedt. I have found in researching other German ancestors like Henry Sienknecht and Henry Kuhse that families often approximated the names of hometowns according to what they could remember. Freida (Krambeck) Sienknecht's home town of Lindhöft was spelled Linahoft, Linden, Lindenhof and Linahof depending on the record. A quick Google of Bramstedt came up with Bad Bramstedt in Schleswig-Holstein.

Heinrich Stäcker was also listed as a farmhand, which also makes sense, as he came to Iowa to become a farmer.

The only problem is there's no corresponding passenger list for the steamship Roland in New York in November or December 1869. The Hamburg departure list says the ship was destined for New York via Liverpool. Did the ship never make it? A search or records shows the Roland was still crossing the Atlantic into the 1890s, so it didn't go out of commission. Heinrich Stäcker doesn't appear on any New York passenger lists in 1869 - at least not that I've found yet.

I still have to go through the 5,000 records for the Roland that come up in an Ancestry search, but there is another possibility...

My father once told me that his grandfather (Henry's eldest son) used to say his father came to the US as a stowaway. The passenger list for the Roland leaving Hamburg was short, only a scant dozen names. Heinrich isn't listed as traveling first class, second class, or steerage on the Roland. In fact, it isn't specified. Is there something below steerage? Did he somehow finagle a ticket just sitting on deck or working his way to Liverpool? Once in England, did his ride on the Roland end? Did he find a way to the US on another ship, perhaps illegally hiding aboard another steamship? Since the Roland left Hamburg on Nov. 5, 1869, you would expect it to arrive in New York within two weeks. If Henry didn't arrive until Dec.2 as he specified on his passport, perhaps his trip was delayed by lack of funds, or lack of a legal ticket across the water.

There are still a lot of questions, some that may never have answers. But I feel like I'm getting closer, especially with the knowledge that Henry was almost certainly from Bad Bramstedt instead of Harmstedt. I have wanted to find a way to do research in Germany for a long time, but was not certain where to start. Now, I'm ready for the next step.