The Daker File

Just last night I wrote about the mysteries surrounding my great-great grandfather, Henry Staker, and his family in his native Germany. As happens so often when writing on this blog, chronicling my experiences on a topic gives immediately piques my interests in something that may have been on the back burner for months or abandoned due to frustration.

This time it was travel records. As I wrote last night, I recently discovered Henry traveled back to Germany in the summer of 1910. I still don't know who he saw or what he did during that time, but I hope to figure that out along the way.

I also wrote about how difficult it can be to find information on his roots because of the various ways I find Staker spelled (and misspelled) in documents.

Last night, after hitting "publish" I went back to Ancestry and decided to do more digging into immigration and travel. I was specifically looking at Mr. and Mrs. Chris Hoeppner, the couple listed in the newspaper clipping as traveling companions for Henry. Searching for them, I found ship manifests showing their return from Germany around the same time, though on a different ship. I also found Mr. Hoeppner's passport application from April 1910.

Then, it hit me: Shouldn't Henry have a passport as well? In the many times I've searched "Henry Staker" in Ancestry there has never been a passport application come up in the results. But if someone traveling with him from the same area at the same time had a passport, shouldn't he?

This is where the name issue comes into play. First, I searched for "Staker" and then "Stacker" without results. When names don't work, I try other things. It can be tedious, but in this case it worked out. I searched for passport applications for people from Reinbeck, Iowa. No Henry. Then, I searched for applications from Traer, Iowa. Again, no Henry Staker.

But there was a Henry Daker.

I decided to give it a shot. I hoped the item and instantly knew it was him. Henry Daker, address Traer, Iowa, was born May 17, 1848, in Holstein, Iowa, just like Henry Staker. The application was filed April 15, 1910, shortly before Henry Staker headed to Germany.

What made it official was opening the scan of the original file. It was clear to me the application said Henry STAKER. The problem wasn't in how the officials spelled his name - it was how it was transcribed for Ancestry! The script of the capital "S" and lowercase "t" blended together enough that someone mistook the two letters for one, rendering the last name Daker and the application hidden to all my previous queries. I wonder how many other gems are hidden out there because of this issue!?

Now that I have the passport application, I have another mystery. The application has great information, including the date when the applicant entered the country if they're an immigrant. Henry always wrote that he arrived in 1869, but several years ago I thought I found him in passenger lists in September 1870. I chalked it up to Henry estimating or Census takers misquoting. But here, on his passport application, Henry was specific about the date he came to the U.S.: Dec. 2, 1869. Naturally, the application says "on or about" Dec. 2, 1869, but it seems like too specific of a date for a guess. Now, it's time to find out what ship (application says "don't know"), what port, and if Dec. 2, is his arrival in the U.S. or departure from Germany.

More answers mean more questions!