Catching up

I have been woefully remiss in keeping up with this blog. I really set out to make it my journal of research and discovery, but it's so easy to just... not do it.

Sadly, it's been four months since I posted, and even longer since I wrote a legitimate blog post and not just a re-post of some Facebook Throwback Thursday photos. So, I'll try here to do a recap of research and discovery for 2016. I know there's a month to go, but I can almost guarantee I won't get much posting done between now and the holidays.

This was actually a pretty significant year in family history research for me. I made connections with cousins in Germany, I solved a century-old mystery, and I uncovered remarkable photos of people near and dear to me. I'll try to keep the summaries brief, though that's always hard for me once I get writing...

• I finally know the fate of Loren Alfred Finch, my great-great grandfather who abandoned his family in 1909! This really deserves its own lengthy blog post, but for the sake of brevity I'll say he moved to Illinois, changed his name, remarried, and and a bunch more kids - one of them still living today. This revelation came about thanks to Ancestry DNA, which helped me find Marilyn, my grandfather's half first cousin. We were matched through DNA, and by looking at her tree and discovering a Lawrence Alfred O'Neil, who shared the same middle name and same birth date as Loren Finch, that we were able to piece things together. There was also a second DNA test (my grandfather), photo comparisons, and some archival investigation. Like I said, I'll save it for a separate post (someday).
• I began a lengthy letter correspondence with my fourth cousin in Germany. Birgit is a descendant of Margaretha (Krambeck) Ehlers, older sister of my great-great grandmother, Freida (Krambeck) Sienknecht. It has been wonderful exchanging letters with Birgit and learning more about not-so-distant cousins still living in Germany. 
• I made so many contacts with cousins across the state! I visited cousins in Cedar Rapids, who had photos of the Ackerman and Adler family, including two with my grandmother at three years old. I visited my grandmother's cousin in Elgin and took home boxes of photo albums to scan and record - hundreds of photos of aunts and uncles, great-great grandparents and cousins. 
• I made another stop at the Elgin Museum, where once again I unearthed a box of seemingly random photos that proved to be filled with Shaffer family images dating back to the early 1880s. They appeared to be part of the collection that once belonged to Leota (Phillips) Welch, my great-great grandfather's first cousin, who died without heirs in the 1970s. I so appreciate the generosity of the museum volunteers, who let me bring a scanner inside (always travel with a scanner!) to make copies of the images. Another reason I ALWAYS send a pledge check when they are fundraising. 
• I wrote so many letters. Seriously, it's safe to say I wrote more than 15 letters - old school envelope-and-stamp letters. I find that's easiest for contacting distant relatives for several reasons. First, I hate cold calls. People don't often answer calls from strangers, and if I don't know the person, it's too hard to explain that I'm their third cousin twice moved in the course of making initial introductions. Second, I like to provide evidence. Every time I write to someone I send them some of my research and some photos if I can. I like to show that I'm "legit" and can help them learn something while I'm also learning from them. I have a pretty good success rate. My unofficial tally right now tells me that I had at least five people write, call, or email me based on letters I wrote them. A lot of the letters in the 15 I mentioned above just went out in the last week, so it's too early to say if they'll bring results.
• I had an unexpected package arrive from Montana. It contained photos of the Reinig family dating back to the 1860s. It was addressed to my late great aunt, Pauline, whose house I purchased after her death in 2011. It came from Pauline's second cousin, now 96, who hoped to find a home for the images in the Reinig Civic Center built in Toledo. I have talked to the city about having some of the photos on display there, but haven't really pursued it much further. We had a nice conversation on the phone and I plan to write to her again to thank her and follow up on some of the photos and information she sent me. In fact, I think I'll do that tonight. 

That's my update for now. I'm sure I'm missing something - which is why I should be blogging in more regular intervals. As always, happy hunting! 

Throwback Thursday: Lydia Clapper Moats

Lydia Ann Clapper was born in Ohio on July 21, 1825. When she was 18 she married David Moats and by 24 she was already the mother of four children.

In 1851 the family headed west and on March 10, 1852, David received a federal land grant for 40 acres in Highland Township, Clayton County, Iowa. David and Lydia made a life for themselves in Clayton County, where David farmed and Lydia raised their four children – and give birth to 10 more.

They retired in 1899 and moved to Elgin, where David and Lydia remained active. When they celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary in 1909 a reporter from the Elgin Echo stopped by there home. He found David, 89, hauling a wheelbarrow of potatoes to the cellar and Lydia, 84, cleaning the house.

In total they would celebrate 68 years of marriage and earn the title of the longest married couple living in Fayette County. When she died in 1912 at age 86, they had had 48 grandchildren and 43 great-grandchildren.

Throwback Thursday: Ralph and Leone Get Married

The morning of Wednesday, July 12, 1933, Ralph Shaffer and Leone Kerr got in a car and headed east from Elgin, Iowa, toward Illinois. With them was Leone’s cousin, Carroll Klingman, and his wife, Cora. They drove to Galena, where Ralph and Leone were married in front of Judge Cook.

A short time later, they turned the car west and headed home. They arrived back in Fayette County late. It’s not clear what they planned to do, but for the time being they didn’t plan to tell their families. Leone bid her new husband goodnight, and went to her family farm in Illyria Township. She placed their marriage license in her dresser and went to bed. The Kerr family would learn the news when Leone’s mother, Anna, found the marriage license the next day.

 A quarter mile away, Ralph couldn’t contain his excitement. He pulled his parents and brothers Tom and J.D. out of bed to tell them what he’d done.

“I can still hear Ralph telling Mother that he was desperately in love with Leone and he couldn’t live away from her,” J.D. recalled years later. “Mother told Ralph that he didn’t have enough money.”

Bessie’s reservations didn’t matter to Ralph. The deed was done. The next week, the announcement was on the front page of the Elgin Echo. On July 21, a shower was held in the Illyria Church basement to celebrate the newlyweds.

They remained together for 54 years, until Ralph’s death in 1987. At their 50th wedding anniversary open house, July 10, 1983, they celebrated with four generations of their family, as well as special guests Carroll and Cora Klingman.

“They are always thinking about someone else instead of themselves,” J.D. once wrote. “Ralph and Leone always made everyone feel at home.”

Throwback Thursday: Leone (Kerr) Shaffer

When Anna Kerr gave birth to her first child on July 7, 1910, her husband, Will, wanted to name the girl Ella, after his mother. Anna was not the biggest fan of the elder Mrs. Kerr, and the feeling was said to be mutual. She persuaded her husband to compromise and name her Ellen – then proceeded to call her by her middle name only: Leone.

Leone grew up on farms in rural Clayton and Fayette counties. She received her eighth grade diploma from country school on May 21, 1924, then moved in with her grandparents, Will and Mary Gruver, that fall to attend Elgin High School. After graduating with the Class of 1928, she went to Fayette, where she took summer courses at Upper Iowa University. That fall she started teaching in Illyria Township No. 1, a one-room schoolhouse south of Elgin.

It was during these years she started spending more and more time with a neighbor boy, the brother of her high school classmate Tom Shaffer. Ralph Shaffer lived his parents next to Illyria Church – less than half a mile from Leone. She would spend many nights at the Shaffer house, escorted home after dark by Ralph’s brother J.D., who walked Leone across the Illyria Cemetery by lantern light back to the Kerr farm.

After more than four years of courtship, everyone expected to see Ralph and Leone tie the knot. What their families didn’t know, what was that Ralph and Leone already had a plan – one that they would put in motion just a week after Leone’s 23rd birthday.

To be continued.

Aunt Nona

Nona Torson was a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, but to many she was known affectionately as Aunt Nona. The youngest of eight children, she was only a few years older than many of her nieces and nephews, and grew up with them like a big sister.

As the last surviving child of Will and Anna (Gruver) Kerr, Aunt Nona was the de facto matriarch of the Kerr family. She presided over family reunions, was a faithful attendee at the family church, and always made time a visiting niece or nephew – especially one with an interest in family history.

Aunt Nona passed away yesterday at the age of 89, so for #TBT it seems fitting to pay tribute.

German results, but more questions

There's too much to say in one post, so I'll be brief - my research in Germany is really paying off. I am close to identifying some living relatives and making contact with them, which I hope will lead to more information and perhaps some photos.
What
Some of the research costs can be expensive when you're dealing in half hour increments, but the cost of flying to Germany, driving all over the country, and trying to hit the right archives with the right files - all without speaking German... it's a bargain.

I still want to go to Germany someday and visit some of the old stomping grounds of my ancestors, including Ruhwinkel, Armstedt, Diedesfeldt, Bahlingen, and Lindhoft. Someday!

In the meantime, these questions still linger:

• What happened to the siblings of Henry Sienknecht? 
• Where are the birth records for the eldest children of Nicholas Krambeck, who was married after their birth, but with no mention of them at the marriage. If children were legitimized by a marriage it was always noted in the records.
• What about the biological mother of Henry Sienknecht Jr, born Henry Krambeck? What was her fate?
• Where are the Stakers before 1800? Hans Staker was supposedly from Rade. So far, no records have turned up. 
• What happened to Henry Staker's sisters? Records of the children of one of them are on their way from Germany.

That's it for now. I'll keep digging!

Throwback Thursday: News Travels Fast

In April 1865 John D. Shaffer was just a boy, a few weeks shy of his seventh birthday. Johnny was a student at the new schoolhouse that sat on a hill next to the cemetery. From the school, the students could see the cemetery, which over the span of the recently-concluded Civil War had filled with local men who lost their lives for the Union.

Johnny and his older brothers were too young to enlist. Their father, Rev. Israel Shaffer was a farmer and circuit preacher with the United Brethren Church and didn’t see service. Still, the family knew its share of tragedy. Rev. Shaffer’s brother, Ephraim, was killed in Atlanta. Another, Cyrus, lost his life in Nashville. A third, Alfred, was killed at Memphis. His brother Cornelius was wounded and would suffer with health problems for years before his death in 1869.

General Lee surrendered April 9, 1865, and the war was more or less over. The Shaffers and the rest of West Union looked forward to a return to their normal lives. One week after the surrender, Rev. Shaffer and little Johnny were riding into town when a stagecoach came roaring past them. As soon as the coach passed their cart, one of its horses dropped from exhaustion. Rev. Shaffer pulled on his reins, expecting to stop and ask how he could help. Before he could get down from his rig, two men jumped off the coach, cut loose the lame horse, and continued the furious gallop into town.

When the Shaffers arrived in West Union they discovered what had caused the rush. The stagecoach carried news from Washington, D.C. – Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated.

Johnny and his father were among those on the city square as the news was read. As the president’s death was announced, a man cheered. His cheers were not echoed. Instead, the people gave him a choice: Leave town immediately, or suffer an unknown fate. He chose the former.