New Year, New Challenges, Old Questions

If summer 2013 was "The Summer of Family History" in my life then I plan to make 2014 "The Year of Family History" from January to December - including keeping up with this blog!

So far this year I've done more planning than executing, but it's early. I plan to identify and contact living relatives on as many branches as possible as I continue feeding my insatiable appetite for family photos.

I'm also undertaking the page-by-page scouring of the digitized Elgin Echo archives looking for mentions of ancestors and kinfolk. Since I'm related to nearly every person in that area, the work is long and tedious. I've completed 1902 and 1932 (not sure what prompted me to start with those random years). I'm working on 1905 now. I jump around in order to keep things interesting. I mean, I find it ALL interesting, but moving around years keeps new generations in the spotlight and keeps things fresh.

My next big adventure is actually a simple one. There are relatives in my own town with whom I have never discussed family history. Why? I don't know! I think I've taken for granted I could always call them. This year, I'm going to actually do it.

Those are my family history resolutions for the year. What are yours?

Trip to Ely

Israel F. Shaffer

Last week I wrote about the anticipation and excitement building around my trip to Ely, Iowa, to visit my grandmother's cousin and scan family photos. I tried to tell myself not to get too excited so I wasn't disappointed.

But there was no need for that.

Dan and Jan were extremely gracious to allow me into their home for what became four solid hours of scanning, scanning scanning! I came home with 179 new photos of the Shaffer and Richards family, including a few I had seen before and most that were new to me.

There are too many gems to select the "best" to post here, but I will post a few that spoke to me for a number of reasons. First, is this oval photo of my great-great grandfather, Israel F. Shaffer. Until my trip to Ely I had a handful of photos including Israel, all from his later years. Seeing this photo of a young Israel was absolutely fantastic, especially paired with the young photo of Bessie Dan had emailed the week prior.

Bessie (Richards) Shaffer with her
mother, Katie (Foxwell) Richards

There were many photos of my great-great-great grandmother, Katie (Foxwell) Richards, which was a special treat. Katie lived to be 99 1/2 years old and there are many stories about her in the family. It's great to see her sweet, smiling face in so many images. Even though our times on this earth are separated by 30 years, I can't help but feel a connection and admiration for her in the photos. That's what happens when you do family history research - you start to feel like you know your ancestors.

The photo I chose to post today is one of Katie and her daughter (my great-great grandmother) Bessie. It's just a random candid picture, but it's so incredibly warm and lovely that I just adore it.

This trip didn't satiate my desire for family photos. In fact, it only made it more intense. Now it's time to comb the family tree and figure out who's next. Watch out, cousins, I'm on my way! 

Anticipation

Bessie (Richards) Shaffer

I've said before my family history research has peaks and lulls. Right now it's definitely at a high point. While I have several ongoing lines of inquiry going on, I'm also working on my never-ending effort to collect, digitize and identify family photos. Last week I blogged about a recent success. Now, I'm poised for another exciting adventure.

Saturday I'm traveling to Ely, Iowa, to visit my grandmother's first cousin and his wife. I wrote to them about a month ago in the hopes of finding photos related to the Shaffer and Richards side of my family tree. These photos have eluded me for years and I've spent considerable time contacting cousins (harassing some, really) and digging around for clues to where they could be. Finally, I tracked down Dan and his wife, wrote a letter, sent it off, and hoped for the best.

I was extremely pleased to get an email a few weeks later saying he'd be happy to help. He even said he'd contact his brother and they'd look through things and get back to me. I was excited about this prospect, and anxious about when we could get together. Then, on Thanksgiving morning, I received an email with this picture. To say this was the highlight of my year would probably be an understatement. Bessie (Richards) Shaffer, the woman in the above image, is my great-great grandmother and a woman with whom I have been fascinated for a long time. She was one of three sisters, the only one to have children, and lived independently until her death at age 97.

For a young girl growing up on a farm in late 19th Century Iowa she was well educated, completing high school and taking two years of classes at Upper Iowa University. She was a hobbyist painter in her young days, a past-time she unfortunately gave up after marrying Israel Shaffer in 1905.

Details about her life are numerous. My mother, Bessie's great-granddaughter, was a junior in college when Bessie passed away, so she had the unique opportunity of knowing her great-grandmother as an adult. Bessie's long life means much was said and written about her. On this blog I've included some of those things, including her first-person account of wedding preparations compiled for a local history when she was 96.

With all that was known about Bessie's long life, little of it was documented in photos - at least not photos I have seen! I knew in my very bones they had to be out there. In my years of traveling, interviewing, digging, prodding, scanning, and investigating I had never seen photos of Bessie younger than her late-30s. They were always photos with other people and her grown children. Most were by the time she was a grandparent. No childhood photos. No wedding photos. No photos of any kind. The same for her husband, Israel.

When I contacted Dan about the Shaffer and Richards photos I hoped he might have a few that would help fill in these gaps. When my email popped up Thanksgiving morning with this photo, labeled "graduation picture" my heart skipped a beat. After more than 15 years of searching I finally had a photo of Bessie as a young woman - probably 18 years old - looking quite elegant.

Needless to say the photo has already found its place on the wall in my study.

I know it's not good to set too high of an expectation. I know there are more photos and I know I'll get a chance to see and scan them Saturday. In my head I'm dreaming about how amazing they are and how they'll fill in all the gaps in my family history and all puzzles will be solved and the world will be wonderful. My goal now is to temper that excitement. I know no matter what the day brings, having this photo of Bessie is already more than I could have imagined.

Updates (and photos) this weekend...

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.