...start on another line. When I made it through the last parish and didn't find Jan, I decided to add a field to the database that accounted for search the entirety of 1866 and 1867 in each parish, and thus get to go through them each again. Thankfully, the vast majority of parishes have an index book that I can search through, which is how I found 1866 Jan in the first place. He's still looking to be my best match, and as 1866 matches up with the rest of my census records, that may well be him. Radobytce, the village 1866 Jan is from, is just under 11 miles from Písek, well within the district, and even close enough to justify Písek being named as the closest town on his passenger list. All in all, I have a plan to move forward from here, but it was still time for a break.
For quite a while now, Jamie and I have been trying to get his mother out to the Family History Library, as she's been tracing back her side of their family. There's one particular line that's proving elusive, their descent from a Ian Esom Farris, originally of the Rutherglen and Edinburgh areas of Scotland, but who emigrated to what is now North Carolina in the 1660s. A lot of people seem to be looking for this particular ancestor, but all the information is what was gleaned from a family Bible that burned in a house fire several decades ago. What I'm setting out to do is verify what I can, see what else I can uncover, and determine if there's a way to get the line further back. It's a challenge that will give me a much-needed break from the Vanicek line, and get me brownie points with the future MIL at the same time. What can I say? I love adventure.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Trouble In Trebon, Part Two
Sixteen parishes searched, and I have a potential match. This Jan Vanĕček was born on 31 July 1866, which is six months before the date the census gives, but I'm not ruling it out yet. Also, there's a notation with the record that has me puzzled: 'lev lit. 13 března 1869' (13 March 1869). I have no idea what the 'lev lit.' is referring to, but I'll be asking the Czech genealogy mailing list, that's for sure. In case it was a death date, I checked that book as well, and didn't find anything. I'm still looking, as that census was a bit too precise to be ignored, but for now, I at least have a good lead. Optimism has its benefits after all.
Trouble In Trebon, Part One
Armed with my all-powerful database and a whole lot of determination (and caffeine), I've started making my way through the Písek parishes in search of Johann Vanicek, born January 1867. I'm currently at twelve out of thirty-seven parishes searched, roughly one-third of the way, and still no luck. Now, I know I still have twenty-five to go, I'm just worried that I won't find him, and I have no further clues to go on. I don't do well with dead-ends, as I'm convinced they're just a matter of mindset and can be gotten around, but if this doesn't pan out, I don't have a back-up plan. I don't know where else to search from here. If this were Oma's side, I could step back and say, 'All right, I did my best, I can walk away,' but this is Pop-pop's side. He's the one who got me hooked on history, and I know being able to find this out would mean a lot to him. That means even if I could talk myself into giving up for my own reasons, I have to figure this out for his sake. Time for my usual eternal optimist to make a comeback, and convince myself that I'll find him in the other two-thirds of the parishes.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Pillaging The Pilsen Archives, Part Two
The first thing I did once I got home from my grandparents' was to pull up my Neuhaus Lihls file and see just how much of the work I'd already done. Needless to say, I was rather proud of myself when it turned out I had Johann, his parents Simon Lihl and Johanna Lorenz, and Simon's parents Johann Lihl and Barbara Heidler. I'm in the process of pulling up exact dates, as well as trying to decipher hometowns in the parish records, but I currently have the line back to 1763 and am hoping to take it back beyond that. That's assuming I can continue to read the Old German script, however, and considering it's take a considerable amount of help and practise so far, we'll see how it goes.
Ask, And Ye Shall Receive
It's amazing how things work out when you let people know you're looking for things. While over at my grandparents' for the weekly visit, Pop-pop just happened to be going through the mass of paperwork in his office, and found an envelope that contained Gustav's death certificate. I had tried and failed to get a hold of it through Ancestry.com, so I was pleasantly surprised and a bit excited as I made a copy. I then figured if they had Gustav's, they might have Emma's, and that missing link could be filled in. It turns out Oma has a lockbox full of documentation, and after some searching, we were able to find Emma's death certificate, and remember that file of Neuhaus Lihls I had going? The certificate recorded Emma's parents as Johann and Agatha Lihl, and you guessed it! I had a Johann Lihl and Agatha Eltner on the list. Jelení 22 might not be up yet, but I'm a resourceful little thing, and found a way around it. I still need it for Emma's siblings, but I think I can safely say I'll be kept busy tracing back Johann and Agatha to pass the time.
To Beu Or Not To Beu
On 4 January, I arrived at the Family History Library right as the doors were opening. I'd waited a month for those films, and damn it, I wasn't going to wait any longer. With me was my saint of a fiancé, who has patiently listened to more rants, vents, and squealing, happy gushes than anyone should have to, and he made the wise decision to bring a book while I scrolled through the microfilms. I was able to find the full names and dates of birth for Ludwig's siblings, Hermann's siblings, and Ludwig's wife Johanna, and also found out that Johann remarried, though I can't find records of Dorothea's death or the second marriage to a Sophia Krenzin (or Krenzien). Four hours later, I left with a whole batch of new information to trace through the census records, and ordered the next sets of Ribnitz parish records, which I'm currently waiting on. Hopefully, they'll be arriving soon.
As I've been simultaneously going through the records for the Lutheran Beus and the Catholic Lihls, I've noticed a tendency with given names that surprises me somewhat. In Ribnitz and Rostock, children are given two or three middle names, while in Neuhaus and the surrounding areas, the children only have a first name, occasionally a second. I would have expected the Catholics to have multiple names as opposed to the Lutherans, but it's quite the opposite. That's something I want to look into and find out the reasons for, but for now, it's making it easier to separate Carl Daniel Christian from his half-brother, Carl August Johann Wilhelm. And no, I won't say that five times fast.
As I've been simultaneously going through the records for the Lutheran Beus and the Catholic Lihls, I've noticed a tendency with given names that surprises me somewhat. In Ribnitz and Rostock, children are given two or three middle names, while in Neuhaus and the surrounding areas, the children only have a first name, occasionally a second. I would have expected the Catholics to have multiple names as opposed to the Lutherans, but it's quite the opposite. That's something I want to look into and find out the reasons for, but for now, it's making it easier to separate Carl Daniel Christian from his half-brother, Carl August Johann Wilhelm. And no, I won't say that five times fast.
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
Ancestry.com has the Mecklenburg-Schwerin census records online, for 1819, 1867, 1890, and 1900, and that was how I was able to trace the Beu line from Gustav, to Hermann, to Ludwig, and finally to Johann, though without the parish records, I didn't think I had a way to get Johann's birthdate. I had already searched for Johann Beu in the 1819 census with no results, and thought I was stuck. I was pretty sure Oma would be happy with what I'd found so far, but for me, it wasn't enough. It was Christmas Eve, and I hadn't made as much progress as I'd hoped. A normal, sane person probably would have cut their losses right then, but as I'm neither normal nor sane, I decided it was time for a Hail Mary.
Having turned up no results for Johann Beu, I typed in Johanna Grädener, and got something of a Christmas miracle. Just as the clock was turning midnight, I found Johann and his wife in the 1819 census, and discovered that someone had transcribed the results as Johann Ben instead of Beu, and that's why previous searches had turned up nothing. From the census records, I got their dates of birth, as well as the fact that Johann was a sailor, Johanna went by her middle name of Dorothea (Johanna is probably THE most common name for a German girl in this period, so it was probably to avoid confusion, though I prefer Dorothea of the two names), and she was from Rostock. This meant that I now had the Beu line back to 1792, and it made me feel a lot better about what I'd be able to put in Oma's book. I might not have been able to do anything with her mother's line, but I could do a lot with her father's side.
I made sure the scrapbooks were the last presents to be opened, and got a few photos of Oma and Pop-pop opening them and starting to go through them. Pop-pop seemed to be near tears and Oma was speechless, so I was quite happy with the reaction. What surprised me, however, was that the first thing everyone said upon looking through the books was, 'Wow, this is a LOT of work!' I didn't expect that to be the first thought everyone had, even though I had to admit that it WAS a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. The sheer amount of knowledge I now have about my family was a gift to myself, and it's a relief that now, this won't all be lost when my grandparents pass away. The Christmas gift was only the start, and this is going to continue as far back as I can get it, so sit back and get comfortable. This adventure is far from over.
Having turned up no results for Johann Beu, I typed in Johanna Grädener, and got something of a Christmas miracle. Just as the clock was turning midnight, I found Johann and his wife in the 1819 census, and discovered that someone had transcribed the results as Johann Ben instead of Beu, and that's why previous searches had turned up nothing. From the census records, I got their dates of birth, as well as the fact that Johann was a sailor, Johanna went by her middle name of Dorothea (Johanna is probably THE most common name for a German girl in this period, so it was probably to avoid confusion, though I prefer Dorothea of the two names), and she was from Rostock. This meant that I now had the Beu line back to 1792, and it made me feel a lot better about what I'd be able to put in Oma's book. I might not have been able to do anything with her mother's line, but I could do a lot with her father's side.
I made sure the scrapbooks were the last presents to be opened, and got a few photos of Oma and Pop-pop opening them and starting to go through them. Pop-pop seemed to be near tears and Oma was speechless, so I was quite happy with the reaction. What surprised me, however, was that the first thing everyone said upon looking through the books was, 'Wow, this is a LOT of work!' I didn't expect that to be the first thought everyone had, even though I had to admit that it WAS a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. The sheer amount of knowledge I now have about my family was a gift to myself, and it's a relief that now, this won't all be lost when my grandparents pass away. The Christmas gift was only the start, and this is going to continue as far back as I can get it, so sit back and get comfortable. This adventure is far from over.
Murphy's Law At Work
On my first visit to the Family History Library early last November, I ordered eight microfilms: four indexes of the Grundbuchblätter for Vanicek and Schiffer, three sets of Ribnitz parish records, one set of Bridgetown, Barbados birth records, and a partridge in a pear tree. I was told they took about two or three weeks to arrive, so I figured it would be plenty of time for Christmas. I forgot about Murphy's Law.
As hoped for, four of the films came in the first week of December: three of the Grundbuchblätter indexes and one set of Ribnitz records, for 1801-1824. I was all excited, hoping those would have what I was looking for, but the Grundbuchblätter indexes were a bust and though I found Ludwig Beu in the parish records, it only gave me his parents' names without any further information. I needed 1825-1842 and 1843-1861 to fill in some more blanks, including Oma's grandfather Hermann Beu (Ludwig's son). The other problem was that I would be away from the 13th to the 19th of December on a family trip, and I didn't know if the library would be open from the 20th to the 24th. I was starting to get rather nervous, as I only had a week before I left. I joked that they would probably come in the day after we left. I have since learned to keep my mouth shut.
It turns out the four films were back-ordered, and they came in on the 16th, while the library would be closed from the 19th until 4 January. I was laughing while I listened to that voicemail, though probably to keep from crying. I was SOOOOOO close, and yet so far. Between then and Christmas, my only options were what I could find online, but it seemed that someone decided I had stressed out enough and was going to give me a break...
As hoped for, four of the films came in the first week of December: three of the Grundbuchblätter indexes and one set of Ribnitz records, for 1801-1824. I was all excited, hoping those would have what I was looking for, but the Grundbuchblätter indexes were a bust and though I found Ludwig Beu in the parish records, it only gave me his parents' names without any further information. I needed 1825-1842 and 1843-1861 to fill in some more blanks, including Oma's grandfather Hermann Beu (Ludwig's son). The other problem was that I would be away from the 13th to the 19th of December on a family trip, and I didn't know if the library would be open from the 20th to the 24th. I was starting to get rather nervous, as I only had a week before I left. I joked that they would probably come in the day after we left. I have since learned to keep my mouth shut.
It turns out the four films were back-ordered, and they came in on the 16th, while the library would be closed from the 19th until 4 January. I was laughing while I listened to that voicemail, though probably to keep from crying. I was SOOOOOO close, and yet so far. Between then and Christmas, my only options were what I could find online, but it seemed that someone decided I had stressed out enough and was going to give me a break...
The Vanicek Republic
Now, for some more on Pop-pop's side of the family...
Pop-pop's mother was Mary Vanicek, daughter of Johann (or Jan or John, the spelling changes depending on the document) Vanicek from Bohemia and Marie Schiffer (or Schiffert, again with spelling changes), who was herself the child of two Bohemian immigrants, John Charles and Anna Schiffer. Vanicek is a very Czech surname, especially with the original accented letters (Vániček), though I don't know whether Czech or German was his native language. This would help narrow down which areas of Bohemia I'd be looking for, but no such luck. My only lead has been his passenger list, which cites him and a group of people directly below his name as being from Písek. The itty, bitty, ever-so-slightly frustrating problem is that Písek is a district as well as a city, and the passenger list makes no distinction. I knew then that this was going to get more complicated than I had foreseen.
Yet again, the fact that I was searching in a Germanic-influenced territory means that the bureaucracy and organisation were exceptionally good, in spite of the constant changing of hands. One source I was pointed toward is the Grundbuchblätter, which is the records of the Austrian-Hungarian Army. Men were obligated to serve for three years, starting when they were twenty, so one would think that Johann would be there. As usual with this project, it wasn't going to be that easy. I also had another clue: a census that listed his birth as January 1867. As the other birth dates for the family from that census have proven correct, I'm assuming this one is as well (always dangerous, I know), but that makes for a complication: Johann emigrated in January/February of 1888, which is right around his twenty-first birthday. I have a sneaky suspicion that he emigrated to avoid being drafted, and that would explain not finding him in the Grundbuchblätter. Frustrating, yes, but I had another option.
Písek falls under the Trebon Archives, and the amount they have online is amazing. Having the January 1867 date makes things a little easier, though to be safe, I'm searching the whole ten-year period from 1860-1870. I still have to search every parish in the district, however, and this is where my OCD tendencies come into play once more.
There are thirty-nine parishes within the Písek district. I'm still not sure whether to be overwhelmed by that, or relieved. I think I'm probably a bit of both. Given that I'd only like to search each one once, I quickly decided I was going to have to make sure I could keep it as organised as possible, and created another database, which I could search through by parish name, distance from the main city of Písek, or whether I'd already searched it or not. Sure, I got a few chuckles and rolled eyes for it, mostly from the future hubby, but if it saves time and helps me keep track of everything, I can put up with the teasing, especially as it's good-natured. I started with the city Písek, trying to rule out the most obvious answer before I started on the smaller parishes, and didn't find Johann, but I've only searched four parishes, have eliminated two that were different names for the same parish, and I have thirty-three to go. I'm still hopeful there.
Pop-pop's mother was Mary Vanicek, daughter of Johann (or Jan or John, the spelling changes depending on the document) Vanicek from Bohemia and Marie Schiffer (or Schiffert, again with spelling changes), who was herself the child of two Bohemian immigrants, John Charles and Anna Schiffer. Vanicek is a very Czech surname, especially with the original accented letters (Vániček), though I don't know whether Czech or German was his native language. This would help narrow down which areas of Bohemia I'd be looking for, but no such luck. My only lead has been his passenger list, which cites him and a group of people directly below his name as being from Písek. The itty, bitty, ever-so-slightly frustrating problem is that Písek is a district as well as a city, and the passenger list makes no distinction. I knew then that this was going to get more complicated than I had foreseen.
Yet again, the fact that I was searching in a Germanic-influenced territory means that the bureaucracy and organisation were exceptionally good, in spite of the constant changing of hands. One source I was pointed toward is the Grundbuchblätter, which is the records of the Austrian-Hungarian Army. Men were obligated to serve for three years, starting when they were twenty, so one would think that Johann would be there. As usual with this project, it wasn't going to be that easy. I also had another clue: a census that listed his birth as January 1867. As the other birth dates for the family from that census have proven correct, I'm assuming this one is as well (always dangerous, I know), but that makes for a complication: Johann emigrated in January/February of 1888, which is right around his twenty-first birthday. I have a sneaky suspicion that he emigrated to avoid being drafted, and that would explain not finding him in the Grundbuchblätter. Frustrating, yes, but I had another option.
Písek falls under the Trebon Archives, and the amount they have online is amazing. Having the January 1867 date makes things a little easier, though to be safe, I'm searching the whole ten-year period from 1860-1870. I still have to search every parish in the district, however, and this is where my OCD tendencies come into play once more.
There are thirty-nine parishes within the Písek district. I'm still not sure whether to be overwhelmed by that, or relieved. I think I'm probably a bit of both. Given that I'd only like to search each one once, I quickly decided I was going to have to make sure I could keep it as organised as possible, and created another database, which I could search through by parish name, distance from the main city of Písek, or whether I'd already searched it or not. Sure, I got a few chuckles and rolled eyes for it, mostly from the future hubby, but if it saves time and helps me keep track of everything, I can put up with the teasing, especially as it's good-natured. I started with the city Písek, trying to rule out the most obvious answer before I started on the smaller parishes, and didn't find Johann, but I've only searched four parishes, have eliminated two that were different names for the same parish, and I have thirty-three to go. I'm still hopeful there.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Ribnitz: Isn't That On The French Riviera?
No, that would be Biarritz. Ribnitz is on the northern coast of Germany, formerly in the duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and happens to be the hometown of the Beu branch of my family. It took me a year to find it, but once I did, things started falling into place with startling ease.
Now, we come to the place where everyone has gotten to know me on a first-name basis: the local branch of the Family History Library. An absolute goldmine to anyone researching their families, as they've microfilmed as many records from all over the world as possible and make them available to anyone for only the cost of shipping. Among other things, they have all the parish records for Ribnitz going back to the 1600s, and as the census records could only take me so far, the parish records would get me the rest of the way. Sure enough...
Starting with what I was able to discover from the census records, I knew that Gustav's parents were Hermann and Caroline and Hermann's parents were Ludwig and Johanna, as well as years of birth and siblings' names, but that was all. Sure, it seems like a lot, but I'm a perfectionist. This was the side Oma really wanted to know about, so damn it, I was going to deliver. Then, the parish records came in and filled some of the holes:
Gustav was the son of Hermann Johann Karl Beu and Caroline (maiden name still unknown, for now), born 7 March 1891 and died 20 June 1963.
Hermann was the son of Ludwig Friedrich Andreas Beu and Johanna Sophie Louise Westphal (I think where Oma got the idea that her father was from Westfalen), born 27 February 1855 and died 1926/1927.
Ludwig was the son of Johann Henrich Daniel Beu and (Johanna) Dorothea Lisetta Grädener, born 12 September 1824 and died 2 May 1885.
I know Johann was born 23 October 1792, his wife 12 August 1792, but as I'm waiting for the pre-1800 film to come in, I don't have his parents' names yet. I do know, however, that Johann was a sailor, Ludwig owned a photography studio, and both Johanna Westphal and Dorothea Grädener were from the neighbouring town of Rostock. I like to think Johann's love of the sea runs in our blood, because Gustav was also a sailor, I grew up going out on Oma and Pop-pop's sailboat every summer weekend that wasn't stormy (and one or two that were), and I can't think of anyone in our family who doesn't love the ocean. Maybe things like that really do run in the genes.
Now, we come to the place where everyone has gotten to know me on a first-name basis: the local branch of the Family History Library. An absolute goldmine to anyone researching their families, as they've microfilmed as many records from all over the world as possible and make them available to anyone for only the cost of shipping. Among other things, they have all the parish records for Ribnitz going back to the 1600s, and as the census records could only take me so far, the parish records would get me the rest of the way. Sure enough...
Starting with what I was able to discover from the census records, I knew that Gustav's parents were Hermann and Caroline and Hermann's parents were Ludwig and Johanna, as well as years of birth and siblings' names, but that was all. Sure, it seems like a lot, but I'm a perfectionist. This was the side Oma really wanted to know about, so damn it, I was going to deliver. Then, the parish records came in and filled some of the holes:
Gustav was the son of Hermann Johann Karl Beu and Caroline (maiden name still unknown, for now), born 7 March 1891 and died 20 June 1963.
Hermann was the son of Ludwig Friedrich Andreas Beu and Johanna Sophie Louise Westphal (I think where Oma got the idea that her father was from Westfalen), born 27 February 1855 and died 1926/1927.
Ludwig was the son of Johann Henrich Daniel Beu and (Johanna) Dorothea Lisetta Grädener, born 12 September 1824 and died 2 May 1885.
I know Johann was born 23 October 1792, his wife 12 August 1792, but as I'm waiting for the pre-1800 film to come in, I don't have his parents' names yet. I do know, however, that Johann was a sailor, Ludwig owned a photography studio, and both Johanna Westphal and Dorothea Grädener were from the neighbouring town of Rostock. I like to think Johann's love of the sea runs in our blood, because Gustav was also a sailor, I grew up going out on Oma and Pop-pop's sailboat every summer weekend that wasn't stormy (and one or two that were), and I can't think of anyone in our family who doesn't love the ocean. Maybe things like that really do run in the genes.
Pillaging The Pilsen Archives, Part One
Once I found out that the Jelení parish records were online at the Pilsen (or Plzen in Czech) Archives, I headed over to the website, registered, and was all excited, thinking this was the big break. And it was, in a way. There was just one problem. The Jelení books were online, but the birth books (so far) only go up to 1887. Emma was born in 1892. Given that this was two months before Christmas, I was a little frustrated, to say the least, but upon some closer checking and e-mailing some of the archivists, I found out that the book I need, Jelení 22, exists, but only recently arrived at the archives and is still being filmed. That meant finding Emma's birth record, and those of her siblings, was put on hold for the time being, so I got a little bored, let the OCD take over, and set myself a mini-project.
It turns out that there are a LOT of Lihls in the Neuhaus/Hirschenstand area, so I decided to write down every Lihl in the books online by household (because the parish priests were wonderful and put the house numbers next to birth, marriage, and death entries), so that when I finally got the names of Emma's parents, I'd have her family back to roughly 1785. I could also see Emma's cousins, how all the Lihls were related, etc. Is it OCD? Sure, but so be it. It's also helping me stay really organised, and as part of this project is to see if Oma has any cousins still there, it works. I'm currently organising it into a database, to make it even easier on me. Ah, the practical benefits of OCD...:-)
Another good thing about the parish records, at least the Jelení ones, is that in the birth records, the priests usually added when that child was married and to whom, and frequently, when they died. It means that in one entry, you have most of a person's life, which makes research much easier. They also usually have an index in the back of each book. There are decided benefits to Austro-German bureaucracy and efficiency, I can assure you.
So now, I'm back to the waiting game. Once Jelení 22 is online, I can grab the records I need, find out about Oma's aunts and uncles, and get to work tracking down her cousins. Should be quite an adventure.
It turns out that there are a LOT of Lihls in the Neuhaus/Hirschenstand area, so I decided to write down every Lihl in the books online by household (because the parish priests were wonderful and put the house numbers next to birth, marriage, and death entries), so that when I finally got the names of Emma's parents, I'd have her family back to roughly 1785. I could also see Emma's cousins, how all the Lihls were related, etc. Is it OCD? Sure, but so be it. It's also helping me stay really organised, and as part of this project is to see if Oma has any cousins still there, it works. I'm currently organising it into a database, to make it even easier on me. Ah, the practical benefits of OCD...:-)
Another good thing about the parish records, at least the Jelení ones, is that in the birth records, the priests usually added when that child was married and to whom, and frequently, when they died. It means that in one entry, you have most of a person's life, which makes research much easier. They also usually have an index in the back of each book. There are decided benefits to Austro-German bureaucracy and efficiency, I can assure you.
So now, I'm back to the waiting game. Once Jelení 22 is online, I can grab the records I need, find out about Oma's aunts and uncles, and get to work tracking down her cousins. Should be quite an adventure.
How It All Started
Let me preface this by saying I come from a very large family, most of which is close-knit, and I was lucky enough to know all four of my grandparents, two of whom are still alive and happily driving the rest of us bonkers. I'm also a history major and a polyglot, the result of growing up around other languages and being a sponge. I always loved the stories I was told about my family, and being blessed with a really good memory and a deep interest in people, I was never afraid to ask the questions and listened eagerly to the treasure trove of stories I got in response. I suppose all of this meant I was born to be an amateur genealogist, but it took something unexpected to get the actual project rolling.
In the summer of 2009, my Oma (my mother's mother) was diagnosed with colon cancer, and would be undergoing surgery. Despite the fact that she's a tough-as-nails German woman, she WAS eighty-eight and not in the best of health, so there were the obvious concerns that she might not make it through the surgery. She also has the early signs of dementia, and given that there's a limited amount of time that I know she'll remember things about her family, I made the decision to start asking questions and writing down as much as I could, so it wasn't lost. What I found was pretty amazing, and I made the decision that the resulting research would be my Christmas present to Oma and Pop-pop. It would be a scrapbook for each of them with their family history, including print-outs of the records I was finding, and the information typed up in a format easier for them to read. I figured if this didn't win me Grandchild Of The Year, nothing would.
I always knew I was named after Oma's aunt, Hannelore, but I never knew much about her. It turns out she was one of the ones who raised Oma and her brother for a time in Bohemia, and Oma still has very fond memories of her. I also never knew much about Oma's father (Gustav Beu), who left when she was rather young and went to Florida, bigamously marrying someone else without actually divorcing Oma's mother (Emma Lihl) but Oma told me about his being a captain in the German Navy before emigrating in 1914, and that his family owned a lumber mill. The only problem came in trying to get the hometowns of Oma's parents so that I could start looking. This was to prove the most time-consuming and aggravating part of the project.
To understand why this was such a problem, let me explain the history of Bohemia. Like the rest of Eastern Europe, it changed hands so many times that establishing where to start looking is dizzying.
I joined a German-Bohemian mailing list through Rootsweb, and made a contact that would make all the difference in my research. Aida, a native Sudeten German whose family was expelled, was able to help me narrow down which Neuhaus I was looking for, and I was able to confirm it by finding the passenger list for Emma, and finding her entire address, including that her Neuhaus was near Neudek (now Nejdek). This meant I was looking for Chaloupky, though the village was destroyed after the expulsion. The neighbouring village of Hirschentand (now Jelení, and where Hannelore lived) was my clue to finding the archives. After a year of searching, it was off to the Plzen Archives in the Czech Republic for me, or at least to their online archives. Thankfully, the Czech Republic is fantastic in regards to preserving parish records and scanning them so they can be viewed online. It proved a lifesaver for me.
Gustav was trickier. As I still haven't found the passenger list for when he emigrated, I didn't have the clue of a hometown to go on, and Oma was very insistent that he was from Westfalen (Westphalia in English). Multiple searches yielded nothing, and around the time I found Emma's hometown, I happened to ask Oma, in front of Pop-pop, whose memory is eerily good like mine, if she remembered any part of Gustav's hometown. Lo and behold, Pop-pop knew right away: Ribnitz. Oma agreed, and when I went home to look, I found him in the 1900 census almost immediately. Gustav Beu, Ribnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, along with his parents, Hermann and Caroline, and his siblings. The whole project had opened wide, and I had a lot more work ahead of me.
In the meantime, I wasn't just going to focus on Oma's line, or even my mother's side of the family. Pop-pop is also of Bohemian descent, and thanks to census records, have been able to trace his family back to the 1870s. His father also left when he was young and ended up in Florida, also marrying someone else (noticing a theme here?), so he only knew his dad (Vernon Roy Clarke) was of Irish descent. It turns out Roy, as he preferred to be called, was from Bridgetown, Barbados, though finding records for him was proving difficult. The same was proving true for his mother (Mary Vanicek) and her family. Again, I was dealing with Bohemia, but without any place names at all, even the German ones. My only clue on the Vanicek side is from Mary's father, Johann (or John, or Jan), whose passenger list says he was from Písek. Písek happens to be a district as well as a city, so I was faced with having to search an entire district's worth of parish records. It was at least a clue, though, which was more than I had for Johann's wife, Marie Schiffer or Schiffert, whose parents were from Bohemia, but with no clues as to their hometown. I knew then I was in for a long, hard search.
Then, to be fair, I started on my father's Spaulding side, especially since Daddy's the one interested in history as opposed to my mother, who doesn't give a toss. Thanks to Ancestry.com, tracing back his side was a piece of cake, though it had some unexpected twists. While tracing one line back, I was coming across names of the Marcher families, most of which I was familiar with due to a minor obsession with medieval British history. This is where the history and medieval studies majors of mine come into play, because the Marches were the border between England and Wales, and always a hotspot in this time period. Most of the lords spoke Welsh as well as Norman-French (no, English wasn't the official language yet), and frequently inter-married with the Welsh princes. Being familiar with this history, I was getting more and more excited, and then, I happened upon the names Giffard and Clifford, specifically in the marriage of Maud Clifford and John Giffard. That's when my heart just about stopped, because Maud's mother was Marared ferch Llywelyn, daughter of Llywelyn Fawr, Prince of Gwynedd. Having written a paper at Penn State on the marriage between Llywelyn and Joanna, illegitimate daughter of King John of England, and how it changed the Anglo-Welsh relations and even the development of Wales as a nation, to find them in my family tree had me dancing around and shrieking like a maniac, my amazingly-tolerant fiancé watching and shaking his head. There's no way to prove Marared was the legitimate daughter of Llywelyn and Joanna, as in Welsh law, there was no difference between legitimate and illegitimate children, but the case from the documentation we do have argues that Marared was Joanna's daughter. That means I most likely add John, his brother Richard the Lionheart, and his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine to the family tree. The medievalist in me still hasn't stopped partying over that one.
Due to the records kept on the Gwynedd line, I've been able to trace it back to roughly 450 AD through Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, and the Norse kings of Dublin, though at that year, the trail mostly goes cold, as the genealogies are all unreliable from there on. Not bad, for a newbie researcher.
The real challenge was all on my mother's side, and would prove the most enlightening as well as infuriating side for me, but I'm a stereotypical Taurus. I love challenges.
In the summer of 2009, my Oma (my mother's mother) was diagnosed with colon cancer, and would be undergoing surgery. Despite the fact that she's a tough-as-nails German woman, she WAS eighty-eight and not in the best of health, so there were the obvious concerns that she might not make it through the surgery. She also has the early signs of dementia, and given that there's a limited amount of time that I know she'll remember things about her family, I made the decision to start asking questions and writing down as much as I could, so it wasn't lost. What I found was pretty amazing, and I made the decision that the resulting research would be my Christmas present to Oma and Pop-pop. It would be a scrapbook for each of them with their family history, including print-outs of the records I was finding, and the information typed up in a format easier for them to read. I figured if this didn't win me Grandchild Of The Year, nothing would.
I always knew I was named after Oma's aunt, Hannelore, but I never knew much about her. It turns out she was one of the ones who raised Oma and her brother for a time in Bohemia, and Oma still has very fond memories of her. I also never knew much about Oma's father (Gustav Beu), who left when she was rather young and went to Florida, bigamously marrying someone else without actually divorcing Oma's mother (Emma Lihl) but Oma told me about his being a captain in the German Navy before emigrating in 1914, and that his family owned a lumber mill. The only problem came in trying to get the hometowns of Oma's parents so that I could start looking. This was to prove the most time-consuming and aggravating part of the project.
To understand why this was such a problem, let me explain the history of Bohemia. Like the rest of Eastern Europe, it changed hands so many times that establishing where to start looking is dizzying.
- Prior to 1867, Bohemia was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire
- After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, it was Austrian Crown lands
- In 1918, after the end of WWI, Bohemia became part of the new Czechoslovakia
- In 1938, the Sudetenland (which includes my family's home territory) was annexed by Germany
- In 1945, the Sudetenland returned to Czechoslovakia, but the ethnic Germans were expelled
- 1989 saw the split of Czechoslovakia into Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and Bohemia falls into the latter
I joined a German-Bohemian mailing list through Rootsweb, and made a contact that would make all the difference in my research. Aida, a native Sudeten German whose family was expelled, was able to help me narrow down which Neuhaus I was looking for, and I was able to confirm it by finding the passenger list for Emma, and finding her entire address, including that her Neuhaus was near Neudek (now Nejdek). This meant I was looking for Chaloupky, though the village was destroyed after the expulsion. The neighbouring village of Hirschentand (now Jelení, and where Hannelore lived) was my clue to finding the archives. After a year of searching, it was off to the Plzen Archives in the Czech Republic for me, or at least to their online archives. Thankfully, the Czech Republic is fantastic in regards to preserving parish records and scanning them so they can be viewed online. It proved a lifesaver for me.
Gustav was trickier. As I still haven't found the passenger list for when he emigrated, I didn't have the clue of a hometown to go on, and Oma was very insistent that he was from Westfalen (Westphalia in English). Multiple searches yielded nothing, and around the time I found Emma's hometown, I happened to ask Oma, in front of Pop-pop, whose memory is eerily good like mine, if she remembered any part of Gustav's hometown. Lo and behold, Pop-pop knew right away: Ribnitz. Oma agreed, and when I went home to look, I found him in the 1900 census almost immediately. Gustav Beu, Ribnitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, along with his parents, Hermann and Caroline, and his siblings. The whole project had opened wide, and I had a lot more work ahead of me.
In the meantime, I wasn't just going to focus on Oma's line, or even my mother's side of the family. Pop-pop is also of Bohemian descent, and thanks to census records, have been able to trace his family back to the 1870s. His father also left when he was young and ended up in Florida, also marrying someone else (noticing a theme here?), so he only knew his dad (Vernon Roy Clarke) was of Irish descent. It turns out Roy, as he preferred to be called, was from Bridgetown, Barbados, though finding records for him was proving difficult. The same was proving true for his mother (Mary Vanicek) and her family. Again, I was dealing with Bohemia, but without any place names at all, even the German ones. My only clue on the Vanicek side is from Mary's father, Johann (or John, or Jan), whose passenger list says he was from Písek. Písek happens to be a district as well as a city, so I was faced with having to search an entire district's worth of parish records. It was at least a clue, though, which was more than I had for Johann's wife, Marie Schiffer or Schiffert, whose parents were from Bohemia, but with no clues as to their hometown. I knew then I was in for a long, hard search.
Then, to be fair, I started on my father's Spaulding side, especially since Daddy's the one interested in history as opposed to my mother, who doesn't give a toss. Thanks to Ancestry.com, tracing back his side was a piece of cake, though it had some unexpected twists. While tracing one line back, I was coming across names of the Marcher families, most of which I was familiar with due to a minor obsession with medieval British history. This is where the history and medieval studies majors of mine come into play, because the Marches were the border between England and Wales, and always a hotspot in this time period. Most of the lords spoke Welsh as well as Norman-French (no, English wasn't the official language yet), and frequently inter-married with the Welsh princes. Being familiar with this history, I was getting more and more excited, and then, I happened upon the names Giffard and Clifford, specifically in the marriage of Maud Clifford and John Giffard. That's when my heart just about stopped, because Maud's mother was Marared ferch Llywelyn, daughter of Llywelyn Fawr, Prince of Gwynedd. Having written a paper at Penn State on the marriage between Llywelyn and Joanna, illegitimate daughter of King John of England, and how it changed the Anglo-Welsh relations and even the development of Wales as a nation, to find them in my family tree had me dancing around and shrieking like a maniac, my amazingly-tolerant fiancé watching and shaking his head. There's no way to prove Marared was the legitimate daughter of Llywelyn and Joanna, as in Welsh law, there was no difference between legitimate and illegitimate children, but the case from the documentation we do have argues that Marared was Joanna's daughter. That means I most likely add John, his brother Richard the Lionheart, and his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine to the family tree. The medievalist in me still hasn't stopped partying over that one.
Due to the records kept on the Gwynedd line, I've been able to trace it back to roughly 450 AD through Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, and the Norse kings of Dublin, though at that year, the trail mostly goes cold, as the genealogies are all unreliable from there on. Not bad, for a newbie researcher.
The real challenge was all on my mother's side, and would prove the most enlightening as well as infuriating side for me, but I'm a stereotypical Taurus. I love challenges.
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