Ancestry Saturday: The Thier Mystery is Declared Solved, But Now Explaining It!

In 1904, his mother dies in Wisconsin, but the obit refers to William Disselbrett as William Tirze instead.

His sister, Francisca Lichter dies in 1914 in Chicago and the Tribune obituary lists her maiden name as Thiers, not the name on her birth record from 1833 in Selm, Germany which gave her the last name Disselbrede.

In 1948, Fred Gerbracht dies and the California death record lists his mother Gertrude's maiden name as Thiers.  Disselbrede was Gertrude's surname on the 1845 baptismal record though.

This is the Thier mystery that I wrote about in March.  Is the name Disselbrede or is it Thier?  It's a mystery that began in 1796.  I'm intent on ending the mystery now, 217 years later.

Here's the latest.

On a recent trip to the Family History Center near me, I, gratefully, got to spend a couple of hours with a German genealogy researcher, Pat B., who, like me, marveled at the two-nation, two-century twist and turns in this family's name.  In the end, though, she agreed that my conclusions were sound and declared, "I think you've got this right." 

I'm now satisfied that my documentation is sufficient to declare the mystery solved.  Now, how do I explain it to the family, so many of which may be skeptical that though their family's name is Disselbrett, they are, by pedigree, a Thier instead.

I have the birth record for J.H. Thier in 1766 and the 1796 marriage record to his first wife, born a Disselbrede.  I have the general explanation for how men in Germany took on their wife's maiden name.  I have her death record in 1804 and his second marriage shortly thereafter too. 

Those documents will be part of the explanation.  Stay tuned for that.

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UPDATE:  As of October 20, 2013, the explanation, in an eight-part series, has begun.  See Part One.