More than 22 months of research went into filling out the tree and these two were, by far, the most elusive. I had everyone else's name within the first three months.
Why were they so tough? What were the lessons? Here's my sense of it.
Big Cities and Common Surnames Are Intimidating
I was looking for the surname Baker in big city Cleveland. I'll always remember the look of that Cleveland librarian when I asked if they had a surname file on the Baker family.
The search for a common surname in a big city can be intimidating. Plus, frankly, big city libraries and big city genealogy sources aren't as helpful to the researcher as smaller ones are often found to be.
It didn't stop me. However, regrettably, two trips to the Cleveland Library and one to the Western Reserve Historical Society produced nothing to help me close the gap in my research.
I should add. I did find one of the most helpful researchers on the planet at WRHS. This past Fall, he spent more than four hours trying to be the hero and find these people, but it was just as elusive to him as it was to me.
The Family Stories Were Incomplete or Inaccurate
My grandmother, Eugenia Baker Platt, was only 15 when her father died and she didn't share much information about her father. Plus, her only sibling, Adele Marie, reportedly had thrown away all of the family records.
All I really had to go on from passed on stories was the names Barbara and Elizabeth to associate with Andrew Alfred Baker. I was told he was from Germany. I also knew he was in the Spanish-American War. He lived in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Youngstown. He was a draftsman and, before that, a professional musician.
Incomplete and inaccurate family stories is nothing new. It's just in this case, it was downright dumbfounding. There was more needed to complete the story and work backward in the family tree.
Conflicting Information in Official Records Made it Tough
I went to online searches and found conflicting information everyplace there too. Andrew Alfred Baker's Youngstown obituary said he was born in Cleveland. His Stark County, Ohio-issued death certificate said Germany and so did two Censuses. His World War I draft registration was not apparently correct in his place of birth or year of birth.
Despite the conflicts, I chose to focus on Germany. My late father's notes and his sister's complete insistence kept me focused on Germany too. The search for immigrants rather than native-born proved to be the right one. I now believe he was born in Germany May 13, 1876.
A Conflicting Immigration Record Made it Tougher
My Dad had the story of Andrew's immigrating and soon after "climbing over his mother's fence" to join the Army. That would have placed his immigration at 1897.
My Aunt, though, told me in September 2013 that her version was that Andrew Alfred was as young as three when he came over from Germany. That would have placed the immigration in the 1879-1882 time frame.
Despite such a wide disparity, I looked in digital search engines for him among the vast immigration papers out there. I had found numerous Andrew or Alfred Bakers who immigrated in those time periods and some with mothers and/or sisters named Barbara and Elizabeth.
I also could not find naturalization papers, which would have been required if he came in 1897 and was no longer a minor. His war record neither mentioned foreign-birth nor naturalization.
All of those searches proved fruitless, I now know, because he was listed as sharing his mother's remarried surname, Albert. Plus, the immigration record was ripped where his name appears. No digital search was ever going to produce his name. I now believe it is him that immigrated in 1884 with his mother, sisters, and a step brother. His step father, Jacob Albert, came the year before.
I Was Mostly Alone In This Quest
Ancestry.com advertises on television so much that they have, almost single handedly, sparked a huge boom in family history research. Most of my great great grandparents have multiple people sharing in the research efforts on the website. However, there was no one looking for Andrew Alfred Baker's parents on the website. The "hints" that Ancestry.com is so well known for were just not there.
Andrew had two children, two grandchildren, four great grandchildren, and six great great grandchildren. In the grand scheme of things, that's not very many offspring. Plus, I'm the only one researching family history.
Though I've now found family members from his sister and step sister's descendants, they, too, did not have research or family stories that helped them connect back to Barbara (Fries) and Michael Baker. I was alone in this quest.
I've now spoken to a second cousin, once removed and attempted to correspond with others. The quest is growing.
A Sequence of Clues
When he gave his next of kin in his War physical record, the street address was given that was a big clue. I had that in 2012, I just didn't have enough information to go with it to help me match up the family living at that address--the Alberts--until later.
His obit I obtained in October 2012 concluded he was survived "by his mother, two sisters, and a brother in Cleveland." That turned out to be true. However, without the names in the obit, it was mostly useless until the end of the research.
My Dad had the names Barbara and Elizabeth and his sister confirmed those two names too. It wasn't clear which was the mother and which the sister. Given the puzzle this turned out to be, though, these name clues were crucial to keeping the hunt going.
However, another key clue came from a family generational chart that I didn't know I had until November 2013. It was when I got the name Michael Baker that I first found Barbara Fries and Elizabeth Baker with whom to associate. That association was key.
The spark, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, was my Aunt sharing the contents of a marriage certificate that confirmed Michael and Barbara Baker were Andrew's parent's names. That confirmation from something more than just memorized records or stories helped to focus attention on the people I had been researching.
Things I Now Know That I Wish I Knew Then
FamilySearch.org tends to work best sometimes when you enter less information rather than more. Instead of entering Barbara Fries, my great great grandmother's maiden name, to search for her, I should have sooner than I did enter Barbara for her first name, Fries for her father's last name, and Ohio after 1923 for her place of death. I had those clues months before.
SteveMorse.org has a feature to search for street names in some Census years. Though it didn't help me find my great grandfather in the 1900 Census, it could have helped me find his mother and sister sooner if I had used the tool to look for 1054 Lorain Street in the 1900 Census in Cleveland. I still would have needed something more to help me link the Alberts to my ancestors, but this tool is useful nonetheless.
Lastly, there was no shortcut. If some other family member had done this research, I might have had more clues. I could have found them at small-town genealogy centers or online. But since it hadn't been done before as best I can tell, this was the path that it took.
Good things come to those who wait, and persevere.
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