Ohio Ancestors 2013 Year in Review

I'm reading newspaper updates on the stories of the past year.  Why not a blog version?

Here's some updates on the ohioancestors.blogspot.com columns from the past year.

My column of the year was the eight-part series titled Solved: The Their-Disselbrede Mystery.  The update is that my father-in-law has, for the first time, visited the cemetery where his grandparents William and Barbara Disselbrett are buried.  It was a less than 30 minute trip, but he never knew where to look.

Trading Finds was about Elaine in Wisconsin.  She sent me a photo of my kids' third great grandfather as a trade for my finding some records for her.  I traded back again when I sent her one that included her great grandfather a few months later in Are These The Same People?

I preached, mostly to myself, the need to document vital records for my five-generation family tree in March.  I celebrated finding the elusive Gretna Green marriage of Royal and Grace Smith Platt in August though.

The digital photo matching search for which regimental band trombonist was my great grandfather proved right on.  More From The Mogon Attic brought an end to the mystery and showed the value of digital photo face matching software.

That great Mogon Attic find was a true highlight for the year too.  I'm Facebook friends with my second cousin once removed, third cousin, and third cousin once removed in Pittsburgh now.  There's little chance of losing that connection now.

I puzzled about Group Think in Genealogy that had me wondering who were the  parents of Thomas Worthington Sanders.  Now, months later, I found my cousin in Eastern Ohio admitting that he doesn't know where the name Worthington as Thomas' middle name came from in the first place.  I've taken that name down and posted an update to the columns on it.  Since I've now also located an obit and a photo of Thomas W. Sanders, I'll have more to say about this in the future.

In September, I sweated out the acceptance of my "proof" of James McConnell being in Ohio pre-statehood.  Not long after, I got accepted into the First Families of Ohio lineage society with the coveted pre-statehood status to boot thanks to James McConnell.  Oh yeah, they generously added some ancestors I hadn't even sought too.

On Veterans' Day, I put my first list of Revolutionary War patriots together and marveled that my kids could boast, by my research, at least 21 patriots in their bloodline.  This month, I grew the list to 27.

2014 has more mysteries to solve.  Stay tuned.

Solved: The Thier-Disselbrede Mystery - Part 8 - Final

William Disselbrett is my kids' great great grandfather and, thus, at that top of their Mom's side of their five-generation family tree.

It's his five-generation family tree, though, that has more twists and turns than most ancestors so close to us in age do.

This piecing together of facts and hypothesis forms an overall theory that William Disselbrett and his descendants actually descend from the surname Thier, not Disselbrett.

I hope I've explained it in a way that both makes sense and is entertaining along the way.  This has been the most difficult and the most intriguing of my personal research projects since first taking up this hobby of genealogy in early 2012.

I'm grateful to the people who helped make these conclusions possible.  First, there are the institutions.  FamilySearch.org and the Church of Jesus Christ's Family History Library's vast collection of microfilms.  Thanks to the LDS church, I can see records from over 200 years ago in another country.  That's been key.

The Burlington Historical Society in Burlington, Wisconsin was of huge help. Don, there, maintains a vast collection that anyone with ancestors in Burlington is lucky to enjoy in completing their research.

I'm grateful to Pat Berens at the Reynoldsburg Family History Center who helped scrutinize the material I've presented.  Any mistakes in logic are all mine though, but when she concluded, "I think you have this right" it inspired me to take the final step of publishing my findings.

I'm grateful to fellow researchers who have searched this family's surname via William Disselbrett's sisters--Jane McCullough (Gertrude), Fred Timp (Mary Catherine), and Carolyn Gipp (Francisca)

I'm especially grateful to Debbie Bluett and Elaine Zarnstorff who are also descendants of William Disselbrett's mother Angela Elizabeth Moeller Disselbrede Koldeway.  Elaine is the one who boldly sought out the emigration records in Selm and, best of all, shared them with everyone else so they could be found and expanded upon by others.  One of the highlights of my genealogy research is getting to share the fact that I had found Elaine's great grandmother's baptismal and marriage records in Germany during my trip to Salt Lake City in February.  They weren't in any index so that find opened a lot more generations.

And I'm grateful to my cousin David Armstrong who has been a genealogical coach to me and who has emphasized, with a mathematician's sense, of the need for accuracy in one's family tree.  I'm trying to approximate that as much as I can.

Lastly, I hope, now, my father-in-law can drive down the road a few miles and visit his grandfather's grave in Browerville knowing quite a bit more about William Disselbrett and the family's name.  I've made sure William's great great grandkids do.

Solved: The Thier-Disselbrede Mystery - Part 7

William Disselbrett isn't a Disselbrett after all, at least not by bloodline.  His grandfather was born J.H. Thier in 1766 and took on the name Disselbrede after a 1796 marriage.

The purpose of publishing this series, though, is to put the twists and turns to the test.  And before I can conclude that, I have to explain a few more leaps in logic.

Here, again, is J.H. Thier's baptismal record from 1766.  He was the son of Joannes Bernard Thier and Anna Gertrudis Mertens.

But anyone who would search FamilySearch.org for those parents would find another J.H. Thier baptized June 3, 1761. 

How do one set of parents at the same church in Olfen end up with two children by the same name born five years apart?

Tragedy explains it.  Henry Thier died February 24, 1766 at age 5.

So, here's the sequence:

Joannes Henricus Thier baptized 3 Jun 1761
Joannes Henricus Thier baptized 6 Jan 1766
Henricus Thier - age 5 - died 24 Feb 1766

It wasn't uncommon to name one child the same as a preceding child when there was the death of a child, or in this case I theorize, a pending death.  It wasn't uncommon, either, to go by your middle name, instead of your first name.  I present this sequence for scrutiny.

Someone may have also noticed the difference of J.H. Thier's birth in the baptismal record--January 6, 1766--and in the Selm emigration records--June 6, 1769.

My explanation also is a leap in logic that's up there for challenge.  It could just be a simple error or one brought on over the passing of time.  After all, there are 80 years between J.H. Thier's birth and his voyage to America.  It's not that hard to err and transcribe 6 Jun 1769 as 6 Jan 1766 instead.

Lastly, a person baptized on June 6, 1769 at Saint Vitus in Olfen had three similiarities.  J.H. Sanners had the given name Joannes Henricus, was born to a father Bernard, and was born to a mother with the maiden name Thier.  Though interesting similarities, I dismiss them as as mere coincidence.

Twists aside, our J.H. Their was born in 1766.

Part Eight has the family tree of William Disselbrett and the conclusion.

Solved: The Thier-Disselbrede Mystery - Part 6

William Disselbrett's bloodline comes from a grandfather born J.H. Thier.  His grandmother's bloodline is not Disselbrede, though, it's Dreyer.

Here's what happened.

J.H. Thier Disselbrede's first wife, Anna Sybila Disselbrede, dies in early 1804.  Though their eight-year marriage produced three children, none of them were William Disselbrett's father, Wilhelm.

The zoom in on J.H. Thier's name in the 1804 marriage record.

It was the marriage later in 1804 that produced the blood line for our hero William Disselbrett.  His grandfather, J.H. Thier Disselbrede (and the marriage record mentions both names) married Maria Gertrude Dreyer.

The mention of Olfen in this Selm church marriage record and the godparents' surnames only add more support to the idea that this is our J.H. Their Disselbrede.

Ann Gertrude Dreyer Disselbrede would die 12 years before William Disselbrett was born and 16 years before her husband, J.H. Thier Disselbrede, would board the ship Ontario and take the confusing name change twists with him to America.

There's still more twists, though, before we can declare this mystery solved. 

Part Seven takes on the last few twists.

Solved: The Thier-Disselbrede Mystery - Part 5

In 1796, William Disselbrett's grandfather J.H. Thier married a woman who's father was Jodocus Henricus Disselbrede.  Thus began this confusion between which is the name.  Is it Disselbrede or is it Thier?  The confusion started in Germany.

It's confused even more by this marriage record.  When J.H. Their and Anna Sybilla Gertrudis Disselbrede wed in 1796, the Selm, Germany church record had her and her father going by the surname of her mother, Langerman.  No Disselbrede mentioned.

FamilySearch.org has another explanation for this family name change with the index of the diocescan baptismal record for Anna Sybilla Gertrude Disselbrede.  It reads "Jodocus Henrich Disselbrede or Langermann."

Any way you look at it though, it's another leap.  This is one family, but in the span of two generations there were two name changes.  I contend that these are the same people.

The 1803 baptismal record for J.H. and Anna Sybilla's third child also holds some clues.

Zoom into the father's name.  It references "Jon Henrich Disselbrede born Thier."  The word kottar means cultivator or farmer.

The godparents appear to be young Maria Getrude's grandparents, her fraternal grandmother "Gertrude Disselbrede born Langerman" and her paternal grandfather Joannes Bernardus Their.

But, as I wrote in Part 4, Anna Sybilla Gertrude Disselbrede Langerman is not William Disselbrett's grandmother. 

Part Six explains how that can be.

Solved: The Thier-Disselbrede Mystery - Part 4

William Disselbrett came over from Germany in 1846 when he was four years old.  His grandfather, J.H. Disselbrede was on that ship too.  Mysteriously, J.H. also had the name Thier with his surname on the ship's records.

How does someone end up with two last names on the ship's record?

Here's how.

J.H. was baptized on January 9, 1766 as Joannes Henricus Thier in Olfen, Germany.  He was the son of Joannes Bernardus Thier and Anna Gertrude Mertens. 

But, in 1796, he married a woman who's father's surname was Disselbrede when she was born in 1770. His first wife's birth name was Anna Sybilla Gertrudis Disselbrede.  Her father was Jodocus.

This is key:  It's my strong contention that it's from Jodocus Henrich Disselbrede that the name Disselbrede first came into this family.

In the Westfalen part of Germany at this time, a man would take on the last name of his father-in-law in order to carry on the family name associated with a family farm.  J.H. Thier was a farmer so this seems likely what happened that brought J.H. Thier to start answering, interchangeably, with the name Disselbrede.
The twists aren't done yet though.

Anna Sybilla Gertrudis Disselbrede was J.H. Thiers first wife.  She wasn't our hero William Disselbrett's grandmother though.  Plus, there's this Langerman thing.

Part Five explains these twists within the twists.

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UPDATE: I found this brief explanation of the pattern of name changing on Ancestry.com. It reads, "When the common lands were divided and farms were installed here in Prussia, the name and the house # became a part of the farm. That means when the heir was a wife, her husband had to take over her name at the moment of the marriage. This law was in function until about 1825 and when the father-in-law was very conservative, he took care that this later was also used until about 1840 to 1850."

Solved: The Thier-Disselbrede Mystery - Part 3

William Disselbrett was born, married, and died a Disselbrett (or Disselbrede in Germany), but two of his sisters used Thier (or a variation of it) as their maiden names.  The Thier Mystery (or Disselbrede Mystery in his sisters' case) has lingered for  over 200 years on two continents.

It all started in Germany, though.



The ship's record for the ship Ontario in November 1846

Seven people in this family boarded the ship the Ontario together and left Selm, Germany for New York.  William Disselbrett, then just four years old, was one of them.

With William were his parents, Wilhelm and Angela and his sisters Maria Francisca, Maria Catherine, and Gertrude.

Notice the last family member though.  That's J.H. Disselbrede who is also showing the surname Thier. 

A transcript of the emigration papers from 1846 confirm the ship's record. 

J.H. Thier Disselbrede was William Disselbrett's grandfather.  He came to America with the young family in 1846.

It's with J.H. that the story of how Thier and Disselbrett end up interwined.

Part Four explains the J.H. Thier Disselbrede story.

Solved: The Thier-Disselbrede Mystery - Part 2

William Disselbrett's  mother's obituary referred to his surname as Tirze instead of Disselbrett, the Americanized name, or Disselbrede, his German surname.

While William's use of Disselbrede as his surname made this Thier thing a mystery, at least two of his sisters were just the opposite.  To the descendants of Frances Thiers Lichter and Gertrude Thiers Gerbracht, this Disselbrede thing was a mystery.

William's sister Francisca was born in 1833 and married Valentine Lichter in 1852.  On both occasions, the church records marking her baptism and marriage show her surname as Disselbrede.  Yet, when she died in 1914, the Chicago Tribune listed her surname as Thiers instead.

William's sister Gertrude was born in 1845.  Her marriage to Joseph Gerbracht was in 1863.  Her surname was Disselbrede in both documents.  When she died in 1916 in Illinois, though, the Thiers name emerged instead.  It lasted, even, to when her son Fred Gerbracht died in 1948.  The California death index listed his mother's maiden name as Thiers.

Indeed, even in 2013, the researchers for the Lichter and Gerbracht families puzzled why the name Disselbrede kept showing up interchangeably with the name Thier.

There was a time, though, when the family used the same surname and that was when they came to America in 1846.  Back then, it was Disselbrede, not Their, at least for all but one person.

That's Part Three and it starts to explain where the surname first appeared in this country.

Solved: The Thier-Disselbrede Mystery - Part 1

William Disselbrett, my kids' great great grandfather, died April 17, 1910.  He's buried in the Catholic cemetery outside of Browerville, Minnesota.  His grandson, my father-in-law, lives near there still today.  There are dozens upon dozens of his descendants scattered around the country.  All of William's descendants use the surname Disselbrett. 

Yet, when his mother died in 1904, the obituary listed him as "Wm. Tirze of Browersville, Minn" instead of William Disselbrett.

This is the Thier mystery.  And here's the solution to the mystery explained in an eight-part series.

My theory is this:  William Disselbrett and his descendants actually descend from the surname Thier, not Disselbrett. The DNA is Thier.

He was born and baptized Wilhelm Disselbrede in Selm Germany in April 1842.

His parents, William Disselbrede and Angela Elizabeth Moeller, were married with that same surname in 1833.  No Thier there.

He, himself, was married in Burlington, Wisconsin in 1872 with the surname Disselbrede too. He was naturalized a Disselbrett.  Records show he  helped build the first Catholic church in Browerville before the turn of the Century and owned land there--all under the name Disselbrett.

Indeed, there's only that 1904 obit to explain any connection to the name Thier or Thiers or Tirze, when it comes to William.

With his sisters, though, it's a different story.

Part Two continues the story with William's sisters Francisca and Gertrude.

Ancestry Saturday: Are These The Same People?

A fellow researcher shared some of her collection of family photos, including several with a link to my kids' mom's side of the family.  There were no dates recorded on the photos and the person who labeled the names was two generations and multiple decades removed from the photographed.  So, while I'm grateful for the find, I'm mystified about what to do with them.

 

Both photos' occupants are identified as Henry Koldeway and Elizabeth Moeller Koldeway.  Though I can believe one photo is them, I'm having trouble believing both are of them.  Henry was her second husband after her husband William Disselbrede, my kids' third great grandfather, died in 1847.

 

 

Henry Koldeway (descendants call him Henry the 1st so as to not confuse him with his son, Henry) died in 1871.  I can believe that Henry managed to get in a photograph sometime before that, maybe a few years before he died at age 66.  I can believe that is him circa 1870 in the photo above.

 

Since I have another photo of Angela Elizabeth Moeller Koldeway, I can see a resemblance to the woman in the top photo too.

 

Henry and Elizabeth got married in 1848.  So, for the photo below to be of the two of them also, they would have had to have taken this photo about that time.  According to Wikipedia, the oldest surviving photograph of people, any people, is from 1838.  Thus, I'm tending to doubt that a German immigrant farmer from Southeast Wisconsin was posing only ten years later.

 

 

Plus, to be frank, they would have aged horribly over the intervening 23 years, at most, that would have spanned these two photos.

Notice the suit?  Looks like the same man's coat in both photos.  The background looks the same too.

 

Though, of course, you could explain that the man just happened to wear the same coat 20+ years later to his photo, I think it's more likely that these photos were taken closer in years together and by the same photographer who loaned out the coat.

 

Since these came from the same box of family photos, we are undoubtedly looking at people who are related in some way.  The same people though?  I think not.

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.