Detective work

As I said in my first blog, genealogy is much like detective work. Like a good detective, a genealogist must be persistent, looking for clues and drawing conclusions. She must then find evidence to support those conclusions. While a police detective works to uncover criminals, a genealogist uses some of the same methods to uncover relationships and dead relatives. (Of course in some cases the results are the same. Many a genealogist, in the search for relatives, has uncovered a criminal or two in her family!)

Modern detectives use physical evidence (like fingerprints and DNA) and the testimony of witnesses to solve crimes. Genealogists, on the other hand, must rely on written records (the census, newspaper articles, city directories, etc.)

Unfortunately, some genealogists don't go far enough in their research. It is important to look at more than one source. If a detective showed up in court with only one piece of evidence, he would not have a very strong case.

The favorite source for many genealogists is the federal census returns, which can be very informative. However, information found in the census should be verified in other sources.

In my research of the Wolf family, for instance, I had drawn some conclusions about Andrew Francis Wolf, but I needed to find evidence to prove my conclusions. I had already proved that Andrew F. Wolf (from the 1930 census) and Frank Andrew Wolf (from the draft registrations) were one and the same person. I next wanted to prove that Andrew F. Wolf, who was listed as the son of Joseph and Barbara Wolf in the 1900 census, was also the same person.

I was able to do this by checking the 1910 and 1920 census and verifying that the address was the same as for Frank Andrew in the World War I draft registration. This was pretty good evidence that Andrew Francis was the son of Joseph and Barbara Wolf. I still plan to verify this fact by checking the church records. A marriage record for Andrew Francis and Elizabeth Buchinger should give the names of their parents.

Once I knew who Andrew Francis's parents were, I wanted to find out more about them. First I wanted to prove that Joseph Wolf was really the son of Matthias Wolf of Landshausen. To do this, I searched the Baltimore City Directories. Fortunately for me, many of the directories have been digitized and put online, so it was fairly easy to locate Joseph and his family.

I knew from the census that Joseph and Barbara were married about 1892, so I started searching the directory about 1890. Sure enough, I came across Joseph W. Wolf, candymaker, living at 564 Union in 1890 and 1891. At the same address were Matthew (listed as Matthias in 1891) and Charles Wolf. I already knew from my previous research that Matthias Wolf's youngest son was Charles, so this was pretty good evidence that this was Matthias Wolf of Landshausen and his two youngest sons.

I was also able to use the city directory to find an approximate date of death for Matthias Wolf. He was listed in the directory through 1901, but not in 1902. I then searched the Baltimore Sun (also available online) for a death notice for Matthias, which showed that he died in September 1901.

Next I searched the Baltimore City marriage index to see if there was a record for Joseph and Barbara Wolf's marriage. I discovered that Joseph Wolf married Barbara Hasselberger on October 6, 1891, at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Baltimore.

I was pretty sure this was the right marriage, since they had been married about 8 years in 1900. Also, Joseph had moved out of his father's house between 1891 and 1892. In the 1892 directory Joseph was living at 1225 Patapsco Street, which is just a few blocks from Holy Cross Church. I also remembered that, in 1920, a cousin named Ernest Hasselberger had been living with Joseph and Barbara. Again, I will try to confirm this by looking at the marriage records at Holy Cross.

I next turned my attention to Barbara Hasselberger, to see if I could find her in the census. I was able to find her in the 1880 census as Barbary Hazelberger. Her parents were Sigmund and Maggie, who were born in Germany. I was not able to locate Sigmund in any other censuses, so I once again turned to the city directories.

I was able to locate Sigmund Hasselberger, off and on, in the city directory from 1879 to 1892. From about 1890 to 1892, Sigmund was living at 1225 Patapsco Street, the same address as Joseph Wolf in 1892! So I'm pretty sure that Barbara Wolf was the daughter of Sigmund Hasselberger, but I'll check the church records to be sure.