Kissing cousins

Last week one of my cousins asked me to help her with her family tree. I already had plenty of information for her mother's side of the family (our common ancestors), so I decided to do some research on her father's family. One of her father's ancestors was a man named Andrew Francis Wolf. The only info I had for him was his name, but no dates of birth or death. Since Andrew, Francis, and Wolf are all very common names I didn't have much hope of finding him.

I did have one piece of information about Andrew, though, that was very helpful. I knew that his wife's name was Elizabeth Buchinger. Since that was a rather unusual surname, I decided to start with her. Searching through the census on Ancestry, I was able to find her pretty quickly. In 1900 she was living in Baltimore City with her parents, Vincent and Mary Buchinger.

Once I had found Elizabeth Buchinger, I turned my attention to Andrew. I did a search on Ancestry and checked the results for the 1930 census. There were 5 Andrew Wolfs living in Maryland at that time. One of them caught my eye: Andrew F. Wolf and his wife Elizabeth. When I viewed the image of the census record for this Andrew Wolf, I discovered 3 other people living with Andrew and his wife and daughter: Mary Buchinger and her 2 daughters! So I knew that I had the correct family.

According to the census, Andrew was born about 1896. I next turned my attention to the World War I and World War II draft registrations on Ancestry. I discovered a Frank Andrew Wolf, who was born in August 1895 or 1896. Fortunately for me, Andrew had not moved between 1930 and 1942, so I was able to confirm that Frank Andrew and Andrew Francis were one and the same person.

Once I had some more information about Andrew, I checked the earlier census records to see what I could find out about his parents and family. I found an Andrew F. Wolf in the 1900 census, who was born in August 1895 and was the son of Joseph and Barbara Wolf.

I did not have any luck finding an Andrew Wolf in 1910 or 1920, so I decided to search for a Frank Wolf born about 1895. Sure enough I was able to find Andrew again, living with Joseph and Barbara. His address in 1910 and 1920 was the same as that for Frank Andrew Wolf in the first draft registration, so I was able to confirm that Joseph and Barbara Wolf were Andrew's parents.

In the midst of all this, I remembered that years ago I had researched another family named Wolf. I decided to go back and look at my previous research, on the off chance that there might be some connection between the two families.

My grandfather's grandfather, Johann Georg Imhof, came to Baltimore in 1850 from a village in Baden called Landshausen. Several of his relatives immigrated to Maryland about the same time. Among those were three brothers named Joseph, Matthias, and George Wolf.

Matthias Wolf was born in Landshausen in 1824 and was married in Elsenz, Baden, in 1845. He and his wife had 11 children. Their ninth child was Johann Joseph Wolf, who was born in Baltimore in December 1864.

I checked my family tree database and discovered that this Johann Joseph Wolf had a wife named Barbara and 7 children. I was shocked when I saw the name of their third child: Andrew F. Wolf, born in August 1895!

So it turns out that my cousin's father and mother were actually related, though I'm sure they had no idea. My genealogy software has a tool for calculating the relationship between two individuals, so I was able to determine that her parents were seventh cousins!

Going digital

My husband and I just returned from an overnight trip to the Philadelphia area. The main purpose for our trip was a return visit to the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College, so that I could do some more research on Sarah Fox Hickey's Quaker ancestors.

On my last visit, I had looked at some records from the Abington Monthly Meeting where Sarah's ancestors were members. I had found lots of helpful information and had made many paper copies of pertinent records.

This time I decided to be "daring" and try something new. One of the microfilm readers at the library is set up so that you can made "digital surrogates" of the microfilm images. For a fee of $5.00 you can bring your own thumb drive and save as many images on it as you like. I tend to be "technically challenged," so the idea of this made me a little nervous. I decided to give it a try, though, and was very glad that I did.

Once I got used to the method of saving files, it was pretty easy to do. I found some new information and was able to make digital copies of the records. I also went back and made digital copies of some of the records I had copied last time. The advantage of having a digital copy is that you can zoom in on the image and can also enhance the image by adjusting the contrast, etc.

I went back to the library today to look at a book about the Livezey family. (Sarah's mother was Mary Livezey Fox.) The book was very helpful and had a lot of information that I wanted to copy. I started out carefully transcribing the information by hand.

Then I remembered seeing something on the library's website about using a digital camera. For $5.00 you could take as many photographs as you liked. I realized it was going to take me all day to transcribe the information by hand, so I decided to try using my digital camera (which I had brought in with me) to make copies of the pages of interest.

In less than an hour I had photographed all the pages I needed. Even copying them on a copying machine would have probably taken twice that long, and the copies would not have been nearly as good. In almost no time at all, I had about 30 crystal clear copies which I can now look over at my leisure.

So I have finally "gone digital," and I'm glad I did. I could really get used to this.

An unexpected discovery

Today I ventured down to the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis to do some research on the Hickeys. It's quite a hike for me (about 1 1/4 hours on a good day, even longer in heavy traffic), so it's always nice to come home with some information I can use. For the most part, I had a very productive 4 hours of research. I found some death records, a marriage record, and some wills. The best discovery I made today, though, was something totally unexpected.

The first roll of microfilm I looked at was a roll of Baltimore City death certificates. I was hoping to find death records for George Miles and James Hickey, my grandmother's cousins who drowned in 1895. (See my June 12 blog for the story of their deaths.) The certificates are filmed in sequential order, so as long as you have the certificate number it's pretty easy to find a specific record.

I quickly found certificates for the two boys and began transcribing the information. When I got to the bottom of the certificates, something caught my eye. The name of the physician who signed both certificates was P.V. Benson, coroner. It just so happens that P.V. Benson is Philander Virgil Benson, who is my husband's great-great-grandfather!

Looking at the big picture

I would have had a lot less trouble finding Mary Bailey Arrington (see my last blog) if I had remembered another lesson I've learned from my genealogy research: look at the big picture. Instead of focusing on one specific line of a family, I find it's best to look at collateral relatives as well. I learned early on in my research to take a very close look at godparents, confirmation sponsors, and witnesses of marriages. More often than not, these people are close relatives of the person being baptized, confirmed, or married.

This is especially true in German families. Parents often chose siblings or cousins as godparents for their children. When I was researching my German ancestors, I was able to "grow" my family quite a bit just by looking at these godparents.

Rather than having "tunnel vision," as some genealogists tend to have, I prefer to look at the family as a whole. After all, we are not isolated individuals living out our existence. We interact with family members and other members of society, and this interaction helps to make us who we are.

A few years ago, I had run up against a brick wall with my great-grandmother, Ottilia Margaret Schnapp. I had found her with her family in the 1870 census and had found her family (without her) in the 1880 census. However, I had never found her in the 1880 census. Since my great-grandparents were married in 1882, I was particularly interested in where she was living right before her marriage. I searched in vain for many months, but was unable to locate her.

I turned my attention, then, to another branch of the family. Ottilia's future father-in-law had several cousins who lived in the area and attended the same parish. (I had found them through the baptismal records.)

One of the cousins was a man named John Sebastian Deck. I was following his family through the census and came across his family in the 1880 census. Sebastian's family was listed at the bottom of one page, then continued at the top of the next page. When I went to the second page and scanned the names listed there, I could scarcely believe my eyes. At the end of the listing was the family's domestic servant, a 21-year-old woman named "Tillie Snapp."

I knew immediately that this was the great-grandmother for whom I had searched so long, and I had found her without even looking for her. If I had not been looking at the big picture and researching those cousins I never would have found her.

If I had just remembered this lesson while researching the Baileys, I might have found Mary Bailey Arrington a lot sooner. After I found Mary and her husband, I was looking back over some old notes from several years ago, where I had recorded a marriage record for Mary's sister, Cora. In my notes were the names of the witnesses at the marriage: Mary Bailey and Thomas Arrington.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again

One thing I've learned in my many years of family history research is that it's often helpful to stop researching a particular line for a while, especially when coming up against the proverbial brick wall. After a few months, or even a few years, I go back and take a fresh look at the family. Many times this results in fresh leads.

I had an experience with that just a few months ago. I had spent many years researching the Hickey line of my family. I found plenty of information, but also had plenty of gaps. A few years ago, I switched gears and started researching my husband's family.

Now that I am ready to write a book about the Hickeys, I've been going back over my research to see what I know about the family and what I still need to find out. A few months ago, I was looking over the family of Mary Ann Hickey (James and Sarah's oldest daughter). I noticed that I did not have a death date yet for Mary Ann's son, Harry Columbus Bailey, so I went on Ancestry.com and did a search for Harry. I did not find any information about his death. However, in Harry's WWII draft registration, I found a new piece of information about another member of the family.

Mary Ann Hickey and her husband, John Louis Bailey, had 5 daughters. I had found marriage information for all but one of the daughters: Mary Ann Bailey. Years ago, I had searched and searched for a marriage record, but to no avail. Imagine my delight, then, when I saw the following on Harry's draft registration: "Name... of person who will always know your address: Mrs. Mary Aaronson - 3658 Ash St. (sister)."

I could scarce believe my eyes. Now that I knew Mary's married name, I could find her in the census and other records (or so I thought). I immediately did a search on Ancestry and other sites for Mary Aaronson. To my disappointment, though, I came up with nothing, zilch. I could not find a single reference to Mary Aaronson.

After many frustrating hours searching for Mary, I gave up. Then, a few days later, I had an inspiration. Since I had Mary's address in 1942, I decided to try to find her in the land records.

The Maryland State Archives has digitized all the land records for Maryland and put them on line at http://www.mdlandrec.net/. The search engine for Baltimore City records allows searches by street address for records created after 1972. The later records always cite the previous records for that property, so that you can follow a chain back in time to previous owners of the property.

I did a search for 3658 Ash St. and was able to get back to 1926, when the property was purchased by Mary A. and Thomas Arrington. Eureka! Now that I had the correct last name and the first name of Mary's husband, I was easily able to find them in the census and other records. I even found one of their descendants on Ancestry, who is also researching the family.

So, as the old adage says: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." You never know what you might find.

Research Trip Part 2

On Wednesday morning, we headed for Oxford Township, where Sarah Fox was born. Our destination was Trinity Episcopal Church, where Sarah's parents were married. I hoped to get some pictures of the church and cemetery. I was also hoping to find tombstones for Sarah's grandparents, who are buried in the church cemetery.

The weather forecast for Wednesday was a chance of rain and storms all day, but I was praying that it would hold off long enough for me to get some pictures. The Lord answered my prayers, and gave us a bright, sunny day (very hot, but perfect for taking pictures).

Trinity Church was built about 1711. According to the parish profile on the church's website, parishioners worshipped at this site as early as 1698. For the first 10-15 years, though, they met in a log cabin which had originally belonged to the Quakers.

The original church building is still standing, but has been added to over the years. In 1786, for instance, an addition was built on one end of the church to make it longer.

In 1833, about the time that Sarah Fox was born, two more sections were added on either side of the 1786 addition.

In 1839 the church was again lengthened, with a new section built on the end of the 1786 section. After the 1839 addition, the church took on the shape of a cross, like many older Catholic churches.

The last addition to the church was a bell tower, added in 1875. This was the only part of the church that was not in place when the Fox family worshipped there over 150 years ago.

The cemetery surrounding the church was quite impressive. Some of the burials dated back to the 1700's. Unfortunately, we were not able to locate the burial place of Sarah's grandparents, as many of the stones were unreadable.

Research Trip to Philadelphia

My great-great-grandmother Sarah Fox was born in Oxford Township, which is now at the very northern edge of Philadelphia. For years I have wanted to research her and her family, but did not feel up to tackling Philly by myself.

A few months ago, my husband suggested we take an overnight trip to Philly, so that we could spend some time together and so that I could do some research. I jumped at the chance.

We were both able to get a couple days off from work this week, so were able to leave early Tuesday morning and return home on Wednesday evening. It was a wonderful, relaxing, and productive trip. I thank God for my wonderful husband, who braved the horrible Philly traffic to get me to all the places I wanted to visit.

Sarah Fox's mother, Mary Livezey, was a member of the Society of Friends (the Quakers), so the first place we visited on Tuesday was the Friends Historical Society at Swarthmore College, about 10 miles southwest of the city. This library, which was founded in 1871, has the largest collection of Quaker records in the world.

Mary Livezey's family were members of the Abington Monthly Meeting. (I will not go into detail here about the oddities of Quaker society, but think of the monthly meeting as a sort of parish.) Today Abington is a suburb of Philadelphia, just a few miles north of Oxford Township in Montgomery County. Abington was one of the earliest meetings established in this country. Its records date back to the late 17th century.

When a Quaker engaged in some behavior that the other members felt was wrong or immoral, he or she could be "disowned" (that is, barred from membership in the Society). One of the most common reasons for disownment was marrying someone who was not a Quaker, or being married by a minister of another faith (what they referred to as a "hireling" minister). Since Mary Livezey married an Episcopalian, I wondered if she had been disowned. My hope was to find some record of her disownment in the meeting minutes.

Many Quaker meeting records are not indexed, so finding something can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. I was in luck, however. When I told the librarian what I was looking for, she brought me a very detailed name index for the Abington records. When I couldn't find a marriage reference for Mary under her maiden name, the librarian told me to check under her married name. I looked under Mary Fox, and sure enough there was an entry with the abbreviation "dis" (disownment) and also "mos" (married out of society).

There were not just one, but two entries about Mary's "misbehavior" in the records. The first entry appeared in the women's minutes, where it was reported that a committee of 4 women had been appointed to "pay her [Mary] a visit and report their sense to the next monthly meeting." (This was the usual procedure; a committee would visit the "accused" and try to persuade her of the error of her ways. If she repented and made a public apology, she would be welcomed back into membership.)

Apparently Mary was not persuaded, for an entry in the men's minutes reported that the committee of women had produced testimony against her "which after being read and considered was concured with and handed down to Women friends for their approbation...."

Mary was also given a copy of this testimony: "Mary Fox late Livzey hath been guilty of unchastity and hath accomplished her Marriage with a person not in membership with us by the assistance of an hireling Minister...."

According to the report, Mary was "treated with by friends" but "did not appear in a suitable state of mind to condemn" her actions. The members therefore disowned Mary "from any right of Membership with us as a religious Society" until she was ready to publicly admit her "wrongdoing." It seems likely that Mary never had her disownment reversed, for a few years later she was baptized into the Episcopal faith.

In searching through the index to the Abington records, I made another discovery. Apparently Mary was not the first member of her family to be disowned by the membership. Almost 30 years earlier Mary's father, John Livezey, had also been disowned for the same reason.

A report in the meeting minutes of 1794 stated that John had "gone out in his marriage" and had "accomplished the same by the assistance of an hireling Minister, without his Parents consent, with one not in Membership...." However, John must have "seen the error of his ways" and publicly acknowledged his "guilt," for he seems to have been a member in good standing by the time his children were born.

Besides finding the reports of Mary and John's disownments, I also located some birth, marriage, and death records for Mary's family. I just barely scratched the surface of the information available at the Friends library. All in all, though, it was a very productive morning, especially considering that we only spent a few hours there.

This blog has gotten very long, so I'll save the rest of our trip for another day.